Taiwan Trip 2014 - Day 2 - Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) - Cingjing (清境)

ITINERARY

Day 1: Changi Airport > Taoyuan Airport > Sun Moon Lake 

Day 2: Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 

(Shuishe Visitor Centre 水社旅客服務中心 > Xuan Guang Temple 玄光寺 > Ita Thao 伊達邵碼頭) > 

Cingjing  清境 

(Senzhilian 森之恋民宿 > Cingjing Farm 清境農場 > Green Green Grassland 青青草原 > Little France 法国小镇 > Small Swiss Garden 小瑞士花園)

Day 3: Cingjing > Taroko National Park > Hualien 

Day 4: Hualien 

Day 5: Hualien > Taipei (Huaxi Night Market)

Day 6: Taipei (Jiufen > Gongguan - Retail Outlet & Night Market)

Day 7: Taipei (Beitou > Tamsui)

Day 8: Taipei (Shinkong Mitsukoshi > Ximending > Shilin Night Market)

Day 9: Taipei > Taoyuan Airport

5.30am: The sky looks gloomy.

But still we proceed to Ita Thao ferry (which is 5 min walks) hoping for a nice sunrise!

6.30am: This was the best we could capture.

By almost 7am, we headed back to hotel for wash up and breakfast.

A quick snapshot from my hotel room view before breakfast.

After having our breakfast from hotel, we purchasing the ferry tickets to tour around the 3 island in Sun Moon Lake.

Would be good to have the ferry schedule for the day as the ferry is in 1 direction

 Shuishe Visitor Centre (水社旅客服務中心) -> Xuan Guang Temple (玄光寺) -> Ita Thao (伊達邵碼頭) -> Back to Shuishe Visitor Centre (水社旅客服務中心)

We got on to the first ferry to Shuishe Visitor Centre (水社旅客服務中心).
Already packed with tourists, but not all shops were opened.

We took a quick walk around and saw this preserved fruits. Can't help but bought a mixed pack. Definitely good for digestion.

Next stop was Xuan Guang Temple (玄光寺)

A must try is this Mushroom Tea Leaf Egg (金盆阿嬷香菇茶葉蛋)!
After having 2 eggs, I had another. And I should have buy more...
The ferry tour guide mentioned to us the taste has been adjusted to cater to tourist's liking. It used to be less salty. I guess for me, it would still be as delicious.

Walking around, we wandered to the carpark path

Towards the carpark... 

Didn't take long for us at Xuanguang Temple as it was getting crowded. We headed back to Ita Thao.

View from ferry ride.

Back in Ita Thao, food stalls beginning to open for business and hence our lunch began!

Black Tea Chinese Bamboo Partridge (红茶山竹雞)

Chicken is nice, portion not a lot. But tea flavor is not very obvious.

  Grilled Mochi with Curry Powder
I think I should have just gone for original flavor. The curry powder makes the mochi seemed a bit dry.

 
Fried bun with generous portion of vegetables & mushroom

Cold Yuchi tea from Tea 18.

Back in the hotel and waiting for our ride. Took a few snaps. 

A nice and relaxing lobby, the lady owner offers us tea while we wait for our driver.

Cherng Yuan Hotel

Our driver for Sun Moon Lake to Cingjing picked us up at Ita Thao Ferry instead of Shuishe Visitor Centre, saving us the hassle to board the ferry and also giving us more time to tour around Sun Moon Lake before leaving for Cingjing. The drive from Sun Moon Lake to Cingjing took an hour+.

Our cab in the mirror! 

Our accommodation @ Cingjing is with Senzhilian (森之恋民宿). 

Got to know this place from the driver who told us that we can have the luxury of staying in the room and catch the sunrise!

Our 4 person hotel room for the night. 

The beds are separated by a level (more privacy in some ways)

Since it's a short stay, we took a short break and off we went to Cingjing's tourist area. 

Senzhilian's staff/owner drive us to Cingjing Farm (清境農場). Also, they were very informative in how we can decide to spend our day there. In the farm, they have shows which is only on on weekends but the crowds deter us from going.

Entrance to Cingjing Farm (清境農場)

When you enter the farm, remember to get the stamp chopped. This is to allow you to return into the farm for the day itself.

Up the slope

The view

Down the stairs

The windmill

Maple leaves

Walking in the farm is not very tiring but a bit humid. Luckily, there is an area for food!!!

Rice in Bamboo Stick (竹同饭)

Yunnan Chilli Chicken (云南椒麻鸡) - Like this dish a lot! 

Pumpkin Cake （月见饼）

The auntie said it's a combination of pumpkin and tapioca? Anyway, it is similar to the tapioca cake (pan fried style). Have to eat it while it's still hot for best texture.

Aiko's Pizza @ Cingjing

Can't resist a freshly baked Pizza!!

