Taiwan Vacation Day 4 - 07 Nov 2015

07 Nov 2015 (Sat):

Morning peeps! At 4lish, this is the crowd at the train station. Temperature was 13 degrees. Not too cold...

Disclaimer: Those voices in the video do not belong to us. Free narration though..haha.

Some snapshot of the sunrise.

Traditional Taiwanese breakfast is served. 

We made our way down and Gabee intro us to this couple tree which was burned many years back during a forest fire.

This temple was destroyed in the 921 earthquake and it was rebuilt and only completed recently.

Most treats from Gabee along the way such as grape crushed ice, fruits such as dragon fruit, mango, grapes, bananas, etc.. He really looked after for our general being, treat and fed us well.

Lunch at the local eatery. Gabee told us not many tourist would come here since its more well known to the locals. No wonder there was a long queue!

We bought tickets for Che Cheng station  (车程) from Jiji (集集) station. Gabee said he would pick us up from Che Cheng.

We had an hour to go. Guess what we did? We rented a scooter and bike all around the quaint little town. So many people around and so so hot!

Who said Taiwan is cooling at this time of the year?!  In fact, throughout our trip, it was hot everyday, except for the cool evenings at Alishan and Cing Jing...and a rainy season at Jiufen. More about that later.

Arrival into Che Cheng brings us into another quaint little town. Gabee said to call him when we are done shopping and walking around as he claimed it is not easy to find a parking lot.

Our dinner at Talowan Restaurant.

Top Cloud (云顶) was our minsu for the night.

We caught the 2015 Cing Jing Huo Ba Jie. (清境火把节). We joined in the fun and watched the many performances. Nice!

A candid shot of us! Hehe.

Bits n Pieces of some performances.

Taiwan Vacation Day 3 - 06 Nov 2015

06 Nov 2015 (Fri):

We had a morning HSR to board for our journey to Taichung. To think we sang till 4am in the morning, we almost could not wake up. Nonetheless, we still had time for breakfast at Mac.

We had pre booked our tickets online, which gave us 20% savings. Journey to Taichung took us about 50mins.

We met our guide and he took us on an amazing 3 days adventure.

We called 咖啡大哥, which in English, literally means Coffee Brother. His actual name is Gabee.

But he prefer us to call him by his nick name.

Gabee treat us to some rice dumplings before a ride uphills. Delish!

天长 and 地久 bridge. We went across 地久桥 but not the other one. It was quite challenging to climb up the other as it consists of steep steps all the way up. LOL.

We had out lunch in a small town in Fen Qi Hu 奋起湖.

Another delish treat by our guide. There, we met his buddy and was told of many hilarious jokes.

We had a good laugh and debate over some nonsense.

From the pic above, the bento lunch had more ingredients than what was shown. When i lifted up the pork chop, or was it chicken chop, there was more stuff hidden below.

Goodness! Too much! And we have stinky tofu and more steam dumplings too.

We toured around Fen Qi Hu after lunch.

Arriving Alishan in the late afternoon, the sky was getting darker by the minute. Gabee took us to our Minsu - Wan Guo Bie Guan (万国别馆). After we check in and dumped our luggages, we head off to the train station to get tickets for Chu San the next morning.

Gabee told us catching the sunrise is not a definite promise. There may be thick fog or mist or it may be raining. If we are lucky enough, we may even see sea clouds (云海).

We took the Alishan Forest Bus for a quick ride to the 1st stop of the forestry attractions.

It was a long walk up and down steps and slopes. Gabee has left us and would meet up again at 7.30pm for dinner. He warned us to try and finish the walk by 6pm, else it will be dark everywhere.

Sisters Pond.

1st generation.

2nd generation.

3rd generation.

By the time we managed to reach these 3 generation trees, it was already dark.

On our way out from the dense forest, we caught sight of this natural wonder.

At this time, all 3 of us were tired and breathless. I wonder how much calories we burnt.

This is Wan Guo Bie Guan. Clean, simple and air conditioned. It has 2 double beds, just nice for the 3 of us. In fact, all of our stay comes with 2 double beds.

Our dinner for the evening - hotpot with extra ingredients. We hit the bed soon and we need to wake up at 4am to catch the train to Chu Shan.

Taiwan Vacation Day 2 - 05 Nov 2015

05 Nov 2015 (Thurs):

Good morning from Taiwan. This is mine 2nd trip to Taiwan this year.

Itinerary for the day: Longshan Temple to pray for a smooth and enjoyable trip.
                                  Danshui / Fisherman's Wharf.
                                  Xin Bei Tou for a soak in one of the hotspring.
                                  Shilin Night Market for shopping.
                                 

We took a train to Longshan Temple Station, 1 stop away and head straight for breakfast.

We had rice dumplings and they were good.

View of Longshan Temple. We prayed for good weather and a smooth journey throughout.

But it was a hot weather outside and a cooling drink was needed to keep us sane.

Then we proceed to Danshui / Tamshui. No time limit. Own time own target.

We took a ferry to Fisherman's Wharf.

We left Danshui and went to Xin Bei Tou for a dip in one of the hotspring bath. No pics here of course.

Our last stop. Shilin Night Market. I love so very much this cheezy potato thingy.

We did not really eat much as we wanna safe our stomachs for more street food.

And not forgetting, we had a fun time at the KTV which we booked for 12 midnight and sang all the way till 4am in the morning.

Note: we had a highspeed train to catch at 0930hrs. Sleepy head signing off.

Taiwan Vacation Day 1 - 04 Nov 2015

04 Nov 2015 (Wed):

Sometime back in July or was it August, my colleagues and I were discussing about having a vacation and Taiwan came to our minds. We flipped through the calendar and agreed Nov was a good choice since there was a weekend followed by a PH. That would cut down on the number of leave we had to apply. LOL.

Prices on budget airlines were even more expensive than those commercial carriers. We checked on Scoot, Eva Air, Singapore Airlines (dream on), etc... and finally settled on Eva (BR) Air. Moreover, it was on a Hello Kitty plane (HK).

After we got our air tickets booked, we got busy with work and the booking of our accommodation was put on hold. We managed to get it done by late Sep / early Oct.

The day finally dawned upon.

Eva Air departing from T2 Row 8. We met at about 1.30pm, checked in and had lunch.

Haha, we took many pics (or rather I was the one) of HK (cards, pillows, cutleries, toiletries and even toilet roll paper) and watsapp back the pics to our colleagues who went wow...wah... so cute...i want i want... omg...so adorable, etc

Arriving at Taoyuan International Airport, we got our mobile data plan and took bus#1819 to Taipei Main Station.

Midtown Hotel Richardson was where we put up for the 1st 2 nites and again for the last 2 nites. It was very spacious and easily accessible from both either exit 4 or exit 5 of Ximen Station.

It was late and we were hungry. Most of the shops in Ximen were closed except for a few here and there.

A simple bowl of noodles, grilled sausages and juice settled our stomach.

Well, that practically sums up our evening for the 1st night. Nothing much.

Next post, a trip to Longshan Temple, Danshui, Xin Bei Tou and Shilin Night Market.

Wushu Grading

27 Sep 2015 (Sun):

After her ballet, Rachel went for her Wushu Grading. It was the longest grading session I have stayed.

She was taking the grading syllabus for Brown Belt and they were tested with every individual level - white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple and red right before a group of testers

And they were finally tested as a whole level together.

Nonetheless, Rachel did great and she was awarded the belt to the next level - Junior Black Belt.