Monday, July 11, 2016

Taiwan Day 5 Old England Manor, Qingjing Farm, Lumama Restaurant, Carton King, Little Swiss, Totoro Cafe, Gaomei Wetland, Ruyi Taiyang Bing, Minsu


Hello readers! As mentioned earlier, we decided to get up at around 4.30am to see if we could catch any sunrise, didnt see any sun, but managed to take some photos of the morning view from our treehouse minsu! These places is located at Nantou city and not in Taichung that i previously mentioned. But if you are visiting Taichung, these places will be ideal to include inside your itinerary since they are quite near compared to if you are in Taipei.

 From our treehouse minsu, we could see the old england manor, that tower!
 A closer look,


 It was a very memorable experience for us to stay in a treehouse minsu for the first time!




As our stay include breakfast, thus we went to get prepared before going to the main area to have our breakfast! I don't usually eat porridge in the morning but in Taiwan, most of their breakfast could be porridge with other side dishes or unless if you are staying in hotel, they may have those continental breakfast, but for our case. it was porridge and it was so good! They had this side dish to go with the porridge, and i love it! The lady boss was so friendly and she was asking if we would like some chicken nugget, initially she say it as 鸡块. and i couldnt get what does it mean, until she try to pronounce it as nugget then we was like oh! yes we want! Hahaha and the lady boss went back to the kitchen again before asking us to come to the table to collect after that as it was only prepared upon request. As we had our breakfast around 8-9plus so majority of the guests already finished their breakfast and we was the last few ones. This was the area for our to had our breakfast.
After our breakfast, we went around to explore since there were some time before our driver came to pick us up. we went to the rooftop, bf squinting his eyes probably because its too bright. HAHA
 A wonderful morning to start our day!
 I was getting so lazy by day 5 that my makeup was just meh.
 Took some selfie while at the rooftop.



This was the rooftop area. 


Trying to keep my eyes open because i was quite exhausted because, for the past few days we was constantly on the move comparing to me sitting in the office whole day long with minimum movement.



This was the view from the rooftop to look at our treehouse minsu!
Before we went to had our breakfast, there were other guests standing outside our treehouse unit to pose for a photo and they probably was shocked when they realised there were people coming out from the treehouse which was us. HAHA


Indeed, it was a luxury to stay in the most expensive minsu room type that our first driver's dad help us to book! No wonder he told me that i will be grateful to him after staying in this treehouse minsu.haha 

When we check in during nighttime, we didnt managed to had a look at our treehouse minsu as it was already dark. So this is how it looks like on the outside during daytime!

This was the step to reach the entrance door of the treehouse minsu.

If you do not want to enter inside, there is also a table and bench for you to sit outside.
Maybe if they could add a bbq pit, it would be even awesome. HAHA



For our day 5 trip, we booked a cab to bring us around the whole day.
We was waiting for our driver to pick us up, apparently he went to the wrong minsu, because it was weird when he msg me to tell me he has reached but from our treehouse view we didn't see any car driving in. Since we had some time and i went to touch up my makeup before sitting on the swing to take selfie! The bear is quite heavy so it took me several shots before i could capture both of us together in the photo!



There were another plush toy hanging on the neck and out of curiousity, i went to take it out, only to discover it was not a bear, but a dog! DOG!! 
And i still remember how i goes, 'Duffy!!' before starting my drama queen scene that got bf laughing out loud as i proceed to take photo with the dog plush toy.


 i am photogenic. especially when i am in a good mood!



We booked another driver for NT4000 as well, if i am not wrong, we told him to pick us up at 10am. I won't recommend this driver because his driving skills makes me so giddy especially when we was driving down from the mountain, i got so giddy and was feeling nauseous and i had to resort to closing my eyes to relax before dozing off as he does not know how to control his braking skills. Besides that, there were some awkward moment when we was talking to him and he literally ignored us. Leaving both of us like err? Even though i know he has tried his best to be very friendly to us, even giving us a selfie stick at the start of our trip when we was heading to qingjing. Our first stop was at Old England Manor, he dropped us to take some photos before proceeding to Qingjing as reviews mentioned that their high tea is expensive and we just had our breakfast and won't be feasible to go inside to have their high tea.

 So we was standing outside to take some photos.










 More photo-taking in progress!










After that, the driver dropped us at the entrance of the qingjing farm and told us to text him once we are done before he will bring us to a restaurant for lunch. We was in time to catch some horse show, so we bought our ticket, and without exploring, we was following the trail to catch the horse show.
By the way when i was doing my research, majority of the blogger would type it as cingjing farm, which doesnt make any sense to me, because it should be pronounced as Qingjing what! if you pronounce as cingjing, its not the same meaning anymore, and to prove that Qingjing should be the correct term, look at the ticket. It is stated Qingjing as well.
 They have got this cute yang meh meh outside their entrance.






I think it was a pity for us to rush to watch the horse show, because halfway it started raining!
This was taken before the heavy rain started!
We didnt had any chance to take photos because this farm is actually quite big and i know they do have some big western chess pieces and horse carriage to take photo with! But it was raining too heavily so we had no choice but to ask the driver pick us up.
The weather was good initially, it was not humid and cooling.