Straight ahead down from Cingjing Farm is Little France (法国小镇). And almost dinner time. Exhausted from a whole day of walking and travelling, we took a long break and also dinner at Little France. There are countable places for food, but the one that catch our eyes is Shine.

Shine @ Little France (法国小镇)

By the time we finished dinner, it was really dark (after 7pm) and cold....

Got lost from Little France to Small Swiss Garden. Heard the music but just can't seemed to find the way. Chanced upon another guy who is touring alone and on his way to Small Swiss Garden. We got together and under the dimly lit path with the signs are covered by the trees, we struggled to find the way. If not for the guy who had asked for directions earlier before proceeding, we would have really got lost in the middle of nowhere with no one to ask for help. 

Finally... we reached Small Swiss Garden and even had time for ice cream and a bit of shopping...

And still in time for the water performance at 7.30pm

After the water performance, we took a quick walk around the dimly lit garden.

A quick view of Small Swiss Garden

After our short tour in Small Swiss Garden, we called the hotel and another lady came to drive us back to hotel.

Back in hotel with after dinner snacks!!

and the moon from hotel room...

Taiwan Trip 2014 - Day 1 - Changi Airport - Taoyuan Airport - Sun Moon Lake

Itinerary

Day 1: Changi Airport > Taoyuan Airport 台灣桃園國際機場 > Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 (Ita Thao 伊達邵)

Day 2: Sun Moon Lake > Cingjing  

Day 3: Cingjing > Taroko National Park > Hualien 

Day 4: Hualien 

Day 5: Hualien > Taipei (Huaxi Night Market)

Day 6: Taipei (Jiufen > Gongguan - Retail Outlet & Night Market)

Day 7: Taipei (Beitou > Tamsui)

Day 8: Taipei (Shinkong Mitsukoshi > Ximending > Shilin Night Market)

Day 9: Taipei > Taoyuan Airport

After months of waiting, it's finally the day to go Taiwan! Yes!! 

Arrived @ Changi Airport to check-in and was TOTALLY shocked to see a long queue. 

Our flight carrier Scoot was having a major system issue and everything stalled for i-don't-know-how-long. And everything was the manual style. Queued 2 hours plus before we managed to check-in when it was supposed to be our flight departure time. Announcement was only to inform us about the technical issue and no mention that flight will be delayed.

Reaching the gate, we saw many people also were waiting. Imagine the clock showed 1:00 am while the check-in system tv panel showed flight departure at 12.45am! Flight was delayed afterall!

We continued waiting for an hour before the flight departure timing was changed to 4am, with no announcement made! They only started to allow passenger to board @ 3.30am. And since system was still down, even seats allocation was being arranged in a manually style. First to go in was those who were in the scootbiz and those who had bought seats, then followed by the elderly and the children, followed by large group of passengers, followed by those in groups of 4 or 5 and the remaining ones.

With a group of 4, we managed to get in and sit together. Onboard, we waited for hours with announcement made that flight cannot take off due to blah blah blah (can't really hear cause I was falling in and out of sleep).  Only by almost 7am that the flight took off, Totally worn out, wesleep throughout the flight.

--------------------------------------
Finally reached Taoyuan Airport @ 11.50am!
As telco @ Taoyuan Aiport opens @ 8am (link here), we were able to grab our calling call followed by a quick brunch?, we quickly hire a cab to Sun Moon Lake - Ita Thao. Although it's a long ride, but it's shorter than the 3-4 hours ride from Chiayi to Alishan!

(I was told that the calling card is also available at Sun Moon Lake 7-11! Quite a surprise to me since the last trip we were told that 7-11 no longer sells the calling card but that was at Alishan.)

Almost 2pm: Finally Reach Cherng Yuan Hotel @ Ita Thao

A quick view of the lake view double bedroom.

Cherng Yuan Hotel

- Location: very near to Ita Thao Ferry.

- Value: Very reasonable for the view, very spacious room and a fantastic bathtub with a small window for lake viewing while relaxing in the tub.

- Service: The lady owner is a nice lady but we only chat with her at the last hour when we check out. Very nice people!!

- Recommendation: If you are heading to Sun Moon Lake with light baggage, you might want to consider booking your accommodation with them. Because it is situated at Ita Thao, hence you will need to take the ferry to Ita Thao from Shuishe Visitor Centre which would be faster to reach the island. Alternatively, there are various buses or you can consider taking cab. Booking the hotel is easy via online. I booked mine through agoda.

What we did when we reached Ita Thao...
Eat, eat and eat. Just right out of the hotel, road side food stall are everywhere. We just followed the direction and make our way through the streets.

Red tea! Tea 18! That's one of the specialties of Sun Moon Lake! 

