TAICHUNG : CINGJING FARM

What i like about Taiwan is you can hop from one city to another easily with bus or train with many hours to choose from (or drive if you like to). Taichung is only 2-3 hrs away from Taipei (by bus), and there’s a lot of things to see around Taichung city. Went to Xin She Castle and Carton King last time, and for this time around, me and my classmates went to CingJing Farm. A place where you can breathe the mountain’s fresh air and see a herds of cute sheep.

Since it needs another 1.30 hr-ish to go to Cinjing Farm from Taichung city, we decided to stay over 1 night at Taichung, so then we can go early in the morning the next day and go back to Taipei in the evening.

– Lodging 

See you International Hostel

No. 12, Lane 83, Sec. 1 Meicun Road West District Taichung

Even though i heard a lot of good hostel and considered it so many times when im travelling, this is actually my first time to stay in a hostel. And to be honest, i like it a lot.

The Hostel that im staying is really clean, comfortable and so high-tech. Im not sure how the other hostels do it. But there’s no receptionist here. so when we reached their main door, we just need to key in the password that they have given to us and just proceed to the room that we already booked which can be opened with another password. and Voila, Here’s our room! The room size is okay for 6 people and the aircon was working well, and the bed is just okay. What is lacking is only the power point, they only have three plugs in an awkward place. Dont forget to bring your toiletries cause they only provide a sachet of bathgel and shampoo.

*The Hostel entrance is located between the 2 cafes. Looks small on the outside, but pretty big inside*

– The Journey

We went to Cingjing farm 8.30ish on the next day. The road up there is long and winding and made me quite dizzy to sit at the back of our rented car. But when i saw this amazing view at the side of the road, i suddenly felt so refreshed!  Too pretty to miss out! ❤

– WuLing

Never intend to go to this one of He hua shan mountain peak at the fist place. But because we missed out the first sheep show, our Taiwanese friend brought us here first instead of waiting at the CingJing Farm itself.

The temperature at WuLing suddenly went down when we got down from our car, suddenly it turned very very cold, and unexpectedly snow starting to pour down right after we took this two pictures. Intended to stay longer there to take a walk, but since we never prepared for the snow, we couldnt stand it any longer and rushed back to the car. haha

I guess we were very lucky to experience snow in Taiwan, since it is a very rare occasion, even in winter time.

– CingJing Farm  

Finally, after the crazy yet exciting temperature drop. We got to CingJing Farm. Such a pretty natural – manmade farm. With NTD 200 (SGD 8.5) or NTD 120 (SGD 5)  if you are a student, you can really immerse yourself in the fresh air and pamper your eyes to see the seemingly unending grassland.

I dont have to much to say in this entree. Just enjoy the pictures folks! And oh, i was so very happy to feed the sheep! haha. The have the ‘vending machine’ to purchase the sheep snacks over there for NTD 10 ( SGD 0.5) per pack.

 

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TAICHUNG : Carton King and XinShe Castle (VLOG)

On the first day of 2016, i got an opportunity to travel to Taichung. Spent the first night to see and eat at Feng Jia Night Market and went to Carton King and XinShe Castle on the next day!

Woke up at 8.30 in the morning, bathed, and drink some dou jiang (soyamilk) and off we go to flag a cab. Yes, we took a cab to Carton King and XinShe Castle. You can just flag any cab, and negotiate with the driver on how much is the fee to go to several places. I did my small research on the night before (since it was a sudden trip as well), some of the tourist who went to XinShe spent around 800 NTD ( SGD 35 ) for a one way trip, which is about 45-60 minutes from Taichung city.

We negotiated for almost 15 minutes, and finally closed the deal at 2000 NTD ( SGD 108 ) to rent the cab for 6 hrs. The driver agreed to take us to 3 places, Carton King, XinShe Castle and Lavender Garden. It was 3 of us, so we split the cab fare. Is it expensive? Well, im not too sure as well. Cause we’ve never chartered any cab before in Taiwan. But looking at the place that we were going, i guess 2000 NTD is considered cheap? Cause it is very far from Taichung city, not many public transport, and it’s hard to find cab over the 3 places. So, here we go!

Carton King (Da Keng)

A Creative Park whereby most of things are made from papers / carton / cardboards. Indeed a different place to go, since most places in Taipei is historical museums. Even though the place are rather small, they made it convenient for us to walk to and enjoy all the interesting and delicate paperworks.

Some of you maybe will find it boring, cause there is nothing much. But it is a nice place to take some photos, chill by the paper restaurants, listen to some good music, and be amazed on how paper / cardboards can turn into many beautiful things.

Their Entrance fee is 200 NTD ( SGD 8 ), but you can use 100 NTD voucher to buy drinks or souvenirs. Other than that they will give you free gift, if you are able to find all the 8 stamps and stamped in on your ticket! I kinda like this idea, cause it makes it more interesting. As i myself is quite competitive, of course i have the urge to find all the stamps and get my prize! haha.

