18 March 2014 (Tuesday)
Left home for the airport at approximately 10.30pm. Checked in at Terminal 1 before going into the departure hall to roam around. Bought Starbucks and also a book which I finished in a day. It was a 1:15am flight, took Jetstar if I'm not wrong. Arrived early at Taoyuan International Airport at 5.30am!
Bought a ticket for the bus ride from the airport to Taichung which took about approximately 2 hours. It felt so surreal being in Taiwan especially since it's like my dream place to go to since I was a child because of all the dramas I watched. Can't believe I'm in the place that all my idols lived in and where everything was filmed at. So the bus stopped at this unknown area which we took about 15 minutes to get a big cab that can fit all our luggages. Ended up having to split to 2 cabs and it was a 10 minutes ride to the hotel (Beacon Hotel) which was located in the middle of Feng Chia Night Market.
I think it was about 9am after we finished checking in and etc. There were no shops opened yet except for those street vendors so we had this egg pancake thing and soya milk for breakfast! The pancake was good.
Confucius Temple
Took a cab to Confucius Temple 'cause my sister wants to go there and as I have foresee, there was nothing much there so we just took a few photos before walking aimlessly to somewhere else.
Yizhong St.
Walking aimlessly till at the end of this street, my mum saw something that looked legit. It turned out to be Yizhong St. However it was only 10am so it wasn't going to be open till the late afternoon.
Rainbow Village
Took the 3rd cab of the day to Rainbow Village. So I read from the internet that this whole place was drawn by a grandpa in order for the place to not be demolished. It became a tourist attraction in the end which I guess he accomplished his mission.
Spent a good 15 minutes there before the same cab driver drove us to the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts because I wanted to go there.
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
The entire area of the museum is so cool. There's a park that has lots of sculptures surrounding the museum. Lots of children were there for excursions I guess and there were all running around.. Taiwan air is so fresh too because I heard 70% of the country is made up of mountains so it's not humid at all.
Went to some restaurant that looked kinda atas at the other building of the museum and had a bowl of beef noodles which turned out to be so cheap. I think the bowl of noodles was only 80NTD which is SGD3-4? So I wanted to go to a shopping mall called Park Lane afterwards which had a bookstore and is a walking distance from the museum so we just walked and guessed the way with the help of some map from the road side. It was a good walk as we passed many parks on the way to the mall.
Park Lane
Arrived there after a 15 minutes walk. The streets were all quite empty on that day. Went to my bookstore and bought 3 items. Taiwanese are kinda friendly too. Not only the taxi drivers but random people. So I was in the bookstore randomly looking at some design books and this girl came to talk to me and ask me if I study design and how did I end up in this bookstore after telling her I'm not local. Hahah.
It was already 1pm so we were quite hungry. There were nothing much around that area so we ended up in Yoshinoya which was located somewhere nearby the mall. The beef's so tender! It wasn't spicy 'cause they didn't have a spicy version there so I didn't really like it. I need my chilli....
Took the 4th cab of the day back to the hotel to rest for about 1-2 hours before heading to Feng Chia Night Market at 5.30pm which was located just downstairs our hotel.
Feng Chia Night Market
Mee Sua for dinner! First time having Taiwan Mee Sua and it was soooo good! Especially with the chilli, I think the chilli's actually the main thing. I swear this Mee Sua is so much nicer than the infamous Ah Zhong Mee Sua which I felt really suck. The one at Wu Fen Pu was even better than this. No idea why Ah Zhong is so famous. Everyone should be exposed to the other Mee Sua available elsewhere.
Walked around the area and bought some stuff before going back to the hotel. Didn't catch any sleep in the plane so we ended up spending the day without any sleep the previous night.
19 March 2015 (Wednesday)
No plans for the second day 'cause all the plans for the second day were brought forward to the first day because time unexpectedly flew so slowly and when I'm done with a place thinking it's been half an hour, only 10 minutes has passed...
So... Impromptu decision to head to Xitou Nature Reserve and Monster Village. Took a cab to the bus station but went to the wrong stop so we had to walk quite awhile to somewhere else to take the particular bus.
Xitou Nature Reserve
Climbed up the mountain and the scenery was so breathtaking I swear. Having a cone of ice-cream at the top of the mountain felt so good. There were rarely any tourists there except for the local elderly climbing up and down the mountain with their friends. The only tourist attraction of that place was the monster village I guess. Met some friendly people along the way who asked us where were we from.
Xitou Monster Village
This bowl of noodles really suck.
Had to take a bus back and we didn't know we have to take a queue number there and theres only 1 bus every 40 minutes or so. The 3:20pm bus was full already and so was the 3:50pm bus. So our number was for the 4:20pm bus. Waited an hour for the bus 'cause we were too tired to walk anywhere else near there and besides, there's already nothing much there.
Had to take the bus back and we didn't know there's actually a queue number and there's only one bus every 40 minutes. The 3:20pm bus was already full and so was the 3:50pm bus. So the number we took was for the 4.20pm one. Waited an hour for the bus 'cause we were too tired to walk anywhere else and besides there's nothing much there already.
Feng Chia Night Market
Returned to the hotel to rest for an hour before going down to Feng Chia Night Market to eat and shop a little bit. I had Mee Sua again for dinner. HAHA. I just always eat what I like again and again as if the world ends tomorrow and it's my last time having it.
I felt like there's nothing much to shop at Feng Chia Night Market except for food. Went back early at about 8pm cause we had to take a 5:50am train the next day.
Stayed at Beacon Hotel for 2 nights at Taichung. Headed to Hua Lien on the morning of the 3rd day. Await my next post for it.
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