▐ TAIWAN: TAIPEI-TAICHUNG▐ MUST GO PLACES & TO-DO | CHANWON'S ITINERARY

 Hello Sweeties✨ Welcome back to my blog and finally I'm back from my busy traveling life. Today, I'm just going to clear all my draft post! The first blog post for this month will be my Taiwan travel journey. Yes, I must make sure I did this blog post before my Busan & New York City travel post. So as you guys know, it's not the first time I have been to Taiwan!

I have been there since 6 years ago and this time I'm exploring outside of Taipei. It's gonna be Taipei til Taichung journey. To be honest, I wasn't really happy on the first few days in Taipei because the weather is just so bad. Raining all day long and force to cancel most of my itinerary. Thank god we actually booked a private car / tour throughout the whole trip, if not I can't imagine how much effort it might takes us to just travel in this kind of bad weather due to the Typhoon.

I never been so disappointed before but to be honest, after traveling to both Taiwan , Busan and Japan within this few months, I realise the weather is more unpredictable compare to the past. Last time I use to check the weather before my trip and 90% of it is similar or happen exactly like what the prediction showed on the weather report. Now, it's either a sudden typhoon visit to the country I went or else it's super hot or sudden cold.

So yea if you are going to visit to any country soon, make sure to keep yourself warm enough or bring umbrella / rain cost before your trip. 

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| Preparation & How I plan the Family Trip 

So this time it's slightly different than my previous trip to Taiwan, it's consider as a family trip with Smelly & his family. At first the plan was 9 person trip and it's why we have decided since it's travel in a group of more than 4 pax, it's better to 包車 'get a private car or tour ' to travel within the country. It's easier and much better if you traveling with eldest or your parents. 

Transportation: Private tour / driver or Free & Easy?

Here's some advice for you if you are planning to have a family trip soon in the future. If you are visit places like Taiwan, Thailand or most of the asian country, it's better to book a private cab or private driver for you and your family to travel with ease. If it's less than 5 person then it's still okay but if you family member is more than 5 or around 10 persons, please don't plan it yourself. You can plan the places to visit or itinerary yourself and pass to the tour ask them to settle for you because from my experience, if you are traveling with a big group of people, it's very hard to be punctual and there are so many unexpected things happen throughout the trip.

If you travel with less people, it's more easy to control and gather in one place together. Unlike us we are young, we can walk non-stop for a day but our daddy mommy or eldest relatives couldn't walk as fast as us and they easily feel tired during the trip. So for that, we decided to get a private tour and replace all our public transportation. Actually you can just get a private car or driver. I feel it's a waste for private tour as the itinerary plan by them is quite boring and not my cup of tea lol

Having a private car or tour is quite a good thing because you just need to tell the driver where you want to go or show them the itinerary you plan (some even plan it for you), then they will fetch you to the destination and go back to where you stay. You no need to worry about how to go or looking at your google map.

What you did is just show and let them know where you want to go lol. It's as easy as a piece of cake and even suitable for people who lazy to guide and plan the travel route. Also, a best solution for traveling with a huge group of family which has kids or eldest member in your family. 

The private driver / car fee is quote based on the amount of pax, the size of the car you want (for example a van or a small medium size bus) and total hours per day. It can go within one thousand to two thousand for a normal car to a small medium bus. It's best if you can find it yourself and compare with the service provided by the private driver or car. See whether it's something you like or not and choose the model of the car you wish to get during your trip. To be honest, you get for what you pay. 一分錢一分貨 if you want super cheap one the car might not turn out to be nice or either too small to fit in all your luggage. That's why need to consider the amount of luggage as well as number of pax ya. Please take note on that.

So as I mentioned earlier, at the end of the day like one week plus before the trip I only know half of Smelly relative can't make it for the trip lol. At the end of the day, only 4 of us but I booked 3 rooms homestay. I thought it's gonna be hard for me to digest since I really dislike people last min change my plan (also pay extra lol) and I have decided to take the private driver for 9 pax lol. But ended up I'm feeling lucky as the trip turn out just nice for 4 of us as in the space is really enough for all our luggages and also I feel so recharge after this whole Taiwan trip.

I think I really enjoy the max with Smelly's parents as his parents are really nice and cute. We had so much fun during the whole trip and when I'm back from this trip, I told Smelly that next year 2019, I'm going to bring both of his parent and of course Smelly too to Japan. So yea, that's basically sum out the whole family trip experience. 

So yes, most of my travel experience are either with friends or my team but this time, it's really a good bonding experience together with the family. I hope this blog post could help you and get some idea for planning a family trip in the future. 

8 Days Trip

Since it's not the first time I went to Taiwan, I decided go out of the main Taipei city. As most of you guys might noticed this blog post: http://www.chanwon.com/2016/08/things-i-did-places-to-go-in-taiwan.html I did 2 years ago, it's mainly focus in Taipei and this time if you prefer something more to scenery view, suitable for family trip, more fun and at the same time just the right amount of shopping and embrace the natural beauty of TaiChung, then you can take this as a reference. I separate each of the must visit and must do thing here and you can plan according your preference.

Most of the time I just mark down the place I go and just told the driver where I want to be or change from the actual itinerary they planned to me. Or else if you go it FREE & EASY, then you can also mark which place to visit on Day 1 / 2 or 3 and then a day before, you check again with the weather and transportation through google map or from google too.

I dont like my itinerary to be fixed up as sometimes it's raining day I need some indoor activities or maybe it's weekend, too crowded and I will do some last min change. So yea, if you follow my itinerary since years ago then you know my style one! No worries :D

So this time first 3 days we spent in Taipei and the rest we actually visited Taichung. 

