Taiwan Day 4: Cing Jing - Sun Moon Lake

Day 4 of Taiwan

Early morning, we had breakfast at our minsu before heading out.

More pictures of Misty Villa.

This minsu is very sweet looking, very family feeling and maybe because they have little kids, the place is decorated with many teddy bears too.

Very pretty and colourful.

Breakfast was good too. Simple but nice :)

So off we went to Green Green Grassland (清境農場)!

We bought the tickets at our minsu because it's slightly cheaper at NT$180 instead of NT$200.

We went to the big carpark and waited for bus that goes here every 15min.

So here we are!

The gorgeous view... I really can't explain how much I love many of the sceneries in this trip...

All of them are just so calming to me.. and this is one of them...

Thankfully, there was abit of sun so the picture lighting was good.

But don't be deceived... it was 10 degree...

Sakura trees planted along the walkways....

The boy. I insisted he should take a picture with the flowers and he kept refusing... saying..

"Where got guys take pictures with flowers one?"

I don't care! hehe...

And then he gave me this uncle pose...

Then there is a sheep show...

It's like those in Singapore zoo...

Talks about some funny stuff and facts about sheep.

And then.... they started to skin the sheep....

Every show got skin sheep...

When I saw it, I felt abit pitiful towards the sheep... so poor thing..

but the rest of the crowd didn't feel so... cause after that, every one started snatching for the fur left at the stage...

Feeding time!!!!! I think they starve the sheep cause all the sheeps were so hungry that they gobbled up so fast!!! And still wanted more!

Then we took a ride on horsey!!!!!! Horse year ride horse... sure good luck right?! haha...

My "bai ma wang zi"... love white horses!

As we walked along, somewhere in the middle there are food stalls before entering the next sectioni of the farm.

And of course, there were goodies/ souvenirs relating to sheep...

Obviously for someone who doesn't drink milk, I wasn't interested .. cause many were selling milk...

Then another show was a horse performance.

All in all, the place is pretty small.. and I was kinda disappointed cause my imagination of this green green grassland is supposed to be very green... but apparently maybe because it's winter, it's brown.....

oh wells... every thing ended by ard 12pm...

and to go back down, there is this 499 steps..... and this is one of their "recreations" too.. haha

Went for steak & spagetti lunch before setting off to Sun Moon Lake.

In order to get to Sun Moon Lake, you can take their Nantou bus over which is cheaper. But of course, it's longer.

Hence, we settled to ask our minsu owner to book the E-go bus to Sun Moon Lake.

The bus will come pick you up directly at your minsu and it's a comfy 8-10 seater mini van.

Cost is NT$450 per person and definitely faster. 

The ride was about an hour plus only.  

For more information on the E-go bus, you can check out their website.

Website: http://www.cingjingbus.tw/english.html 

By the time we arrived Sun Moon Lake was around 3-ish pm.

We quickly checked in, settled down and went off.  

We didn't want to waste the daylight so we went off to walk to Xiang Shan.

We wanted to cycle but since it was quite short to us... we walked.

One of the activity was to cycle around and the lake is THE ATTRACTION. Cycling is really very convenient and friendly in Taiwan. Unlike Singapore..... anyways..  

Why the lake is THE ATTRACTION? Cause how Sun Moon Lake came about is the lake depicts the sun, the moon, and the lake when you overlook it. 

But of course, you probably have to view from the top. hehe..

But it's very peaceful.

Sunsetting...

As usual, the sun sets early and soon it was dark. By the time we had dinner, it was 8pm, and the place seems deserted. Like every one has taken their dinner already.

Typical old age place habit? haha... i dunno...

We settled for Sun Moon Restaurant and it's well known President fish. But... so so only la..

Their meat is so much nicer...  

So that's about Day 4! 1/3 through the trip!!!!

Taiwan Day 3: Hualien - Cing Jing (Part 2)

And so, Part 2 of my Day 3:

After driving through Toroko Gorge, we arrived at Cing Jing! And we saw Sakura flowers blooming!!! YAY!!! That's the 2nd best thing that has happened in this trip! Our driver said sakura don't blossom this period but this year because of the weather climate, plus up in the mountains, we were just in luck! Just so pretty seeing Sakura... :) And he was so kind to stop by the roadside and let us take a picture of this.

We arrived at our minsu for Cing Jing - Misty Villa

Review of our minsu:

Misty Villa (雲濛仙境) 

Booking through: http://www.misting.com.tw/

We booked the Standard Room (3F).

We have heard reviews of this minsu and decided to go with this.

It's very accessible, just right beside is the Tourist Centre, a small shopping centre, and Swiss Garden is just across the street!!!

The room is spacious even though it's just a standard room.

Not only that, there's water cooler inside the room! How cool is that?! This is very good cause u don't need to boil your own hot water during cold weather. haha... cause we always have to do this during our trip.

It's clean and toilet is spacious too!

Absolutely nothing to complain about!!!!

*Thumbs Up* :):):)

Oh wait, there's one tiny little thing. There's no escalator so need to climb 3 staircase before you reach.

So, when checking out, do tell them you need help with luggage, they'll help. :)

There are actually other pretty styled minsus but given our budget and convenience, we settled for this. There's this Old England Boutique Hotel which is very grand in this littel CingJing. If you have time, you can go have tea and tour around there. http://www.theoldengland.com/




The entrance.

 

Couldn't fit all in the picture, so cut off the cooler. Same as what you see in the website. :)



Water Cooler!!!!!

Well kept toilet, and spacious!

Our left view of the balcony, overlooking Taroko

So without delay, we decided to go Swiss Garden! This was originally not in the plan because by the time we were supposed to arrived Cing Jing it was supposed to be like 6pm.

So, since we sitll had daylight (was around 4.30pm i think), we went across and check it out!

Glad we could make it!

Don't see the picture looks bright... it's still cold!!! Cause you are still up on higher levels.

Cing Jing's icon. Windmill.

The Small Swiss Garden - According to website, it's known as "Taiwan's Little Switzerland".  It's very prettily decorated.  In fact, Cing Jing is situated in a very good place where you get cool weathers all year round. Cing Jing and Alishan are some of the places you get good weather. :)

The entrance fee is NT$90 and there is a water show during evening hours.

Not my favourite flower but super love this! Red tulip!

Nantou's icon!

Along Cing Jing, we could see alot of sakura trees. Damn beautiful. I think I've taken lots of Sakura.... haha

Then we saw behind Cing Jing, there is an empty carpark that those vans could park at do overnight camping there! And look what they are cooking!!! Steamboat! Got rice cooker somemore! So cool lor!
If only Singapore has such weather, it will be damn shiok to do this intead of just BBQ.

It's actually quite small (that's why called Little Swiss) so after like an hour plus, we headed out for early dinner so that we can re-enter in the evening for the water show.

After suffering the cold weather the whole day, we decided to settle for hotpot and it was fantastic!!! 

Dunno it's really nice or just eating at such a weather was shiok....

We ordered the spicy hotpot and add on beef slices, cost about NT$490 which is slightly pricey but it's a tourist place so..... okay. accepted.

We shopped around before heading back to watch the water show.

And the water show.....

Don't expect too much. I think Singapore has set the standard too high until I think singapore still has the best stuuf. haha..

Like this show, it's .... not worth to watch lah. haha...

The famous Carton King - where every thing is made of carton. Even when dining, they use carton made stuff...

Wasn't interested so we didn't go there to eat. but you can sitll enter the shopping area.

That's the end of our day 3.

Finally I managed to finish this. But... another 9 more days.

Bare with me!!!!