Here I am continuing my travelogue for my family trip to Taiwan in March '15!
If you didn't manage to catch my first day:
Taiwan Trip Day 1 Taichung - Chun Shui Tang Teahouse, Fengchia 台湾，台中，春水堂，逢甲夜市
So my family stayed at the
CityInn Hotel (Taichung Station Branch) 新驶旅店，台中车站店 for our first two nights in Taichung, and I didn't mention it in my previous entry, but there was the option of the inclusion of breakfast (free! No additional charges!) for the rooms we had booked.
DINGDINGDING! SCRAMBLED EGGS I SPY. I also put on my plate Seasonal Vegetables - blanched cabbage + carrots - Vermicelli, and a Shrimp on mini toast. They put corn in their scrambled eggs thou, which I think is blasphemous.... No one should meddle with the silkiness of pure scrambled eggs. The crunch and sweetness of corn is rather much too jarring in scrambled eggs.
We had an early start to the day - about 8ish 9am - 'cos we were heading
out of Taichung to the Nantou county to visit
Sun Moon Lake 日月潭! Here's the map of Taiwan for an easy reference:
Image via go2taiwan.net
Feel a tad guilty 'cos I made the family walk down this extended underground walkway by mistake a couple of times... Could have just taken the shorter route! *sheepish
Onboard a public bus from the bus stop immediately in front of Taichung Railway Station 台中車站 to get to
Gan Cheng Station 干城站.
One difference for public buses in Taipei and in Taichung is that for the former, one doesn't have to tap OUT when exiting, but in Taichung, you have to. Our bus driver was shouting that to the tourists in the bus because the full fare would be deducted if you didn't. Take note!
Loitering around the
Nantou Bus Service 南投客运 counter (which is located just opposite Gan Cheng Bus Stop) was an unscrupulous man. This man, this taxi driver, ambused my family and tried to scam us with exorbitant prices for his taxi service. Well you see, in the vicinity of (or should I say, surrounding) Sun Moon Lake, there are 4 places of interest that one can explore, namely Shueishe (水社), Wen Wu Cao (文武朝), Itashao (伊达邵), and Xuan Guang Si (玄光寺). At the Nantou Bus Service 南投客运 counter, you can purchase round way tickets to Sun Moon Lake, or get a packaged deal, which includes ferry rides that operate within the lake, bus rides within the vicinity and tickets to Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village Theme Park (九族文化村). Of course, you can also purchase those tickets separately at the individual counters should you only decide last minute that you want to go for those attractions! Let me list out the prices for you:
Option 1: Single trip from Taichung to Sun Moon Lake = NT$190
Option 2: Round trip Taichung to Sun Moon Lake +
Sun Moon Lake back to Taichung = NT$340
Option 3: Taichung to Sun Moon Lake +
Sun Moon Lake back to Taichung +
Ferry rides within Sun Moon Lake (from Shuishe to Itashao, Xuan Guang Si, etc.) + Bus rides (to Wen Wu Cao) + Cablecar/Ropeway Rides (to & fro) = NT$680
or NT$520 for the elderly (above 65 years old)
Option 4: Taichung to Sun Moon Lake +
Sun Moon Lake back to Taichung +
Ferry rides
within Sun Moon Lake (from Shuishe to Itashao, Xuan Guang Si, etc.) +
Bus rides (to Wen Wu Cao) + Cablecar/Ropeway Rides (to & fro) +
Entrance tickets to Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village Theme Park = NT$990
Sidenote: Admission costs to Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village Theme Park: NT$780 (Adult), NT$680 (Student) (Single tickets, not part of package, if you purchase at the entrance of the theme park)
There are other permutations available but I think these 4 are the usual ones that people choose. Check out more information on the
Taiwan 好行 website but they only provide details in Chinese; the English version is very simplified. Also, with the packaged deals there are shopping & restaurant coupons and promotions for bike rental, but they're kind of useless unless you want to eat at over-priced places instead of good & cheap street food (that I'm a huge advocate of!!!).
Okay I completely digress. So the cab driver wanted to charge us
NT$6000 for driving us to Sun Moon Lake, around the lake to the places of interest and then back to Taichung. WTF THAT IS TOTAL DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!! I mean, with the car it'd perhaps be more comfortable (to some, having a private car instead of being on a public coach service), but you have to take into account the longer traveling time AROUND the lake (whereas a ferry can cut across the lake), and you wouldn't have access to the theme park nor the cablecar. My very
shrewd mind - also, I was the one who had researched the prices beforehand haha - immediately went into alert and I started pulling away from the dude and telling my parents in English that it wasn't worth it. Sensing my hesitation, the cabbie CUT THE PRICE to NT$4500, then to NT$4200!!! Oh my bloody hell, I absolutely abhor such dishonest people. Don't get me wrong, actually most of the cab drivers in Taiwan are very honest. I often turned on my Google Maps app to monitor the routes taken by our cabbies so as to make sure we weren't getting scammed (yes I am very sneaky), and it was always alright. Just except for this dude. Ick.
