Asia Archives - Page 3 of 22 - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Hsinchu 2019 Day 6 – Home Sweet Home

Posted on June 25, 2019June 4, 2020 by ziyi

Woke up earlier than usual as I thought I would take a morning run in this city. After much contemplation on the bed, I got up to get dressed only to find that I didn’t bring the tee for running. Went back to bed instead but I was surprised to see the sky brightly lit at 6 in the morning.

The next time I woke up it was already 9 and we quickly we got out of bed to get ready for breakfast. At the breakfast table, K was again taking in some toasted garlic bread as other items didn’t interest him. I tried some of the small dish items that I didn’t take yesterday and they were ok.

Even though we didn’t really have any itinerary today, we were all checked out by 1030 and on the vehicle as the driver was going to bring us to a few more stores to shop before getting onto the plane home. First stop was to a local peanut butter jam store, called Fuyuan peanut butter store (福源花生醬).

We arrived shortly after a drive to a shop that looked like any other shop around the area. Everyone got off except K and I as we stayed in the vehicle since we weren’t all that interested in peanut butter. This was supposedly one of the best peanut butter store that produce their own peanut butter. As usual, there were some shopping for the in-laws and mommy didn’t get any.

Our next stop was to the Central market as that looked very much like the one where we visited the temple. Similarly, we stayed behind while the rest got off to some marketing, in the hopes to get some fresh fruits to bring back to Singapore.

The last but the most important of the stops was at a meatball store, called Hai Rui Gong Wan (海瑞貢丸). This time we all got off to visit the store which had a small area with tables for visitors to eat immediately after the meatballs were cooked in the pot. While the in-laws got their purchases, we managed to try one of the meatballs and I was really impressed by the bounciness of the meatball! Even the picky K took another bite! Unfortunately we were too far to eat and I couldn’t get a picture of the meatball.

After getting some batteries for K’s camera from a nearby convenience store, we left for the airport. We arrived into Taoyuan airport after about an hour of driving and bade the driver, whom had been a very friendly and diligent driver guide, goodbye before lining up to check in. Mommy did the machine check in while we lined up with 4 trolley full of luggage to check in, half of these were boxes of shopping items bought (by the in laws). The check in was thankfully ok with the boxes being distributed amongst all the ticket holders, but amongst the chaos K lost my pokeball and I had to reprimand him.

Before going thru immigrations, we found that one of the luggage was rejected due to prohibited item being found inside the checked-in luggage. Returning to the check-in counter, we realized that it belonged to my father-in-law whom left a rechargeable torchlight inside the luggage.

After meeting up with K and mommy at Starbucks who were there to get some food, probably because the MIL thinks that there were a lot of time and her grandson needed to eat something, we quickly return to pass through the gate to immigrations. Our family was given the short cut as K was identified by the security as a small child in tow and thus given priority to pass.

We passed through without much problems and soon found our way to the gate where we met the others there. While waiting to board this codeshare plane that would fly towards Surabaya after Singapore, we were informed that the flight would be delayed by 30mins and so we took the opportunity to return to the shops to have a look since we did have quite a bit of NT left to spend.

It was a short while before we returned for the boarding, and I had to bring the stroller onboard since the airline staff could not pick it up. We had to wait for them to decide on the sitting arrangements (again) before settling in. The rest of the journey was not much drama, except for the time when K was asking for food as he got hungry and the main meal was only served at about 3pm and another time when he had to take a dump near the end of the flight.

This was a second time in a year that we attempted to travel with the extended family, partly as a way to spend time with the in-laws and mostly for the kids to go together. I personally didn’t enjoy this compared to the earlier one as we didn’t have a lot of flexibility since a big part of the time we were together whereas we had more smaller family time / kids time during Korea. While we were spending time back as a smaller family, each of us at least get what we wanted and thus everyone was happy whereas in Taiwan, we all had to go thru all the activities together and unfortunately 3 generations of people would have 3 different expectations of what fun was and most of time, it wasn’t fun for the kids. As much as how proactive the driver was, what he catered for the group was mainly for the interests of the adults and although that was welcomed by the in-laws, it didn’t played out well for the kids who were bored. This was made worst when we had to spend so much time outside and left little time back at the room and K was left frustrated not having enough play time for himself. For this, I would think twice about another trip with them, taking into considerations the trip itinerary and country of visit as most important deciding factor.

Hsinchu 2019 Day 5 – Window on China Theme Park, Leofoo Village and Hsinchu City God Temple

Posted on June 24, 2019April 1, 2020 by ziyi

The dreadful weather continued into day 5 with the overcast clouds stubbornly dripping droplets till day broke. We were all up by 9 and pretty smoothly with the morning routine – I used in Korea seemed to work here as well.

We managed to get ready and go for breakfast on the 4th floor. There weren’t many people and the variety was limited as it was only serving continental breakfast. K was struggling with his cereal but I found the garlic spread that when applied to sliced bread and toasted, gave the perfect formula for K’s fussy tastebuds.

