Day 8-taipei last day

We woke up at the same time as we know that ximending shops are not opened at early hours. We woke up and went down to find some breakfast stall. I went to watson to find the niu er products which are very popular in the tv show(女人我最大）but I couldn't find the night jelly. The cosmed sells more products other than 美丽日记mask now. There is also 绝世美肌mask which I read that is better than 美丽日记 mask as they are thinner and easier to be absorbed by the skin.

We were lucky to meet a driver at the Cing jing farm who self introduced to us for the pick up service from our hostel to airport. We wanted to search more information from the website to verify this and we also asked the taxi drivers who were waiting for customers at the ximen street. We found out that the price that he quoted us was very reasonable so we tried to contact him thru email and phone. The taxi driver on the road charged 1200nt while the kind driver quoted us 800nt.

The first card was the driver whom we met at the farm and the second was the driver who came to pick us up. I think we called up at the last minute and he was not free to fetch us so he called another driver. She was quite nice to help us to carry the luggage up to the car. As it was a one hr drive, I chatted with her along the way. She told me that the charge to pick up from the airport is 900 nt while vice versa is 800nt. I think this price is quite reasonable if you had too many luggage to carry to the airport. 

We reached there before 12.30pm and we were too early to check in. So we weighed the luggage first and they were less than 20kg!!argh. I should have bought more things back. So we went around to find a food place and there was a uncle telling us that there are not much food places here as terminal one is under renovation now. Then we asked whether we can get food at the departure hall, and he told us that there are no shops inside too. We were quite shocked and so we decided to take the sky train to terminal 2 to get some more local products. We rushed like mad as we do not want to miss the flight. I went to the 7-11 to get the cup noodles too. I had 4 pieces of luggage with me and it looked very bulky. The other tourist looked and stared at me as if i were insane.Haha. I bought a bit too much that i damaged the zip of my hand carry luggage. After so much trouble and rushing through the 2 terminals, we managed to check in at 1.30 and we were told that the flight was delayed for 30mins. phew. We were still early as there were quite a few tourist behind us waiting to check in. 

We had our lunch and went into the departure hall. We thought that they will weigh our hand carry luggage too but they did not. We realised that the local products shops were not affected by the renovation work and there are more variety than the ones we went. **** so please don't trust all the 

information given by the strangers. hai~~wasted my effort and energy. 

So this is the end of my experience in taiwan for 8 days. After so much effort put into the research, I think is worth it as we did not waste much time losing our way. The people whom we met were also helpful to give us directions. There was one gal who lead us to the sun biscuit stall at taichung. 

Thank you everyone who has helped us along the way. Thank you for the good hospitality by the minsu owners. Thanks to my cousin for making this trip possible though we had different opinions on some parts of the trip. I will be back to taiwan in 2 yrs time when the metro is ready from the airport that goes to the city. Another new experience again,haha. 

Day 7-taipei

We woke up quite late today. I think is me, haha,woke up only at 8.30am. So the first thing in the itinerary is long shan temple.(龙山寺）This temple was just beside a metro station named after it, and one stop after ximen(西门). We went to take some pictures and prayed.

                                                                           Entrance

                                          My cousin taking picture of temple, and I'm taking her with the temple.
After the visit to the temple, we felt so hungry and we found 85◦C cafe after eating a fan tuan and tea egg again at the 7-11. I vaguely remembered that this is supposed to be the famous for cake, and after buying a apple tea from them, I saw the display of cakes. wow..I wanted to try some, so I bought 2 slices to share with my cousin. And it was really great, especially the chocolate moouse.

              So after eating our delicious cake, we went to taipei main station underground mall. There are alot of different sections, Z,Y,M. From the research, the bloggers recommend to go in section Y11,12 for cheap shoes. I also went to 诚品bookstore to buy magazines, as the price is twice cheaper than in singapore. We bought quite a few clothes and I was tempted to buy a bag that cost almost 50 sing for unknown branded bag, but I gave up as I thought there will be more choices at the night market. After a few hours of shopping, we went back to the hostel to unload our things.

We didn't had any lunch at the taipei main station as we did not go to the food section. So I went to hi-life to get instant cup noodles.

                                       The best instant cup noodles that I have tried in taiwan.
After some packing up and rest at the hostel, we went to taipower station to shi da night market. (师大夜市）

We were quite lost to go to taipower building as we need to change from blue to green line via chiang kai shek memorial hall. So we asked for directions. We were told to go for light green line from xi men to chiang kai shek memorial hall then wait for xin dian line(dark green line). The platform serves trains going to 2 different lines, the dark green and orange. So we had to wait for the train that goes to xin dian line to go to taipower building. And when we went back, we had to go wait for train that goes back to chiang kai shek and then light green line to go to xi men. It was a bit confusing as there are too many lines. We went out via exit 3 and then to shi da night market. 

