Taiwan Trip Day 3 - Miyahara and Fantasy Story

Started day 3 with coffee from a random coffee house near La Vida Hotel. It look like some cozy cafe and we saw some people studying over there.

Strawberry Farm 台中草莓世界

Address: 台中市潭子區豐興路1段361號, Taichung, Taiwan 427

First stop of the day is the strawberry farm. Read from other blog that you can actually pick the strawberry and buy back the strawberry.

Took cab from La Vida Hotel and the trip took about 20 mins (NTD 200+). Reached there and could not find the place. Based on the address, it look like car workshop than strawberry. In the end the nice cab driver help us to call the owner based on the Facebook page.

Turn out the strawberry farm is closed till December 2015 :(

You can check out the Facebook page here or website here before going.

Since strawberry farm is closed. We took the cab direct to Miyahara Ophthalmology Department.

Miyahara Ophthalmology Department
宫原眼科
Address: No. 20 Zhongshan Road, Taichung, Taiwan

This building used to be an eye clinic and now it is selling ice cream. Tourist who came here are attracted by the interior design and of cos the ice cream.

This is how the interior look like. The photo from taken from the 3rd level. There is a restaurant at 2nd level.

This is the queue for the ice cream. If I recalled correctly, the waiting time is quite fast. You can get the menu from the staff will queuing so you can decide which flavour you wish to order.

The topping is free!!! Can choose up to 4 topping. 

Ta-da! This is our ice cream. So pretty and yummy looking right. This place is worth the visit. I don't think we can find other places that sell ice cream like this.  Definitely worth the visit!

After our delicious ice cream, we went to Fantasy Story for lunch. 

Fantasy Story

Address: 13 Meicun Road Section 1 Lane 117

This is a range of shophouses that converted to cafes and boutique shops. It was raining before we reached.

Decided to have our lunch hecho. Was too hungry hence didn't took any picture of the cafe. Haha! But if you decided to do some cafe hopping in Tai Chung, this is the place. Check out the website for more details and direction if you are taking public transport! 

Happy Birthday Singapore! SG50

Happy Birthday Singapore! 

It is Singapore 50th birthday and SG50 Golden Jubilee long weekend. Lucky me, my friend gave me a ticket to attend the National Day Parade at the Floating platform.

This is the first time I attended the actual NDP. Although its just the LED screen at floating platform (actual performance is at Padang),  but there are quite a few highlights which you will be able to see from the float.

Before the parade started, the MC were trying to bring up the atmosphere and we started singing national day song. These songs we had been singing since we were young.

The parade started off with a tribute to our late former PM with videos and Black Knights’ five stars tribute aerial flypast.

Close up pic of the Black Knights's 5 stars. 

The marching segment started off with the vintage parade uniform march of the police, military etc when police still wearing shorts. Haha.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) plane featuring a Singapore flag design flypast during the Singapore Girls on trishaw segment.

This is the front view of the Airbus A380 (photo from Singapore Air). There are 2 SIA airbus A380 planes with the Singapore flag that will be flying to Hong Kong, London, Mumbai and various other major cities around the globe till end of the year. Hopefully I will be able to catch a glimpse of it. But I have no travel plan yet...

M3G Floating Bridge show case.

The Presidential 21 Gun Salute by Singapore Artillery.

State Flag flypast is a traditional which during the singing of the national anthem, staged by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, escorted by two AH-64D Apache helicopters. Could not decide if I should stand at attention to sing the anthem or to take photo of the flag.

20 RSAF’s F-16 finger jets formation of 50 flypast which represent our 50th birthday, SG50.

I guess this is the main highlight of the aerial airshow. The Black Knights bomb burst and criss cross.

F-15 flypast the Singapore Flyer.

The Mobile Column which display strength, resillience and vigilance of our defence pillars. There are a total of 179 and they drive past from Padang to the float. Not sure if all the platform went to the float.

You can check out the full 179 mobile column here. This was given to us as part of the funpack. 

This is one of my favourite photo. The view of Fullerton Hotel from the float with our Singapore flag. 

And of course, the national day parade entered with the beautiful fireworks display. 

