ilha formosa!
Hi guys! I've been back from Taiwan for more than a week. And to be truthful, I'm too lazy to update about it because going away for 12 days is seriously, long!
So much to talk about for this 12days- trip. Awesome, amazing, fun, exciting and tired of course because we've been on our legs for almost 10 hours each day. Maybe I shall just do a short summary for each day! :)
SORRY FOR THE EXTREMELY HUGE PHOTOS! :p
Day 1- 2:
I've been to Taipei before so it wasn't difficult planning for days in Taipei. & especially with the convenient public transport, city dwellers like us definitely will not have troubles getting around Taipei. Ximending was definitely a place to go for teenagers, and of course we didn't miss it. And I manage to find the cute packaging- candies! :)
We also went to Jiufen （九份老街）and YeLiu (野柳) where the former's on the mountains and the latter's near the sea. So to make our day easier, we booked a 6-seater cab (anyway it's not easy to find a 6-seater cab even though they were meant to be- for eg. it's like those 6seater family car but most of the cabs indicate it's only 4seater because the last row cant be used) So this cab that we booked was through my dad's taiwan friend, who was a nice uncle! By the way, it's not really expensive to book a cab for a whole day.
Day 3-4:
We took the High Speed Rail (HSR/ 台灣高鉄）down to Kaohsiung （高雄）and it's definitely convenient because we only needed 1.5hours to travel from the northern part of Taiwan to almost the southern part of Taiwan. Kaohisung is another city like place. Went to their famous Love river (愛河），澄清湖，旗津，and 六合夜市 where there's lots of nice food. Oh yes, we stayed in this 85-level building （85大樓）which was a half office-half apartment kind of building. so on this half of the building its all offices and another half's apartments. We stayed on the 23rd level and the view is just so amazing.
Day 5-7:
Booked a 6-seater car (not a cab!) down to Kenting (墾丁）and it took us probably abt 2hours. If you guys did catch 海角七號 this place and Hengchun (恆春) was where the scenes took place! Being in the southern part of Taiwan, it was warmer at Kenting. Kenting is more of a beach place where most people will go during summer/autumn. So there were lesser people at Kenting during winter time, but it was still nice being in Kenting. Nice sea (and it's really blue-y kind!)! We actually wanted to go down to the sea to play since the weather was being nice to us so far and on that day. But we couldn't see any water sports rental near the beach which made us damn sad can! So we just went to the places of attraction. Went to Eluanbi （鵝鑾鼻）where the old and beautiful lighthouse was situated. Strong winds there! and we caught the sun set as well :)
We booked a van again the next day to get around Kenting and at night up to Hengchun town. The driver brought us to the most southern part of Taiwen where the scenery was just awesome max. Winds were blowing at its highest speed and no kidding, I think I might just fly away if I didn't stand properly! The best part of the day was playing motor sports on the beautiful beach where I doubt,if you travelled by yourself to Kenting, you'll get to go this place! It's at 九棚沙漠, yes they call it a desert and it looks exactly like a desert! The sands near the beach is as high as 5 stories, and riding on the fine sand with strong winds totally made me feel damn cool can! Oh yes, I just googled and this activity is called 飆沙. Definitely not to be missed so if you guys are planning to go Kenting, go for this activity! The activity's about SGD40 for almost an hour of fun! But this rate if for renting our own motorcar! You can choose going on the jeep and the staff will drive 4 people on board instead of you driving a motorcar of your own! Go for own motorcar for an exciting experience!
Oh yes, I missed out on the homestay we had. Their homestay is known as 民宿 by the way. We stayed for 2 nights in this cute place built and run by a couple. They've 2 buildings back to back, and each building holds probably 6-10rooms. The first one (牧場旅棧）was a cow-themed homestay place, where everything's in cow prints! Very cute place! The one we stayed in was 二手童話 or sort of a fairytale themed place. And the room we had was exactly shown on this chn8 variety show that Felicia Chin went. Awesome much. We slept in the same room with our parents, and 3 of us slept on this cute dinosaur shell bed! The room was also done in a caveman-dinosaur theme :)
Day 8-
Took a van down to 日月潭 or Sun Moon Lake for direct and proper translation. The journey took us 4hours, but the car was just so great I just slept all the way! Hahaha the van's like those kind you see celebrities taking and I asked the driver, they do drive celebrities! Who knows! I might be sitting in the van Fahrenheit or S.H.E took before! :)
It was real foggy due to some drizzling. And this was our only bad weather day out of the 12days in Taiwan...Lucky or what! :) We took our own sweet time walking around this lake which was 33km in perimeter. Of course we didn't go around the lake! Lol, just walking around near our hotel place or homestay place because it wasn't exactly a hotel haha. The fog was real thick and it was freaking cold! Could blow out mist or whatever you call that whenever I breathe out hahahaha!
