Travel Log - Taiwan Day 4

Click here to read from the 1st post of this travel log! 😄

Day 4: Taichung Day Trip 1

08:30 – the time we had to be ready by as our driver for the day, Mr Lin (contact details at the end of this post), was picking us from the hotel to head to Cing Jing Farm (& other pit stops along the way). Well, even as a morning-person, waking up this early after days of insufficient sleep was a chore, BUT, it was worth it. 😝

First stop: 廣興紙寮 (Guang Xing Paper Factory)

Having got ourselves comfortable in our seats for the ride, I pretty much slept my way to the Paper Factory so I can’t say much about the journey or how long it took, lol.

We started off with a factory tour where a guide brought us around the Paper Factory and explained to us on the origins of the production of paper. 

Production of paper of varying quality...

Layering paper...

Ironing paper

It was very educational and an eye-opener since factories as such are dwindling with the rise of commercial paper. Each step in the production requires a lot of skill and eye for detail.

Creating your very own paper products!

The tour costs NT50 per person, but the tickets can be used to offset against store purchases after the tour so it is considerably worth it.

There are many paper products that you could consider making (depending on the amount of time you have to spare at the paper factory). As we had only about 45 mins to spare before heading off to the next stop, we exchanged our tickets for a piece of paper to make paper imprints. There were many stamps to choose from.

Fancy having some paper chocolates? 😆

Yes, you did not see wrong - edible paper chocolates that tastes just like paper would, hahahah. 

Second stop:  埔里酒厂 (Puli Brewery)

Starting off the day with much excitement at the paper factory, we did a brief stop at Puli Brewery.

This place sells a lot of wine-related confectionery & other stuff such as tea and ice-cream. There is a must-buy at this place - 黑糖麦芽饼 which comes in a purple bottle. It doesn't stick to your teeth like any other malt biscuits, absolutely loved it. 

Third stop: 十八度C巧克力工房 (Feeling 18 Chocolate Factory)

It got me excited for a moment when Mr Lin said he would bring us to a Chocolate Factory, but turns out, it was really just a specialised shop.

Fourth stop: 清境雞大王 (Lunch @ Cingjing Chicken King)

&... its time to head up the mountains for LUNCH!

Having lunch with this view... 🌄 

ONE entire chicken. 😋 

Fifth stop: 清境农场

After a yummy lunch in the mountains, we were finally headed towards the main attraction of this day trip - Cingjing Farm. I personally think the highlight of this attraction is the scenery. They are stunning like a picture, of course, there are also the performances and interactions with the horses & goats that are grazing around. 

Mongolian equestrian performance (reminds me of Ruo Lan - Scarlet Heart 步步惊心 😄)

By 5 p.m., there was a huge drop in temperature in the mountains and it started to get a little cold. Note to self: always bring a jacket/hoodie in case of such situations LOL

Last stop: Carton King
Before we head down the mountains and call it a day, we visited Carton King, a store that specialises in Carton products (as the name suggests). It has a variety of products ranging from Musical boxes to phone stands. It was a great place to shop for souvenirs for family & friends back at home.

林财生 (Mr Lin) Contact Details: +886928956605 (converses through Line Chat)

Next Post: Day 5: Taichung Day Trip 2

Previous Post: Day 3: Kaohsiung -> Taichung

Travel Log - Taiwan Day 3

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Day 3: Kaohsiung -> Taichung

Day 3 in Kaohsiung was a short & slack one since we had to move to Taichung. Felt like the Kaohsiung leg of the trip was a little short, maybe an additional day would be ideal… L Either way, we headed to Formosa Boulevard Station and made our way to Zuoying Station to take the HSR.

7-Eleven lunch on the HSR to Taichung (I love their 7-Eleven 💖)

We had been to Taichung HSR station back in 2012 when we went to Chiayi, so it gave off a feeling of familiarity, just that this time, we were staying in Taichung.

Since Taichung didn’t have any local MRT lines, we had to take a cab to our hotel-Taichung Hotel Day+ (for convenience). Right at the taxi pick-up point, there were drivers waiting to pick passengers and they were earnestly promoting their services (in some way, to the point of being pushy). Since we didn’t have much of a choice, they split our group of 5 adults & a kid into 2 cabs. We met with a bit of a difficulty when the driver asked for the Hotel’s name in Mandarin as they didn’t recognise the name of the Hotel. My mom wasn’t helping when she started sprouting direct translations to the driver, LOL.

