Taiwan Trip 16 - 23 May 2015 (Cing Jing Farm + Sun Moon Lake)

18 May 2015

We did not explore much in Taichung. The previous trip to Taichung, we visited Forro Cafe and performed at Reform Cafe (贰一咖啡), which I think have shifted. We also shopped till we drop (like I did it again). But I have came back again but just to shop. Hehe.. poor Boyfriend just have to accommodate.. *oops*. But lucky for him, we are going to stay in Cing Jing Veteran Farm (清境) for 2 days. Can't wait to take a break from the shopping!!

After checking out of Grano House, we took a cab to a bus interchange where there are many bus companies. Our plan is to take the ntbus  (南投客运) all the way from Taichung to Cing Jing. After researching, we found that, only ntbus provides direct bus to Cing Jing, the rest of the bus company has to change bus at another terminal at Pu Li (埔里). To summarise how you go Taichung to Cing Jing:

Option 1: Taichung - Cing jing (via ntbus)

Option 2: Taichung - Pu Li - Cing Jing (most other bus companies can provide)

Purchase also, to and fro tickets package (套票). It will also come with entrance ticket to Green Green Grassland (青青草原) and Small Swiss Garden (小瑞士花园).

They gave us ticket no. to collect our actual tickets later. And when you alight from your bus later on, you have to return them the ticket stubs.

Just to note, there are many stops along the way, but the driver doesn't stop at every stop. Our hotel at Cing Jing is Starry House (清镜观星园观景山庄). The common resorts that people go are usually the ones at the lower level of the mountain, but for us, we took Starry House, it is located much higher up on the mountain. The bus has to travel pass Cing Jing, till Song Gang  (松岗). As you know that the bus doesn't stop at all stops, you have inform the bus driver which stop you want to alight when you board the bus. Then you can start napping on the bus, cos the whole ride is about 2.5 hours.

While waiting for our bus to come, we had our yummy breakfast.

The kind of breakfast that you can hardly find in Singapore, 抓饼. If you do know where I can find this in Singapore, please let us know!

 Soy Bean Milk (豆浆)

After breakfast, we manage to catch the bus and we finally arrived at Song Gang, Boyfriend is absolutely pleased to alight to the very nice weather. Ya know on the map, Song Gang is only 8 - 10 mins walk to Starry House. Cos it was the first time coming here, we acted smart, and tried to lug our luggage to the resort. 

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*Laugh people, people laughhhhh!!!*

God knows the 10 mins walk is all up-slopes and sharp turns!!!! Poor us lugged for 10 mins already, and felt like dying!!! And ya know what, that resort does provide transport from Song Gang to the resort, but we didn't think the route was tough initially. *sigh*

There was also a stray dog keep following us, thinking we have food. =/

But lady luck is with us! Just as I wanted to call the resort, the resort staff drove down and saw us!!!! He offered to drive us up after finishing his errands. He told us the normal 10-mins route, can be 30 mins due to the slopes and turns, with our heavy luggage~ *Come I clap for myself* 

Welcomed by this lazy Husky when we reach. 

The resort staff was very nice, and experienced. He helped us to plan our trip for the next 2 days, nicely arranged with OKbus to fetch us from the attractions around Cing Jing. The thing about OKbus is, they too stop by other pick up points to pick and drop tourists at their destinations. So I felt there was some time delay. But it is more economical and convenient compared to take cabs. You can click into the hyperlink to view the types of trips they have to offer.

In my opinion, it does not seem very easy to travel to the attractions from Starry resort just by walking. So it's still better to take up the OKbus offer. We were sent down by the drivers to have our lunch at a small open-air food centre. Then head to Green Green Grassland. The food centre was full of flies. The mountainous area are all full of flies and mosquitoes anyway. Please prepare insect repellent. Boyfriend bought the OFF! brand which was pretty good and effective! 

Food here were not good. =/ 

The Green Green Grassland is full of grass. *Ok, lame~* It is full of sheep. Everywhere you walk, you see sheep. Tourists are free to interact with them, but please do not chase after them, cut their wool, throw them food or harm these little animals! You are warned. 