Such a pity, i have not even feed any sheep yet! and when it was raining, all the clouds was covering them up and i couldn't even see any single sheep.

 We was waiting for the horse show performance.






 There was this little cute girl who ride the small pony horse in, and she was so cute though!








So when the horse show performance ended, we had to go to the store to buy poncho instead.
So you know la, wear poncho take what photos! ugly si le. So here the only one photo of us before we left qingjing farm. I will be back again to explore this farm!! I think i ask bf a stupid question when i ask him, wa the sheeps will be drenched, i wonder if they are being kept inside the house. i totally forgot how animals and nature exist together without the need to keep them under any shelter. I only know when i play harvest moon, if i don't put them, they will die afterthat. HAHA.
The rain doesn't seem to stop so we went into some store to get some souvenier stuffs. The rain can be such a spoiler because we had to carry umbrella everywhere we go. hurhur. Later on we went to this market inside the farm, and we saw peach! i think it was the first time i had peach. We wanted to buy some apples, and then there was another auntie who ask the seller how much she is selling the peach, so the seller gave her some discount as she say business today not good. So just before we was going to pass her the money, i ask her how much she can charge us so she charge us the same as the other auntie. We bought 2! I seriously regret buying two only! I should have buy 1 carton hahahhaa.
This peach is totally different from what we had in sg, it is so fresh and tender, there is a dent because i didnt had it immediately but kept it until the next morning after we came down from the mountain.
The power of peach when we only bought two and we left in the cab, when we returned, the scent of the peach filled the entire car. I swear i will go back next time to buy more! I try to buy those in sg to try and its so different, you only need to take a small bite and you love how juicy it is, it is so addicting that one is not enough! but i think i bought one at $4. worth the price! HAHAHA.

Later on after we bought the fruits, we text our driver to pick us up, before he send us to Lumama restaurant for lunch!Look at this, we will only be wasting our time if we want to wait for the rain to stop. hurhur
 This is another great place to recommend for good food! This is located within the mountain, it was crowded when we went in, the uncle brought us in before leaving us to had our lunch as he waited outside.


Dishes that we ordered. Each dish is good! Worthwhile to visit this restaurant! Introduced by the driver to us. haha



 After our lunch, the driver ask where we would like to go since we did not pre-planned the itinerary properly. So we decided to visit Little Swiss and Carton King since we are already on the mountain and we won't know when will we come back again, especially when i bought the Little Swiss ticket from the treehouse minsu from the lady boss. One trick to getting those ticket is to check with the minsu, sometimes they have cheaper price for the entrance ticket to qingjing farm/little swiss. We only managed to get Little Swiss as the lady boss do not have the qingjing entrance ticket.
 Taking a look at the view before walking back to where the cab is parked.
The driver dropped us at Little Swiss and Carton King, They are actually located just side by side so it would be good if you are planning to visit Little Swiss to enter Carton King store too. Basically its a store that do sell some merchandise while allowing you to take a look at those items that is created using paper. To me, its quite boring so i took about 5min i have finished touring the entire store. haha











This is probably suitable for family who has kids to bring them to visit this carton king store, i think this should be firm and strong enough to withstand kid sitting on it though.


 It just amazing how they could use paper to create so much stuffs like even a gun!




Little Swiss tickets! It was still raining when we went in.






 Rain doesn't stop us from taking photo as long as we are sheltered! wahahahaha.
This was the entrance to Little Swiss Garden.

 It was so colourful inside!

 There were not much people inside since it was raining.









If you had noticed the photo below, i think this is a duck, le bf told me they are not real because they was not moving at all. But i don't believe because it seems they are real leh. Even when i walk nearer to them, they didnt even budge, but i confirm that it was real because we saw alot more other as we walked further ahead.
 I just find it so funny they was standing there so still, admiring some river view.
















 Bf walking ahead of me as i was fb-live as i was doing the intro of the Little Swiss. hahahaha



See! They are real, it was so cute when i saw them walking from the bridge to our side. 
Later on, the driver informed us that Taichung is not raining, so we can try to head down to taichung since we can't do anything much on the mountain. 
Thats when i suggest to go to Totoro cafe as i saw some article sharing this totoro cafe that was in Taichung. Luckily the driver knows the way and i am so glad that i had previously store the address in my google drive so when i open the app, i was able to show him the address of the totoro cafe!
Since we didn't have much to talk to the driver, i managed to take a nap in the car until we reached the cafe.

You will see this upon the entrance of the cafe. Level 1 is full of different kind of cartoon character toys, like mickey mouse, doraemon, hello kitty, and level 2 will be the totoro cafe.
I was so tempted to buy the duffy bear! But i didnt as i want to buy it personally at Tokyo disneyland next time before bringing it back from Japan to Singapore!

 The cafe was not crowded probably it was a monday afternoon.