                      The name of the school which can be found outside the entrance of the night market.

The famous crepes

                                                       The famous lu wei

                                          Wide selection of ingredients to add and cooked in seasoned gravy.

                                          Quite salty, but overall is ok. This is similar to our kway chap. The large intestines and wang zi mian(王子面） are really nice.

The famous sheng jian bao

                                                       
This Shi da night market is quite small as compared to other night market, so we decided to go back after few hours of roaming around to do some packing.  I was afraid that I will exceed the 20kg limit so I didn't dare to buy too much and I regretted. Hai~~

Day 6-sun moon lake and taipei

Day 6

We have decided not to wake up so early for sunrise as we thought that we need to climb up to a mountain to see sunrise again. So we woke up at 8am to see the lake.

I thought that the lake will look as nice as in the postcards or the pictures from the internet. But I guessed I need a bit of luck and good techniques of taking pictures. As the lake reflection depends on the colour of the sky, so I think I have tried my best to take the pictures of the lake. Maybe I should have woke up earlier to take nicer pictures.

Then the minsu boss fetch us to the breakfast stall to have our complimentary breakfast and we had it at the visitor centre and took the taichung bus in front of the centre.  The bus tickets cost 180nt and the journey is around 2 hours.

We finally reached the taichung HSR station at 12 noon and bought the train tix that departs at 1215. There are 2 types of tickets, non reserved(自由座）and allocated seats. We chose the latter as we wanted to have a seat for 1 hour ride. The non reserved and free sitting is a bit cheaper.

Finally we reached taipei main station. Taipei main station consist of metro, HSR and TRA station, 3 in 1 stop. Then we took the metro to ximending and go straight to our hostel, good9stay. This is located at the ximending exit 6. We walked pass watson store, then hi-life(convenience stall),walked into the alley and saw the signboard. Our lunch is the ah zong mee sua and the starfruit drink.

阿宗面线

                                                                             杨桃冰

We put down our luggage in the room and went to wu fen pu(五分埔），饶河夜市. From ximending, we took the mrt to houshanpi then we walked to wu fen pu. After few hours of shopping, we walked to the night market for dinner.

                                                                陈董药墩排骨（very strong herbal soup)

                                                Famous pepper bun(胡椒饼）
I had the most expensive bbq corn at 80nt and also the ice kachang in taiwan version(雪花冰）The serving was twice more than the one served in singapore and twice cheaper. Super nice!!

Then we headed back to our hostel to rest for the day.

Day 5-Cing jing farm,sun moon lake

Day 5

We woke up early again to catch the sunrise but there were too many clouds.

Then we had our complimentary breakfast provided by minsu. 

Best breakfast by the minsu!!

So we need to catch the bus at song gang bus stop at 0945. There were few other timings such as 1030 and 1200, but we wanted to get to sun moon lake as soon as possible so we took the second earliest. The earliest bus was at 0720. The minsu boss fetched us to the bus stop and we board the bus to puli. Puli is the midpoint of taichung and cing jing farm. So from puli, we took a bus to sun moon lake at 1100. The bus ride was 55nt and we had to stand almost half the ride as it was Saturday and the bus was fully packed. 

                                               At puli bus interchange, take bus at platform 3
The bus ride took around 1 hr plus to reach sun moon lake.

At the sun moon lake bus stop, i went to the boat service station to find out more about the bus service from sun moon lake to taichung HSR station. As my cousin read through the details on the sun moon lake brochure, there was a direct bus from sun moon lake to taichung HSR. We were told to purchase the bus tickets when we board the bus tomorrow. There was a visitor centre next to this counter, and we collected all the necessary information and brochures before we began our adventure. Then we called up to the 好聪明之家 minsu boss to pick us up. He offered to bring the luggage back to the minsu so that we can start our adventure first. This really saved us quite some time and have more time to travel around as we were quite worried that it will be quite packed as it was a Saturday.

So we went to the shui she(水社） boat terminal to take the boat to ita shao.（伊达邵）There were 2 main ferry terminal which are shui she(水社）and ita shao.（伊达邵）For people who wants to get a good view of the sunrise, then you would want to stay in shui she(水社）and sunset at ita shao.（伊达邵）As the only transport to get around the lake was the lake surrounding bus and the last bus to get back to shui she is 6pm, you will miss the sunset if you stay in shui she.

