Taiwan – Taichung Day 1

There’s two countries in Asia I wouldn’t mind going over again and again – Japan for its culture, Taiwan for its various attractions. Japan had my heart since we visited Tokyo and Kyoto in October last year, and I’ve always wished we will be able to visit again, and see more of what the country has to offer.

In June, we went on a family trip to Taiwan, we visited Taichung and Taipei this time and I really, really loved Taichung.

We engaged a personal driver this time round, as we were travelling with Bubs’ family – a total of 6 adults and 2 children.

何东霖 (Mr Ho) +886921866490 –> Here’s his details in case you guys need a driver! Friendly young chap, good automotive skills. Not much of a chatter, but really pleasing to look at. One thing to take note is that he isn’t that well with time management, i.e he doesn’t give clear instructions on how long can you stay at a particular place etc so that your next location will have ample time or so. Please manage your timing yourself! Hit him up on Line, hes very well connected to the network.

Our tickets were quite cheap – we flew via Scoot Airlines. I love taking mid line flights because we get to spend a full day the next morning upon landing at the destination. We were picked up upon arriving and drove straight to Taichung.

Our itinerary was a little messed up and there were several places we didn’t go (which was initially in my itinerary…) and honestly I was rather disappointed.

Initial plan was:

Day 1: 鹰哥老街， 三峡老街, 薰衣草花园, 高美湿地, 逢甲夜市

Day 2: 九族文化村, 日月潭 (Sun Moon Lake), 纸箱王 , 水舞秀

Day 3: 小瑞士花园, 青青草原 (清境農場)

However, when the driver fetched us, he told us that we were too early and all the stalls are still closed (We reached Taoyuan Airport at about 7am). Hence, we had a change of schedule and we headed to 九族文化村, 日月潭 (Sun Moon Lake), 高美湿地, 逢甲夜市.

Catching the sunrise while on board the plane… 

We stopped by some random stall for breakfast, and why does even the most random food stalls have the best tasting food? And so damn cheap! 卤肉饭！

拉面水饺
Shot from the car while on the drive… The weather was viciously hot, but in a way it was really good for photo takings because all the pictures turned out so lovely!

Took a toilet break and we ended up having coffee break at this really gorgeous place…

Finally made it to Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village after 3 hours of driving. Cost per pax is 780 NTW (Adults) and 580 NTW (Children). This place deserves a day on its own, the place is gigantic! I really wished we had enough time to explore the European gardens – the blooms were so lovely, but alas, time was not on our side and we didn’t managed to complete the entire amusement park. I was really so damn upset about not being able to visit the garden and take tons of photos! (Next time maybe?)

The map below should just show how vast and huge the place is! And there are loads of steps, so for those traveling with young children or elderly, please take note.

First stop; for the kids, take note that the games and UFO Catchers at this section is not included in the ticket for the entrance.

Sat on the Merry-go-round, and we were all really giddy after the rides. Almost puked after we came down!!

Weird aboriginal statues everywhere. Couldn’t resist snapping a picture. 

THIS PIRATE SHIP, MEANT FOR KIDS. Height level: about 5 stories high. I came down from the ride with shaky hands and jelly legs.

The men sat on this, the drop was pretty impressive, but really, it all but lasted for 1 minute. Bubs said that the view up there was damn awesome! Unfortunately I am too scaredy cat to join….

As mentioned earlier… There’s really tons of walking in this place. Up down, left right blahblah. And like I also mentioned, there were a lot of rides I wanted to take, but didn’t because there was a whole big group of us, including elderly and children. We walked over to the Aboriginal Cultural Village, which was quite a bore… This part of the theme park is more educational, showing a lot of how the tribes lived, and how their houses looked like. Some of the houses reminded me of the house from the Little Red Riding Hood – “And I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff and I’ll blow your house down….”

The shuttle buses are another form of transport to replace the walking, we took the buses to the Aboriginal town, and to the Sun Moon Lake Cable station. 

Kiddos can rent costumes and take pictures. Wanted to do so but Bubs very harshly rejected. T_T

JUST LOOK AT THIS. TONS OF WALKING. TONS! Until I got so tired I didn’t want to hold my own bag anyway… Anyways, Bubs to the rescue! *Always my hero*

There’s a small little temple (not exactly a temple, but they did have some offering table and joss-sticks…) and we gave our thanks for everything…

Seriously! Travelling with kids equate to having photo-bombers in EVERY picture!

If you are hungry, there is a Ramen stall here (Alight from the shuttle bus and its about a stone’s throw away from the bus stop). Food is pretty decent, although they do not serve any soft drinks/ water – they only serve black tea. 
Took the cable car down to the Sun Moon Lake.

This black pork was the bomb! We chilled in the living room of the owner’s place, grabbed some drinks and beer before continuing… Again, I need to stress on the importance of time management. By this time, I was panicking on how are we going to take both the Sun Moon Lake Cruise and make it in time for Gao Mei Wetland to watch the sunset!

Bubs finally decided that we will skip the lake cruise, and drive on straight to the wetland, which was on the other side of Taichung… During the whole journey I kept whining about how we will be missing the sunset!! We finally reached the place at 645pm, when the sun was already in the midst of setting…
Kids loved this place, and we loved it too. There were so many other people taking photos there- there was pre-wedding, and even graduation. I loved the series of photos we took here… The amazing thing is that the sand, doesn’t get stuck onto one’s feet! It gets washed off together with water immediately! 

Our last stop of the day was: Fengjia Night Market. 
Our hotel for the night was Kun Hotel (昆酒店)

(Walking distance about 10 minutes from Fengjia Night market)
No.56, Ln. 33, Fuxing N. 3rd St. Xitun
Taichung City, 407, Taiwan
福星北三街33巷56號, 西屯區
(台中市, 407)
Phone: +886424517333

就是买东西吃东西

We had dinner at 陈妈妈 in Feng Jia, The 卤肉饭 is to die for!!!!

Some food I highly recommend in Fengjia Market:

– 臭豆腐

-生蚝

-卤肉饭

-懒惰虾

-盐酥鸡

We were all so tired we left the market at about 10pm… I was SO grouchy by then! The hotel was pretty decent, and I slept damn soundly that night! Moral of the story, try not to cramp as much as I did into one single day… Breakfast the next morning was very homely as well, while it is served in buffet style, all the dishes were all Taiwanese style, and we enjoyed it! Think, porridge with pork floss, and salted eggs!

I’ll recommend Kun Hotel for anyone who is looking for a night’s stay at Fengjia Market.