Tuesday 8 December 2015

Travel Log: The Formosa of Thousand Night Markets (Day 2)


Destination: Taiwan
Duration: 13 Days 13 Nights (Nov 18~Dec 01, 2015)

Day 2: Taichung -> Cingjing

Breakfast was overnight night market food – I must say the tako ball (日船章魚小丸子) still tasted scrumptious overnight! Gosh I miss it so much! We would be going to Cingjing today thus we checked out of Mountain Kafta and jumped on a local bus (台中客運) with our Easycard for a free ride (within 10km radius) to Gancheng Station (干城站) to get our bus ticket to Cingjing. Gancheng Station is the 1st starting point of Nantou Bus (南投客運) to Cingjing before the Taichung HSR Station (高鐵台中站) so it almost guaranteed an available seat anytime.
Bus Station just less than 50m away from our Minsu
Bus Station taken over by Monsters?!
The counter to get the ticket was right at the Gancheng Station when we disembarked from the local bus. We just walked in when we saw the crowd in front of the shop and got ourselves 2 direct tickets to Cingjing at 9.25am which was just 10mins away from the bus departing. We got on the bus without issue and off the bus to Taichung HSR station. I was shocked at the queue at Taichung HSR station for this ride and not many of the people there managed to get on the bus since it was almost full when we departed from Gancheng Station.
This is where you get the ticket at Gancheng Station
Our Bus is here!
Eating Leftover Pepper Biscuit from Last Night
The bus made a brief stop at Puli Station (埔里站) to change the bus number but basically we were still on the same bus to our final destination – Cingjing Farm (清境農場-国民宾馆). The bus driver announced that we’d arrived at Cingjing Farm Station so we wouldn’t miss out our disembarkation. Our Minsu of the night was Shiyai Taoyuan (事外桃源渡假山莊) which we booked through Booking.com for TWD1820/night. In order to reach the Minsu, we needed to walk a short distance uphill from a small road right beside Swiss Garden (小瑞士花園). We basically just follow the single road direction and found the Minsu right at the end of the road. Hooray!
English Style Mansion on the Way to our Destnation
Swiss Garden at Cingjing
But we are heading to our Minsu at the road beside Swiss Garden
On the Way!
400m away?!
Still not yet?! 
Finally!
There are lots of Nice Plants!
We did our check-in and ate our simple lunch of Korean chicken leftover (都教授來自星星的炸雞) from Fengjia Night Market (逢甲夜市) last night. Yes, we definitely over-estimated our appetite last night. *facepalm* After a short rest, we went to the reception area to ask about how to get to Green Green Grassland (青青草原) and the person in charged there actually drove us there and gave us suggestions on how to return to the Minsu afterwards.
Our Room!
Bathroom!
View from our Room
At the Courtyard
Reaching Green Green Grassland
Zoom in to a Windmill Faraway!
A Panoramic View
It was a sunny day so sunblock was definitely a must! My friend had sunburn during her visit thus it was important to apply sunblock eventhough it was cold there. There were lots of tourists in the Grassland but unfortunately there was no sheep show since they only had those on weekend. *pout* One observation – the sheep there were starving! Why would I say that? Well, there were many machines that were selling some dried concentrated grass to feed the sheep (TWD10 per box). Once you bought it, the sheep would follow you everywhere so that you would feed them! Some sheep bullies even tried to push other sheep away so that they could have the food for themselves. *facepalm*
Getting our Entrance tickets!
Let's get our hands dirty!
More Stairs!
Sheeps!
FOOD!
Feeding Sheep!
Look at this Happy Fellow!
I think I'm getting Attacked!
Even Sheeps love FOOD!
OH NO!!!! HELP!! SHEEP ATTACK!
Finally getting rid of the sheeps!
Cingjing!
Sammy: HELP ME!!!
Feeding BB Sheep!
Lots of Green!
This Sheep can JUMP!
So many Sheeps!
Sheep Skeleton?
At the Sheep Castle!
Sheeps of LOVE?!
Sammy loves Sheep!
It's Autumn!
The TREE!
After some FUN times with the sheep, we proceed to get to the horse show by walking downhill. But before reaching the destination, we made a brief stop to have some snacks of goat milk ice cream and sausage. The show was sort of a cowboy show with Mongolian. The youngest presenter was only 4 years old! *Jaw dropped to the floor* I must say the Mongolian guy was HOT!!!! *drooling in secret*Did I mention that the horse KISSED me on my nose when I was taking picture with him?! UGH!!!!
Sausages!!!!
Sausage with Cucumber & Mustard
Continue to the Horsie Area
Goat Milk Ice Cream
Little Windmill
Big Windmill!
Mini Windmill
Let's continue on!
Castle from afar!
Wow!
Standing on a Horse
Cute!!!
Mini Horse!
Getting Attacked by a Horse!
After the horse show, we continued downhill on “the Great Wall Trail” (歩歩高升步道) during sunset and the steps were never-ending. Thank goodness we were climbing down as opposed to climbing up! *whew*
The Sun is Setting
487 Steps? I thought there were 499?
Working on it!
The Sun is setting!
No Sun anymore!
We made it!
It was dark when we reached Swiss Garden (小瑞士花園) so we went in to take some night view pictures. Apparently our tickets would be valid for daytime tomorrow as well. It was a small garden and we overheard something funny from another tourist – “This is like The Mines in KL!” LOL!!! Our legs were breaking thus we did not complete the trails before going to Cardboard King (纸箱王) to take some pictures.
Stumbled on Mini Kukukai!
We got one!!!
In Little Swiss Garden
Glowing Flowers?
I think it has a name
Water Fountain Show
Little Lanterns
Paper Box Train!
Big Balloon!
Santa!
Paper Box King?
Sammy & Mini Kukukai!
Little Zoo!
Little Sheeps!
Landmarks!
More Landmarks!
Dinner was at the 7-11 beside Cardboard King – did I mention that 7-11 in Taiwan serve awesome food?! The Japanese Spicy Oden (關東煮) was so yummy and suitable for a cold night and they were having promotion for only TWD10 per dish. We bought the special noodle for Oden and made it a bowl of spicy noodle with loads of balls. DA YUM!!!! There was also cawanmushi and some bento involved but the Oden was definitely the star here! We also bought some Taiwanese beers to wash down our food. =P
Are those Cats?
Free Photoshooting in 7-11!
Cute huh?
Oden!!!!
Dinner!
Braised Meat Rice - Just Okay
Cawanmushi!
Spicy Oden with Noodle! YUMMY!
LOVE 7-11!!!
We made sure that we bought everything we needed before starting our uphill walk to our Minsu. The sky was clear that night and we were able to see many stars in the sky during our walk. Unfortunately our camera was too low end to take pictures of the stars. There was a cute dog lying right in front of our room door when we reached there. The doggie proceeded to ignore us even when we stepped over him to get into our room. I guess we had ourselves a private watchdog now! 
Our Minsu at Night!
Cute lil Guard Dog
How CUTE!!!
We have Electric heater on Bed
Supper!
Creme Brulee!
Next Day (Cingjing -> Sun Moon Lake -> Alishan)

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