Jewels that dance

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Taiwan: 10-18 Oct'14 8D7N in the land of bubble tea land Day 3 Taichung

Started off Day 3's morning with local delights. How can we miss the 卤肉饭. It was really pretty tasty, but as usual, I found the proportion of fats too much.

Next up was a trip to the winery, but it wasn't anything like what we imagined. No wineyards or wine tasting like the aussie style. It's more like a trip to the wine museum to learn it's history. Not exactly our cuppa tea though.

Stopped over for lunch by the road side. A daring exclamation on their food, but we thought it was soso only

And that's our fatty lunch

Armed with my favourite milk tea from the 7-11 stores for the afternoon

Located not far from our main destination, Cingjing farm, is this little Swiss cottage which we popped by for a look first since our driver informed us we had some time before the sheep feeding show (which it appears not eventually ): )

Admission fee is about 120TWD per adult (with the senior citizen having 50% off if I didn't recall wrongly), and you receive coupons in exchange for food items from the little cafe within.

羊羊dispensing duck feed

Flowers were scarce when we went there, except for the remaining florals in the tent.

The boy obliged to my request of having him wear the cap for our "style-nanda' wannabe effect :p

Okay, actually it's because I wanted to wear my retro shades and the stripy cap will be over the top(:

And that's all for the Swiss cottage. Honestly didn't have much in the garden that interests us.

Well at least I had my Cinderella dreams in my pumpkin carriage.

A gentle reminder to avoid throwing rubbish at the sheeps. Well, that's if there are sheeps roaming around. mehhh

The cutest rubbish bins around

Never leaving my milk tea :p

They also have horse rides there for a fee, but no sheeps in sight yet. We made our way further down in an attempt to hunt for more sheeps.

Finally target spotted

And it was kind of a mess as the sheeps bulldozed their way everywhere, and only those who had sheep feed successfully got close to them.

Remember to get hold of sufficient sheep feed if you want a nice shot with the meh mehs.

Managed to only pat the back of one that scurried by

Cheating one that I had something yummy in my hands

And of course, I couldn't outsmart them. mehh ):

Lucky boy.

The goat ice creams which were on massive sales as announced via the loud hailers as we made our way out of the farm. And as substantiated by other reviews online, I would recommend not to try them.

It has a super 骚 goat taste, which I'm particularly sensitive to.

To be honest, we were pretty disappointed at our visit to the Cingjjng farm. We spent probably only an hour or so as we couldn't spot any sheep roaming about, nor did we get closeups with the fur friends.

Tickets:

200TWD on weekends

160 TWD on weekends

Senior citizens enjoy 50% off

Website: Here

Opening hours

Daily: 8:00am – 4:00pm

Holiday: 8:00am – 5:00pm

We stopped by the magnificent and charming architecture as the car drove down the hill from Cingjing farm and slotted in some time for photo taking.

Welcome to my humble abode(:

Style-nanda attempt, pass?(:

We decided to cut the night short from doing touristy visits and spent the rest of the night piggy out at the local night market :p

And from this night onwards, my camera broke down on me):

Bear with me for the rest of our 5 days in Taiwan using the iphone (:

Day 1: Taichung (Singapore to Taichung, Fengjia daydream Inn review, Feng Jia night market)

Days 2: Taichung ( Lai Lai Dou Jiang, Zhong She Hua Qu,Lavender cottage, Feng Jia night market)

Days 3: Taichung ( Cai Shen Ye Lu Rou Fan, Winery, Swiss Cottage, Cingjing Farm)

Day 4: Taipei ( Good9stay inn review, Ximending,Ah Zong Mee sua Longshanshi)

Day 5: Taipei (AAD,Cosy coffee joint, Fujin tree 535)

Day 6: Taipei (San Duo Wu, Wu Fen Pu, Rao He)

Day 7: Taipei (Yong He Dou Jiang, Tam Sui, Shilin night market)

Day 8 & 9: Taipei (Jiufen, Shifen, return to Singapore)

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Facebook: @thedancingjewels

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Taiwan: 10-18 Oct'14 8D7N in the land of bubble tea land Day 4: Taipei

Finally back to blog on the remaining days in Taiwan! My camera starting giving problems once we were back in Taipei, should I say it’s a blessing in disguise since we managed to capture the beautiful scenery in Taichung on Day 2 and 3 here?(:

We took a taxi from Taichung to Taipei (the kind taxi uncle offered us a decent deal since he has been bringing us around Taichung for the past 2 days), approx. 3000NTD a tad more expensive than the price of the railway for 3, minus the hassle of lugging the luggages up and down the train and commuting to cab from the station to the hostel. We booked Good9stay inn for our remaining 5 days in Taichung

Good9stay inn is located in one of the little lanes which the Taxi can’t go in so you would have to alight by the main road and walk in if you are cabbing.

At the Ximending area, our cab took a turn which passed by Ximending metro station exit 6, after which it alighted at the next junction after Watsons. The junction would be after the little alley lane you would have to walk in to the inn(about 3 mins). Look out for the colourful signboard situated on your left.

You can’t miss the colourful signboard perched on the building. It’s actually located on the 5^th floor of a shopping mall so keep a lookout for the signboard!

Website

And oh boy, was I totally elated when I stepped into the room. I’m a lover of spaces and perhaps I do have abit of claustrophobia and it was really too cramp for my liking for the Taichung’s hostel, though given the price I can’t complain much.

Big spacious beds and cupboard for your belongings. Ours is a triplet room if you are wondering

But this is massive love! It’s like a mini apartment with ample room space, spacious beds and walking arena, a mini ‘kitchen’ wash up area etc.

And like always, one of the best things in the overseas trip, is to have complimentary wifi in the room! We faced some difficulties in the connection, probably due to too many users, but overall it was ok!

Basic amentities like hair dryer and toiletries are also provided.

We paid SGD 593.87 for our 6D5N for the triplet room, which works out to ~40SGD per night per person.

The hostel is secured with heavy metal gates at the entrance of each level and you can get complimentary top up of water from the common area just behind the lift(:

After disembarking our cargo, it’s time to fill the tummies. We were well equipped with a general map of Taipei and also a more detailed one of Ximending which our hostel kindly provided. On the map are famous areas around our vicinity for your consideration. The staff there also asked what were our plans for our stay and gave us advises and directions to the popular places of interest like jiufen, shifen, shilin etc.

Turn left from the Good9stay building to head to the central of ximending where you can find eateries and yes, Ah Zong mee sua 阿宗面线! Turn right to head towards Watsons and Ximending Metro station exit 6.

Can’t tell you how much love I have for this mee sua. Didn’t quite use to understand how good can a bowl of mee sua be and what’s up with all the ravings. Now I do, I really do!

The intestines are perfectly al dente, with it’s springy and chewy touch. I’m really particular about textures even when it’s simply Maggie mee at home, it must be al dente.

#reallyfussyeater

And I think the intestines are really well done, just the way I like it (:

Photos from subsequent days to make up for the lack of decent photos during our first attempt there due to my camera that broke down ):

Our perfect condiments have to be

-1 spoon of minced garlic

- 1 spoon of chilli

- 2 spoons of vinegar :p

Yes the bf and I love strong flavours. I’m craving for this right now!

We also grabbed a spicy fried chicken from the store 2 stores down and it is pretty decent!

Headed to Long Shan temple, 龍山寺 a few stops away for offerings and also to keep the dad interested in the itinerary :p

The temple is founded in 1736 by Han immigrants from Fujian. These days it is one of the city's top religious sites and a prime venue for exploring both Taiwan's vibrant folk faith and unique temple architecture.