Hopefully next year, I will get the chance to win the ballot for the NDP tickets! So I can get to celebrate the national birthday at the actual site. It is totally different from watching the parade at home. 

Taiwan Trip Day 2 - Sun Moon Lake 日月潭

Sun Moon Lake 日月潭

Our destination for today is Sun Moon Lake!

From our hotel, we took the free Taichung HSR (THSR)shuttle bus 160 from Fengjia University (the bus stop opposite McDonald's at Fengjia Night Market) to THSR. The journey was about 40 mins. Just tap your Easy Card and it will be free (currently)!

Once you reached THSR, at the bus station area you can proceed to Nan Tou bus counter to buy a round trip ticket to Sun Moon Lake. You can check out the bus timing here.

Single trip ticket costs NTD 190 and round trip ticket costs NTD 340. When we were at the Nan Tou counter to buy the ticket, the auntie was quite rude. When it was our turn to purchase the ticket, we told her we want to go to Sun Moon Lake. She shouted to her colleague "2 more paxes" and hurried us to pay. We did not even know what was going on as she did not even bother to explain (e.g. the bus is here, how long the ride is etc) and we were still looking for more information on the bus service to Sun Moon Lake at the counter. So she shouted at us to be faster and the coach is waiting. So much service...

The ride took about 1hr 30mins and the bus will drop you off at Shuishe Visitor Centre 水社遊客中心.

There are a lot of options to explore Sun Moon Lake. You can choose to take the boat ride, bike rental, bus service or ropeway (cable car). We chose to take the boat ride to explore. You can check out the other services from here.

It is not hard to find out where to buy the boat ticket. Once you alight from the coach, there will be staff approaching you to sell the boat tickets. The Sun Moon Lake website actually recommended to purchase only from the ticketing booth.

The standard ticket price for a round trip is NTD 300. The boat will stop at 3 piers which include ShuiShe pier, Syuanguang pier and Ita Thao pier.

To get to ShuiShe pier, you'll have to turn back (from where you alighted) and walk toward Starbucks Coffee and turn right toward the shop houses. You will see the sea and pier once you are along the shop houses.

Boat trip to Syuanguang pier: During the ride, the crew will explain to you about the history of Sun Moon Lake and the landmark along way. Sun Moon Lake is divided by the Lalu Isand and one side of the lake looks like the shape of the sun and another side look like the shape of crescent moon. And this is how Sun Moon Lake got its name.

Along the way you can see Lalu Island. It used to be much bigger but after the 921 earthquake, you no longer can visit the island.

First stop is Syuanguang pier where the famous Ah Po Herbal Egg is.

At Syuanguang pier, you can also can visit the Syuanguang Temple 玄光寺 here. The temple is built to honour the Buddhist monk Xuan Zang who traveled all the way to India and brought back the Buddhist scriptures.

Next stop, Ita Thao pier where you can have your lunch or tea break here.

Bamboo rice:

Mango shaved ice. Yummy.

Some random tea house for the hot weather.

The bird eye view of Sun Moon Lake. Can you see the sun and crescent moon? Not me. Hahaha.

Taiwan - Caihongjuan Village (彩虹眷村) , 921 Earthquake Museum

It has been almost three years since I last went to Taiwan. It was during the fall season in October when the weather was cooling and not hot even in the afternoon, as temperature was around 20°C. This time round it was the summer season and the weather was hot and humid, and I started to perspire the moment I stepped out of the hotel everyday. No joke! But nonetheless, it was a fun trip!

Scooting to Taiwan!

Bought my ticket to Taiwan last month during the Scoot Morning Glory Tuesday Sale. It was a midnight flight from 12:45am to 5:20am. Not really able to sleep on the plane and was mad tired when I arrived.

Our first stop was to Taichung! The easiest and fastest way to go to Taichung from Taoyuan Airport is to take the Taiwan High Speed Railway (HSR). Once you exit from the arrival hall, take the escalator down to buy the shuttle bus ticket to Taoyuan HSR from the Ubus counter at NTD 30 per ticket. After that, they will direct you to the bus stop just outside where you can board Ubus 705 to Taoyuan HSR.

The frequency is high and the journey is about 30 mins! You can buy the HSR ticket from the counter at NTD 590 with allocated seat. The price difference for the unallocated seat is just NTD20. You can check out the train timing here.

