Taiwan Day 5: 四哥の店 @ Maokong

Upon arriving in Taipei and left our luggage at the hostel, we head to Maokong for a gondola ride.

We choose the transparent glass gondola.

The price is same, however the queue is different. You've to wait longer for this gondola.

Arriving at the last station - Maokong, we hike a little up the hill and reach a street of shops.

We chosen 四哥の店 as introduced by hubby's friend from Taiwan.

Tea fried rice. NTD120.

Fried tea tofu. NTD180. This is nice!

And a pot of tea for NTD200.

Tea time with a view.

Minimum spending NTD200/ pax and only can be seated for 3 hours max.

A good experience and relaxing evening.

Taiwan Day 4: Feng Jia Night Market

Typical activity to do in Taiwan - night market hopping.

Our plan was actually to visit the Gao Mei Wetlands for sun set before going to Feng Jia night market. Too bad that the train interval to reach Gao Mei Wetlands was not that frequent. So, we missed the earlier train and if we still proceed, we won't be able to arrive there before sunset though. So we skipped and head straight to FJ night market by bus. Bus fare was free.

We stop by a few stalls.

Porky box.

Hubby said yummy. Not for me.

Papaya milk. Too big cup. We only able to finish half of it.

Pancake.

Take your number and wait for your turn.

This is something like "roti telur gulung". Lol. Not nice.

Takoyaki. Long queue.

Mass production. NTD60 for a box.

Bye!~

We took the foods back to our room for supper.

One thing to note is that the prices of shoes/ clothes/ bags that we saw in FJ night market is cheaper than those in Taipei. If you stop by Tai Chung before Taipei, just buy what you want here.

Taiwan Day 4: Tai Chung

How to get to Tai Chung from Cing Jing?

Walk to Cing Jing Guesthouse and wait for the Nantou Bus to Puli Station. The bus stop is located at road side. 

At Puli, change bus which will take you directly to Tai Chung. For our case, we hop on the bus that bring us to Tai Chung train station, as our hotel (Mi Casa) was walking distance to Tai Chung train station.

Arriving at Tai Chung at 12pm, we are not allowed to check in yet. Thus, we walk around looking for lunch. We stop by a chain restaurant.

Plum juice NTD15. This was surprisingly cheap!

Gyoza. This is good.

Bean paste noodle.

Beef soup noodle. Without beef. Lol.

Total cost for the 3 items was NTD123.

It's yet 3pm after our lunch and there is nothing interesting nearby.

So we decided to hang out at the cafe beside our hotel - Mi Cafe.

Cafe rules - one drink per person. Zzz..

Coffee ice.

Coffee ice cream which I though was affogato.

Both cost NTD 240.

Disappointing coffee.

The cafe.

Finally it's 3pm and we allowed to check in.

The room was small but it's clean and comfortable.

This is the view from the hotel roof top.

I'll recommend it for it's location which is very near to train station and the clean room.

Taiwan Day 3 & 4: Carton King & Little Swiss Garden

After had some rest, we walk down the hill to Carton King.

Everything here is made from carton.

Even the steamboat set.

BTW, the steamboat was so-so only. The meats given was too frozen.

Hubby ordered grill chicken. This was nice.

Total cost for this 2 set meal was NTD924. Expensive!

For spending more than NTD300/pax are entitled to the entrance ticket to Little Swiss Garden (cost NTD90 if bought from hotel lobby/ NTD120 from the counter.)

Luckily we asked the counter. For entrance after 7pm, the ticket can be use to re-enter the next day.

So we get to enjoy both night and day scene.

At night, the garden are lit up with lights. It was quite nice under the cooling weather.

After walking the whole garden (which was quite small) and watch the water show, we head back to hotel and call it a day.

Breakfast provided by hotel.

After breakfast, we walk to Little Swiss Garden for the morning scene.

This is how it looks like in morning.

Basically for day time, it is for visitors to enjoy the flowers.

There's a mini cafe inside.

The coffee and foods was not cheap though.

We had fire polo bun which cost NTD80.

Disappointing. Hahaha..

After finishing the bun, ,we walk back uphill to our hotel, check out and hop on bus to Tai Chung.

Taiwan Day 3: SML - Cing Jing

Its'time to move to our next stop.

We had the simple breakfast provided by hotel, check out and hop on bus to Cing Jing.

Using the bus ticket included in the SML package, we hop on the bus at Ita Thao (opposite police station). 20 minutes later, we arrive Shuishe.

From Shuishe, we hop on the bus to Puli (NTD 57) which took 35 minute.

This is the Puli Bus Station.

We wait for the bus to Cing Jing. NTD112 and the journey is 1 hour.

Arriving in Cing Jing, we get down at Cing Jing guest house and drag our heavy bag uphill to our pre-book hotel - Ailiga Cing Jing.

Arriving in Cing Jing, we are not allowed to check in yet. Thus, we drop our luggage and get the hotel to help us call for minivan transit (NTD50 each) to Cing Jing Farm.

I was quite disappointed that there is no shuttle service provided.

We had our lunch at the food court in front of Cing Jing entrance.

Looks like many variety of foods, but somehow feels that there is nothing to eat.

We ordered this - Gyoza.

Not nice for me. Lol.

Bamboo rice. The rice is not warm enough.

And roasted chicken which was so tough that it could break my teeth. Hahaha..

The lunch cost NTD260.

Cing Jing Farm entrance cost NTD180/pax.

It looks so nice in picture, don't it?

Perhaps we went to NZ, so this was so-so only.

We didn't walk the whole farm. Coz we are not sure on the route and too lazy.

Thus, we sit waiting for the horse performance.

And it's time to go back to hotel.

We had to walk to this 400+ steps of stairs down. @@

Finally reach the ground.

And walk back uphill to our hotel. Super tiring.

Finally can check in to our room. The room was disappointing for the price we paid.

The location so uphill, no free shuttle provided, the room doesn't look maintained well. Insects net door has fallen off, thus we are unable to open the door because insects will fly in.

There's hot water dispenser machine in the room but it's not functioning anymore.

Anyway, that's our Cing Jing trip. And we are going to head back to the city on the next day.