Day 1 :
Finally it's my annual Taiwan trip time! Going there for 9 days this time round with a bigger group too. Took Tiger Air at their promotion price this time round.
Check out their website at http://www.tigerair.com/sg/en/ for their price and promotion.
Took a 8.55am flight and will reach Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 1.45pm. So, sleeping mode on once I settle down on the plane.
Here we are at the airport that I am so familiar with! Feel so at home ( my second home ) every time when I arrived this airport.
We travel light there but I travel heavily back ( as usual )! Haha!
First thing to grab is the phone card at the airport. Telecommunication service counter is at the right hand side once you step out of the arrival door.
The price for the phone card. I will be in Taiwan for 9 days, will need to do a few phone calling to the drivers and making reservation of restaurant so I bought the 10 Day pass at NT$700 ( =SGD$29 ) with unlimited 3G data plan and NT$400 calling. If you think that you need not make alot of phone call, you can just get the 10 Day pass at NT$500 which include only NT$100 for calling.
After getting the phone card, time to proceed to the bus station at the airport to the Taoyuan High Speed Railway station. If you are at the telecommunication counter, both side can lead you to the bus station. Just follow the signboard and you will be able to find it. There is also bus straight to Taipei city from the airport bus station.
Continue to follow the signboard...
Look for this 'Ubus' counter for bus tickets to the Taoyuan high speed railway ( THSR) station.
Bus ticket to THSR station for adult is NT$30 ( = SGD$1.30 ) and NT$15 ( =SGD0.60 ) for children.
Ok, beside the phone card and tickets, this is my 'must grab' drink whenever I step into the land of Taiwan! Haha! My favorite drink of Taiwan!
Instead of taking bus straight to Taipei city, we took bus to the THSR station because we are heading straight to Taichung and that's the fastest way to get there.
Price for ticket to Taichung is NT$590 ( =SGD$25 ) and journey is about 35mins.
Look for your cabin number and queue up for your train.
Big and clean train.
Off we go to Taichung!
Reach Taichung, and setting off to Cingjing! This is my second time going to Cingjing but this time round I book a different driver there cause currently this driver, Mr Lai is the only driver who can provide a car that can fit all 8 adult and to 2 kids without having 2 separate car.
Honestly if you are not traveling in such a big group, you can book my previous driver, Mr Tang. I think he is better then the current one. One interesting about Mr Lai is that he is the godfather of Jolin Tsai ( a famous Taiwanese singer ) but we don't really like him cause he is abit impatient.
Due to our flight delay, we are late for about 10 mins to the meeting time, so the first thing I do when I got my phone card is to call Mr Lai to tell him that we will be late for about 10 mins and he already start complaining because he is already there waiting at the THSR station ( he reach 1 hour before the actual meeting time ). Anyway, it's just a small hiccup which are not going to spoil our holiday mood.
Check it out for both driver and their price :
Mr Tang : http://www.govtw-travel.com
Email : finninnin@yahoo.com.tw
Tel : +886977141669
( Pay on the spot )
Mr Lai : http://www.ezcar.com.tw
Email : lai41160@gmail.com
Tel : +886921621839
( Pay first, but can request to transfer money to his Singapore DBS account )
Off we go up to the mountain! Journey up to Cingjing takes about 2 to 2.5 hours.
Beautiful day to the beautiful place!
Here we are at our mingshu ( guest house ), Cing Jing Feng Qing. I went online to search for mingshu and saw this Feng Qing having promotion. We decided to book a big room that can fit all of us so that we can chit chat and have party at night since there is nothing much we can do on the mountain. Currently, it's Taiwan's summer school holiday ( July and August ) and I manage to get a super good deal for this mingshu! We only paid NT$699 (=SGD$29.50) for each adult and NT$400 (=SGD$17) for children (age 3 and above) per night and the price include dinner and breakfast too! Unbelievable right?!
Websites for all the resort and hotel at Cingjing: http://cingjing.com.tw/cjcjha/hotelbest/hotelbest.asp
Email them for more detail at qingjing@jne.com.tw.
Lots of animal in the mingshu which makes the kids ( and me ) happy!
Many many dogs in the mingshu and the owner told me that those are stray dogs that they pick up along the mountain and some come by themselves and start to live with them in the mingshu .
This dog wiggler his tail when he sees us! Seems like he is happy to see us too!
Our room is a roof top ( a nicer way to call it is 'penthouse'! haha! ), double story room.
This is first level, the living room cum sleeping area.
Second level, another sleeping area.
The view outside the second level window!
A small tea table for people to have their tea session.
