We
managed to fine a tour that matched our requirement of travel dates at the
August NATAS Fair and we booked this 7 Days tour with Neway Travel. My
parents-in-law joined us for this trip.
The
travel date was set for 17 to 23 November, the package deal tied up with EVA
Air but as the returning flight was too early, we decided to change it to
Singapore Airlines and paid the difference. Luckily this was possible. So our
adventure begins…
Day1:
Saturday, 17 November: Singapore – Taipei
(SQ 878 1155/1630hrs)
Upon
arrival at Taoyuan International Airport, we were met by our Tour Guide, Mr.
Tony Wang. His Chinese name is 王丰麒 and he is a
local Taiwanese. While waiting for the main group to arrive via EVA, we took a
light dinner at the terminal arrival gourmet hall. We ordered a Beef Noodle
soup to sample and the children had their first Macdonald Meals in Taiwan.
Once the main group arrived (we were a total of
31pax), we were guided to our bus and Tony started his introduction of Taiwan
to us. Our very first stop for the evening was Shihlin Night Marker – 士林夜市. The night market was crowded with tourist and the hawkers. It was an
eye-opening experienced for the children and we sampled all the different
snacks from one stall to another, they were sinfully delicious. We had 臭豆腐，蚝煎，鲁肉饭，生煎包，大肠包小肠，山猪肉香肠，十全排骨汤和泡泡茶。After a good
meal, we met up with Tony and headed back to our Taipei City hotel – Park CityHotel.
We checked in and had a good night of sleep before
our next morning call at 6.30am.
Day 2: Sunday, 18 November:
Taipei àTaizhong
After a good breakfast, our first morning stop was
the famous Yangmingshan National Park (阳明山国家花园). It started drizzling when we arrived at the park and we quickly took a
few photographs at the Flower Clock before taking a hide from the rain. The
rain went off quite quickly and we took a walk around the park. The air was
fresh and the place was very quiet and peaceful.
The next place we visited was the Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑喷气孔）which boasted itself
as a natural hot spring and also its breathtaking view from the mountain. Due
to the rain and heavy fogs, we were unable to appreciate the nature but were
still glad we caught a glimpse of it.
After Yangmingshan Park, we visited Taipei iconic
hotel – Grand Hotel. (圆山大饭店) Its ranked one of the top 10 hotels in the world, built with its
traditional palace style architecture and brilliantly tiled roof. Then after, we had the chance to view Guard
Change at the Taipei Martyr Shrine. It was a very special and honorable moment.
Lunch was at a Ninja theme restaurant and we had a
very nice Japanese meal.
Ximenting (西门町) was our after lunch stop for shopping and food tasting. As it was
raining and crowded due to a Sunday, we hardly had the chance to walk on the
street. So we decided to take shelter in a small shopping mall. There were
quite a lot of shops in the mall and Anders even had the opportunity to play
some games in the arcade while we shopped around.
Then we had a quick Macdonald’s tea break before
heading to meet up with the group.
It
was the right decision as our bus journey from Taipei to Taizhong Yizhong night
market was slighted extended due to heavy traffic on the highway. We left
Taipei around 4.45pm and arrived into Yizhong around 7.20pm.
Dinner
was at the night market and we had beef noodles at a stall name 山西刀削面 and as the weather was quite
cold due to the rain, the steaming hot soup was a welcome to our stomach. It
was more shopping after dinner; we bought Anders a pair of black shoes as the
one he was wearing was giving way. Then both of them bought a wallet on street
side. There was also a small mall and my mother in-law managed to get herself
some cosmetic from Face Shop which was much cheaper compared to Singapore.
The night ended around 9.30pm and we checked into
our hotel in Taizhong – Shinkansen. Needless to say, after a long, we were all
knocked out once we hit the bed.
Day 3: Monday, 19 November: Taizhong à Kaohsiung E-Da Theme Park
Our day began after a good break and saying goodbye
to the hotel. We were heading towards Kaohsiung E-Da Theme Park. Yes, this is
the newest theme park in Kaohsiung, according to the agency, so we were high in
anticipation.
En route, we had a stopover at another place of
interest – Tainan Ten Drum Culture Village. There was a guide who gave us a
very good introduction to the village and then we watched a Drum show. The highlight
of the visit was everyone was given a “crash course” on play the drum and all
of us had good fun at the drums.
After a good drum roll session, we headed for the
theme park. Upon arrival at the park, all the children in the group were wide
awake when they saw all the rides. Tony brought us for a self-expense lunch at
the food court. There were great varieties and price was affordable. We had a
good lunch before playtime.