We were trying to see how thick are their wool.. Haha! it is very thick.

Boyfriend and I felt that the sheep does have an occupation, and I wish I can be like them. Their job is to eat all day!!!! Hahaha!! REALLY! I don't see any sheep "slacking" at all, their heads were always down munching the grass! Super hard working one! Let me show you some proof!

Task 1: Eat

Task 2: Eat Eat

Task 3: Eat Eat Eat

Task 4: Eat Eat Eat Eat

And, eat.

The breathtaking view that makes you feel like you are at the top of the world.

#nofilters

They also have vending machines that sell food for the sheep. Tourists can buy and feed them, so, do not feed them with your own food!! It is really fun feeding them!! They will follow you (or rather your box of food) around, and they will eat from your hand. SO UBER CUTE!!!!

Who says guys don't like selfies.... with sheeps ;)

Chio-pose~

OMG, sun very hot~~!!

There was a horse ranch and a horse riding skill show. To be honest, Boyfriend and I fell asleep during the show. Not too sure if it is because we are too tired or the show is too hypnotizing.. The performers will go round and round and perform some dangerous stunts on the horse. But just round and round and round and round... @.@

Anyway, the only thing I dislike about watching this is, the tamer will whip the horses. He sometimes will also just fling his whip to create some loud thunder-like sound, that jerks both of us awake at times! =/ I know it is common to whip horse for gaining speed, but I feel pain for the horse. =(

There were also souvenir shops. Mostly selling goat's milk ice cream, goat's milk tablets, 100% wool shawls, key chains and magnets.

Goat's milk ice cream... Tastes, hmmm... "goat-y". Try it for yourself. Ultimately ice cream is what you will crave after being under the blazing sun for hours. 

Watching the sheep and mountain views, you will feel you are really away from the noise and pollution in the city. The weather is also very nice and cooling, except that the sun is really blazing. You are advised to apply more sun blocks as you are much nearer to the sun compared to when you are in the city,

Their land and sky is soooo vast. The best mode of photo taking here is : PanoDash! We are not very pro in it, but still not bad!! Go Google on this and take good pictures ok!

We did not head for Small Swiss Garden as it was not the season for flowers, so we decided not to waste money. Next, we walked 487 steps, to the meeting point, where 7-11 and Carton King (outlet) is located, and the driver was already there waiting for us to fetch us back to the resort.

Starting point.

Last step!

The nice thing about this resort is, they serve breakfast and dinner. Dinner is steamboat with PORK slices. If by now, you are not aware, I LOVE PORK. The vegetables are also very tasty. Even the simplest corn tastes so sweet and different from what is available elsewhere, in Taiwan or Singapore... but the pork lover me, used one plate of vegetables to exchange for an additional plate of pork slices on the second day...

Having steamboat at such cold places is an extremely happy thing.. ❤❤

Yummy!!

After dinner, we went back to our room. The night sceneries were awesome.. AWESOME X 100. Ok, we aren't country bumpkins, maybe city bumpkins. Haha how much chance do we have to see such fantastic night views in the city?!!! I wish I can take photos of the starry sky but our lousy cameras can't.. The sky at night is so full of stars, I am not exaggerating when I say I can see stars at my eye level around us. well, Starry House is not named for nothing. You really should come and see for yourself.

Meanwhile we saw people playing fireworks.


The night of Starry House

It was quite dark at night and quite scary to walk around. There are also many toads and wild dogs around.. but they are of no harm.

Outside of our room. The surrounding is super dark without lights.

Ya know the room is not air-conditioned. But it still feel super cold at night. Burrrrr~ I was also shivering while I was bathing. =S And unfortunately you have to be prepared that there are many flies and insects in the bathroom. It is still the mountainous area afterall.

19 May 2015

Rise and shine!!!! 

One of the must-do thing when you come to Cing Jing is to watch sunrise on He Huan Shan (合欢山)!!! You can inform the resort staff to book the tour for you. They usually set off at about 4am in the morning and drive up He Huan Shan to catch the sunrise. However the weather was quite foggy, hence the sun was not seen clearly.