First 3 Days- Taipei

Next 4-5 Days- Taichung

For a shorter travel period, it's best to make it 5D4N to TaiChung alone or if you have 1 week holiday like ours, then you can visit two main city. Next time I want to visit Tainan for maybe 6D or 5D trip. If your parents are really tired, the best travel length is going to be 5D4N. 

Flight Ticket 

Our flying date is really unexpected bad as the last day was typhoon visit and it's so scary. Thank god nothing happen during the whole trip. We take airasia and compare to the previous experience, our flight tickets are quite expensive as in we only booked it 2 months before our trip and there is no extra promo during the time, also it's public holidays in Malaysia. 

So yea, if you have more budget you can actually get the arrival ticket to Taipei and back from Taichung airport. If not just get the return ticket to and from Taipei. Our flight ticket added with luggage per person around RM910. Normally not peak season or during promo, like what I get previously I can get the flight ticket around RM600 per person. Or the cheapest I saw before was RM450 around that. But mostly it's sold out or either the traveling period isn't the best season ever. So as usual, look at the budget and carefully plan for your trip.

The Weather

Weather wasn't good during our Taiwan trip this time. It's all day raining during the first 3 days in Taipei, only when we arrived in TaiChung, the weather turn better and Sunny. The first three day, we cancelled all our itinerary plan (such as Taiwan Yehliu Geopark 野柳地質公園 and Famous Queen's Head女王頭 )  as most of the place we plan to visit was outdoor. It's super inconvenient to travel when it's heavy rain and Smelly get sick on the second day in Taiwan lol. But thanks god I'm quite familiar in Taiwan, so I change to some place that I visit before. Better than just go to indoor shopping, am I right? lol

Budget Planning: How much should I bring as pocket money?

As I mentioned earlier, for Asia country such as Korea, Taiwan, Japan or Thailand, if you shop til drop per person RM5k included the flight ticket and everything is more than enough. If you not really a shopaholic, for pocket money (when visit to Taiwan) & you mainly just use the money on food, entrance fees then around RM1.5-2K pocket money is enough for you.

For this trip, I only bring around 1k-1.5k because I mainly pay on the food. For the accommodation and transportation I actually prepaid before the trip. So RM1500 for a little shopping and food is more than enough. 

Beware of the Little black mosquitoes 小黑蚊:

During this trip, I get bitten by the little black mosquitoes in Taiwan. I guess it's because I visited two farm in Taiwan plus it's raining season there. Without any precaution, I get bitten all over my leg and it's super duper itchy. Nothing can help and stop me from scratching my leg. They’re the size of fleas and their bites really pack a punch with the intense itching lasting up to 2 weeks. If you scratching non-stop, it became more itchy and it leave scars & marks all over your skin. 

I try to google it out and most of the people who visited Taiwan during this season have the same problems. If you bite by it, the scars can only disappear after 3 months.  The best thing to do is to cover up & bring the anti black mosquitoes spray that can be found in most of the pharmacy. If you wanna know more about this little black mosquitoes as known as no-see-ums, you can google it out & read some articles from there.

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| Where I Stay 

Now let's talk about my awesome homestay that I found on HomeAway. As usual, if you followed my instagram you must be knowing how beautiful and affordable my homestay in Taiwan. Since I'm travelling with family I really prefer to get bonding together in a home alike house rather than a hotel.  The last few days I stay at hotel as the lake we visited in Taichung is so far and there are only some tourist hotel available nearby.

So as in for Taipei, we stay in this lovely 3 rooms house with the best photo spot ever. Yes, I can take photo at each of the corner of this house and to be honest, the MRT subway station is just right beside the apartment. I think less than 1 min walk from our apartment and opposite our apartment there is a huge food restaurant shopping mall. Besides 24 hours convenience store and bakery just down stairs, and Starbucks cafe/mos burger/food court just right below our apartment. I can say this is the best homestay I stay in Taiwan so far. It's so beautiful, photo worthy, convenient, big space and even all the facilities available in this apartment were so useful.

You can do a little cooking on the kitchen, washing machine can be really handy during raining weather, huge dining and living area with bright lighting too. Besides, it's really reasonable and affordable, it's around RM150-200 per person for a night. Can fit up to 8 person as there is sofa bed too! Okay, I should stop talking now and let me show you my beautiful homestay!

Link to our HomeAway homestay: Click Here

Look how beautiful and cozy my homestay is

The entrance of the HomeAway homestay.

This owner is a nice lady who are so friendly. I can really see her personality from this homestay deco and also it's full of green plants and she even came to look for us during the first day of our visit. Teaching us how to use the washing machine and where to take the umbrella and how to use the shower room. Actually I roughly know how it works but just being so happy that I met a nice owner like this. 

- HOMEAWAY HOMESTAU INTERIOR -

This home feel exactly like our house. It's so cozy and every corner can see how much the owner put her effort on the decorations. 

The Living Area

 Kitchen and dining area

The living area again

The simply yet beautiful kitchen

There are two toilets in this house. One located in our master bedroom another one just right beside this toilet. Both look really similar so I'm just going to show one here. Next speaking the bedroom, there are 3 bedrooms in total and two with sofa beds too.

 This is our master room, slightly bigger and a double size sofa bed with full body mirror and iron.

 This is second bedroom which has a huge windows beside the bed, good lighting and a sofa bed as well.

The third bedroom.

 After 30 mins! HAHAHAHAHA 

So happy because it's Smelly first visit to Taiwan! 

 Lydia the owner come to greet us and show us around.