At 10, we all gathered on the ground floor ready to board the vehicle for our last day trip. We were going to the Window On China theme park to see miniature models of famous landmarks. It was an open air theme park so the bad weather was going to be a bummer to the visit. We paid the price of 5 full price tickets of NT499 and 3 at reduced price of NT399 for the seniors and K.

The theme park was quite well done I thought as the models were pretty realistic and there were quite a variety of buildings that I could relate too. It also garnered the interest K’s interest.

After the landmarks of Taiwan and China, we took a mini train that brought us to the other section. Here we found an indoor theme park, an outdoor one which was mostly closed and a theatre. There were also European miniature landmarks and American ones.

We saw the European ones and proceeded to look for the NASA space rocket in America before returning to the theatre for a show that had magic and comedy and the Chinese traditional art of face changing. It was interactive show as the performers came down from the stage and got close to the audience, giving the kids high fives and at times requiring “help” from the kids to do something.

After the show, we went to the restaurant serving fast food nearby to have our lunch. K had not much of a problem eating that as there were his favorite fries.

We headed for the exit after our lunch after deciding to pay Leofoo village theme park a visit, considering that there would be not much time left as it would close at 5pm and that the rain would limit the amount of outdoor activity at the park. It would have been fine too if we had chosen to stay as there were also indoor and outdoor rides at the Window on China.

The drive to the park was quick since the distance between the 2 parks was really close. I made a purchase quickly on Klook and plus entering a promo code ended up with us paying only $157 for 5 adults, 1 child and 2 seniors, less than $20 per pax. Got my tickets from the customer service office and we entered the park that wasn’t crowded (because of the weather of course).

The target visit was the animals and thus we checked out the white tigers, and the many many types of monkeys there. Later, we returned to board the safari bus ride that brought us to see bear, lions and tigers, these animals were free roaming as the bus entered their compound thus the experience felt like a safari. It was an interesting experience with the animals very close by.

K wanted to visit the birds enclosure while mommy and the rest went on to take the train. While at the enclosure, one of the staff handed K a syringe to feed the parrots and that ended up with parrots standing on both of our heads, fearless of getting close to humans when it comes to food.

We walked to the goat enclosures and saw them baaing at the visitors waiting to be fed with goat feed that could be purchased there. K wasn’t interested since he had done a lot of that at the Flying Cow Ranch. We walked to the Alcapa enclosure but couldn’t see those animals as they might have gone into the shelter.

Then at one time, the meerkats were out in full force as the staff fed them. It was easy to identify the one on guard duty as it was doing that role diligently up atop a rock. Soon mommy returned with the rest to join us and we walked out of the animal theme section to have a look at others.

Barely touched the palace section before I brought K to the America section where he vaguely remembered playing an arcade machine of firefighters and wanted to see that again. As I ran there, we found that place was closed and instead, we tried our luck at the air rifle games instead. That gave K some experience with a air rifle (not a real one) of loading the cock and shooting, though we didn’t win any prizes from that game. Mommy joined us and tried as well but also in vain.

Before leaving, we watched the last fountain show and that was pretty disappointing compared to the various fountains that we have seen in throughout our travels. The unimpressive water fountain that had some of their nozzles choked ended up with a messy and lazy kind of a water display. They would need something better than that to attract people.

We exited the park at closing time and got aboard our vehicle for a visit to another adhoc location, recommended by the guide, the Hsinchu City God Temple.

It was about a 40mins drive back to the city and we arrived into a busy place that was lined with lots of food stores. We got off to the temple walking through a doorway that seemed too obscured to know that it leads to the main temple. While in the temple, we lighted up the joss sticks and did the prayers before visiting the toilet and looking around.

K and I returned to the vehicle a short while later while mommy and the rest visited a store selling meatballs to get some local food before joining us.

Next we were off to our dinner location, a popular roast chicken store that originated from Yilan, where they would roast their chicken in dome shaped kilns, Weng Yao Ji, 甕窯雞, . We arrived at the restaurant which quite empty though, however the many Taiwanese celebrities photos on the walls convinced me that it should be quite good to garner the interest of these people.

Our food came and the main dish of the roast chicken came last since it had to take time to roost. Being a fan of roost chicken, I did find the chicken tasted better than those I am familiar with because the meat did feel juicier, even at those sections that were particularly dry. The rest of the other food was ok but the free soup tasted bad.

Before returning to the hotel, we informed the driver that we regretted not getting any bubble tea and so he made a short detour to drop us off to get our boba milk tea from 50 Lan, aka Koi in Sg. With just NT50 we got to satisfy our milk tea cravings before we went back to the hotel.

Night was the usual stuff plus some packing. There wasn’t anything planned for the next morning before flying home so we just chilled for the night.

Hsinchu 2019 Day 4 – Flying Cow Ranch and Little Ding Dong Science Theme Park

Posted on June 23, 2019August 25, 2019 by ziyi

The entire night was raining and it continued through day break. We awoke to drizzling sounds that alternate between soft and loud. The most problematic weather of any holiday trip – rain. It went on till everyone was awake and we couldn’t even go out for breakfast so we ate in the room, having the yummy Hong Rui Zhen (洪瑞珍三文治) sandwiches from Taichung and instant noodles that we bought yesterday which also tasted really good.