The children had fun trying all the rides and we
went for the 飞越台湾 ride and caught magnificent views of Taiwan
various famous places. My parents-in-law enjoyed the ride too. Then they left
us and checked in the hotel – Skylark for a rest, while we carried on to
explore the park. We finally left the park around 5pm. Dinner was at the shopping mall with my
in-laws. Tony recommend us to this restaurant “金色三麦“, it was a German restaurant and we had a very good meal at this place.
We even managed to taste 3 different kinds of German Beers. After a full meal, Anders and I went for the
Ferris wheel ride while the rest went to check out the shopping mall. Anders
enjoyed the ride and he said it was his first experienced on the Ferris wheel.
Then we met up with Adrian and continued our
shopping spree. Finally ended at the hotel room at 10pm and called it a night.
Day 4: Tuesday, 20 November: Kaohsiung E-Da Theme Park à Kaohsiung Fu Guang Shang à Cing Jing Farm.
We had a good hotel breakfast before setting off
for our day tour. The first place for the day was Fo Guang Shan (佛光山). The place
was founded by Venerable Master Hsing Yun in 1967 and is popular among many
Buddhist from different part of the world. We prayed for good luck and good
health for the family.
The temple visit was very calm and
peaceful and I enjoyed revisiting this place after so many years.
Our lunch was at a Hakka Restaurant (客家餐厅) and the food was delicious.
The “arduous”
journey began after lunch. Yes, we were heading towards Cing Jing Farm. The road
up the mountain was very winding and narrow, sitting on the coach; we could
literally see the edge of the mountain. It was quite terrifying and both the
children got a little motion sickness. Upon reaching Green Green Grassland and
disembarked from the coach, we were greeted with fresh air and scenic wild
greenery. All these helped them overcome the motion sickness.
The most
interesting part was there were sheep wandering around the area, waiting to be
fed and the children had fun time doing that. The adults were busied enjoying
the Versant Mountains and the paradise of the mist.
We stayed the
night at Notable Vacation (名人度假村)
and as the night was quite cold, we had wine and fruit party in our room after
dinner. That helped to keep our bodies warm.
Day 5: Wednesday, 21 November: Cing Jing à Sun Moon Lake à Evergreen Spa Resort
After a very cool night on the mountain, we checked
out of the hotel and started our day trip to the ever famous Sun Moon Lake
tour. (日月潭). We went on a guided lake cruise. The guide cum boat driver gave us an
introduction of the history of SML and we tried the famous 阿嘛茶叶蛋. It really tasted different from our own version. After the cruise tour, we disembarked and had
lunch at a nearby restaurant. Then it was another long drive to our next
destination – Evergreen Spa Resort.
Upon checked in to the hotel, we were all super
delighted as the rooms were very spacious and there was an in-room spa.
Our first activity was SPA, yes; we wasted no time
in changing into our swimwear and headed straight for the SPA area. There were
different spa for different parts of the bodies and we tried all of them. To Anders’s
delight, there was a fish spa area, he had always wanted to do fish spa, so his
wish came true in Taiwan.
After a good one hour of spa, we went back to the
room to change and got ready for our sumptuous buffet dinner. The dessert bar
was really good and we managed to sample some very nice Japanese dessert.
Then we went back to the room to rest and relax,
both Anthea and Anders went for the room spa and soaked in the tub for another
half an hour. We had a good night sleep after the good spa and meal. This was
the highlight of the tour.
Day 6: Thursday, 22 November: Evergreen Spa Resort à JiuFen à Taipei 101
The hotel buffet breakfast was great and before we
set off, heavy rain poured in. Jiufen was our morning stop. (九份). This was the place to sample all the different kind of snacks such as 猪肉纸，芋圆，太阳饼，凤梨酥 and many more delicious and tasty snacks. We spend about 2 hours at the
place and finally left around 12noon with all the purchased.
Lunch was at an artistic restaurant known as Five
Cents Driftwood – 五角船板景观餐厅。The food was good and the interior decoration was
very unique. It was photo time after
lunch.
After lunch, Tony brought us to Wei Ge (维格) to buy the famous Pineapple Tarts.
Taipei 101 was our next stop, as our tour package
does not include the viewing gallery; we didn’t have the chance to view the
skyline of Taipei. So we ended up shopping in the mall while waiting for our
dinner at Ding Tai Feng.
Our final night was at Park City hotel and after
checked in, we were busied packing all our purchased of goodies/snacks for the
trip.
Day 7 - Friday 23 November: Taipei – Singapore (SQ 877 1410/1850 hrs.)
After a good and relaxing hotel breakfast, the
driver drove us to the airport for our flight to Home-sweet-home.
Overall we had enjoyed the 7 Days guided tour and found it an interesting experienced and we would be back for more....:)
台湾，真好游，我们会再重游！再见！