 The first night where all of us just sit in front of the TV and enjoy our bonding time~

 Look at the map and show them where are we going on the next day lol

HAHAAHHA! Doing mask together! So Cute 💕

- LOCATION, SUBWAY STATION AND CONVENIENCY -

Next talking about the conveniency of this homestay I can only give compliment lol. Just few steps then you see the subway station, besides there is convenience store, pharmacy, restaurant and even Daiso just right below the apartment. Foot walk within 1 min lol! Super duper near! I guess after my sharing this homestay will fully book throughout the year 🤣 聽我準沒錯 This is really a nice stay with lift available if you carry heavy luggage!

 Opposite our homestay, there is this building (look like shopping mall) but it's actually all food and restaurants.

The subway station!

Next, how about some OOTD shoot in my homestay? Look at this! OMG!!

Photo worthy! It's in the kitchen xD

Another one took in the living area! 

Last one to give compliment for this full body mirror! 

Link to our HomeAway homestay: Click Here

So that's all about my HomeAway house in Taiwan. I hope this answer all your dm and questions about my stay in Taiwan. The last few day I actually stay in TaiChung and if you need more homestay listing, can always search it on their website and app ya. I always get very affordable and nice stay through HomeAway.

If you wish to enjoy 8% off on your next vacation stay, remember to quote [HOMEAWAYCHANWON] to redeem the 8% discount! Hope it's useful and bookmark this so you can always enjoy the offer without asking me repeatedly. 

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| First 3 Day Taipei Itinerary 

Since I blogged about Taipei itinerary before (click here to read more) and for this trip, I re-visit JiuFen 九份, Tamsui 淡水 so I will do a short summary for my Taipei itinerary as in I dont wanna repeat the content again but I do have better photography with my new camera this time hehe! So here's my 3 days Taipei plan:-

Since the first three day in Taipei was raining all day long, I can't visit to 80% of our itinerary plan. Like Yehliu Geopark 野柳地質公園 & the Famous Queen's Head 女王頭 , all the places need to change and cancel due to the weather. Luckily the second day we went out quite early, still able to make it for JiuFen then after few hours walk, the sky turn really dark and start raining lol. So here's the Taipei plan for your reference.

Day (1): Arrived Taipei in afternoon > Checked in Homestay > Bath & prepare ourself > Raohe Street Night Market

Day (2): Haibin Road > Gold Waterfall > JiuFen > Eslite Bookstore 誠品書店 > Shopping in Taipei around 101 area (due to the heavy rain weather) > Shilin Night Market* should have change to ShiDa Night Market 師大夜市 as Shilin no longer as nice as compare to 6 years ago. It's too tourist and the food is quite dirty 😭 *So if you visit to Taipei, please go for Shida or Raohe also better than Shilin Night Market. We saw a cockroach in our food. 

Day (3): QingTianGang Grassland 擎天崗@Yangmingshan陽明山 > Hot Spring Onsen Experience @日月石上泉 > Jinbaoli Old Street 金包里老街 > Tamsui Area > Tamsui Old Street 淡水老街 > Taipei 101 

Since it's a family trip, I plan all itinerary end at 7pm and we leave our homestay at 9am every morning. So at the end of the day we always reach home at 7pm so that all of us can get a proper rest and won't too much or exhausted for the eldest.

So are you ready for the places I went and to-do in Taiwan? Let's get started and I'm tagging you together and explore the Taiwan again with me! #FollowChanwonTo 

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*Day 1: Night

| #1 Taipei: Raohe Street Night Market 

It's my first time to Raohe Street Night Market. I think Taiwan is famous for its old street and also the night market. As long as you have no idea what to do or eat at night, the best decision is visit the nearer night market and enjoy the local food here.

I really love the night market in Taiwan, each night market got their signature food and famous local food stall. For example this Raohe Street Night Market is famous for the pepper bun! 

Raohe Street Night Market

This is the pepper bun! It’s a small savoury sesame bun, with a hot, peppery beef filling. Feeling extra blessed to try this without the long queue due to the rain. For me it’s quite ‘spicy’ but having this in a raining day is really nice 😋 

 Right after 5 mins after our turn, it start queue like crazy again!

 Also one of our favourite! Taiwanese sausage on stick! Supper yummy!

Raohe Street Night Market is mainly for food lover unlike Shida Night Market has both food and selling clothing. I love to visit and explore new night market each time I came to Taiwan.

So hard to eat and try the good food when it's raining!

Local hot soup!

Feeling satisfied after trying all kind of local night market food in Taiwan.

Things I spot in Raohe Night Market

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*Day 2: Morning- Early Afternoon

| #2 Taipei: Haibin Road, Gold Waterfall, JiuFen

I was praying hard for a Sunny day on the second day in Taiwan. So we decided to go out a little earlier and on our way to JiuFen, we actually passed by this Haibin Road & Gold Waterfall. 

Before we start our journey to Jiufen, we decided to ask the driver & fetch us to try some local breakfast! So here's the local sandwich in Taiwan. It looks so simple but it's really yummy. I love how 人情味 the shop owner was, even playing and talking with his customer's baby.

- HAIBIN ROAD -

Our driver stop at this Haibin road and just let us embrace the breeze. Feeling so much better today but the sky is really dull and seems raining soon!

Photo time

 Travel with this Smelly 💕

- GOLD WATERFALL -

Next destination, the Gold Waterfall but unfortunately it's less water flowing on the day we visit. Probably due to the season. This waterfall is quite special, the 'gold' actually comes from metals in the water, which results in the rocks turning in such color.

- JIUFEN -

Soon we arrived JiuFen. It's my forth time here!! AHAHAHAH I love and really miss the food here. Since Smelly and his dad never come before, I decided to add this into the itinerary.

Peanut Ice Cream Roll: This is real yummy! I blogged about Jiufen before so I'm just going to make it quick on this post.

Fishball Soup & Noodle + Taroballs  also a must to try / eat in Jiufen.