We called the reception to check whether activities were still going to proceed and were informed that it was. So we borrowed umbrellas from the staff and suited up K in his yellow rain coat and went to the farm.

The distant whistle for the duck parade urged us to walk faster and we managed to see the ducks waddle towards us and had the chance to feed them. After they retreated back to their rest area, we walked towards the baby goats and ducklings area to feed them too. I remembered fondly the mountain goats that would walk up the ramp to the top to wait for the can of food being pull up to them and this time it was no difference. There wasn’t any goats up at the ramp at first but I called out to them with one of the packet of feed in hand and sure enough one started to climb the ramp up to the top. Then it was about pulling the can up the pulley that K enjoyed doing for the goat at the top. We were even surprised when the can went up by itself, only found out that it was the goat that had taken matters into own hands (feet) and stepped on the wheel to move it up!

We went to the rabbit house for more feeding but eventually K returned to the mountain goats to spend time there while I returned to the room to pack and get ready for check out by 11am.

I informed the staff for help to pick up the luggage with their pick up truck that and quickly got ours ready for collection. Then I returned to look for K and mommy who was still at the same location and we continued with a few more feedings. We returned to the main entrance before heading to the DIY classrooms.

We didn’t expect those classrooms to be so far, which was down the hill and as we rushed to the ice cream class, it was too late by the time we arrived. Had to climb all the way back up the hill before K had a meltdown for being too tired and disappointed that he couldn’t go back to the playground due to rain (as he so wanted to reminisce how it was when he was younger).

We ended up in the fast food joint to get burgers for the kids. It was not too bad I thought although it may not be something that the in-laws were interested in. We stuck around for a bit there before going to the loo and boarding the vehicle for the next destination.

We drove to the Little Ding Dong theme park. I didn’t realized that it wasn’t Doraemon until we arrived to find that the Little Ding Dong was another character locally. However the more disappointing side of this visit was the weather as the drizzle was relentlessly going on and on.

We got the tickets and proceeded in, going to the sheltered area first, which was the science museum. We made our way quickly and entered the mildly crowded area. It was a rather small area but quite a few interactive games that we could play together. One of which was a pass-the-ball game that we had to balance with rotation ladles across the entire length from one starting point to the hoop at the other end. There was also a space game that K and his cousin H had fun playing before leaving for another location. One that got my attention was a staff led exhibit that allowed people to get a feel of static electricity by making their hair stand which was really funny.

Inside the dark room where there were space related stuff

We went on to the next sheltered area which was the ski area but stopped short of entering because nobody wanted to get cold.

Thought we would try something outdoor and walked towards the Alice maze. We made it there but did not try entering because suddenly there was an influx of mosquitoes attacking us (my wife and the rest cause I wasn’t aware until they screamed in terror). I managed to try a couple of the water related exhibits there and I thought it could have been fun if not for the rain or the mosquitoes. We were soon walking quickly back towards the exit.

We arrived and walked through the shop of the park leaving behind a huge area unexplored. K chose something that he wanted from the store and his grandma bought it for him. Then we boarded the vehicle towards our hotel to check in first.

Our accommodation for the night was Dar Lon hotel, situated in a not so convenient location as it seemed very distant from the hustle and bustle. The check in was done quickly and we were given rooms on the same floor. Mommy had booked a supposedly better room and we were rewarded with one that had a huge bathroom with integrated steam room function and a nicely decorated room. There was a fruit platter too which I conveniently placed into the standard size fridge. We didn’t have much time there before we had to leave the room for dinner.

The driver brought us to a Moon of Wind City restaurant, a restaurant was designed in the oldies theme and the design was really impressive. The Hakka food served for dinner was not too bad and better then what we had the compared to the one we had at the train station. But the walk around the restaurant after the dinner was even better and quite an eye opener for both K and ourselves as we explained to him what those stuff were and how things looked so different now.

After dinner, the driver drove us to a CD store and a shoe store as our in-laws wanted to buy some stuff. There weren’t anything interesting for me though but we just went with the flow until it was time for us to return to the hotel.

The room was nice and we spent the night playing the toys that was bought (at the theme park and the restaurant) and quite some time at the huge tub. Then it was lights out after the usual routine.

Miaoli 2019 Day 3 – Sheng Hsing Station, Long Teng Bridge and Flying Cow Ranch

Posted on June 22, 2019August 23, 2019 by ziyi

The morning started about the same, we had started packing the night before and thus left with a bit more to pack in the day. Mommy went off to breakfast first while I stayed in bed with K as he snoozed to 9ish. I had to wake him up but he was quick to cooperate and soon we were on our way to breakfast.

I was able to get some other food for breakfast since there were some that I didn’t try the day before. Nonetheless it was filling enough and we returned to the room to check out.

It wasn’t a smooth morning to say the least but something I wouldn’t want to jot down as I would rather forget the incident. Our first destination was to get some stuff that the in laws was searching for, the driver brought us to the wholesale store. After a couple of visits later, we went to the Ruyi Sunny cake store which had the number 1 Sun Cake (太阳饼) for the 4th year. It was an interesting store whereby there was introduction by the staff followed by sampling. Kids had a box of toys that they entertained themselves throughout at a smaller table. We bought so much that these were packed in boxes to be checked in as it was physically not possible to lug them in the luggage.