After much time of googling and searching high & low on the web (not exaggerating, I simply couldn’t find it in the moment of panic), we found that it was called 承億文旅-台中鳥日子 (so much for the 酒店日加 that my mom was desperately telling the driver, hahaha). Anyhow, everything worked out though the ride was probably the worst in the entire trip as the driver was not only speeding but also zooming in and out of lanes – it made my mom anxious and so she wasn’t very happy. 😅

Moral of the story: if you have a big group and hate to be separated, you could actually just book a 7-seated cab to take you from the station to the hotel… & have the name of the hotels in Mandarin ready just in case. 

Hotel Amenities

The toilet & bathroom are separated

After a little tiff with the mom, we pretty much stayed in the hotel watching our own shows till dinner time - at the time, I was hooked on a TW drama that I chanced upon while watching the TV in Kaohsiung – 爱的生存之道, hahaha. After a short cooling off period, we decided to head to the nearby Sogou (Japanese Department Store) for dinner. 

Musical Water Fountain Performance (once every hour) 

Japanese Cuisine at Sogou!

Next Post: Day 4: Taichung Day Trip 1 
Previous Post: Day 2: Kao Hsiung via the MRT

Travel Log - Taiwan Day 2

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Day 2: Kao Hsiung via the MRT

After a satisfying breakfast at the hotel (included in rooms’ prices) and ready for a day of MRT travel, we headed to Formosa Boulevard Station and got our iPasses for 250NT (100NT non-refundable card price, 150NT for the day pass) – It works just like our Ezlink so you could just top-up value in the card and use it on public transport throughout Taiwan.

Entrance to Formosa Boulevard Station (right next to Liu He Night Market)

Designated photo-spot of the station

iPass Purchase Information

MRT Platform

First stop: Takao Railway Museum

Located right at the exit of C01 Sizihwan Station, the Railway Museum houses the very first railway station in Kaohsiung which stopped its service only in 2008. It’s a very small museum, but you can take pictures with the trains parked on the railway. It also features the Station Master’s work room and consists of several display sets of train tickets from past to present (you could also don the Station Master’s uniform to take pictures!). They also provide many commemorative stamps that you could use to ink paper/booklets.  We figured that there was going to be several other places with collectible stamps so we actually got a book specially for it at NT50 from the museum, LOL.. Oh, and you know what the best thing is? – Its free admission. :D

After our short stay at the museum, we decided to head to Zuoying Station for lunch (the family didn’t want to walk around as it was warm day).

Second stop: Lunch @ Zuoying Station Mall

Just like Takashimaya, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store located just next to Zuoying HSR Station sells almost everything possible – food, apparels, footwear, beddings, kitchenware etc., etc. We ultimately decided on having Korean as it looked interesting (though I, personally, didn’t enjoy my ramyum with both kimchi & cheese). By the time we were done with the meals and our brief look around the mall, it was already 15:00. 

Kid's heaven at the mall

HSR train tracks... LOL

To make our time in Kaohsiung worthwhile, we decided to head to Ciao Tou Sugar Refinery that was also right next to its own station (R22A Ciao Tou Sugar Refinery Station).

Third Stop: Ciao Tou Sugar Refinery

I was honestly expecting it to be a factory with guided tours illustrating the process of refining sugar (I mean… it’s a sugar refinery right?!) but I had obviously not done my research and was quite mistaken. Right after exiting the station, we spotted a bicycle rental shop (closes at 17:30) that offers rental services of either the 4-seater electric cart or the normal 2-wheeler bicycle (the person operating the electric cart must have a driver’s license). Having a 2-year-old child with us meant we had to get a cart but since we had 5 adults, I got to go solo on a bike.

It was like a mini town with pit stops around (touristy stores, food, museum etc) but unfortunately, since we got there only at 16:00, many of them were already closed. It was fun cycling around despite the heavy motorcycle/car traffic around which makes a little dangerous.

Last Stop for the day: the Port back at C01 Sizihwan Station

“How could I leave Kaohsiung without seeing their port?!” that was me feeling rather upset that my family didn’t want to walk around Sizihwan in the morning as it actually has its fair share of things to see. 

Not wanting to leave the place with regrets, I was prepared to visit the port on my own – till my sister decided to tag along as my mum was worried about me going alone. Well, thankfully she came along because we hilariously missed the intersection that we were supposed to turn (to go to the port) and landed up in the school compound of Sun Yat Sun’s University *facepalm moment*. 

Despite the misadventure, we still found the port (though we could hardly see anything since it was already night), and I personally enjoyed walking out of the university’s main entrance feeling like I visited a place that I’ve only ever read in books because of the long driveway out that overlooks the port.

On the way back to the station, we found a dessert shop and took a break from all that walking.