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*Day 2: Late Afternoon - Night

| #3 Taipei: Eslite Bookstore, Shopping @Taipei Area 

It's start raining right after we visited Jiufen😭 So at the end we just going to be in Taipei city and do some shopping. 

Double Rainbow after the heavy rain

Visited this 24 hours Eslite Bookstore in Taipei

Bought some books during my visit

Also went to GU store and bought some outfit for Smelly and myself! HAHAHAAH

with Smelly's lovely mom.

After that I decided to go for some family dessert date. I picked this MÖVENPiCK 莫凡彼. It served super nice dessert and the last dish German roast pork feet + German sausage 德國烤豬腳+德式肉腸NTD$490 (bottom right photo) are super duper yummy! Strongly recommended by Smelly & me! 

At the end of the day, since it's still raining outside we can't visit any night market and our driver recommended us to visit an indoor night market. Which is the Shilin Night Market. I wasn't know it was Shilin, if I knew I must suggest to visit another restaurant as this is totally a tourist food court. It was really nice 6 years ago during my first visit to Taiwan but during our visit this time, we spot a cockroach in our braised pork rice. I was speechless for it and you know what, both Smelly and I ordered the rice.

I ate half of mine and suddenly I heard Smelly screaming and ask me to stop, next we immediately call the person in charge to look at it and she asked if we need to exchange a new one?! what the...completely stunned. It means the whole braised pork get really dirty. I can't take it and at the end I decided to ask them take away my pork rice too.

So I doesn't feel like eating from the same food stall again. I force myself to forget it and order the noodle to fill in my stomach lol. Not really recommend to come here. Very crowded, full of tourist, everyone pulling you and ask you to come and dine in. I prefer to choose my own instead of forcing by someone to dine in or look at the menu. Super competitive and no longer a peace dine-in experience anymore. lol

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*Day 3: Morning

| #4 QingTianGang Grassland 擎天崗@Yangmingshan陽明山 

Third day was the last day in Taipei and we will be back to Taipei Taoyuan airport on the last day. So this morning , as usual I pray for no rain but still it rain during our visit to Tamsui early in the afternoon lol. But thank god the weather remain slightly cloudy on the rest of the day. As usual, for morning breakfast we decided to go for something local again.

We went to try the famous beef noodle in town but it closed on that day. Not sure why and then our driver decided to bring us to another 24 hours beef noodle shop.

This is the one open 24 hours all day long

The portion is really huge, I totally can't finish it lol. As for the taste, maybe I too get use to the beef noodle I had in Malaysia or Japan which has stronger taste and the meat is softer than this. This beef is quite hard to bite and bit too dry for me. The taste wasn't that heavy also. Very light taste consider for a beed noodle. I think Taiwan now goes for a healthier lifestyle, their food taste much lighter now, not like ours Malaysia food more heavy taste and more oily.

- QIANTIANGANG GRASSLAND -

After our breakfast, we went to the QingTianGang Grassland 擎天崗 which located at Yangmingshan 陽明山. It's my first time here and I'm taking a deep breath right above this green grassland. The air was really fresh and weather really so cold at that time. Other than walking and the scenery view from top of the mountain, I can't think of other activities here. lol

This route closed due to the raining weather during our trip. If it's open, we can walk through the way and see the view from another side of the mountain. In a conclusion, it's a mountain-top flatland park, which provides amazing views of Yangmingshan National Park. 

Using my Instax SQ6 camera to take some photo

- HOT SPRING EXPERIENCE -

Since this place has volcanic activity in the mountains nearby, we went to a hidden spot recommended by our private driver. It's also one of the highlight of the day! Actually Smelly feeling really sick on the third day and I thought of he can feel better after taking a hot spring! So here we are!!

Hot Spring Onsen Experience @日月石上泉

We went to a private outdoor onsen. All the onsens available at YangMingShan (陽明山) are mainly sulfur spring (硫磺). Which look milky or some even look more like a yellowish brown color spring water. Unlike most of the hot spring that available in the hotel located at YangMingShan, this is actually a private outdoor hot spring that located out of the hot zone area. Only local people know this spot. It cost only 150 taiwan dollar per person and if you are here remember to bring your own towel with you, if not you need to pay 50 taiwan dollar to get one towel for yourself. 

Onsen which contains Sulfur spring can helps to reduce your body tiredness and in a way that it also helps to improve your health condition. Unlike most of the onsen I visited in Japan, there are beautiful changing room and hair dryer for you to fix your hair, this one you need to pay extra in order to use the hair dryer and the place actually not as glam as those I went in Japan. But still, the hot spring is really good and suit for people who traveling with a group of family. You can go in alone or with extra one pax. Just be careful the hot spring water is really hot and you might need to slowly dip in your leg first and then only your body. 

You need to rest for 5 mins after 10-15 mins dipping in the hot spring. For first timer, normally you can try 20-25 mins max. After you done with it, you might need to take a rest first as sometime people might feel a little dizzy after enjoying their hot spring. It’s definitely a good experience! I tried both and I love it! 

Nothing better than a private onsen!

it tooks me 20 mins to fully dip into the hot spring here! It's really really hot lol

If you go onsen at night, you will sleep very well until the next morning and Smelly feel better after this. Thank god!

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*Day 3: Afternoon:

| #5 Tamsui Area, Tamsui Old Street 淡水 

For the last few hours in Taipei, we decided to go to Tamsui Area and get our dinner here. I came to this area before during my visit in Taiwan 2 years ago. You can click and read the Part #5 of  this post: (http://www.chanwon.com/2016/08/things-i-did-places-to-go-in-taiwan.html) 

As I mentioned earlier, there are 3 favourite place you can visit when you're in Tamsui, it's the famous Tamsui Old Street (淡水老街), Bali left bank & Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf (淡水漁人碼頭) which is well known for its beautiful sunsets. For this visit, we actually passed by Jinbali 金包里老街 (famous of its duck meat) and then only reach at Tamsui Area.