Dinner time! Saw many dogs, duck, and now, it's cat!
Our home cook ( buffet ) style dinner!
After dinner, the guys went out with the owner to the nearest family mart to grab some drinks and snacks for party while the rest of us take turn to wash up. Only two bathroom for 10 of us!
Supper time! Taiwan cup noodle is also a must to have! *slurp*
Day 2 :
Woke up with this view in front of you!
The best way to start off your day is to sit down at the balcony, looking at the spectacular view and drink your morning coffee.
While the rest is still packing their luggage ( I pack mine yesterday night before I sleep ), I went to walk around the place to take picture. This place looks even nicer in the day time!
Small garden to chill and relax.
There is a castle behind us! That's the Old England hotel which looks like a real castle but the price there is really way beyond our budget so we can only take picture with it. Haha!
Our home cook style breakfast! This really looks like what I always eat at home. By the way, they do provide bread for breakfast if you are not a porridge person.
Great weather to start our day to the grassland!
I have booked Mr Lai for both day so today it's him who will bring us to the place we wanted to go too. First place to go is the Evergreen Grassland to watch the sheep show which starts at 9.30am and another show at 2.30pm and also make friend with the sheep.
Grassland opens daily from 8am to 5pm.
Tickets for their Holiday and weekends :
NT$200 (=SGD$8.50) for adult
NT$160 (=SGD$6.70) for groups of 30 and above
NT$120 (=SGD$5) for local student
NT$100 (=SGD$4.20) for elderly age 65 and above
NT$20 (=SGD$0.80) for children
Tickets for normal days :
NT$160 (SGD$6.70) for adult
NT$120 (SGD$5) for groups of 30 and above and local student
NT$80 (=SGD$3.50) for elderly age 65 and above
NT$20 (=SGD$0.80) for children
For more detail, check out their websites :
http://www.cingjing.gov.tw/en/about/index.php
For more detail, check out their websites :
http://www.cingjing.gov.tw/en/about/index.php
Here we are, inside the grassland! Clear blue sky, beautiful mountains and green grass!
We manage to reach the place by 9.30am, therefore the sheep show starts not long after we arrived.
Cute performer running down after being chase by the shepherd!
Sheep having his hair cut time!
Tada! Botak (bald) now!
After the 30 mins sheep show, we went to have some interaction and take picture with the sheep.
The only way to get them next to you to take picture is to have their food in your hand! Haha!
This is the map of the grassland and next we are going to watch the horse show.
Remember to get the chop before you leave the grassland cause you will need it for the other side of the grassland, the Mountain View area for the horse show and Nature Theater.
Before going for the horse show, we sit down at the eatery area to take a break.
Near to the entrance of the Mountian View area, there is this Aiko's pizza and their pizza is seriously good and only for NT$250 (=SGD$10.50)! Pizza is freshly bake on the spot and lady boss is very friendly too!
YUMMY! *Slurp x 2*
The weather turn really bad just before we go into the Mountain View area and therefore the horse show is cancelled.
Although the show is cancelled, we can still go in and have a look. It's the windmill festival so we can see windmill everywhere.
A big cloud pass by us and it's my first time walking in the cloud!
A not so easy to get group photo without any help from other people but selfie stick! Haha!
Its a shape of a cow form by many windmill!
Found two sheep chilling there without being lock behind the fence.
Pass by the Nature Theater, there isn't any performance going on too but we are still able see the insects or snakes through the tanks.
Finally at the famous 499 - steps trail, also know as Bu Bu Gao Sheng in chinese which means rise step by step to a higher position ( good wishes for better career ).
Ok! End of the trail but how come it's only 487?! Anyway, we should just take the shuttle bus down instead of walking the trail! It's so tiring walking down!! Now we have to walk for another 10 to 15 mins to the Little Swiss Garden. We should really take the shuttle bus!! Haha!
Due to the bad weather as it started to rain heavily, we didn't go into the Little Swiss Garden so we went to Carton King for our lunch instead. We didn't call for reservation so we have to wait for about 30 mins for the table and sadly, we can't go anywhere because of the super heavy rain.
Finally it's our turn! Totally amazed by the interior! Everything is made of carton board! From table to chair to the decoration, everything!
Even the cup holder!
All the drinks we order looks like this! So cute! Oh ya, you can bring this back! Just ask them to remove the cup inside.
Having steamboat on a raining day and on the mountain is really the best! Food here is not as bad as we thought a theme restaurant might serve. Normally, we always have the mindset that theme restaurant don't put much effort in their food but this Carton King did put in some effort.