Next post: Day 3: Kaohsiung -> Taichung

Previous post: Day 1: Taoyuan -> Kaohsiung 

Travel Log - Taiwan Day 1

Day 1: Taoyuan Intl Airport -> Kao Hsiung via HSR

My first set of Travel Posts - Hello Taiwan! I had wanted to do this for an extremely long time (years in fact) but thanks to procrastination it never got much of a headway, haha. Now that I have some time on my hands, let’s get started! J

Had a fabulous flight with scoot. The pilot's skills were awesome. 

We took an early morning Scoot flight out from Singapore @ 05:55 and reached Taoyuan Intl. Airport around 10:30. Despite it being autumn, the weather this November was hovering between 26-29 degrees so it was actually pretty warm the entire trip (not exactly something that most Singaporeans would enjoy, LOL). The process from immigration to baggage-claim was generally quick and it wasn’t much of a hassle.

As our first stop in Taiwan was Kaohsiung, we took the HSR from Taoyuan to Zuoying (southbound, the last stop on the HSR line). From the airport, there is a shuttle bus service (NT 30/adult) which takes you directly to the HSR station. Just grab your bus tickets and wait at the designated spot for Bus 705.

I didn’t notice the duration of the bus ride but I think it took less than 30 minutes to get to the station from the airport. Upon arrival,  all we needed to do at the station was to register our passports/identity with the ticket office, tell them the exact dates that we were going to travel on the HSR (we had pre-purchased the 3-days flexible HSR pass) and book our train timing for the day.

Quick note: the HSR flexible passes could be purchased from most travel agencies in Singapore (read more about it here).

The general rule of thumb is if you have enough people for a cab (4-6 adults), you might want to consider booking a driver to take you from place to place instead of taking the HSR as it is definitely more value for money in that way (& you can actually plan an itinerary around the drive route = visiting more places). Since we had planned to go straight to Kaohsiung from Taoyuan, the HSR was definitely a quicker option.

MUST TRY: Train Bentos!!!

The bento was extremely filling as there was both rice and beehoon!

Like Japan, their trains are extremely punctual so do plan to get on the platform early, and wait at the respective car no. that you’re supposed to be at. The HSR passes requires a manual validation from the station staff (as they have to open the gate to let you pass) so that would take some time. For us, we gave ourselves too little lead time and we had to rush (on top of that, I read the seat no. as the car no. and led my family to the wrong cabin. *facepalm moment*, but thankfully the cabins are all linked internally so you can enter any cabin and still get to your designated seat)

The journey between Taoyuan to Zuoying took approx. 1 hr. 45 min.

I had been very excited prior to the trip, because despite this being my 3^rd time travelling to Taiwan, it was my first time travelling far south to Kaohsiung – the City of Ports and Temples (traveling with parents & a 2.5-year-old meant everything had to be easily accessible, since we hadn’t booked a driver for our time in Kaohsiung, we couldn’t visit the temple as it was slightly out of the way T^T).

We arrived at Zuoying HSR station at around 14:45 - the perfect time to check into our hotel for the night (Just Sleep Kaohsiung Station)!

Just Sleep Kaohsiung Station

Rooms were very comfortable & modern; p.s. I love their bottled water (its flat, not round xD) 

Just Sleep is a 4-star hotel chain under FIH Regent Group and has 7 branches across Taiwan (namely in Taipei, Yilan, Hualien & Kaohsiung). My sister recommended this chain as she had previously stayed at Just Sleep Ximending and had a great experience with them. The branch we picked (there’s two in Kaohsiung) is located between Kaohsiung Station & Formosa Boulevard Station – I would recommend alighting at the latter as its route to the hotel is more luggage-friendly. It is about a 3-5 min walk from either station.

It is easy to get to the hotel from the HSR station too – just 5 stops to Kaohsiung Station (6 stops to Formosa Boulevard).

Surroundings of Kaohsiung Station (bus depot right next to the train station)

After a tiring day flying and making our way from Taoyuan to Kaohsiung, my family took a late afternoon break once we checked in. I, on the other hand, had ample rest throughout the rides and I arrived in Kao Hsiung pretty awake. So my elder sister and I decided to check out the CD shop nearby and to recce the area between the two stations.

Side note: Formosa Boulevard’s station is much bigger than Kaohsiung Station as it is a transfer station. On top of that, that is also where Liu He Night Market is!

人山人海 🌳

SO MUCH LOVE for this peanut soup. 💖💖

p.s. too busy enjoying the street food to take pictures. 😅

Next post: Day 2: Kaohsiung via the MRT featuring the Railway Musuem, Zuoying Station Mall, Ciao Tou Sugar Refinery & the Port.