Taiwan Day 8: Alishan - Taichung

We moved off from Alishan early morning as we needed to catch the train to Taichung and try to get much daylight time in Taichung.

Starting this day, our trip will be back to the city life.....

No more laid back style, slow pace mood.

Kinda sad having to leave this part of the trip .. really prefer the "country style" rather than the city lifestyle.

Especially when there's super good view every day...

The living room area of 53.1 Homestay.



Outside 53.1 Homestay



This is the best view when you get up in the morning at 53.1 Homestay. Sea of Clouds (Yunhai).

One of my favourite in this trip - Having to see Yunhai.  

Gonna miss Xiao Hei (on 4 feet)

We took a bus (only 1 and fixed timings) to Chiayi Station (ride 1hr) and left our luggage at the Station's Baggage Service. Cost money (NT$80 for 3 items) but it's cheap and most major stations has this service so if you can't check in early into your hotel, you can make use of this.

We walked around Chiayi Main street and chanced upon this chicken rice which looks good.

So... that's our... brunch.

Chicken rice.... like lu rou fan, but it's chicken. NT$30 I think. The above cost total NT$70 lah.

Off we went into the train station to wait for the train. The train ride is around 1 hr from Chiayi to Taichung. Cost NT200+ per ticket.

The seat is comfortable, with ample leg space that you can put your luggage in front of you as well.

1 hour later - Arrived at Tai Chung Station!!!

First thing we did, put our luggage at the station (NT$100) before heading for the famous ice cream...

Miyahara (宮原眼科)

No.20, Zhongshan Rd., Central Dist., Taichung City 400, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

It's a walking distance from the station, near the little river.

It's huge you can't miss it.

It's famous for their ice cream, milk tea, and of course, their exquisite gifts.

A real effort in their packaging. All very pretty...

They sell chocolates too.. Very pricey.. haha

Time for our ice cream!!! It's around the same price inf SGD, except bigger portions?

Their ice cream has many unique flavours. For someone who doesn't read chinese well, I queued one round to see the English translation displayed with the ice cream, then re-queued to get my orders. haha...

We tried the dark chocolate and a tea flavour.

After that, you get to choose 3 FREE TOPPINGs! And their topping all so differnt from Singapore.

Like pinapple cake, cheescake, mochi, biscuits. Don't know what to choose! 

Worth the try!

After that we went for a walk around the area before heading to our hotel.

We were staying near Fengjia Market so had to take a bus over.

We actually booked a budget stay, and it's very cheap. Like hostel. Think it was $50/Night.

It's quite difficult to find it cause it's a block of black building and there isn't any sign board.

Review of our hostel:

Eiffel Tower 逢甲艾菲爾
Add: 台中市西屯區福星北一街33號 (福星路及福星北路交叉路口)Tel: 0972-793539 Email: fccheaphostel@gmail.com

Getting here: 台中火車站下車後轉搭乘客運 路線為 125、25、5、33、45、37號巴士可到達，於福星西安街口站或逢甲大學站下車再步行往福星北路與福星路交接路口的福星北一街

Although slightly difficult to locate, but for its price, it is very worth it for their standard. Very clean, simple, and good enough for a stay.

Not only that, their security is pretty cool. It uses password to get in the building.

Of course, it's a walking distance from Fengjia Market!

If I ever come back Taichung, I would stay here. Cheap and good. :)

After checking in, we went to Fengjia Market for our dinner.

It's SOOO crowded. Many youngsters as well..

Tried this cause I refuse to eat this back in Singapore which is so expensive.

Here only cost NT$100 for 3 sticks. Which means it's $4 for 3 sticks!!!

Singapore is selling like... $3.5 for one stick?!

Tried them in most flavours. :):):)

We were hungry lah...

And... the famous Fried Noodle in Bread.

We queued for 1.5hrs!!!!!!!!!!

just because GGH wanna try.

To me, it just taste normal. Don't know what's the hype by all the media...

Love this!!!! Sweet and chewy!!!

As usual, night market has all the arcade games. So we tried some catching games and wasted some money here... hehe...

To end off the night, we went to try the xiao long bao, cause we were missing the ones we had at Hualien.

But it's super lousy. :(

 

Taiwan Day 7: Alishan

Early morning, we took the Er Yan Ping Trail which is just outside our Homestay, 53.1.

That's one of the reason why we chose here as well.

This trail has a lot of steps, although it's like only a few km, because it's upwards, it's very tiring.

After this trip, maybe I can sign up for vertical marathon liao... What's 72 floors of steps?!

Our Homestay 53.1 dog (aka Xiao Hei), just followed us!

He is so seasoned!!! and going very fast. When we stopped to rest, he retreated back and waited for us.

Such a obedient and trained dog!

Along the way, you can see the all famous tea plantations here. After all, Alishan is famous for tea right...

We continued all the way up but sad to say it was still misty and couldn't take the scenery.

Er Yan Ping is actually a very nice place to come and take the scenery. It is 1650m above, and very good view to catch the sunset. Different seasons offer the uniqueness of the sunset, or so they say.

When we walked back, xiao hei was so smart, waited at a cross junction, and sort of telling us to follow him, taking another route instead of where we came from.

So, we decided to just follow him... and true enough he brought us to see the remains of some old Alishan market ...

ON THE GROUND????!!!!!

We reached back to our Homestay without being lost, all thanks to our fabulous guide dog.

Totally sweet xiao hei!!!

This is the dining area, with lots of drawings and thank yous.

MOST of them are all Singaporeans!!!

Apparently this place is famous for Singaporeans!

Our breakfast by the owners!!!

We rested for the rest of the morning before heading out to Fenchihu (奮起湖). Our owner is so nice to drive us there. :)

This is one of their attractions as well, with many hiking and walking trails.

However, we didn't do any of those but only went to walk the Old Street. hehe...

The Fenchihu Railway Station.

Very old fashioned train, with steamed locomotives, old engines.

Our start of the Old Street. It's not very huge so take your own time to walk. Enjoy the laziness afternoon here cause I see the old people sitting down sipping Alishan tea for hours.

But out first stop - The famous Alishan Fenchihu Hotel! For what?!

The authentic Fenchihu lunchbox!!!

Thick juicy pork chop and chicken drumstick! I finished all!!!!

Must try!!!!  Cost NT$240 for 2! Slightly expensive compared to others.

Shortly after it started raining heavily so we had to camp at 7-11 for a cup of coffee and nua there.

We also managed to write our postcards!

Thereafter, we strolled the rest of the street and bought some goodies back.

We bought another lunchbox for our dinner. Settled for this cause we saw many people were eating inside so we opted for this. NT$100 only!

We slowly made our way back to catch the 5pm bus back to our Homestay.

Our dinner!!! The lunchbox was nice as well, but I prefer the authentic one. Has 2 meat rather this one 1 meat, and this one not as tasty... but of course lah, still nice lah.