After that, we were driven to Sheng Sing Train Station. Spent some time watching a street performer spinning tops, with different ways of doing it. The highlight was spinning a super big one which was quite impressive given his age. K got 2 souvenir tops in exchange for some cash donations.

For lunch, we went to one of the supposedly best Hakka restaurant called Seven Sister Eight Brother (七姊八弟山城小店). We had to wait for a bit to get a round table at the back of the restaurant. The dishes came quickly and again lots of dishes packed the table as we chomped down the food. The food unfortunately was too salty for us (but maybe ok for people who liked these).

After lunch, we explored the streets to see what other food there was. Bought a bowl of stinky tofu with pig internals and rice blood from what seemed like a makeshift stall caught Old Metal Horse handmade stinky tofu (老铁马手工臭豆腐), which I thought was ok but mommy didn’t like. K also got to get himself a ice stick for dessert.

We went to the railway to get some photos and the ring the train bells but couldn’t take the railbikes because we couldn’t get the tickets before they were sold out. That was still ok because we had the railbike experience before while in Korea. The driver helped to take many photos for us before we returned to the vehicle.

A short 10 mins drive later, we found ourselves at the Long Teng broken bridge. It was a bridge that crumbled during an earthquake and that was an interesting sight for K. We took some photos before taking a short walk to another part of the broken bridge that had more dramatic look with trees already growing on it.

K walked the entire journey to that section and back, mostly inspired by his cousin. After returning to the starting point where there were a couple of shops, we rewarded ourselves with ice cream and drinks to cool ourselves in the warm day.

View of the Long Teng bridge from the south section

The driver then recommended a cultural visit to a Sanyi Wood Sculpture museum to let us see Taiwanese wood carving work. When we arrived, we found that we were too late as the museum has already closed. We took a photo with the wood carving on the outside and walked along the street to find many stores that sold wood carving furniture. That didn’t last long before we were back in the vehicle.

Elephant sculpture that occurred naturally

Then 30mins of driving we arrived at our rest stop for the night, the Flying Cow ranch. Checked in and we were back to the same rooms that we had when we first visited some years back. Later after dropping our bags, we walked to the farm to see cows feeding and fed some goats but mostly the place had already close for the day for the animals to rest.

We walked back to the children’s playground to play a bit and for K to reminisce the last time he was here. He couldn’t really remember but had fun still digging sand with the manual excavator machine.

For dinner, we had to settle at the only restaurant there and we ordered not many dishes as these were actually quite huge portions. I had to eat from K’s dish and FIL chicken including the shared portion with mommy plus the driver gave us some famous and tasty sandwiches from Hong Rui Zhen (洪瑞珍三文治), and ended up being pretty full too.

Where we claimed our free milk or yoghurt

We picked up the free milk bottles (per pax) from the store there before returning to the room for a quick bath. Then we popped over next door to the cookery class to make rice balls. It was quite a fun activity as K was very enthusiastic about it rolling the little balls of flour. These resulted in a bowl of colourful rice balls in milk based soup with red bean which I thought tasted pretty good. This depended on other participants from the other tables since we were making a colour at each table but cooking all in the same pot. Thankfully they tasted ok, just of different sizes.

Final product, including balls from other tables

Back at the room, I went to bath since I was the only one who had not done that. Then it was a quick run thru of the night activity before lights off.

Taichung 2019 Day 2 – Natural Science Museum, Farm visits and Gao Mei Wetlands

Posted on June 21, 2019August 21, 2019 by ziyi

It was quite a restless night as K woke up and couldn’t return to sleep somewhere at 4 in the morning. I am unsure what the actual cause was but the bed was quite hard making it not as comfortable as it seemed.

Morning came and we allowed K to sleep in for as long as he could. Mommy went downstairs to have her breakfast first while I stayed in bed with K. K woke up only at 930 and both of us went downstairs together to have our breakfast.

The buffet breakfast had quite a good variety of food from international to local cuisine and I wasn’t able to get all into a plate. I didn’t have time for it as well and quickly finished up the food before returning back to the room. The breakfast wasn’t included in the booking.

We left the room at about 1030 and walked about 10mins to the National museum of Natural Science. Thankfully for most of the shaded path but uneven path, it was not too hot before we arrived. Entered the Science Center first because it was free admission for all and there were two kids sections, one on the 5th floor called discovery section and the other call Dada magical land on B1. Asked about what was there in the science center but the staff kept asking us to visit the galleries instead without really answering the question, leading me to think that they were hard selling the galleries.

We went on to the 5th floor to check it out ourselves and although it was opened, it was meant for one parent to one child admission and since we were a big group, we were turned away. Didn’t spend much time there and went to the 3rd floor where they had a section on space and we spent some time exploring the exhibits.

Dada magical land at B1 had some interactive exhibits and we also spent some time there especially on the camera where the kids were fooling around.

There were still time and thus we made our way to the galleries. Paid NT470 for 4 adults and 1 child since those under 6 and above 65 didn’t require a ticket and we were soon walking amongst gigantic exhibits.