- JINBAOLI OLD STREET -

For the Jinbaoli Old Street 金包里老街, we decided to give its famous duck meat a try. Surprisingly we all prefer our homeland duck meat lol. It's more juicy than this. This one is really dry and not as juicy as the one we get use to eat in Malaysia. I think it's basically the local love it but just not us due to it taste really different with the one we had in our homeland. But it wasn't that bad actually, just the duck meat was a bit dry and not juicy at all lol.

If you pass by here maybe could give this a try because many people rated this as one of the must try in Jinbaoli Old Street and I saw lots of people queue for this duck meat. We waited 15 mins for this! 

Edited with VSCO A9 &A10 Filter

My face after the super nice onsen xD A little bit tired and sleepy after that lol

- TAMSUI -

Lastly, spending our late afternoon in Tamsui Area. Also went to the Tamsui Old Street & Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf. There are lot of food stall and UFO shop in this area, you can rent a bicycle and cycling around the whole area. Pretty relaxing and well spend with your family and friends too.

If you want to explore out of the city and enjoying some nice scenery in Taiwan, remember to include Tamsui into your itinerary. It's quite a huge area for both food, souvenir shopping as well as other activities too.

If you have more time you can go to the opposite side of the river. It's the Bali Left Bank 八里左岸 and just located along the North Coast along the Tamsui River directly opposite of Tamsui Old Street. You can cycling around the area as well as having some good food too. Something similar to this Tamsui Area.

 Tamsui Old Street

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*Day 4: Go to Taichung

| #6 Taichung: Gaomei Wetland 

So this is the forth day of our trip! Our main target is all the way from Taipei to Taichung and in between that journey, we passed by Hsinchu 新竹 area, went to a farm in Taiwan and at the end of the day, our Taichung highlight will be the Gaomei Wetland.

For the title I'm going to highlight that one particular recommended place to visit, and depend on you whether like to follow the whole route I mentioned or not. Personally I think the Tomita Farm can skip and also the resting station too. It's a bit time consuming and useless to go on both spot but since I'm not really familiar with Taichung, I'm just gonna follow the flow and itinerary recommended by our driver. 

The itinerary provided by the private tour is quite lame. No back up plan for raining weather and ended up I need to guide the driver. Also, the driver feeling extra nervous as he knew some places isn't that interested and at the end of the day, he also alter and change the itinerary on the 5th Day of our trip based on my preference. So glad for that lol.

It's the 4th day of our trip! Today we are heading to the middle area of Taiwan. Yes, taichung for the first time. Our route of the day will be Tomita Farm Taiwan 富田農場 > Hsinchu 新竹 > 清水休息站> Gaomei Wetland 高美濕地.

We had our breakfast done @Ah-Fu 阿富滷肉飯. This is my type of breakfast! Look at the amount of rice! Smelly order a normal size one while I'm having the big one! Double of his size 😂 I can't live without rice lol

Official site: https://www.tomita.com.tw

- TOMITA FARM IN TAIWAN -

Take note of this Tomita Farm. It's like a inspired or copy version of the real Tomita Farm in Hokkaido, Japan. Just stop compare because I went to the one in Japan before, it's completely diff. This mainly is for photoshoot purpose only. Lot of couple came here to take photo. I look at the location tag on Instagram, it's pretty okay but when I arrived there and witness it myself. Not me but everyone was shock.

Not saying about the size but most of the backdrop props are rarely maintained and it's just mainly for photo purpose only. Lot of couple came here for wedding shoot and photo purpose. If those facilities and chairs are well maintain or clean daily, it will be quite a nice place to go but when we were there, I totally shocked with the low maintenance level of the farm like those chairs, the overall aren't look really clean. I guess if their backdrop and everything in the farm can maintain and clean nicely, it will be quite a nice place to go.

So you might need to take note of this farm ya. I hope they can take the advice and make a little change to maintain this beautiful farm. I know it's quite hard to maintain and run a farm and hopefully in the future it can become as beautiful as last time. But there is some good feedback such as the activities available there is suitable for family and kids visit too. So yea, you can decide whether you want to visit or not ya.

Was talking with Smelly and suddenly I spotted this Shiba playing around with these flowers. Next, I immediately took my camera out and captured this photo. I love to see things like this and enjoy all these little moment. I just sit there and look at it 😂

Hope you are having a good day Shiba!

Since I got nothing to do, I'm just going to feed the duck and pigeons. 

It should be a pretty place if they maintain it. But most of the backdrops and props behind me is either really rusty or many dirt stick on it. Everyone only stand further and take photo here only. 

This photo spot is a good spot right?! The glasshouse behind me added a big point on this photo!

- HSINCHU TEMPLE & FOOD  -

Continue our journey, we leave the farm and straight go to Taichung for the Gaomei Wetland. In the middle of our journey, we passed by  Hsinchu 新竹 and decided to take our lunch here. We also paid a visit to the Hsinchu famous temple 新竹廟口. In Taiwan historical sites such as the local temple, there are always some food stall and famous food restaurant located all around the temple. So we just randomly pick one and had our lunch nearby this Hsinchu Temple.

 Hsinchu Temple 新竹廟口

Next we went to a huge resting area before going to Gaomei Wetland. It's known as 清水休息站 but nothing to highlight so I didn't take a photo for that. So yea moving forward, like finally we arrived our final destination- Gaomei Wetland!!