First stop of the adventure was to get to the other side of the lake, ita shao（伊达邵）. There were quite a few things that were introduced on the tv shows, the red tea(阿萨姆红茶）and some other aboriginal food. Then we went to the bus stop to take the bus to cable car station. Small incident: We did not ask before boarding the bus and we took the wrong side and went to 玄光寺。Then we tried the famous mushroom tea egg at the 50 years old store, and I think it was too salty for me.

Then I went to the cable car station to take the cable car up to the theme park（九族文化村）This is a theme park combined with some aboriginal culture performance and introducing the nine different aboriginal in taiwan plus some exciting rides. We have decided to give it a miss as we reached there at 3pm and it will be too rush to take all the rides before 6pm. And we bought some local snacks back from the souvenir shops. We thought that the price was quite reasonable and cheap but we realised that the price was the same at the cable car station. Then we took the lake surrounding bus again to tour the lake. We stopped at the temple(文武庙）and bamboo garden(竹石园）We thought that it is a big garden with lots of bamboos but it was just a few bamboos bundled together. So we went to take stroll on the wooden pavement which links to the 朝雾码头 and took the bus back to shui she.

We had simple dinner with a plate of fried rice and noodles. We also tried the special mushroom ice cream and a fried fish(奇力鱼）

The mushroom icecream is a must try.. Then we head back to the minsu

                                                          Nice room and clean!!

Day 4-taichung,Cing jing farm

Day 4

After we dao bao our complimentary breakfast provided by the tomato room, we went to catch the early shuttle bus. There was a shuttle bus from feng chia university to taichung HSR station. The bus stop was at the opposite side of the big mac. I took the bus at 0745 and reached the HSR at 0810. The bus was the same size as the alishan bus. This shuttle bus is free of charge!!

At the taichung HSR station, there was one corner for nan tou bus(南投）. We bought the ticket package for the sun moon lake which includes boat ride(one way from Ita shao to shui she or vice versa),cable car ride (return),lake surrounding bus and discount coupon for bicycle. This only cost 299nt which was a great deal, so we bought it first. The validity is until end of the year so we do not have to worry that we need to use it on the day we bought it.

Then we bought the bus tickets from taichung HSR station to Cing Jing farm. There were 2 different ways to get from taichung to cing jing farm. One of the option is a direct bus from taichung HSR via puli to cing jing farm, the other is to go to puli and transfer to cing jing farm. We took the first option as it was more direct and save some time to transfer to different bus. The ticket cost 242nt for single trip and the journey takes around 2.5hrs.

We reached song gang(松岗） bus stop at around 11 plus and went to search for a public phone to call the minsu boss. (FYI, it was quite hard to find a public phone at the farm) Luckily, there was  a kind uncle coming out from his restaurant to help us to call. But when he took out his phone, he saw the minsu's boss's wife driving out to drop her customers. So we called her to wait for us and quickly board her car. The minsu was quite far from the bus stop. The minsu boss was very kind to offer free shuttle from the bus stop to minsu and minsu to other attraction places.

                                                                    At the minsu

                                                         Nice view outside the minsu

We went to qing qing cao yuan(青青草原）and we entered from the east entrance. We used the youth card to purchase the tickets at discounted price 80nt instead of 100nt.

                                              Music castle-no music inside,only souvenir shop

                                           But, there are cute sheep outside the castle!!

One of the fun activities to do in the farm was to feed the sheep. So I bought a box of grass pellet at 10nt and start feeeeeding!!!

Then lunch was settled at a hawker area beside the green green grassland. The fruits were really sweet and we tried the pears. It was really big!!

Then we entered the goat,cow,horse section and then went down the stairs(步步高升）which has 499 steps. We went down to the visitor centre, lavender cottage then to the carton king and swiss garden.

                                                     Lavender cottage(products made from lavender)

                                                      Carton king(things made from paper)

                                              Small swiss garden(90nt for entrance tix)

                                           Some cute ornaments sold in carton king
Small incident happened at the farm: We thought that there were more varieties of the souvenir at the visitor centre but we were wrong. The sheep magnets are only sold in the farm, so we wanted to take a public bus back to the entrance again. But we were too late for the bus and while we were sitting at the bus stop, we were approached by a kind driver who offered to help us to go up at 200nt. We did not hesitate to take up the offer as we really want to buy the souvenirs.
The driver was 林志强（小黑），no：0921-340000，0983-350000
email add:mrblack2611@yahoo.com.tw
He also covers hua lien, he huan shan, sun moon lake. He was quite nice as he helped us alot so I wanted to 'advertise' for him here. Haha..

So we bought the souvenirs and the minsu boss came to fetch us back. Time for the popular steamboat prepared by the minsu boss and boss's wife.

                                          Best dinner for the whole of taiwan trip
Time to sleep....and snacks time(potato chip bought from 7-11 was really good!!)7-11 was just outside the carton king..