Day 9-
Went to somewhere near Yushan （玉山) a mountain beside Alishan and we didn;t get to go up Yushan because we'll need a guided tour with a licensed tour guide, due to the protected area of Yushan. But anyway, on our way to Yushan (we got a van again, but this time it's Yushan's hotel driver) we went to get real juicy grapes that just got riped and harvested by the people. It was really cheap too! Got ourselves 8bunches back to Singapore! Hahaha! The driver also brought us to look at 梅花 (sorry, i don't know the english name of this flower! hahaha) which was blooming for that season. Nice view of the trees,which looked like they were covered with small spots of snow! Plus that fog, the view was amazing.
Since it's on mountains, we had our first hot spring in our lives at the hotel. Nice! :D Part of day 10's morning was going up and climbing this steep steps of 1km long to look at the waterfall. Tiring max and mountain climbing is seriously not my interest at all.
Day 10-12:
Went back to Taipei via High Speed Rail from 台中. Went to Wufenpu 五分埔 and told my parents to go for a coffee while the 3 sisters went on shopping craze. Saw this shop that sold tops with L size and I seized the chance & got myself 6 tops! hahahaha! But we only had 1.5hours to shop because my dad fixed a dinner appointment with his friend! SO dampening! Because I wanted to visit RaoHe Night Market 饒河夜市 can! :(
We also went to New Beitou 新北投 for another round of hotspring! :) and this time was more awesome because we had rooms to ourselves! Parents shared a room while the 3 of us shared another! For the first time I felt so special to have a room to our own just like watching any variety shows which introduces such tourist spots! hahahaha! After hotspring was going to Fisherman's Wharf which was also another tourist attraction...Caught the beautiful sunset as well! And I loved the sunset at this place the most! Night was then spent at Dan Shui Old market 淡水老街 where I went back to the old store and got ourselves the Starfruit drink again! This time round, we bought 3huge bottles home.
And then it was visiting the Chengpin Bookstore 誠品書局 which I was told to be 24hours! But it was only till 12am. But still, we got ourselves some books and dragged our tired bodies back to our hotel at 12am!
Taipei was also holding the Floral Exposition so we didn't miss it too. It was really boring because we had to queue to go into the different themed- expo halls. And each queue could take up to 3hours. Most of the time we were just walking around. Oh yes, and there was this part of the exhibition place where different countries showcased their themes. And I must say, Singapore's sucked bigtime. You could see other countries putting real effort and really making their exhibit nice. But ours was just like any other bushes and grass you see on the roads. I expected at least orchirds? or at least a merlion head there :/ The place was really big and we lost our mum somewhat. Had a hard time finding her and our last resort was to go over to the information counter and report her missing and announce her name. We were a step close to the counter when my mum called out our names behind us. Lol.
Our last night in Taipei was to ShiLin Night Market 士林夜市. Ate our first 雞排 since we landed in Taiwan, and it's still as big, and the queue's still as long as the last time I was there! Had the nice ice 剉冰 I ate the previous time as well. After dinner at the night market was crossing over to the shopping area of Shi Lin! Bought 2 pairs of shoes and was very satisfied with my shopping! Hehee! Searched for a luggage bag as well because we seriously had lots of things bought over the last 10days!
THE LAST DAY
Before we went to airport, Dad's Taiwanese friend came to our hotel and treated us lunch buffet. She's a really nice person, treating us so much over those few days we were in Taipei. 我想台灣人真得不是朗得虛名,這得很好客,很熱情. The buffet was awesome because there was sashimi! Hahahahahahaha
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I guess that should sum up my trip. I don't think I want to go back to Taiwan anytime! Hahahaha But I think I can emigrate to Taipei anytime because I think I'm quite familiar with the main places in Taipei now! Hahahha.
I didn't want to book a cab/van when going from one place to another, but my dad said it was difficult to take a coach (yes they've coach they brings you from eg. Kaohsiung to Kenting) with the number of luggages we had. So we booked cab/van when travelling from one state to another. It's pretty reasonable and affordable and definitely negotiable, costing probably SGD150 for shorter distances to SGD300 for longer distances for a van/cab of 6-seater.
I like free and easy seriously- gives you more freedom to explore around. I like travelling, but I really need moolah to do so. Hahaha!
BEST PHOTO: HAHAHA
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