- GAOMEI WETLAND -

Gaomei Wetland is such a romantic spot to visit in Taichung. Don't go alone, I feel like it's better to go with a group of people and the sunset is soooo beautiful. I did a little research before going here but too bad it was really cloudy during the day we visited Gaomei Wetland. I think if you ask me must go places and to visit place in Taichung, this is my top recommendation and the sun moon lake too! 

Gaomei Wetland located in Qingshui District, Taichung, Taiwan. It is a land mixed with both sand and soil textures and consider it as a preservation area in Taichung. The wind mills look really beautiful with the orange gradient sky!

Look how beautiful it is

 Hello mini one!!

#ChanwonTips: Remember to wear a pair of slippers instead of sport shoes or heels because your feet and ankles will be wet if you are going for a walk on the wetland. If you bring your own slippers, it’s more comfortable and convenient to put on after walking barefooted on the wetlands.

Hello!! 

Dont worry if you are hungry because there are ton of food stall right opposite the wetlands area. You can also rent bicycle and cycling around the area. Can spend a half day here with a group of friends , family or your partner. I really really love this place! Feel so relaxing and recharge after visited here.

As for our dinner, we decided to try another local food in Taichung! It's the WangTa Rice Cake! Abit like our Malaysia's 'Lo Mai Gai' 糯米鸡 (Chinese Steamed Glutinous Rice). This one I really think it's yummy! I love it and it's softer and taste nicer than our Chinese steamed glutinous rice.

Busy ordering my food xD

 Look how yummy it is! If you happen to be in Taichung, remember to try this out! 

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*Day 5:  Morning - Afternoon

| #7 QingJing Farm 清境農場 , Skywalk & Swiss Garden 

Day 5 is something really different from the previous itinerary as we change our itinerary one day before. Today we went to Swiss garden and also visited the QingJing Farm. I posted the sky walk photo on my instagram and lot of people ask me where is the skywalk, it's actually located in the same area of QingJing Farm.

There is a Switzerland style garden located nearby the QingJing Farm, also the accommodation located at the place is soooo Switzerland Style. So unreal! But for the swiss garden hotel nearby it's super expensive can go up to RM2K per night for the super chio one. Normally tourist came here will make it a 2D1N trip at QingJing Farm where you can eat lots of fresh vegetable and enjoy the superior view from top of the mountain too.

It reminds me of Cameron Highland in Malaysia. The road going up to the mountain is as crazy as our Cameron Highland. If you easily get dizzy, please inform your driver to drive carefully or take anti-dizzy medicine from doctor first.

Look at this! If you really wanna experience something more than just the busy city, remember include this into your itinerary plan. It's relaxing like the Gaomei Wetland but this is much gorgeous and I really love it except I get bitten by the little black mosquitoes lol. I think wedding shoot at this place is really beautiful. The ambiance and the air also not too hot! 

Swiss Style OOTD :p To match with my background lol

Cropped & Edited with VSCO filter

- SWISS GARDEN -

So the first stop will b e the Swiss Garden. There is one cafe and some souvenir shop located in this Swiss garden. You can go to nearby convenience store just right beside this Swiss Garden and also there is public toilet here.

The view behind this Swiss Garden is just awesome!

- NINA CAFE -

Since it's super Sunny outside, I decided to go for an indoor cafe lol. I went to this Nina Cafe located in the garden because of its window view of the Swiss Garden Entrance. It's so beautiful and I ordered a cup of hot chocolate & a rose shape chocolate too. Just enjoying the air-con lol

This is the view from the Cafe. We didn't enter the Swiss Garden as it's super hot and the Sun is just right above us. Super hot and scary! Can't even open my eye for photo purpose. So I give up on that and just going to enjoy the air-con. lol

This is the entrance of the Swiss Garden surrounded by colourful pinwheels.

Next Stop: QingJing Farm

- QINGJING FARM -

This is the official map of QingJing Farm. Remember to cover yourself with long pants to avoid bitten by the little black mosquitoes. I have no idea on that so it was one of the biggest mistake I did during my trip lol. 

 There are lots of horses, pony and sheep around the farm. Sheep are everywhere lol.

 It's unedited background. Look how beautiful it is!

More of QingJing Farm

 正在大便+ing的綿羊先生

Also, food stall just located right in this farm. My favourite sausage! 

SkyWalk ticket purchase counter

- QINGJING SKY WALK -

3rd Stop of the Day: QingJing Sky Walk. You can choose to walk up or down from the Sky Walk. I choose to go for Sky Walk from top of the mountain to the bottom rather talk walking and climbing up like hell. Luckily we say yes for this sky walk experience because the view is just simply unbelievable. Let the photo do the talking!

 Entrance ticket for the sky walk

 😭 Look at this!! So beautiful and breathtaking right?!!

 Every spot is photo worthy!

It takes around 30 mins to walk through the skywalk and at the end of the sky walk, I heard my stomach calling lol. So freaking hungry!!!

 If you are here, remember to try this mini apple! it's so sweet and tiny!

Lunch @伊拿谷

- LUNCH @伊拿谷 -

Since it's around 2pm in the afternoon, most of the restaurant closed until 5pm. This is the only restaurant which open during the after lunch hour and recommended by our driver. One of the must try is the 现烤瓮缸鸡. Not sure what is this call in English or any proper English name for this specific dish. 

Basically, it use this method to cook the chicken and it makes the whole chicken taste extra tender and juicy! I really really like this. This is also one of the best dish we tried on this trip.

We ordered this set for 5 pax. Easier and no need to think what to order lol

This is the 现烤瓮缸鸡.

 Remember to try this ok!! 

Our order!

The price is quite reasonable for 5 pax.

