Taiwan day 3 - Feng Jia Night Market (Taichung)

Mei Jen House provides breakfast, so the next morning, we had ‘crispy’ toast and yummy porridge. ^^

Then it was moving time again! Took the 2-hour bus back to the HSR station and boarded another bus to Feng Jia University. If you have a HSR ticket from the same day, the bus ride is free. I can’t remember how much we paid though. Everything was a breeze with the 悠遊卡 (our EZLink card).

But from the Uni, our nightmare began. In short, we made our room booking with 逢甲夜宿館, but all along we thought it was 逢甲美宿館. So we followed the latter’s directions. -_- In the end thankfully we managed to contact the person and he brought us to the correct one instead. 

May I present you – 逢甲夜宿館. It was our cheapest room this trip (NT1500, SGD65), a double-storey apartment at the top floor of a rather run-down building. For this price I can’t complain much can I? At least it was clean. And there was a huge sofa downstairs (which my MIL slept cos she don’t want to climb stairs), and a double and single bed upstairs. We had our own wifi here too. 

I had originally planned to visit Yi Zhong Jie (shopping area) first, but after the confusion earlier, we decided to just nua until dinner. XD The Feng Jia Night Market is supposedly one of the more popular night markets and it was just a 5-10min walk away, albeit having to cross a very busy road without any pedestrian crossing. The traffic in Taichung was bad. In fact, I never wanna go back to Taichung. Really. =X 

But the food was good. 

Why Singapore don't have all these? >.<

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Taiwan day 2 - Sun Moon Lake

The next morning, we packed up and left Taipei for Taichung! Getting there was rather fast and easy with the HSR (high speed rail), conveniently located at Taipei Main Station too. Tickets weren’t cheap though. They cost NT765 (SGD33) each, one-way! >.< We managed to board the express train, which took us there in slightly less than an hour.

From there, we caught the next bus directly to Sun Moon Lake. Pretty thankful that we didn’t have to wait very long. We had lucky timing! And we bought the round trip+boat ride package (NT660, SGD28.70) so there was a little discount there. Lol. Anyway, the journey into SML was quite long; about 2 hours, with a few stops along the way. So we slept. ^^ 

The main ‘bus terminal’ at SML is at the Shueishe Visitor Centre. We didn’t get to explore the mall inside but I saw Carton King. Wish we had gone there. =(

Our hotel/民宿 for the night was Mei Jen House (NT1700, SGD74). We booked 2 rooms this time! It gave me a homely treehouse feel, with mushrooms outside and tree trunks inside. And teddy bears everywhere! The owner was very nice and helpful too. She even drew maps for us and introduced the activities and good food around the area. The downside was the lack of a lift. The rooms were nice and quite clean. Not exactly hotel standard but it had the basic necessities. 

Headed out for lunch at one of the ‘restaurants’ recommended by the owner. Took the cheapest set (NT500, SGD22). It didn’t look very appetizing TBH, but surprisingly tasted nice! 

Then we began our boat ride! For NT300 (SGD13) per pax, we could ride the boat for as long and as many times as we wanted. The round trip started from Shueishe, then Syuanguang Temple, Ita Thao, and back to Shueishe again.

Alighted at Syuanguang Temple for the famous 阿婆 tea leaf eggs. I had 2! They were so nice and soft and fragrant. I really think majority of the visitors alight here for the eggs lol. Only NT10 (SGD0.45) each!

Did some climbing of stairs to the temple at the top. Remember during my last trip I mentioned the various landmarks surrounding SML? ST is one of them. It houses the relics of Tang Sanzang. The scenery from up above was beautiful. You could see the whole of Lalu Island. Too bad my camera’s zoom isn’t good enough. =\ 

Our next stop was at Ita Thao. I had read that Ita Thao is like a small village by itself and there was an old street to spend some time at. So I was rather excited about this part. However, when the boat docked, we looked up to see the hotel that we had stayed at during the last trip. -_- A little disappointing cos I don’t remember there was anything interesting in the area back then. But it was a little better this time. Perhaps because it was daytime and the shops were open. Got my first and only grilled stinky tofu this trip, and some pork meat. Which reminds me. I ate so much meat this trip! >.<

Let sleeping dogs lie ;)

Lingered around before returning to Shueishe. And nua-ed in the room till dinnertime. Lol. Actually the itinerary sounds quite relaxed but dunno why I feel so drained from the trip. Anyway, dinner was at another one of the owner's recommendations.

After dinner, we continued walking down and we realized that, WE HAD ATE AT THE WRONG PLACE! Lol. The recommended one was slightly further down. Oh wells, at least my noodles were yummy. Walked around some more and spotted some cute figurines along the way. By the way, it was freezing cold. -_-

 And retired for the night. =)

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Taiwan day 1 - Taipei Underground Mall & Shilin Night Market

Hello! I'm finally back from my 11-day 'honeymoon' trip to Taiwan! I had my ROM the day before I flew, so it was a mad rush after that to get my hair cut and facial done before rushing home to do some last-minute packing. Anyway, more on the ROM in another post!

We flew on Jetstar on Tuesday morning, which came with food and 2 drinks. I had the vegetarian noodles, which was quite alright. I heard the prata isn't very good lol. And the seats really suck. Terribly uncomfortable for long-legged people like me. Tsk.

Tiny portion >.<

Arrived slightly before noon and took the shuttle bus (NT125, SGD5.40)  to Taipei Main Station. We couldn't find the counters for the Youth and EZLink cards at the airport, and as for the prepaid SIM card, you need to present both your passport and another form of identification. We only had the passport, so....NO CONNECTION! Boo.

The journey was about an hour and Taipei Main Station was a huge horrible maze. Its bus terminal, train station, and HSR station were all connected, along with 4 other underground malls. And if you don't know, I suck at directions lol.

Which was why I messed up the route to the hotel. LOL. Actually google maps gave me the wrong directions. It was actually just a 5-10 minute walk from Taipei Main Station but we went one big round and walked for like, 15-20mins. In the end we took a cab there. -_-

The first night was at CityInn II (NT2200, SGD96). The lobby was fairly small, but neat and tidy. Walls had cute pictures, and staff were pretty nice and friendly. Oh we could use the drinks dispenser, fridge, toaster and laundry facilities too. We spammed quite a lot of the milk tea during our 5 nights there. The room was nice and clean, although a tad too small for 3 people. They gave us an additional mattress but we all squeezed onto the bed. It fits comfortably if you sleep horizontally lol.

Headed out again to the underground malls. I only remember Zhongshan (cos we have to pass by there on the way to the hotel), Taipei Main (cos Zhu recommended this egg pudding found there), and Station Front (cos we had to buy the famous biscuits from there).

I can't remember which was the one we walked that day, but it was just rows and rows of shops. There were a lot of game and figurine shops. Quite boring I must admit.

Halloween deco

So we headed to Shilin Night Market. Took the metro to Jiantan Station and it begins just opposite the station. Side note, if you didn't know, my mother-in-law tagged along this trip and as much as I hate to say this, night markets are much more fun when it's just SSD and me. At least I don't have to feel that guilty stopping to take photos of every food we eat. =(

Which by the way, I didn't get to use wall-e much this trip. Almost all of the street foods were taken with my phone. Sorry in advance for the blurry pics. T_T BUT! We definitely ate more stuff this time. Kudos to myself for training SSD's appetite for the past 2 years. LOL!

Does anyone else feel that the food stalls have reduced after the renovation? I mean, it's nice to have aircon, but the Shilin 2 years ago was much more bustling and exciting with more foods to choose from. Oh wells, maybe it's just me.

And turned in pretty early since we all had so little sleep the night before.

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