Taiwan 7D6N May 2015 - Day 3

Here comes Day Three of my trip.
We have been sleeping around 12am and wake up at 7.30am. Today is the day we don't need to plan and worry over our schedule because we have hired a taxi(cab) to Pu Li and Nan Tuo for 3800nt. I thought I was late when I opened my eyes at 6am because it was sunny brightly outside. Back in Malaysia, it would be around 7.30 that the sky turns bright slowly. So i went back to sleep and woke up half an hour later thinking that I overslept. Or is it i was to excited for the trip? I stayed awake, lying on the bed till 7.30am.
We was wondering whether the driver can fetch us for breakfast but since it was too last minute, we end up going ourselves. So we didn't know what to eat and went to Family Mart, a convenient shop for breakfast. This Tong Yi maggie cup - breakfast for the day. You can just get it from any convenient shop.

Oh ya! forget to mention that I was told by 2 person that today will rain heavily and told us to bring umbrella, rain coat and to be extra careful. When they know we will be going up to the mountain makes them worried over our journey. The news says that it will rain really heavily and today will be the first day the of rain after a long period. Adding on, Taiwan is going to face water retention real soon if the weather stays hot and sunny. I believe the government and the local will be happy to sing joy over the rain but definitely not the tourists.This rain is know as Plum Rain.
The sky turns gloomy around 8 in the morning and it starts to drizzle when we head to Family Mart for breakfast. It was still drizzling when the cab came at 9am to pick us up for the day. Half way through the journey only the rain stops and we hope the day stays that way.

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Before proceeding on, let me story you how I get to know of hiring a taxi(cab) for a day. My mother was google-ing for others' Taiwan trip blog and saw a blog introducing her driver. Then i got to know from my driver, Mr.Shun that they work as a group under a leader which is Mr. Liu then Mr. Liu will send his friend if he is 'fully booked'. Below are the drivers I've Whatapps:
Mr. Liu 0927888032    7places for 3500nt (you can visit his blog - http://liusir-travel.blogspot.com/) *
Mr. Xie 0937216180     6places for 4000nt
[Our driver - Mr. Shun (0912377313)]
To contact the number above, replace 0 with the international code +00886.
Please note that all of them only speaks Mandarin! Anyway, I ended up choosing Mr.Liu*. We have to add on 300nt because we want to go back to our hostel at Feng Jia rather than staying at Qing Jing area. Mr.Liu sent us a form having driver's information and our information after confirming with him.

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So now, I announce that my DAY TRIP starts ．．．．．． Now！

Mr.Shun was really punctual. We are entitled for a six seated car for only 3person + Mr.Shun.
Remember to bring along wind breaker or sweater because it would be really cold up there.
Mr.Shun was really friendly and introduce the places and find topic to chat with us during our one hour journey to our first destination.

1st Stop: King Garden （元首馆） @ Pu Li (埔里）

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We reach King Garden at 10am and there are already 2 buses of tour group there. There are quite a number of things for us to take photo at the compound. There is a black and white colour chest, a mini stage and others. The structure of King Garden looks like a castle. Inside the 'castle' that is the place for tourist to buy souvenirs. We didn't plan to get any things till we came out from the toilet(toilet was decorated with chest wallpaper). There is a passion fruit jelly shop placed infront of the toilet. Since Mr.Shun have been bringing many of his customers there so he was quite familiar with some owner of the shop there.
He call us to try the passion fruit jelly when we came out from the toilet. To my surprise, the taste was fantastic! A box of Passion Fruit Jelly(30 jellies) costs 120nt. We bought 4 boxes which costs 480nt.
Anyway, we visited this place for only 20minutes and we left to the next stop.

Recommended

2nd Stop: Paper Dome （纸教堂） @ Pu Li （埔里）

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We reached Paper Dome at 10.20am and entrance fee 100nt is needed. However, this entrance fee can be use as a voucher at their shop near the entrance. We bought a wooden horse and combining with my brother's thing, we add on around 80nt.
The place is just to see the Paper Dome, I personally think that there isn't many things to see
We finished visiting this place at 11.16am and leave to the next stop.
   

3rd Stop: Pu Li Wine Factory （埔里酒厂） - Pu Li (埔里)

We reach here around 11.30am and lunch time if after visiting this place. The rain gets heavier on the way here and we was a little afraid if the weather get worse. It would be so dangerous. Anyhow, we can't predict what will happen next so we just happily visit this place.
Maybe because I don't drink and so I'm not a wine lover, i don't find this place too interesting. I remember I was told to try ice-cream wine and chocolate wine but I didn't saw the try any because the weather was already so cold, eating ice-cream is not a good idea right. And we didn't saw any chocolate shop or stall there so we missed both of the recommended food there.
Mr. Liu told us that tour guide and drivers do not usually bring them upstairs to see the wine glass, how people in the olden days make wine and some historical stories between wine and different tribes, but he thinks his customers need t take a look since we have arrive there and paid.
The space up there is quite big and you can spent sometime reading the information if you're interested in it.
We left this place after half an hour of visit and proceed on to fill our flatted stomach.

原住民's traditional clothes

We bought 2 bottles for each flavour. Rose flavour is for female and the Osmanthua flavour is for students to release stress. Something like that if I did not remember wrongly. 4 bottles of these costs 600nt which means 20nt each. She sells 4 different flavours buy we only bought both of the flavour above. She mentioned this can be spread on the bread and eat it as a jam too.

She told us many Malaysian tourist buy these from her and so she gave us discount from 25nt each to 20nt each. Don't know whether is it true.

Time for Lunch!