Carton King

2 Second Alley, Tungshan Road, Beitun district, Taichung 406, Taiwan

XinShe Castle ( Xin She Gu Bao)

This is a MUST GO place in Taichung! You cant miss it! It’s a place where you can get a glimpse of Europe or western countries in Taiwan. Great man-made waterfall, supernice fortress and bridges. It’s like they take you to Old England or Wine Chateau in Paris, or even Russia! haha..  Well, maybe because i adore beautiful places like this. Where you can take tons of pictures, and just sit on the grass by the lake and just enjoy the cold breeze, thinking of how my future will be like. haha. *so mellow*

There’s a lot of graduates who takes pictures over here, and so does couples and other people. I guess all spots here are very picturesque. Even though you cant take pictures, i assure you that it will turn out beautiful. haha..  Indeed a chilling place to go with your friends, a nice place to just read books by the lake, and of course a romantic place when you go here your partner. ❤

The only drawback is everything the sell here is expensive. The food ranges from 300-450 NTD ( SGD 12-20 ), and the drinks ranges from 80-150 NTD ( SGD 3-7 ) which is considered very expensive, even though you can redeem the 100 NTD from your 250 NTD entrance fee. If you are really hungry, there’s one small restaurant that is quite good nearby this castle which is much cheaper, but most of their food are made from mushrooms. Ask your taxi driver to drive you here, it’s just less than 5 minutes drive. I guess that’s only small restaurant nearby. So sorry i forgot to take pictures and cant remember the name of restaurant as well. Was too hungry to documented it. =(

So pretty isnt it?? ❤ ❤

XinShe Castle

No.167-1 Xiezhong Street, Taichung, Taiwan

Oh, we went to the third place called the Lavender Garden, but too bad the place wasnt that nice when we went there, cause there’s no lavender in winter time. =(.. Just a normal garden, with nothing much in it.. And not long after we reach there, rain started pouring. so we are quite disappointed =( Not blog-worthy. Maybe next time around when all the lavenders are blooming and pretty.

 

Made another VLOG on this trip in Bahasa Indonesia. hehe.. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

TAICHUNG : Feng Jia Night Market (VLOG)

When there is opportunity to travel, i will definitely pack my bag and go to see the world. Since ill be staying in Taiwan for a while, i hope i have the chance to see all the beauty that this big island can offer.

I got a chance to visit Taichung on the first day of 2016. Taichung is the third largest city after Taipei and Kaohsiung. There are so many ways to get to Taichung from Taipei :

• You can rent a car and drive there (which is quite impossible for me, cause i’ve never drive on the left side of the road)
• Take High Speed Rail (HSR – which take about 1 hr journey with TWD 700 / SGD 30 ) OR
• Take  any available inter-cities buses which take about 2 hrs 20 mins with TWD 230 / SGD 9.

We decided to take the afternoon bus at Taipei Main Station, because its much cheaper compared to the HSR (High Speed Rail) and the travelling time is not that bad too.

The bus that we took (HoHsin Bus) is very decent and comfortable too. The have allocated seat number, seat is adjustable, and they have mini TV on the side where you can turn off/on whenever you want, but do prepare your own headset.

Once we reached Taichung, we head directly to Feng Jia Night Market. My friend who has stayed in Taichung said that this Feng Jia is a must visit night market. They have lots and lots of street food and many clothing shops as well.

That night was a crazy night, the holiday has turned the night market into a sea of people. I didnt take many pictures that night, but i took some videos for you to see! hehe

What i did over there was basically eat and eat.. haha.. Well. i just ate 3 types of street food there and 1 milk tea with coconut jelly.

Gold Left Leg – Baked Chicken with Cheese Topping and Salsa Sauce. This is quite nice for cheese lovers, but overall it’s just a normal baked chicken ( TWD 70 // SGD 3 )

An Mo Ji Pai – Massage Chicken (directly translated) haha. Basically they grilled this chicken with charcoal and topped it with peppers. This is much much nicer than the first one. The chicken is very tender, that it melts in your mouth (literally). Queued for about 15-20 minutes for this. and eat this for less than 10 minutes. haha (TWD 60 // SGD 2.5)

I first came to Taiwan for holiday 4 years ago. Tried this ‘chinese hotdog’ and considered this as must eat food when you are in Taiwan. Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang – which directly translated as Large intestines wrap small intestines. So the ‘large intestines’ is one big glutinous rice acting as the bread, and the ‘small intestines’ is the meat-sausage (which i assume is pork meat). I really like it cause it taste sweet, sour (cause they put pickled vegetables), and taste a little bit spicy (you can request Da La – super spicy). I think the combination is just great. i can eat this everyday if they sell it nearby my house. haha. It’s just so so good! (TWD 40 // SGD 1.7 )

Milk Tea with Coconut Jelly at Just Tea Shop (Cha Ben Wei). My friend said this is one of the bubble tea stores in Feng Jia Night Market. and guess what? This is just so good! Wish i can drink this everyday and not getting any fatter. haha. Love the coconut jelly, since i dont really like pearl. haha. ( TWD 40-50 // SGD 1.7 – 2 ) *i cant remember how much it was =(

Actually i wanted to eat more food. But it was really really crowded (as you can see from the video). You really need efforts just to Queue for few-bites of street food.

Since the three of us didnt have enough sleep the day before (cause we went to watch the fireworks at Taipei 101 – that is Not as nice as Singapore and Jakarta. *sorry*), we just felt so tired that night. so we decided to go back earlier, get some sleep and get ready to go to XinShe Castle and Carton King for the next day!

Stay tune for more Taichung stories.. ❤ ❤