Just a reminder for those who are really keen to watch sunrise on He Huan Shan, please cover yourself up properly, as it will be super cold up on the mountain. For that day, it was 8 deg. Blur me forgotten to bring any long pants/jeans and I went up in SHORTS. *Come I clap for myself again*. But I survived! =P

The next trip, if I really do want to come Cing Jing again, will be during the cold winter period. As what I hear from the tour guides, there is possibility of seeing snow at areas above 3000 feets high. You don't need to spend bombs to watch snow. That's good news! =)

We were back to the resort at about 7am for our breakfast.

Good morning husky~

Zzzzz....

Its just so awesome to be having breakfast such nice views.. The breakfast sets are standardised, each guest is entitled to 1 set.

After breakfast, we had no time to rest, cos we are going to Sun Moon Lake (日月谭)! It was an impromptu trip added to our itinerary. We have been hearing people visiting the Sun Moon Lake, so we decided to see it for ourselves since we are already in the vicinity. The transport arrangements were booked through the resort, also with OK bus.

The reason why it is call Sun Moon Lake is because each side of the coastline of the lake resembles the Moon Shape and Sun shape. something like a "C" and "O". Ok you get what I mean? Haha! the tickets for the boat ride is NTD300 per pax. However, some boat companies maybe able to offer cheaper tickets. We did not take the boat ride onto the lake as the attractions on the other end were mostly old streets and temples and it doesn't interest us. We continued to stay on this end of Sun Moon Lake and took a walk along those streets.

Boyfriend say, even if we never take the boat ride, must also take picture so to prove that we've been here! But selfie fail. =/

We came across the Carton King paper steamboat restaurant (纸箱王日月潭纸火锅餐厅) ! It is located at level 2 of 晶喜城.

南投縣魚池鄉水社村中山路163號2樓（晶喜城2F), Nantou City

Initially we thought it was quite pricey, if you compare to the normal restaurants in Taiwan................until we see what was in the set.

King Crab leg, XL scallops, Prawns, Crabsticks, Fishballs, Broccoli,

And, PORK SLICES!! The set also included a small dessert, all served in paper containers. Of course the material is specially made for steamboat, else we will be eating FIREboat. *Ok, lameee*

There are also some decorations for you to take pictures with, we didn't take with ALL. The range is definitely not comparable to the bigger Carton King Creativity Parks in other places. Carton King is located in many other places and there are different restaurant themes too, like western food restaurants, and here in Sun Moon Lake is a steamboat restaurant.

Tourist mode on!

They also sell some of those DIY gifts in the shop. All the items are make of corrugated papers or cardboards. Very interesting. They have many nice mobile phone holders, pens, musical box, lights, decors, etc etc. Boyfriend bought a paper gun for his friends as souvenirs!

On the same level is also MOS Burger. On level 3, there is also a Teresa Teng Art Museum (鄧麗君紀念文物館-日月潭館), but we did not went in cos Boyfriend is not interested. Lol.

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Perhaps we are all drained out from the lack of sleep, we practically just slacked around until the driver came. As advised from the driver, if you had intention to tour Cing Jing and Sun Moon Lake, a 1-day stay at Cing Jing and Sun Moon Lake will be sufficient. For my case, I personally feel that I rather see sheep for 2 days than visiting Sun Moon Lake.

Back at the hotel, we had our steamboat dinner again. We wanted to play fireworks too but it rained..... So we could only stay in our room, watch TV and had instant cup noodles for supper!!

If you think that instant cup noodles are boring, you are WRONG! Some of you may already know, Taiwan instant cup noodles comprises of REAL meat. Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Yes, real meat. Buy one and try it for yourself next time ok? It taste really awesome!

Beef for Boyfriend, Pork for me. =P

After supper it was crazy packing time cos we are heading to Taipei the next day, for more shopping!! 

Somehow, taking a holiday break off work, doesn't really mean "taking a break", cos you will never really get to rest from the tours and shopping even if it is still enjoyable. So, I will say, "Let's take a holiday break from the STRESS off work", hehe!

*Lights Off!*