Because our next option was the 0950 hrs coach on the Nantou service, we would only reach Shuishe at 1250. The lady at the counter suggested we go for Option 3 because she said we wouldn't have time to play at the theme park. We weren't very keen on it anyway!
Here's the NT$680 pass:
At the sides were coupons and tickets (all torn now from rough handling by yours truly and Taiwanese staff)
At the back of the pass is a useful map with ferry & bus icons, routes and route operating hours!
It's actually very comfortable on the coach! The seats are reclinable. Most of us took a nap.
Oh, and it'd be worthwhile to mention that buses arrive and leave at stipulated timings at different stops; get a timetable from the Nantou Bus Service counter - they have many copies - so you can best decide where to board the bus and the departure time!
Along the way the Nantou bus goes past Puli county and stops at nondescript bus stands like this
The drop-off location is at the Shuishe Visitor Centre. Walk about 400m to the Shuishe Pier!
The rock that everyone takes a photo with...
Walking down to the Shuishe pier to take the ferry
The sun was out that day, oh such a gloriously sunny day it was that us Ng kids could whip out our Tens sunnies and Raybans! :D
Mommy's specs are the cool kind that automatically darkens in sunlight.
Enroute to our first stop, Xuan Guang Si. Mommy's disapproving expression comes courtesy of the ferry's captain-slash-tour guide-narrator's dirty jokes hahahah.
Besides dirty jokes, lame jokes were abound: "What is the brother of USA? USB"
So... many... people....
We reached the temple!
Bought mediocre-tasting tea eggs, meh
That's Shuishe in the background!
I am wearing MAC's Russian Red on my lips! Only MAC Russian Red as during trips I don't bring along a lot of makeup. My mom would beg to differ, but, I mean, it's sufficient...
Sicilian blood runs deep in the Ng family (I kid)
Sun Moon Lake has been in the news lately because the water levels have been depleting! Taiwan is experiencing a lack of water and they're actually imposing a water ration exercise this week.
In the confines of the ferry
This is the other tour guide-comedian-in-the-making
"Are there any Singaporeans here? Malaysians? Are you all taking the ropeway? Do you know where it's going? .... No? It's not Genting, you all know right?"
Reached Itashao jetty!!!
Was already starting to get rather jittery hahahaha. To get to the boarding station of the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway, you must walk from Itashao pier!
Tailing these three Taiwanese guys - I presume they were - for their little cute dog.
It seemed that the majority of visitors to Sun Moon Lake was from Mainland China. There were groups of Singaporeans and a handful of Taiwanese.
I REALLY LIKE ITASHAO TOWN!!! It's such a cute and quiet town. Everything seemed really calm and serene. But as I told my parents, I would probably go crazy after a few days of staying there... City-kids we are.
WHEN IN TAIWAN! There's Taiwan beer in Singapore, but we only have the lager (in the green can), not the wheat!
It was alright, wasn't strong enough for me hahahaha
The storekeepers and sales people of Itashao really pride themselves on keeping their little island clean. One, when she saw that my younger brother and I had beer cans in our hands, offered to throw them away for us and told us that it'd be difficult to find rubbish bins. We also saw quite a few signs requesting visitors to not litter. That's really just etiquette, isn't it? Don't go about littering in other people's homes! The Taiwanese are also very keen on recycling; I think they're the top Asian country for their stringent recycling efforts!
Walked on the Itashao trail to get to the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway Station
By this time... I was shaking in my Doc marts. *-*
The cars, the staff say, are large enough for 8 persons, 4 on each side, but I rather much think I wouldn't want to be plastered to the window edge. 6 would do comfortably. Also my mom was laughing at me in this photo, because I was looking like this:
I AM REALLY AFRAID OF HEIGHTS. Everytime I think I'm okay with it, I foolishly attempt such towering heights and end up panicking hahahaha.
It's not that I imagine the cablecar to break down and plummet, but just simply BEING at such a height scares me.
All photos cheekily taken by my younger brother and father lol.
My dad has a video of me crying in his phone. He says he's going to keep it as blackmail. *sadface*
Managed to calm myself down a little for this nice shot! :D I was still gripping on to the seat rather tightly though.