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*Day 5:  Late afternoon & Night  ~  Day 6: Early Afternoon 

| #8 Sun Moon Lake 日月潭  

After exploring the QingJing area, it's time to continue our Taichung journey. We arrived in Sun Mood Lake 日月潭 in the late afternoon. We stay in the accommodation hotel available around the lake. There are lots of nice hotel there and it's located beside the Sun Moon Lake old street only.日月潭老街 The old street selling lots of local food like the one we had in most of the night market or the rest of the old street and also selling the local wear clothings and souvenir too.

We stay here for a night and going to explore and understand the beauty of Sun Moon Lake on the next day (morning until afternoon).

This is the map of Sun Moon Lake. It's super big and this area is full of fun and amazing activities. We rent a bicycle at night and just cycling around the lake and eat the local food at the old street. Since the place is really huge and can't drive around the lake, we decided to take shuttle boat to give this a little tour. It's also famous of it breathtaking and amazing sunset view. If you google this lake, you can see lots of photographer from oversea purposely come here just to take a perfect shot of this beautiful lake.

- SUN MOON LAKE OLD STREET 日月潭老街 -

Like others old street in Taiwan, there are many choices for food lover and also if you want to shop for some souvenir, remember to shop at here too. Selling handmade clothings, hat, also the handmade owl too. It's available everywhere in this area. You can rent a bicycle from your accommodation stay and cycling around this area.

Just take note of the opening hour of this old street until 7-8pm only. After that you might need to get your supper done at the convenience store nearby.

 You can straightly see the lake from the old street of Sun Moon Lake Area. 

Normally it's just a pure sea view but during the time we visit there is this swimming festival happening on the next 2 days. So they are doing some preparation for the celebration and festival I guess.

- CYCLING AROUND -

Like I mentioned earlier, at night we basically just enjoy around the lake. I consider this as one of my recharge trip as the place is so nice and also the view is just incredible. I really love this kind of bonding time spending with Smelly and his family. We had a blast on that night!

Hello! Sorry for the low quality photo as I didn't bring my camera out. I just hope to stay away from the internet for a bit!

We spent half an hour just starring at this lake at night. We just talk random stuff and just chit-chat!

- SUPPER -

I can't be happy of I didn't visit to the convenience store in Taiwan lol. I went to the nearest 7-11 and get some supper for the whole family. Next, I ask if there is gudetama subway card and look!!!

SO CUTE CAN DIE!!!

Also a cross collaboration between the famous Japanese curry house with 7-11.So here's the fried chicken roll.

This is the best! This Curry udon are the best out of all. The rest is pretty weird lol. 

Our supper!

Next morning waking up at this incredible view from our breakfast table. I'm so sleepy on the last few days during my Taichung trip. I just feel so sleepy until I spot this! Our breakfast view~

- SUN MOON LAKE SHUTTLE BOAT -

There are sky walk too in this lake but not going to walk that because it might need to take a day to finish walking the whole skywalk. Many tourist came here and rent a bicycle, then spending the whole day just ride and cycling around the lake. No joke, this area is damn huge you know~

So for the shuttle boat service. It will start from the origin Shuishe Pier (1)  > XuanGuang (2) > Ida Thao (3) and back to the origin Shuishe Pier (1). If you ask me what reminds me of this boat tour was the 50 years ah ma tea egg lol. OMG THE TEA EGG IS SOOOOOOOO YUMMY. I tried so many in Taiwan, this is the best! You can get it right after you go down from the XuanGuang and just right beside the temple and nearby the gathering point of the shuttle boat.

 Waiting for our Shuttle Boat

While waiting for our shuttle boat

Photo taken by Smelly's parent

 Tanned after that lol 

 Yes man! This is the super yummy Tea egg! Very very tasty 入味

Dont wanna be the spoiler but if you come to Sun Moon Lake remember to take a tour around the lake or enjoy some of the activities here ok? It's really beautiful! It might look really flat on the photo but if you are there, remember to witness it yourself. Bye Bye Sun Moon Lake!

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*Day 6: Afternoon 

| #9 Lugang Tian Hou Gong Mazu Temple 鹿港天后宮

Next after leaving our hotel and Sun Moon Lake area, we continue for our Taichung journey to the super famous FengJia Night Market. It's one of my highlight of the trip. I have spot that everywhere in the Taiwan TV show but never been there before. So on our way to FengJia, we passed by the Lugang Area, which makes us to pay a visit to the famous Lugang Tian Hou Gong Mazu Temple + enjoying our lunch here. 

It's also damn huge and I just use my eyes to look at every details of the temple. Here's only some of the photo I took during the visit.

The Lugang Mazu Temple, also known as the Lukang Tianhou or Tienhou Temple, is a Chinese temple dedicated to the Chinese sea goddess Mazu.

One of my favourite shot in this temple

 It looks pretty with LED lighting at night or special festival / celebration as well.

 Lunch at Lugang area. Just few mins walk from the temple.

My double chin appear and came to visit me after my Taiwan trip this time lol. I eat damn a lot of local food and I really really love it. This is one of the reason why I love to re-visit Taiwan again & again.

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*Day 6: Late afternoon - Night

| #10 FengJia Area & Night Market 

HOHOHO! Finally here come the last few days in Taichung. One of my must-do is of course, the FengJia Night Market. Unlike other night market, it's actually a whole freaking shoplot all across the area and also food stall, clothing store, UFO Machine shop everywhere.

I keep all my cash to shop at this night market. I want to eat til drop at this FengJia Night Market. It's one of my top 3 favorite night market in Taiwan. Compare with others night market,  FengJia Night Market is way bigger than any of it. If you are window shopping it takes 3 hours at least, if you walk in and carefully shop & queue for the food then it gonna takes you around 5 hours to complete the 80% of the night market.

