160312 to 15 Taiwan Trip 1/3
We took an 8-day holiday from 12 to 20 March 2016 to Taiwan during the 1 semester school break, with intention to meet up with YowCH’s cousin, Phan Wei Lian and family, and to visit places that we did not managed to cover back in our 2013 Taiwan Trip.
Here’s our map covering Taiwan’s North and East (click to view larger version):
Day 0: 12 March 2016 (Saturday)
We left home at about 1.15pm, and drove over to Sorrento to pick up Grace’s dad to drive home the car.
Then we reached the airport at 2.00pm. With the whole family, we were given express lane and cleared immigrations by 2.15pm. The flight was quite on time and we took off on Tigerair IT512 at 5:05pm. The food on the plane was rather good, certainly better than Scoot which we took on the previous trip to Taiwan in 2013.
We landed at Taoyuan at 9.05pm, and cleared immigration by 9:45pm.
With the six of us, we took 2 taxis to Xindian and reached New California Hotel at 10.35pm.
We bought some snacks from the 7-eleven, had supper nearby, and then slept at half-past midnight.
Day 1: 13 March 2016 (Sunday)
We woke early and met the Phans at Xindian MRT station at 7.55am.
We bought some snacks for breakfast from 7-eleven, and boarded the MRT and bus to The Great Roots Hot-spring Resort.
We reached at 10.10am, and started hiking on the trails.
By 12.00noon, we had buffet lunch at The Prince, within the resort.
After the relaxing lunch, we went to the hot-springs for soaking at 2.00pm, and spent 1.5hours in the nice warm water.
The bus leaves at 4.30pm, so we let the children have some time in the entertainment centre. The bus ride took us back to the city, and we had dinner at the famous ginger duck steamboat from 6.35pm to 7.40pm.
After dinner, we took bus back to the hotel and distributed some gifts to the Phans.
After a short time of fellowship, the Phans left, we re-packed and prepared for the road trip on the next day, sleeping at 10.15pm.
Day 2: 14 March 2016 (Monday)
We woke and had breakfast in the hotel at 8:00am. Our tour guide and driver, Mr Pu Hong Sheng 蒲宏声, picked us up in his red VW van at 8:50am and our long tour starts!
First stop, Yilan, at 9.45am. We had some feet manicure at the hot-spring fish spa, ate peanut ice-cream and very hot spicy ice-cream.
Then we visited a bread factory where we bought some bread and Jimmy Park (railway station).
We left Yilan at 12.30pm, and stopped over at QingShui Cliffs at 2.35pm for 20 mins break.
We reached Hualien town at 3.25pm and had soup dumplings.
We finished eating at 4.05pm and after slight delay due to train crossing, reached Shin Kong Chao Feng Ranch and Resort at 4.55pm.
After checking-in, we unpacked a little and arranged for pick-up at 5.30pm. The driver then drove us to Fenglin and we had beef noodles at 5.45pm. After dinner, we bought some snacks from a local provision shop, and returned to the Ranch at 7.00pm.
Grace and the children then went for a dip in the hot-spring within the Ranch from 7.30pm to 8.20pm.
After that, we had time to relax in the room and to get some work done, and slept at 10.15pm.
Day 3: 15 March 2016 (Tuesday)
We had our breakfast at 7.30am at the Ranch, then we walked to the Farm area. We rented a golf cart and toured the mini-zoo, farms and gardens starting from 8.30am.
Esther and David had fun driving the golf cart, too, and Joseph had a chance to try (with some assistance from YowCH).
We went deep into the farm, reaching the dairy area.
They had nice gardens and animal enclosures.
We left at 10.45am, and the driver picked us up. We met another train along the way.
After the delay, we visited the Lin Tian Shan historical timber yard at 11.15am.
We had a coffee break, and noted that chocolate milk can be in very large pots in Taiwan.
We had a great and tasty lunch at 1.15pm at the famous Man Mei Pork Legs.
After lunch, we toured an old sugar factory at 2.10pm, and bought some ice-cream (mint and wasabi flavoured).
We left after the ice-creams, and visited a long straight road at Ping Di Shen Lin Yuan at 4.50pm, which has only one tree (behind the photo, sorry).
We went on south to the Saoba Stones.
And nearby, the Tropic of Cancer Marker, marking 23.5°North.
Along the way, we passed by a bridge damaged by shifting tectonic plates (repaired).
Finally, we ended at far south in Chishang at the Bolang Avenue, a straight road with no trees, cars or cables, made famous by Mr Brown Coffee advertisement.
Very scenic road, indeed. Peaceful and quiet. Only YowCH and Esther walked the road, the rest slept in the car.
We had dinner at 5.40pm at Chishang Rice Box, eating very nice Taiwan Chishang rice, and bought 2.6kg of rice to bring home.
We left Chishang at 8.50pm and returned to the Ranch at 8.20pm. By 10.30pm, everyone was asleep except for YowCH who did some office work until 11.45pm.
Your comments?