The journey up took about 8 minutes, I think? I can't really give an accurate gauge because my mind was blind with panic for most of the journey LOL.
"AH MA, I SURVIVED" Actually my granny, mom and dad are all scared of heights. But my granny has sat on one with transparent flooring in Hong Kong and she said this Sun Moon Lake one is nothing compared to that horrible one hahahahah.
I have a video of the journey, click on my Instagram:
@greekhoney to view it!
Rewarded myself with a sausage for not completely losing my shit hahahahahah. This particular one had rice wine 绍兴 in it.
On the way back! Was feeling loads better and managed to snap some photos of the scenery
We decided that we only had time for one more destination because we didn't want to get back to Taichung too late, so we headed to the bus stop for the shuttle service.
Our destination was
Wen Wu Cao (文武朝). Ask the bus driver to let you know which stop to alight at and he/she (though all the bus drivers we've encountered thus far in Taiwan have been male) will be glad to let you know! Most of the time they also announce the station names.
Very failed attempt at an artistic Tens shot hahahahahah
After walking around for a bit and struggling to read Traditional Chinese characters 繁体字 (we learnt Simplified Chinese 简体字 when we were younger), we headed back to the Shuishe Visitor Centre to catch the next coach back to Taichung.
We were delighted to discover a food stand serving MORE TAIWAN SAUSAGES!!! Or as this stall name says "Taiwan HUGDOG" hehehehe
Apparently Taiwan sausages from the Black Bridge brand 黑桥牌香肠 are quite well known!
Initially I didn't want to buy any but I gave in and bought another 大肠包小肠 Couldn't resist the temptation!!!
Back to Taichung with my cutesy granny
Remember in my previous entry I said that one of our cabbies had introduced places for us to dine at? Well he highly recommended this eatery near our restaurant called
帝一炭烧姜母鸭 (南台中分店). The address is 台中市南区台中路122号！It's directly translated Ginger duck.
Waiting for the charcoal bits to burn
Super light meesua that one can easily slurp up without feeling that it's very dough-y
Our bubbling bowl of ginger goodness! How it works is by ordering different ingredients that you want in your pot. It's kind of like steamboat. We had 2 servings of cabbage (Taiwan's 高丽菜 is very fresh and crunchy!), some other vegetable, oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, beancurd and 1 serving of duck meat. Also got 2 servings of meatballs made entire from duck meat - those were very chewy and slightly sweet.
Yums. The ginger in the soup really warms you up!
After dinner, we slowly took a stroll back to our hotel, which was about a 7 min walk away.
Han immediately popped into a 7-11 when we walked past it!
These are the hot dogs that they sell in their 7-11. The cheese one is very yummy
Back to CityInn Hotel! Here're some photos of my brothers' clean room (they had gotten the cleaning staff to tidy up their room but my granny and I didn't bother as we were only staying for 2 nights):
Pretty decent, I would say!
Here's the street right in front of our hotel. Taiwan's buildings are kind of not very modernised but modernity is but a concept, yeah? I quite like that I get to see brick walls and stuff.
Anyway for the lovers,
CityInn also provides condoms. LOL. I found the brand name hilarious!!! "
No Safeway No Way" Hahahahahaha. When my granny asked me what this was, I was like "安全套" and she shushed me. LOL
Anyway because I mostly had soup for dinner, I was a little feeling a little peckish at 11plus, and my younger brother just wanted to try Taiwanese cup noodles, so we shared cup noodles!!
Beef slices! This was quite good.
Then Han and I watched
The Maze Runner (Wes Ball, 2014) - oh yeah, CityInn also has a wide selection of Taiwanese shows and certain English films (all quite recent,
Gone Girl was available as well) - and I was utterly confused by the show............. *-*
So that sums up my second day and last day in Taichung! In the next entry, we move to Taipei. (: My mom and I had originally planned for us to visit Sun Moon Lake during our first day, and then to Cing Jing Farm 清境農場, which is also in Nantou county, on our second day, but as you know, the weather is unpredictable, and with free & easy trips, you have to be flexible when mishaps arise. We spent about 6 hours at the Sun Moon Lake area, but still we didn't really explore thoroughly every area. If you really like to do things leisurely, I would recommend that you find accommodations at Sun Moon Lake or Cing Jing Fang and spend a couple of days at each location. The pace of life there is quite different from Singapore's! I really liked Itashao in particular. (:
Will update with Day 3's post soon!
Love,
Pamela
Labels: granny, of fears, Sun Moon Lake, Taichung, Taiwan, the ng family, Travel Entries
