Taichung Archives - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

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.

Taichung 2014 Day 1 – Arrival in Taichung

Posted on May 10, 2014September 26, 2019 by ziyi

Our getaway trip to Sun Moon Lake for the long weekend due Vesak day (who could resist stretching the off work days a little longer) started off with an early morning drive to the airport for our China Airlines flight at 1030 am. We were taking it easy this time, with wife being preggy at first trimester, so we weren’t taking flights available just after midnight. This would also mean less time for travel as there were spent flying there.

These tickets were last minute (for doubt on fit for flying for preggy) and this costed almost 5 times more than cheaper budget air (those that booked way earlier). Were initially going to book Tigerair but found that the last minute prices had went up to $780 per pax. Looked around again and this $680 one showed up unknowingly on Skyscanner. Great!

Getting to the airport was easy on a traffic less Saturday. At the counter in Terminal 1, there weren’t any queues at 2hrs before boarding. However we forgotten to bring the credit card used to purchase the tickets and had to fill in the form to indemnify the airlines from the future claims in case of fraud. All was done smoothly in which we applauded the good service rendered by the China Airlines staff.

It was a 2hrs wait with at the cafe, playing our online games until it was time to board. The boarding was efficient and soon we were seated and awaiting take off, some 30mins later, probably due to heavy traffic.

Arrival at 3mins later than expected and going through the customs was fast as there weren’t many tourists at this time of the day. As we made our way to the luggage pickup, there was a beagle sniffing out the bags for food brought in from overseas, apparently disallowed.

Following the signs to the bus tickets counter 2 to Taoyuan High Speed Rail at the ground floor paid off NT30 per pax for Ubus 705 and waited in line. The bus arrived shortly, boarded and waited until there weren’t anymore customers and then we were on our way.

10mins in medium traffic, we found ourselves arriving at the HSR. The station was pretty busy with a queue at the ticketing counters. Asked for 2 tickets to Taichung and paid NT1180 for the 16:57 train. Had some time and went into 7-11 to get mineral water and kick start out eating journey by getting some Taiwanese oden.

At the platform, there were designated boarding location for the different seats. Boarding the train with a huge luggage bag was ok, as there was also a limited space located near the exit for the luggage, and luckily for us, it wasn’t taken when we boarded. Seats were spacious and adjustable, though it took some time to find the adjustable knob at the end of the arm rest. When it was time, the train propelled us to 300km/hr towards our destination for today – Taichung.

40mins later and we arrived at the Taichung HSR station. From there, we went on to the connected rail, an older station that did not have escalators. Tried to buy tickets from the auto machine. Managed to find the price but wasn’t sure of the type of train to take. There were 3 prices ranging from NT15 to NT23 and so we just bought the most expensive one. There were multiple choices that had to be chosen in sequence but it should be ok if the table could be understood properly. 2 tiny rectangular tickets were dispensed and we went through the auto gates to the platform.

Cupboard train display at connection to Xinwuri station.

The signboard showed the local train (cheapest) arriving next but we had bought the most expensive. Though we weren’t sure of the difference but boarded nonetheless after checking with one of the staff onboard. 3 stations later, we arrived at the Taichung main station, just mins walk away from our accommodation – CityInn hotel.

Checking in was a breeze, given a room on the 8th floor. It was a room designated as one that had the fire escape equipment. Only after entering we knew what it was. Some lifting equipment for fire escape located near the windows! Does affect not us much though. Spent some time in the room using the free wifi before boarding a taxi to get to Yi Zhong night market.

Dressing table in a corner with open style cabinet.

NT100 got us there along with some sales talk from the cab driver. He was offering to take us to the Sun Moon Lake for NT3000. Without the hassle, it could be worth it. We didn’t agree right away but was given a name card instead.

Yi Zhong night market was a huge area with a mix of ultra trendy (mostly for the young) fashion shops in airconditioned multistory building, shops of casual fashion lining the streets and crowded street corridors, cafés and restaurants, and of course the individual stores that made up the night market. Bearing in mind that our next destination was the bigger Feng Jia night market with much more food, we only bought from 2 stores, but we didn’t know that was also quite a bit to finish up. Took a rest on one of the seats at a open space nearby to finish up the food, we continued to walk off the food by doing some shopping before leaving in a taxi.

Taxi driver was really chatty about politics, both Taiwan and Singapore, it was really amusing to hear him rant all the way to Feng Jia. We were charged eventually for NT300 for the full journey, a little more expensive than the metered fare. I supposed he didn’t have the change (as we have him NT500) and we were also getting off quickly with the customers waiting outside. From here we walked towards the huge area, lit brightly by the signboards and shopping area, with more intense amount of Saturday crowd.

In terms of size, Feng Jia was at least 4 times bigger, and therefore the crowd. There were a lot more shops and stalls though some of the more popular stuff were repetitive. We had to try the papaya milk and Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang, meaning wrapping small intestine with big intestine. It was actually a sausage wrapped in a glutinous rice layer, and it was tasty. For NT40, it was good deal.

As what is described by the store name, Q.

Big intestine wrap small intestine store

End product, great tasting Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang.

We hadn’t much eaten anything else as we were too full by then. Walked the various streets till about 1130pm (yup, still opened. Probably due to weekend.) then got in a cab and got back for NT250.

Back in the hotel, refreshed ourselves and watched some tv. There were some free bluray VOD but we were too tired to utilise it. We had to prepare to wake up early the next day.

Escape to Sun Moon Lake, Taichung in May 2014

Posted on May 9, 2014June 24, 2020 by ziyi

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Sun Moon Lake in May 2014:

Total duration 4D3N
Singapore is in the same time zone as Taichung, Taiwan.
Flight time is 4hr45mins direct flight on China Airlines from Singapore to Taipei.
Morning flight on 10th May and arrival in Taipei at 3pm on the same day.

Day 1 Arrival in Taichung
Day 2 Sun Moon Lake
Day 3 Back to Taipei, Raohe Night market and Wu Fen Pu
Day 4 Ximending and Home Sweet Home

This escape plan was to getaway on a long weekend due to Vesak day. Due to wife expecting, we had a change of plan for our long Europe trip into a shorter getaway. Took China Airlines as all the budget airlines were really expensive as we booked very late and close to the travel date. The tickets weren’t out the initial time we saw and we actually intended to book Jetstar. It was until when we wanted to purchase the tickets (after planning) that there was another price hike which forced us to relook again (luckily), and it seemed like an extra trip offered by the airlines, co-sharing with Garuda.

Budget nature: Affordable travel and cheap eats.

Moving around Taiwan was easy and pretty affordable compared to Singapore. The public transport was cheap, even the taxi was of compatible costs. Of course, expect tourists price at the Sun Moon Lake, but these costs aren’t also sky high.

Eating is definitely cheap, though quantity wise, it was smaller too. But it is so that you can eat as much variety as you move around the night markets. The food is pretty tasty too.

Complexity: Easy to get around

Travelling between cities is really easy, linked by the ultrafast bullet train and MRT networks. Getting to Sun Moon Lake required a bit of reading up although the hotel receptionist and the taxi driver can easily guide you to the long distance coaches. Our main transportation tools at Sun Moon Lake was the ferry but due to time constraints, we did not venture out, which the buses could easily do the job.