I must admit what you pay is what you get and we got 2 levels of exhibits and lots of walking around, ranging from dinosaurs to evolution of man to human body. There were more and better looking exhibits here though the interaction part was not as much. After more than an hour there, we visited the shop before leaving the place, with the driver picking us up at the main road.

One of the other sections about early man

It was first to our lunch stop where he recommended a mushroom specialty restaurant called Gu-Gu House. About 30mins drive and we arrived at a restaurant in the suburb. The in-laws ordered the food which was all related to mushroom except for one plate of green vegetables and there were a lot food, so much that we didn’t finish (typical when with the in-laws). The food was nice but too much of something was not good too.

Arrived at the mushroom specialty restaurant

There was a shop where we could get more mushroom products and also right beside the shop was a sheltered farm where mushrooms were grown. It was interesting to see how these mushrooms were farmed but there were also a couple of blood sucking insects there and one landed on K’s face which I swiped off, leaving a trail of blood! Thankfully he was ok.

Mushroom sprouting from small soil packages

We left for the grape farm called Shin Feng Farm (新峰農場) next, a 30mins drive and we drove thru a super narrow 1 car width road when closer to the farm. Everyone got off and went to the farm that was pretty popular, judging from the coaches and people that were there. It was NT100 per person for picking the grapes but not everyone of us wanted to pick so we only went in to take photos. Unlike picking strawberries which can be done by hand, these require sharp cutting tools to cut off at the stem. K had a feel of it which resulted with the bunch of grapes falling onto the steps he was on. At the end of the activity, the owner will weigh the grapes and minus off the entrance fees.

Next stop was to a flower garden called Zhong She Flower Market (中社觀光花市) which was another 30mins drive. This time K fell asleep on the way there. So when we arrived, the rest of them got off the vehicle leaving behind K and myself. I was dozing on and off and didn’t know how long it took before they returned.

Our last stop of the day was to Gao Mei Wetlands. Another 30mins and arrived at yet another popular stop but we were too early for the sunset! It was a hot day but windy as evident from all the wind harvesters that were in operation.

We walked on the wooden plank walkpath towards the end where people could get a feel of walking onto the mudflats and together with us was a steady stream of like minded tourists. Along the way we could already see fiddler crabs along the path, red ones and white ones and further down there were also mudskippers.

We made it to the end of the walkpath after several stoppages along the way to take photos and U-turn back to the start since we didn’t want to get dirty. Close to the start there was a toilet where we visited before getting back to the vehicle. The in-laws didn’t want to visit the wetlands and were waiting for us at the vehicle.

Then it was a 45mins drive back to Taichung where we chose to stop at the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi mall for our dinner. Proceeded to the 10th floor where we ended up at Ippudo for dinner. There was a pop up Pokemon Center and we were going thru the small shop that we didn’t get anything but took some photos with the display there.

After that, we gone down to the 6th floor where the entire floor was for kids stuff. There were tons of stuff there, from clothes to toys and even the toilet was designed for kids with tiny cubicles and small urinals. However we didn’t have much time left so we went to the ground floor and took the vehicle back to the hotel.

Shin Kong Mitsukoshi mall on the outside

The night was spent in the room, similar to the night before. It was some playtime as K so wanted to have some play time with his toys, some TV, a long bath time and eventually lights off, an end to a long day out.

Taichung 2019 Day 1 – Arrival into Taiwan, drive to Taichung and Feng Chia Night Market

Posted on June 20, 2019August 20, 2019 by ziyi

It’s the first time I was going on a trip that I didn’t plan at all, it was because this was an extended family trip that was planned by others and I am just a participant. Felt weird as it wasn’t as busy for me to worry about getting from destination to destination, just needed to take care of K.

It was still the June school holidays and leaving home at 8am had us arrive at the airport at around 840am, enough time for us to check in after meeting up with the in laws. The traveling group was a much smaller 7 people group, comparing to our Korea trip we had earlier in the year.

Had our breakfast at one of the many eateries in the departure of T3 and soon we were boarding the China Airlines flight on the way to Taiwan, no drama except some seat changes for the boys to sit together.

I was thoroughly disappointed with the entertainment system on the plane, with a tiny screen and not much choices to watch (only one Captain Marvel with a couple of other older shows). There were no games for K, who was looking forward to it since his last flght, so he survived on watching Lego 2 and 1 episode of Paw Patrol and countless Dora on repeat. Food was ok though and K had quite a mouthful of the meal.

We landed after a relatively smooth flight and a last min pee emergency where K had to pee into a potable pee bag as there was a line queuing for the only 4 toilets available in the economy section.

We waited just outside the tunnel for our stroller but it was brought to the belt instead, wasted our time waiting there but we were only informed after everyone left.

The immigrations was having a long queue and we took 40mins to snake thru it all before getting our luggage from the belt. We met our driver for the entire trip who brought us to the 7 seater vehicle, across the road from where the coaches usually depart to the carpark where our ride was parked.

After loading up, we then spent the next 2.5hrs on the road to Taichung. K was convinced to take a nap on the way there and he did. I fell asleep myself until we were in Taichung, and we decided to go to Feng Chia night market first before checking in.