It’s my first time here and my top pick of food is gonna be the ‘golden leg’ melted cheese grilled chicken & tiger sugar pearl milk tea. Also the devil fried chicken chop. I completely forgot to take photo and just focus giving myself a rest by entering this food heaven. Here’s all the photo I took lol. I thought I will shop til drop but at the end I just bought one denim jacket & all money spent on food lol. 

I will miss here as much as I miss Japan. 

OMG THIS MELTED CHEESE GRILLED CHICKEN IS DAMN NICE OK!!

#Chanwondiediemusteat: ‘Golden Leg’ melted cheese grilled chicken 

Next, the tiger sugar pearl milk tea. I love the taste of the black super of this milk tea. I heard that it will be opening soon in Malaysia. #Fingercrossed

Also, meet few of my cute sweeties readers and followers on that night. Feeling blessed to be able to meet each of them even when I'm not in Malaysia! Thanks for saying Hi with me and so sorry I didn't wear any makeup and look really suck after eat like crazy and sweating like hell lol.

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*Day 7: Morning

| #11 Rainbow Village  

Last day in Taiwan! This is also one of my die-die must come place. The rainbow village at Taichung! I went to a rainbow color apartment in Hong Kong and now this Rainbow Village in Taiwan. Can you believe everything in this little village actually painted by a 96 years old man?! I was surprise and all these paintings are so cute & lovely. Every character looks so happy and smiling. It has became a tourist spot in TaiChung. Definitely worth to pay a visit here. Free entrance and you can buy some souvenir back to support the 96 years old yeye or donate some money for him to buy more painting tool and maintain this rainbow village.

The 96 years old yeye who hand painted everything here. Salute to him. How much effort and time he need to complete and maintain this little village. He brought smile for others and it's really meaningful. He even know how to make the Korean ‘love’ hand gesture lol.

 So here's some creative and silly photo I took in this rainbow village lol

Let photo do the talking.

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*Day 7: Late morning 

| #12 Tsutaya Bookshop , National Taichung Theater, Maple Garden 

So it's the last few hours before we go back to Taipei and take our flight back to Kuala Lumpur. We spent few hours in the early afternoon in Taichung, visited the world most beautiful bookstore in Taichung. It moved from Tokyo to Taichung and seriously it's really luxury. I guess this area targeted  customer which can really spend and also there is a cafe located right inside the Tsutaya Bookshop in Taichung.

- TSUTAYA BOOKSTORE -

Like what I mentioned earlier, this bookshop is really luxury. From the interior and product price to the ambiance and I thought no one as early as we are, but 5 mins before the opening hour, everyone queue and line up nicely to enter the bookstore lol.

 We came little bit too early lol 

 OMG really got people queue for entering one lol. 

My favourite washi stickers imported from Japan are available at this bookshop. There are more books & products available here. But since I'm going Japan soon, not going to shop at here lol.

Artistic Bookshop ✨

- NATIONAL TAICHUNG THEATER -

I have no idea what it was until I asked and google from wikipedia. This  National Taichung Theater is an opera house in the Taichung. The whole structure and everything was designed by a famous Japanese architect Toyo Ito in collaboration with Cecil Balmond. Besides, one of the highlight of this is it was build without using any pillar. I saw lots of kids sitting in front of this building and start drawing with their teacher and parents.

If you check on the instagram location, the interior in this building is also one of the super instagrammable spot in Taichung. A lot of blogger and influencer came here just for the shoot lol.

Checked lol

- MAPLE GARDEN 秋紅谷 -

We didn't enter the maple garden as it's start raining we wish that we could that a rest inside the car. So our driver just let us walk and pass by this maple garden. I think it will be really beautiful if all the leaves are brown and orange color. There is a space featuring a nature trail & sizable pond with fish, turtles & birds.

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*Day 7:  Afternoon

| #13 Gudetama Cafe in Taichung

Our driver knew that I'm a fan of Gudetama. He saw me using gudetama keychain and also keep eyeing on gudetama souvenir lol. Such a kind person and then he try his luck to google any gudetama cafe in Taichung. I went to the one in Osaka and Singapore but this Taichung one is something more diff.

It's a whole two floors building. Unlike the one in both Osaka and Singapore located at the mall, this is stand alone building where featured a huge gudetama on top and also on the ground. I saw the photo of the gudetama themed food, it's much cuter and lovely. I thought I could give it a try so I went in and happily took as many photo as I can.

At the end of the last photo, I ask for a seat and table but the staff told me that it's fully book until late afternoon. Everyone was super duper hungry and can't wait anymore. So I got no choice say Bye Bye with my lovely gudetama and hope to come back again next time.

 Look how cute it is!!

 I can only hug you like this T.T

Hope to see you again in the future!

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*Day 7:  Late Afternoon- Night

| #14 Neiwan Old Street 內灣老街

For the last few hours in Taiwan, before we go to the Taoyuan airport we decided to eat for the last few hours in Taiwan. lol So here we are, at the Neiwan Old Street!

Bought my favourite healthy snack from this old street! I bought a total of 8 packs lol. As souvenir and also gift for myself lol.

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*Day 8:  Bye Bye Taiwan

| #15 Bye Taiwan

So here come to the end of the post to conclude my Taipei-Taichung itinerary. Thank you for reading my blog and I'm so happy to be back in Taiwan. Although I always leave my heart in Japan but Taiwan is the first contry I went 6 years ago. It's kind of diff to go back and experience diff thing each time. I hope my blog post can be really useful for you to plan and include some of the must-visit and to-do plan on your itinerary. 

I really love blogging as it allows me to tell my story and also write such informative blog post for your reference. Instagram mainly for location check and a short info update but on blog, I can write everything into details and show you all the photo I took during my traveling journey too.

Love you guys! I will see you on my next post. Love, xoxo.

Map provided by Wanderlog, a travel planner