My Taiwan Trip

We had booked Hotel Bayview for our stay in Hualien after hearing good reviews about it. Indeed, we were not disappointed. It was the best hotel stay throughout my Taiwan trip. Upon arrival at the hotel, we were greeted by the hotel staff at the entrance who helped us carried out luggages into the hotel. After I finished the check-in procedure, the hotel staff brought our luggage up to our room. The facilities in the hotel were pretty new. They even provided a 24hours cafe for coffee and snacks. Our rooms were on the third floor. The rooms were spacious and provided great view of the pacific ocean.
 

 

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After a simple breakfast of toasts and fruits, we waited for our driver Mr Zeng, a taroko native to pick us up. Today, we would be going to Hualien through the HeHuanShan Road. The road, the only one that links Taichung to Hualien, passes through Taroko National Park. We would be spending a whole day on the mountainous road touring Taroko National Park. 
 
 

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We woke up around 5.30am to catch the sunrise. The weather turned out to be good today, with the mist cleared. Finally, we can take a good look at the great scenic views of Cing Jing. A picture speaks more than a thousand words.
 
 
 

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We reached our minsu, Starry House around 5 plus in the evening. Its a short drive from the recreation center. This minsu was said to be very popular with Singaporean and Malaysian tourists due to the owner's warm hospitality and their famous steamboat.  Hmm.. I think it was over-rated. Indeed, the place was packed when we arrived. But we don't felt like it was a minsu as there was little interaction between the owners and tourists. After resting for a while in our rooms, the owner called us to go down to the dinning area for our steam boat dinner. We were asked if we like to have our steamboat indoor or outdoor. As the weather was very cold, we chose to have it indoor. The steam boat was good but not to the extend of great. I personally felt that it suits our taste bud partly due to the chilli sauce that they served.
 
The cons about staying at Starry house was that there were little activities that can be done at night. Because the roads near Starry Minsu was narrow and just next to a cliff, and there wasn't any road lamps, this made driving up and down the minsu treacherous at night. Hence, it would be impossible to visit the recreation center at night if one chosed to stay at Starry Minsu. Although the minsu is an ideal place for star gazing but that is only true if the weather is clear. We didn't managed to catch any stars that night. According to the other tourists. they also did not see any stars the night before. Seems like it takes a bit of luck for star gazing too.
 

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After lunch, we went to Cing Jing Grassland. Unfortunately, there was a slight drizzle and the place was misty. As such, we were unable to catch the scenic view around the grassland. Nonetheless, we still enjoyed the cooling weather. It reminded us of Genting. To my siblings, it was probably the first time they saw sheeps. We bought some sheep food from the vending machine and started feeding the sheeps. Once you started feeding a sheep, the other sheeps would also come to you. The sight was pretty spectacular.
 
 

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After our hotel breakfast, we checked out from the hotel. My driver for today was a guy called Momo. He was a big Asshole! I had spoken to him earlier on the phone to pick us up from the side entrance of the hotel but he still got it wrong. He even accused me of giving the wrong direction.  Really regretted taking his service. He parked his van far away from the hotel side entrance and expected us to walk all the way to his van with all our heavy luggages. This was the worst driver we had in our entire trip. His service sucks!
 
Today, we were be travelling to Cing Jing, one of the tourist spot that began to get popular in these few years. From Fengjia, Taichung to CingJing, we be passing through Puli, Nantou country. Our first destination was Puli Shaoshing Winery. After about 2 hours drive, we finally reached the winery. The winery has a museum that show case the history of ShaoShing wine in Taiwan. I often heard about ShaoShing wine used in chinese cooking but didn't knew that there were actually different variants of ShaoShing wines for different purpose. After touring the musuem, we went next door to buy some local products.
 

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Wow.. It been more than 6 months since I updated my taiwan trip. Decided to complete my travel blog this time round.
 
After the breakfast, we waited for our driver to pick us up to our first destination. I had booked a cab (小黄) to bring us around today. Our first destination was Sun Moon Lake. Our driver Xiao Jiang （小江）arrived around 8.30am.  Sun Moon Lake is located in Nantou country and the journey from our hotel to there took slightly more than an hour. We reached Sun Moon lake around 10.00am. Athough it was the monsoon season during this period of time, we were lucky the weather was good when we reached there. 
 

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My siblings and I were awaken from our deep sleep by the phone ring around 6 plus in the morning. My mum had called to ask for the time. She had thought the time on her handphone was wrong when she saw how bright the sky was. (Yes, the sky is bright by 6am in Taiwan).  I was amused. After assuring her that her time was right, I got up while my siblings continued their sleep. After washing up, I went out to explore the surroundings around my hotel. 
 

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It is our family's first maiden trip together after more than 20 years. My parents were excited and woke up really early. Our Jetstar flight to Taiwan was at 7.10am. Before 6am, we've reached the Changi Airport. I have actually done a web check-in the day before. So I was expecting the check-in process to be a breeze. However, the web check-in lane was slow as there was only one counter servicing it. Ironically, those queuing at the normal lane got to check-in much faster as there were quite a few counters in operation. (Why should we do web check-in if the process is going to be slower?) After checking in, we went to Wang's cafe to have our breakfast. We ordered some toast, mee siam and laksa. But the mee siam and laksa at Wang's cafe were really terrible. I've tried their mee siam at the harborfront branch before and it was good. What a sharp difference in standards between outlets. 
 
As it was my parent's first time on a budget airline, I was worried they might complaint. Luckily, they do not find their seats too cramp. Soon after the plane took off, my parents went into their dreamland while we entertained ourselves with movies on our phones and tablet. Changi airport does not allowed us to bring any water bottles on board. So when the air stewardess came around to sell food and drinks,  I bought two Evian mineral water from them (at a costly price). Surprisingly, we were allowed to buy mineral water bottles within the departure hall of Taoyuan Airport and bring them on board when we flew back from Taiwan.

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Day 8 @ Taipei City, a photo by Sobel hbl on Flickr.

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Day 7 @ Jiufen, a photo by Sobel hbl on Flickr.

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