Feng Chia Night Market not so crowded when early

The driver let us alight at the McDonald’s and we visited it’s toilet before going down the street to eat the street food. We had been to this night market long time back, and we saw the familiar entrance to the Feng Chia University before turning into the street full of food stores. Bought the big intestine wrap small intestine first, which we had the same some years ago. And then bought a BBQ chicken before entering a stall with sitting area selling soup based kuay tiao like yong tau hu. There were not many people now as it was weekday and still early.

The food took a while to come and the MIL was getting impatient. It did finally arrive and K had no problem slurping up the food. It was quite nice especially the Tau Hu with the meat in the middle. We were also eating chicken on the skewer which was quite juicy.

After this, we went to one of the many claw machine store to try our luck. Per game was only NT10, which was pretty cheap compared to Singapore. After just a couple of tries, mommy managed to score a Charmander plushie! However, after trying out further, we couldn’t manage another one.

One of the claw machines stores that were a common sight

Walking further down the street, we got more street food like red tea from 50 Lan (the originator of the popular milk tea store Koi in Sg), onion pancake and so on. There was also stinky tofu which K responded by blocking his nose with his fingers. We only managed to walk from one street to another before going back to McDonald’s to use the toilet and wait for our vehicle. This was just a small part of the entire Feng Chia night market.

The journey to the Splendor hotel was a short 10mins drive. We arrived at the drop off and the staff of the luxurious hotel were first to the vehicle helping with the door and the mountain of luggage. We bade the driver farewell after aligning on the next day meet up timing and proceeded to check in on the 12th floor.

We had 3 rooms on the same floor and ours came with a huge bed but only a restricted view of the pool. The night was spent mostly in the huge bathtub and some tv. K snacked on some Taiwanese Doraemon pastry that he used to have while he was here two years ago and then after a packet of banana milk and books, we were off to bed.

Escape Plan to Taichung June 2019

Posted on June 19, 2019June 23, 2020 by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Taichung:

Total duration 6D5N
Singapore is on same timezone as Taiwan.
Flight time is 4hrs 45mins on China Airlines from Singapore to Taipei. Return flight is 4hrs 45mins on China Airlines from Taipei to Singapore.

Morning flight on 20th Jun at 1030am and arrival in Taipei in the afternoon at 310pm. Return flight from Taipei on the 25th Jun at 230pm and arrival in Singapore at 715pm.

Day 1 Arrival into Taiwan, drive to Taichung and Feng Chia Night Market
Day 2 Natural Science Museum, Farm visits and Gao Mei Wetlands
Day 3 Sheng Hsing Station, Long Teng Bridge and Flying Cow Ranch
Day 4 Flying Cow Ranch and Little Ding Dong Science Theme Park
Day 5 Window on China Theme Park, Leofoo Village and Hsinchu City God Temple
Day 6 Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was the first time that we travel with my wife’s extended family. I didn’t participate in any of the planning and just went with the flow. As such, some parts of the trip didn’t turn out to be as enjoyable as I thought it would be.

Budget nature: Not too bad

The bulk of the costs were the plane tickets and accommodation which was paid off by extended family members and I only had to pay for the attractions which weren’t all that expensive. Food was affordable too (and paid by FIL).

Complexity: Easy

As it was planned with a daily driver, we didn’t need to know how to move around since the driver would bring us around. We only need to know where we wanted to go.

Also, we targeted attractions within Taichung and northwards towards Taoyuan, it was easy to cover these with the driver.

Desaru 2019 Day 2/3 – Fruit Farm visit, Adventure Waterpark Desaru Coast and Home Sweet Home

Posted on May 19, 2019August 3, 2019 by ziyi

I got up early to do a little bit of jogging as part of my weekly regime. I had been quite impressed with the jogging program that was on offer such as providing running gear such as shoes and sports wear for loan and a trainer to jog with, coupled with a running route. As I enquired further the day before, I found out that I had to book these earlier if I am really interested and was too late to inform them the night before. Anyhow, I brought my own gear and was fine running on my own.

I got out to the street just in front of the resort and thought I would just give the route a shot. It started off nice since the road was kinda part of the resort after all and route had nice pavement. As I went around the corner, things then started to become just road and everywhere else was boring with nothing much too see. The weather was just like Singapore, hot and humid and thus I retired from the run as soon as I returned to my starting point.

Tried out the gym on the bicycle and the running track and had a good sweat out before returning to the room.

Looking from our balcony of clouds building up in the distance

We got ready and went down for breakfast, which was already 10am. However, the buffet was opened till 11am and that was great because who would want to wake up early on a Sunday morning on a holiday? Variety was great and I was even more impressed with the egg station offering egg benedict as an option, which was a first for me.

We planned to visit the Desaru fruit farm first followed by the Adventure Waterpark. Requested to validate my credit card that I used for the carpark and it was successful this time. It was a short 15mins drive before we arrived at the side road next to a fruit stall, which we realised was not the right location. We drove in further until we see lots of cars parked at the open field and slotted into a space directed by one of the attendant.