 It could be a good place for anyone to hang out here instead of starbucks. HAHA

We was quite surprised the uncle actually bought drinks for us after we came out, it was assam black tea and it was nice! Its just a feeling of we won't engage him as our cab driver again but at the same time he is treating us so good, buying for us drinks, giving us selfie stick etc.  I guess we are not on the same wavelength, but it also shows that majority of Taiwanese are very friendly and this is why i love Taiwan! After that, he decided to bring us to Gaomei Wetland as previously i have checked with him whether we could go Gaomei Wetland as well.
Here we are at Gaomei Wetland, the weather was good for awhile before it start raining again! GRRR.
We went down to take some photos, it was quite windy so my hair got abit messy as it was flying everywhere. Yes i am carrying the drink that the uncle bought for us.




 Look at the funny shape around the clouds.
 Close enough to form a heart shape!
















By right, if there is no typhoon, it would be a good timing for us to watch sunset at Gaomei wetland!
But it started drizzling halfway when we was walking further ahead where there were lots of people gathering at the wooden bridge so we had to u-turn and proceed back to the car as it started raining heavily after that. 

But it was strange when the driver told us he can bring us to another place to take photo, we realised the rain has stopped. goddamitt. So here we are arriving at this place that is still under construction, apparently going to build something out of nothing. HAHA.






 And really, no one can beat my skill of having two antenna on top of my hair so coincientally when we press the camera button. HAHAHA. Bf was the one who captured this shot. it was so windy!
 I just realised this could be a instagram worthy OOTD background. hahaha

 Bf hair going some transformation too. hahaha





 Then, the driver bring us to this place to take more photos again! I do not know where is this place, but he mentioned during nighttime, many cpls like to drive over here for some star gazing.







 Time for some selfie time because bf is tired. LOL siao char bor look but this look quite nice!
 Us using the selfie stick.




 After that, the driver brought us to this shop that previously i did want to include in my itinerary in the previous driver but since i went to the Ah Ming Shi shop thus i didnt visit this shop. This shop has been the number 1 champion for two years now, its famous for their tai yang bing, lemon cake, and pineapple tarts. It even has a table for u to sit down for sampling pairing with tea. The driver is buying some back home and we didnt want to hold him up so long since it was already 7plus when we was waiting for the staff to prepare our order. This was when he ask us to stand at this cartoon figurine so that he can help us take a photo!

 Super cute! This is another highly recommended shop that many would come to buy the taiyangbing and lemon cake! Cute figurine!
Afterthat the driver send us to the fengjia minsu that he has help us to book due to our disrupted schedule, it cost only SGD $80 per night. This room is comfortable and it feel like we are back in our own room in Singapore. We had a very good sleep that night. The lady boss was waiting for us at level 1 after we paid our driver as she brought us up, it was like a hostel, and we just need to drop the key at level 1 where they had a mini basket when we was going to check out the next morning.
Before that, the driver had arranged for us another driver that will be picking us up to send us to take the high speed rail as it was time for us to return back to Taipei.
This was our room!
 They had cute wallpaper, simple bathroom, adequate for 1 night stay


 They had kettle and fridge as well.


This place is actually nearer than the Lumi Hotel that we stayed on our first day in Taichung, it was so much nearer! We rest for awhile before heading out to Fengjia night market for our dinner! We was just walking around, so happy to be back at Fengjia night market!
So many plush toy for sale!
They have this departmental store that originate from Japan, full level of all sort of items, Taiwan is well known for its cheap cosmetics/masks etc. the problem is there are too many that you won't know which is good! I didn't bought any because i have stopped using masks after olm told me that the dr she went to told her masks is useless. It doesn't really help to improve your skin complexion. I didnt really use this except laneige sleeping mask, in fact i managed to sell away 3 bottle because ever since i went to see this dr for my skin, i realised i do not really need any additional products. HAHA





This is just a small portion before i was stopped by the staff that no photo-taking is allowed. okay lor. HAHA.  My loots for the day! From qingjing to fengjia, i bought some masks because the consultation of the dr was after my Taiwan trip back so luckily i didn't bought much.
I love how the Ru Yi tai yang bing packaging is as exquisite as Miyahara, because it was so nicely packed when i open it up to pack individually after i came back from my trip.
Besides cosmetics, for anyone who is looking to buy contact lens, Taiwan Watsons have a counter for you to find your own degree lens to buy the contact lens, it is just so convenient! As long as you remember your degree of your lens.!
 Till then, i shall end now for this long lengthy post that summarised my last night in Taichung!

Read more on my other posts in Taipei & Taichung!

Day 1 Taipei-Cityinn 3 Hotel-Tamsui Old Street-Shilin Night Market

Day 2 Taipei-Q Square Shopping Mall-Ximending

Day 3 - Taichung Rainbow Village-Painted Animation Lane-New Banana Paradise Restaurant-Miyahara-Ah Ming Shi-Lumi Hotel-Fengjia Night Market

Day 4 Taichung-Xinshe Castle-Lavender Cottage-Zhongshe Flower Market-Feeling 18 Degree chocolate--塔洛湾景观餐厅-Yunnan Minsu

Day 6 Taipei Rilakkuma Cafe-Beauty of Gull-Nanya Rock formations-Yin Yang Sea-Remains of the thirteen levels-Golden Waterfall-Jiufen Old Street