Not satisfied with just drinking on the spot, I bought many tins of tea18 from 朝霧茶莊. Although we can order online with free delivery for NT$1000 and above purchases, but I don't stay in Taiwan and hence, the shipping and handling will be additional cost. In the meantime, I shall enjoy what I bought back till I am all done with it.

As red tea is their specialty, almost all things are tea related. 

From the chicken to ice cream to egg roll, so many stuffs to try out. But!! 

Always start off with the original, which is the beverage and see if the taste is to your likings.

Another must try is Fan Fan Ji Chi.
It's chicken wing stuffed with rice but the seasoning makes it so delicious! I saw a similar store at Danshui but due to being too full, I didn't tried that.

Many flavors of freshly made mochi 

Different seasoning - Grill Mochi

If you are mochi lover as me, tried their freshly made/ grilled mochi. You can choose from a range of flavours such as curry, seaweed etc. Advise is.. Ask the seller for the most popular flavor because after trying both seaweed and curry (separately), it seemed to be quite dry. Had to look for drinks right after eating it

The Yam Cake is also very delicious.
Similar to Singapore's Yam Cake, it is more juicy. We finished the Yam Cake within a short time but wanting to try out other stuffs, we didn't re-visited the stall. Seems like this is the only stall selling Yam Cake though.

We ended our first day in Sun Moon Lake after non-stop eating.

Food @ Taoyuan Airport & Sun Moon Lake - Ita Thao (台灣桃園國際機場 & 日月潭 - 伊達邵)
- Oden (関東煮) + Onigiri (饭团) @ Airport
- Wild Boar Sausage (山猪香肠)
- Yam Cake (芋头糕)
- Mochi (麻糬)
- Stuffed Chicken with Rice (飯飯雞翅)
- Suntory Red Tea Beer
- Tea18 Black Tea Ice Cream
- Assam Black Tea Egg Roll (阿萨姆红茶鸡蛋卷)
- Grilled Mochi (烤麻糬)

My Wedding Anniversary

Time flies and it's already a year ago since my wedding lunch at Pan Pacific Marina.

Determine to make it memorable, we thought hard on where to go and what to do without spending too much. The best way was actually to revisit Pan Pacific for a night stay but SGD $400+ to spend a night? Hm.. We didn't think it is a cost effective way to celebrate.

So we started thinking...

We finally decided on Si Chuan Dou Hua @ UOB Plaza 1 - Raffles Place

This is one of the few restaurant that we had in mind to held our ROM but decided against it because it's located at level 60 of UOB Plaza 1 and we were afraid that our guests might have height phobia.

We got there around 11.30am, thinking we were the first customer. We were wrong. There were already other guests. Although the view was to die for, but I wasn't that fascinated because it was the food that I was really craving for.

2 mains, 5 dim sums and 1 dessert

(From the first picture on the left and clockwise direction from top to bottom)

- Chong Qing Diced Chicken with Dried Chilli (Must Try for Spicy Food Lovers!)

- Xiao Long Tang Bao (Nice!!)

- Steamed Glutinous Rice Roll with Minced Meat (It is made Glutinous Rice Flour instead of the rice.)

- Steam Bun (for the Camphor Tea Duck 樟茶鴨)

- Carrot Cake

- Deep-fried Spring Rolls with Shredded Duck

- Osmanthus with Glutinous Rice Balls in Fermented Rice Wine (桂花酒酿圆子) - (SUPERB LIKE!)

- Camphor Tea Duck (樟茶鴨)

- Custard Bun 

After brunch, we did some walking along Boat Quay. It was a short and peaceful walk without the busy working crowd since it's weekend.

We then proceed to Funan Digital Mall where I found Flor!

Earl Grey Cheese Tart and Chocolate Orange Cheese Tart by Flor

Continued our journey, we walked to Esplanade where they were having Children Festival. On the way, we finished up the Cheese Tarts before heading for some drinks @ Toast Box - Esplanade. Coffee for him and Lemon Grass Lime Tea for me

This is really one of the few occasions that my husband is willing to spend the entire day with me where destination is play by the ear. Resting without time constraint, we then proceed to the Marina Square to go to Pan Pacific to take a photo for our 1 year anniversary.

However, it wasn't a smooth journey because there were renovation on going on most of the place where we can capture the hotel name is not accessible.

But....

We manage to find the right spot!!!

When we looked at the time, it is almost the same timing that we ended our wedding lunch too! 

With surprise coincidence, our milestone for the day is completed. Via bus, we made way back to Westgate.

Buying all the stuffs that we need for our Taiwan upcoming trip, it was crowded everywhere and we spotted another cafe which we never step foot in before.

Nomu Nomu Cafe @ Westgate

Our Dinner 

- Green Tea

- Curry Rice

- Ramen Pork Shabu Shabu Burger

- Cake! 

My fulfilling wedding anniversary day! The day where we get to try new things without constraint!!