Went to register for the fruit tour that came with a box of fruits and the tour itself total of RM70. There were other options like a fruit buffet but we weren’t that keen on eating that much fruits. The tour was just about to start and we just hopped onto the back of a sheltered lorry that was modified to allow for visitors to board and disembark easily.

Once it was full, we were then driven a short distance to the farm and got off. The guide then started to introduce the different fruit trees as we walked on foot around the farm. There were quite a large variety of fruit plants, some we knew and not others. The annoying part of the visit though was the drizzle that came and we didn’t have a brolly with us (some umbrellas were given to the visitors but not all got it).

K wasn’t all that interested and was getting fussy at some point until we entered an old building that looked like a museum of sorts, containing various objects that could be found in the past. There were toys like the chapteh and 5 stones that modern K had not seen before but was curious to try playing with them.

Signage information about wildlife there

After exiting the building, we continued on and saw a beehive, which had tiny bees that didn’t look the honey bees that I was used to; these looked more like flying ants. After that we continued to walk towards the mini pet farm. There were 2 compounds of animals, one with goats and rabbits and the other mostly with poultry. Spent some time with the rabbits feeding them carrots and grass to the goats. K was more interested feeding the rabbits, stuffing the sliced carrots through the tiny openings of their cages.

Orderly planted trees in the plantation alongside walkpath

Panoramic view of the farm animal compound

We proceeded to wait for the transportation to bring us back to the building and went to the restaurants to claim our boxes of fruits. I took only 2 boxes as I thought we wouldn’t able to finish 3. While driving back along road 90, we stopped by a row of restaurants and entered the Secret Recipe for our late lunch. After the main meal, we ate one box of fruits which I thought tasted pretty good.

Inside the store were many goods being sold

Now that the drizzle had stopped, we decided to visit Adventure Waterpark. Parked at the carpark before making our way through the Desaru Coast Riverside, a place where there were many small shops but mostly not opened. Bought our last minute tickets on the Klook app and went to claim our tickets before entering the huge water park. There were door gifts of icecream and coffee that came with the tickets for us to claim. We only had 2hours to play before the park closed at 6pm.

Need to walkthrough Riverside to reach the Adventure Waterpark

The place was huge and had quite a lot of people there though not crowded. After getting changed into his swim wear, K immediately moved to the section catered for kids and started exploring cautiously at first as he wasn’t really one who loved to play with water and then more adventurously after encouragement to try the slides. Thereafter he was on his own going rounds and rounds on the slide. Mommy on the other hand just sat in one of the cafe there and binge on drama.

I brought K to explore further and we ended up getting ourselves in the huge wave pool, floating in the water with our life jackets on. It was pretty fun bobbing up and down with the water and even more when the giant wave come towards us.

After that, we took a walk around and noticed that the rides section were not opened. Quickly we returned to the kids section where K did a few more rounds of slides until the park closed.

Changed out of our wet clothes and proceeded to the shop where we bought another beach ball before returning to the car. I then found out that I had lost my car tickets and was unable to get out. Tried the ticket payment machine to call for lost tickets but both didn’t have any reactions after pressing the buttons. Tried to press for another ticket at the entry but that didn’t work. Then I went to the waterpark ticketing counter to ask for help and they directed me back to the building where the payment machine was and asked me to look for the staff there. I felt stupid for missing the office and caught the person just in time before he left.

He was very helpful and getting me another ticket but for a discounted penalty, and I was just thankful that I could get out of the carpark finally.

Back at the resort, I found the carpark slots all taken up and had to just park my car near to the wall to avoid blocking any other cars. We bathed and got dressed before going to the restaurant (where we had breakfast) below to have our dinner. It was also buffet at night but they had more stalls out in the open, mostly dealing with BBQ like satays and fried kuay teow. After the filling our tummies, we retired to the room with the usual night routine before going to bed.

Day 3 Home Sweet Home

The last day began without much improvement to the weather, with the clouds hanging low in the distance and eventually didn’t get a good view of sunrise. We got up about the same time as the day before and went to our breakfast late as usual. After that, we proceeded to explore the beach to see how it was like before checking out. Wary of arriving at the checkpoint late could get us stuck at the 2nd link, we were on our way back around noon. It was in fact perfect timing as we arrived at the crossing with light traffic after topping up petrol at the gas station.

Beach club offering rental of some equipment

This short getaway gave us some time to get away and enjoy a little bit of nature and fruit farms up north with a little bit of luxury staying in Westin. The soft launch period was a good time since there weren’t many people as when it would be fully opened, but that also meant having some parts of the places not in operations as well. With some planning on time, we could avoid the long wait at the causeway and that changed my mind about driving up north. Not sure if it would be soon enough though.

Johor 2019 Day 1 – Drive into Johor and Firefly leisure park

Posted on May 18, 2019August 25, 2019 by ziyi

It was a Saturday and on typical getaways during a Saturday, we would have woken up really early in order to avoid the morning traffic, especially when it was a long weekend. For this Vesak day long weekend, we decided to continue with our usual Saturday routine which involved sending K for his morning lessons. We have changed our strategy this time from getting out early to getting out much later since we would have spent the time in a jam anyways, might as well make good use of the time in Singapore.