Mr.Shun brought us to a very traditional Taiwanese food shop between Paper Dome and Wine Factory. This shop don't open everyday so Mr.Shun passby this shop to check whether they operate today when we are on the way to Wine Factory. Since we are new here, Mr. Shun recommend and ordered for us the famous dishes there.
Lunch for 3 costs 225nt. Around 75nt per person.

4th Stop: Swiss Garden (小瑞士花园）@ Nan Tou (南投)

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5th stop: Carton King (纸箱王） @ Nan Tou (南投)

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Swiss Garden and Carton King are placed side by side. Carton King is free entrance but Swiss Garden's entrance fee costs 120nt. We are allowed to spend an hour here while Mr.Shun fetch a group of China tourist to a place they wanted to go. We hired him for the day but we know everyone would like to earn more that makes him fetch them.
Anyway, the entrance was so beautiful and we was amazed by the decorated. Too pretty!! After snapping some pictures at the stairs, we go further up to see tables and chairs, carton king entrance, and at the side is entrance for swiss garden.


Carton King = things made using papers and card boards
Saw the 2 little animal beside the entrance.

After visiting Carton King, we realized we don't have much time so we go and buy the entrance ticket at Swiss Garden entrance counter quickly. The moment we step into the compound of Swiss Garden, our reaction tells how beautiful is the garden, the decoration and the flowers. Alice in the wonderland?

The picture below state the time for water 'dance' performance. I didn't notice this until I saw the 'dance' myself in Swiss Garden.

We departed Swiss Garden at 2.40pm to rush for the performance at our next stop.

6th Stop: Qing Qing Cao Yuan(青青草原） @ Nan Tou （南投）

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The time runs without we realising. It is already 3 in the afternoon and we have reach the all time favour tourism spot, Qing Jing Nong Chang (情境农场). This place is liken to Cameron Highlands and Genting Highlands in Malaysia. However, this place is a nicer place compare to the Malaysia. opppss... The weather there was already cold and adding on with the rain that we met has lower down the temperature more. I remember it was really freezing cold when I reach Swiss Garden. I was shivering although I was wearing a think sweater.
Mr.Shun fetch us up to the highest entrance so that we could walk down and enjoy the scenery. If you are going to this place by hiring a taxi(cab). I would recommend you to have your driver drop you at the peak so that you can have a better view of the place. Anyway, due to the rain and limited time we have, I didn't get to really stand firm and take a good picture of the entrance. I was so clumsy when paying the 160nt per person entrance fee. Ask me why and I myself also don't know the answer. haha!
After paying the entrance fee and getting the ticket, there will be a person in-charge at the main entrance checking your ticket. Next, you need to cop a ink on your hand as a prove when you go to visit the horse farm.

We met with a friend at Swiss Garden coincidentally and was told that the sheep was not release out due to the rain. However, the rain got lighter when we reach so we was fortunate to be able to take a picture of them and with them.

After that, you just need to follow the trail down the mountain. Don't get down too fast, remember to take a few pictures of the really beautiful scenery and enjoy the cooling weather. From far, you will see a stage for sheep performance 綿羊秀. But the performance is only on weekend during a certain time.

We came to a slippery stairs case at the lower part so I did not take any pictures because safety first. :)

We know we have reach the other entrance when we saw stalls by the road side. Mr.Shun told us to just walk straight and we will reach another entrance, which is the Mountain View Area 观山牧区. At the end of this place, there is a horse performance at certain time. The time we went and watch the performance was around 3.30pm.

Here it is! This is the place Mr.Shun told us that the horse performance by people from Mongol is interesting. Estimated time the whole performance told was around 20mins.

7th Stop: The Old England (老英格兰拍照)

This is the most expensive hotel to get in Taiwan. It cost 10000nt per night.
This is just a place for us to take pictures of the old England building at the compound area. So we took a few but it is not with me currently.
(will upload when i got the photos)
It is 5pm and is time to head back to our hostel. An hour journey to reach. We were all wet especially our shoes. Something awful was the smell from our shoes when rain, shoe and feet are friends. (get it? no? ignore it then. :p)
On the journey back, there was a jam at a road that never jam says Mr.Shun. As predicted, there was a accident infront. But we were still stuck at the road after the accident. After that only we know that there is another one infront. When we pass by, we was really shocked to witness the affects of the accident. Around 3 cars and 2 buses were involved in the 2nd accident. Drive safe and stay safe every second.
About 6.20pm when we reach Migo Stay. We quickly go and wash up so that we could join church service.
We left our hostel once we are done and headed to Feng Jia night market area for dinner. Mum wanted to try smelly taufu and we saw this steamboat smelly taufu shop and so we had our dinner there. The place to eat inside is air-conditioned and the dining space was filled with the smell of smelly taufu. I has not eaten or smell any of it in my life and this was the first time. To my surprise, I could handle it and the tauful is just a little smelly when it goes into my mouth.

Dinner costs 170nt. As usual, we ordered 2 person portion for three person. It was around 8.10pm when we finish our dinner and got a cab from the east area to the north side of Tai Zhong. The taxi(cab) lady told us that some drivers will take a big turn to our destination so that they can earn more. Those metered taix(cab) can cost up to 320nt. However, we got a good driver that knows the short cut to our destination. She saved our time and money (cost 190nt).

After having service at church, we got back to our hostel at 11.30pm! How exhausted it is! But what counts is the memory that I get throughout my journey for the whole day.

So that's it for Day 3. It is sad that we could not enjoy ourselves freely due to the rain. It gets heavier when we get up to the mountain. However, Thank God because I was told that the rain will get heavier the next day. If i got the opportunity and time to travel to Taiwan again, i would want to come here again.

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