After our lunch, we wanted to go Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village but we spend too much time at the grassland and lunch, therefore we might not have enough time to reach there as Mr Lai told us that we need around 2 hours to reach and they close at 5pm.
Since we do not want to waste our time to go all the way there and to find out it's already closed, we decided to head to Taipei straight. We got Mr Lai to drive us straight to the Taichung THSR station from Cingjing and off we go to Taipei!
It takes about an hour to reach from Taichung to Taipei, and tickets are at NT$765 (=SGD$32)
Check in to our hotel, York Design Hotel. It is located just 3 mins walk from Taipei Main Station. Initially booked this hotel from https://www.airbnb.com.sg but faced a lot problem with that so I 'Line' them to book through them instead of the 3rd party. The staff are very friendly through the phone and during our stay there too. By right we need to transfer the money to them in order to book the rooms, but I told them that we do not have a Taiwan account and they are kind enough to let us pay only when we check in! We really appreciate their help!
Apparently this hotel is a very new hotel which opens only a few months ago, therefore it is clean everywhere! The hotel consist of 2 level only but with quite a few rooms.
The only down side of this hotel is there is renovation going on at other level which start renovating work as early as 7am in the morning, but it's not the hotel fault so we can't blame them too.
This is a cozy area of the level 5 (lobby at level 4) which we sat down there almost every night to chit chat and chill. Nobody else use this area at all so we assume there isn't many people staying at the same level as us.
The corridor. You can see how clean the hotel is.
I booked 4 rooms with 2 different theme, the Mediterranean Sea and the North European style but to my surprise, even with the same theme, the rooms looks different with different interior!
This is Room 1.
Room 2.
Room 3.
Room 4.
Slacking at our cozy corner to wait for everyone and we are ready for dinner!
How to go: Taipei Main station, Exit M6, turn to your left once you are up on the main strain facing the Taipei Bus station. You will pass by Caeser Park Hotel, turn to your left and walk straight for about 2 mins.
Check out their website at http://yorkdesign.hotel.com.tw/eng/ or 'Line' or call them at +886223705528 for their price and availability.
Address : 4F., No.13, Nanyang St., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City 100, Taiwan
台北市中正區南陽街13號4樓
Yeah! Dinner time! Been to Taiwan a few times but it's my first time time going to this P.S Bu Bu located at Tian Mu (天母).This is where the Taiwanese drama 'Mentor Rain' did their shooting here. It's is also a cafe for car lovers, with all the vintage car as part of their interior.
I made a reservation through their Facebook before leaving for Taiwan and once I step into the cafe, they immediately acknowledge me by my name! ( maybe cause we are the biggest group )
I made a reservation through their Facebook before leaving for Taiwan and once I step into the cafe, they immediately acknowledge me by my name! ( maybe cause we are the biggest group )
Address : 台北市士林區中山北路七段140巷1號1樓, 台北天母 111
Tel : +8862-28760698
Our window "car" seats!
Small but cute cafe!
A long car for the 10 of us!
Food here is also not bad!
They even put in effort at the decoration on the plate! All about cars!
Done with dinner and of course it's the photo taking time! No more customer around so we have the whole cafe for us to take picture with all the cars. Haha!
This is famous 'Pink Car' where Dao Ming Si and Shan Cai ( 'mentro rain' main male and female character's name) sat in the show.
So we have the fake "Dao Ming Si" and "Shan Cai" in the car. Haha! (they gonna kill me if they read this! haha!)
After a full dinner, we took a cab to the famous Shilin Night Market which is not far away.
The big kids and small kids are enjoying prawning at the night market.
After prawning, it's fishing time!
Little Oliver enjoying fishing the tiny fish!
Olivia fishing with Oliver!
Tristan is also trying to catch as many fish as he can!
Lady boss BBQ-ing the prawn that they caught earlier on.
Lots of different games there to play at the night market.
And here comes the supper time!
Chicken as big as his face!
We took cab from Ps.BuBu to Shilin night market but if you are taking train over there, this is how you can get there.
How to go : Jian Tan Station, Exit 1, cross the road and you will see the night market. The easiest is to follow the crowd.
Back to hotel after a long day. By the way this is how we discuss next day's itinerary! The hotel is so clean that we don't mind sitting on the floor. Haha! I know it's a bit crazy but since there is no one else there so who cares? Oh ya, the hotel staff cares! They saw us from CCTV and thought what happen and came up to ask whether we need any help so we told him not to worry about us, we are just chilling outside the corridor. Haha! He must be thinking we are a group of weird people!
Done with discussion and ready to sleep! Good night!
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