I had been contemplating on visiting Desaru Coast, especially after the horrible experience of getting stuck in a jam for 4hours. But adverts on FB was so effective that we decided to give it another shot. There was another way to get to Desaru Coast without the need to drive but that involved a boat trip from Tanah Merah (which had pretty bad timings) and some form of transportation arrangements from the port to the hotels in Desaru Coast. We decided to go on wheels but changing the strategy to drive in much later.

By the time we left for the 2nd link, it was almost 3pm after our lunch and a visit to IMM to look for some outlet sports shoes. The traffic at the 2nd link had eased tremendously, and looking for at the live camera on checkpoint.sg, we were certain it was not too bad. We crossed both checkpoints in under an hour and were then on a 2hours journey to the Firefly leisure park at Kota Tinggi.

The drive there was pretty straight forward, going past a couple of tolls along the way. A break from the main highway into a smaller road and later onto some rough dirt tracks, we finally arrived at the carpark Firefly leisure park. We were initially concerned leaving our luggage in the boot of our car but the carpark was just next to the entrance and so it was safe enough.

Went to the reception that was meant by the staff busy with business administration and finally got ourselves registered for later cruise at 815 one since the first trip out at 730pm was fully booked. The mini farm was closing at 6pm but the staff said that they could extend the opening hours. We decided against going to Desaru Coast for check in first and returning since that trip would potentially take 2 hr in total and would be quite a rush to do so.

Indoor playground for the kids available

We were given some fish feed and animal feed and entered the farm. The mini farm was not a big compound and there were many animals mostly in cages while the bigger ones were in compounds. There was a bridge that we could walk across to another section where the goats were after visiting those nearer the entrance. There we fed the goats the feed.

After the goats, we walked over to a house over waters and fed the fishes there. Throwing the feed into the water would cause a frenzy of fishes splashing about which was quite a sight, and K was more than happy to feed the fishes much more than the goat.

A little house above the waters where the fishes were

We spent some time over at the playground where there were swings and see-saws and unfortunately some mosquitoes too. Persuaded K to leave for the restaurant which we had requested dinner to be served by 7pm (ordered and arranged at the same time of the purchase of tickets) since we knew K would take a while to eat and that we were afraid that the food might not come on time.

Food was ok and arrived on time. We had our fills and even had enough time until I went to pay and was informed that we could actually take the earlier cruise if we wanted. It was of course a welcomed idea since that meant that we could return to the hotel earlier too. Quickly we went over to pick up our life jackets and walked towards the pier, which could be reached walking along the carpark and towards the waters where a Chinese temple was facing. Soon we were then boarding the little cruise boat enough for about 30 people after the dos and don’ts from the guide.

As it wasn’t particularly pitch dark yet, the fireflies light was at first faint and not too many around the trees close to the pier. But it only got better the deeper we went. Unfortunately we weren’t allow to take any photos since light source would “scare” the fireflies. I tried with my phone camera and couldn’t capture anything. It was generally a calm and quiet cruise down the river, with a guide introducing the fireflies and the area, and we were even shown a bunker that was used during the war at one of the side streams. K found it interesting for most of the trip.

Getting off the cruise, we headed towards the carpark, passing the next group of visitors for their turn to board. It was a 1hr drive which wasn’t difficult though it was expectedly more dark on the roads then Singapore. We soon arrived at the newly minted Desaru coast area, and following the GPS, we found ourselves at the carpark of The Westin Desaru Coast Resort. Used my credit card to scan before entering and managed to find one lot at the small single storey carpark (the lower basement was still closed for work).

During check-in, we had our welcome drinks and I tried to scan the same credit card that I used initially for the carpark but the staff was unable to link it up for my discounted parking. They advised to try again the next day before exiting.

A staff that brought us to our room some walking distance away.

The new room was luxurious, typical of Westin’s hotels but it was also pretty spacious. K took to liking the room pretty quickly, and was attracted to the hotel introduction channel on TV where it had a catchy tune that K would dance too.

It was bathtime in the nice big tub followed by bedtime in the comfortable big bed.

Escape Plan to Desaru Coast May 2019

Posted on May 17, 2019June 23, 2020 by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Desaru Coast:

Total duration 3D2N
Singapore is in the same timezone as Malaysia.

Desaru Coast can be reached by car.

Day 1 – Drive into Johor and Firefly leisure park
Day 2 – Fruit Farm visit and Adventure Waterpark Desaru Coast
Day 3 – Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was the another attempt of visiting our neighbouring country Malaysia for a long weekend getaway on Vesak day 2019. This was after swearing not to drive in ever again. I still hated wasting my life in a traffic jam but what changed? We tried to avoid the jam by getting across late and getting back early!

Budget nature: Not too bad since it was still soft launch

Singapore high exchange rate coupled with a soft launch of the Desaru Coast area meant that we it wasn’t too expensive to do this trip.

Complexity: Medium

The only complexity I thought was navigating the jam at the crossing and checking on the latest fees which might be confusing if not following the news. There was supposedly VEP implementation in Q3 2019 so we weren’t really impacted.