Train is coming!

It was still early and the train was quite empty. If you're craving for some food/drinks after the few hours flight, you can either get some drinks from the vending machine in the train or wait for the push-cart.

Finally after 40 mins, we arrived at Taichung!

We booked La Vida Hotel for our stay in Taichung. It is near the Fengjia Night Market (逢甲夜市). There is a free THSR bus 160 which we took from the Taichung HSR station. It's currently free (as at June 2015) for everyone. If you are a HSR passenger, you'll just have to show your HSR ticket to the bus driver.

If not, you can just tap in and out with your easy card (just like our Singapore's EZ-Link, more info on it below!), and it will not deduct any money when you tap out later. From what we understood from the staff in 7-11 stall where we purchased the card, bus services are free if you travel within 10km in Taichung (updated: July 16), but you'll still need to tap in and out of the bus.

I would recommend getting an Easy Card (悠遊卡 in Chinese) during your stay in Taiwan. It costs NTD 100 (non-refundable) per card and you can easily get it from any of the 7-11 stores! You can use the Easy card at a lot of places too (eg. boat tickets etc) and its cheaper if you ride the MRT with Easy card than buying the single trip token. The card looks like this and you can use it for almost the whole of Taiwan!

Bus 160 route and timing below. To get to Fengjia Night Market, you'll have to alight at the Fengjia University.

Its actually quite a comfortable bus where you can put your luggage in the luggage compartment.  There will be an announcement at each stop so you do not need to worry about missing your stop.

Alighted at Fengjia University bus stop (outside McDonald's) and we had McD breakfast before making our way to the hotel.

Walking around Taichung is actually very challenging, especially with luggages as there are so many motorcycles and cars that are parked along the road and you'll have to walk between the moving vehicles and those parked vehicles.

As we arrived at La Vida Hotel too early, we were unable to check in (standard check in at 3pm). Hence we left our luggages at the reception and had a quick wash up in the toilet before proceeding to our first planned location.

This is the lobby area. It's awesome especially after so many hours of travelling! You can use their computer and internet for free and have some drinks and snacks here.

Our first destination for the day.

Caihongjuan Village 彩虹眷村

Address: No. 56 Chun'an Road, Nantun District, Taichung, Taiwan

According to Google map, it will take 1hr 30mins to reach by bus. We got a cab from La Vida Hotel which took 20 mins or less for about NTD 210.

This is a military dependents village and the area were hand painted by an old man.

When we were there, there was an iron man singing and dancing and taking photos with the tourists. He's pretty entertaining and did a good job in livening up the place.

You can easily spend an hour here just to take photos and enjoying the colourfully painted place. 

Next stop was the 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan. 

Address: No. 46, Zhongzheng Rd., Kengkou Vil., Wufeng Dist., Taichung City 41364, Taiwan

Entrance fee: NTD 50

The museum is actually on located on the site of a school where the 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the center of Taiwan on 21 September 1999. Heard from the taxi driver that the earthquake happened during midnight and hence no students were in the school.

There are 2 theatres there where you can go. One is the 3D theatre and another is the earthquake experience theatre. We didn't get to go to the earthquake experience theatre as there were limited seats and the tickets were given out quickly (eg. 1pm to 2pm+ tickets were given out at 12pm+).

Decided to have lunch at their only cafe in the museum as the last meal we had was our McD breakfast. We had some pork rice set but we had difficulty reading the menu as it is all in traditional chinese. So we just ordered whatever was recommended by the friendly staff there. It is surprisingly good and the drinks are really refreshing after walking under the sun for so long!

After our lunch, we took a cab back to La Vida Hotel to wash up and had some rest. The room is spacious and there is even a tv in the shower room!

After an hour or so of rest, headed out to Fengjia Night Market! It is just a 5 minutes walk from our hotel. Not many photos of Fengjia as we were hungry and busy tasting all the free samples being given out and buying our food.

Here is a view of the night market from Fengjia University.

After buying all the food that we wanted to try, we even packed back 2nd portion to the hotel as supper. Here is a pic of the ham potato cheese and fried mushroom (must try!). Yummy!

That's all for today!