Day 2 @ Taiwan (15-24Jun15) - 神木、阿里山

16/6

4.20am

Woke at 3.45am for our sunrise train ride (祝山线). Initially, I still thought of wanting to go back to continue my sleep after the ride. But after the so many steps up and down from my hotel, we decided to change my plan. We should be finishing up our breakfast and forest walk then go back hotel to rest :P My legs are breaking liao... So next time I must make sure I confirm how many stairs to climb before I book the lodging :P Our hotel room for these two days was on the 5th floor and we needed to climb many flight of stairs to get around.

5.32am

Sunrise was magnificent!! Oh Gosh!!! the air here is very good but freezing cold. I am really lucky I came prepared, all wrapped up like bazhang. Haha! But once the wind comes, I could still feel the chill in my body. I put on the new scarf I bought to keep my neck warm :)

It was a good 10-15min wait so I went to buy a hot can of soya bean (NT40) to use as my heat-pack :P The very pretty lady boss was so nice! After I touched the hot can, it became cold when I wanted to drink it and she offered to change it to a hot one for me! Next time you visit the 祝山站 for sunrise must buy from her (祝山小吃店). Oh! She is really a nice person! 

We are now on our way back for breakfast (6-9am). After that we wanted to set out on ur forest walk. The tribal song/music played in the train was very spiritual and gave me a "Princess Monoko" feel... 

Breakfast was simple, that is porridge with 小菜, home made soya bean milk and toast and butter/jam/peanut butter. I like the soya bean milk a lot but I don't like the texture of the porridge. I like either 一粒一粒的潮州式粥 or total 糊的广东粥。可是，这里的粥是又粘又糊，不是我喜欢的口感。不过小菜很好吃！

It was the first time I met my "new friend" Mr Husky. 

7.36am

Ended up we came back to our hotel room, and took a nap as the train to the forest walk only opens at 9.30am.

10.13am 

Bought our "picnic" supply and took 森林小火车train (NT80) to Zhao ping (沼平线) for our forest walk. 

I enjoyed myself by taking lots of lovely pictures :) Qiuling loves the Lupin (鲁冰花) flowers and Calla Lily (海芋) flowers and I love the mystic feeling of this sacred forest and mountain. As we sat in the shade, all we heard was the birds chirping and the wind blowing and the train sound... peace... 

I really enjoyed this trip with Qiuling as she enjoys holidays with a more relaxing and slower pace. On and off we get to sit somewhere in the shade and I will stone/blog/Facebook while she reads her online book or watches her YouTube. This time we get to do it in Alishan forest walk too. 

We relaxed and dug into our bag of goodies...Yum...

12.50pm

Walked don't know how far but from the pictures u can feel the beauty of the forest... Enjoy the photos... I took a lot of photos but only able to upload the selective few that I like very much on my blog. You can check out the more detailed collection from my Facebook :)

We took a break at 受镇宫 area. Shared 山猪香肠 and 野生爱玉 with Qiuling. Feeling like a pig now eating non-stop Lolz...

We continued our forest walk after our short break and noticed that the fog had started to rise... Sigh, no 晚霞 and 云海 for us today again :(

Take a look at the 神木 /巨木 (aka old trees hundreds or thousands of years old) in Alishan... 

The oldest 巨木 alive in Alishan (>2000 years old) 

The legendary 神木 which was the oldest tree in Alishan until it was struck twice by lightning and had to be chopped off... you can find its remaining at the Shen Mu Station (神木站).

We continued to walk on with the intention to walk out of the forest by food and back to our hotel. And so we did!

Our Forest walk began at 沼平站 and we walked to 神木站 then back to 阿里山站 where the hotel area is. 

Fog coming..

A very big 绣球花！

Alishan Museum

海芋花 (Calla Lily)

三代树

象鼻树 in the front; 三代树 at the back

樱之王 aka King of Cherry Blossom. If you come during the cherry blossom season, this tree will bloom the most beautiful cherry blossom tree. 

The last 900metres out of Alishan forest walk and back to the hotel area...

Foggy 

爱情花

The Last Lap!

3.30pm

We finally completed our 5hrs of forest walk! Yippie! It's time for lunch! I wanted to try the Soju Chicken Hotpot and Qiuling wanted to try the 龙须菜, so we ordered both. The vegetables were very fresh and nice and it was a type of vegetable I had never eat before in Singapore. But the Soju Chicken Hotpot was disappointing as it tasted like water with some Soju and preserved overcooked chicken :( It was an expensive (NT530) and not nice dinner! Hope we have better food luck in Cingjing!

But what made my day was my newfound friendly Husky I saw this morning. At lunch, he came over to ask for food so I offered him chicken meat but he looked at my chicken bones. Knowing that I shouldn't give him chicken bones I rejected him but he pleaded to me with his pitiful eyes, so I gave him the chicken bones in the end. He was so happy and ate happily. After he had his fill, he laid down near me. :) Wish I can bring him home!! 

After lunch, we went shopping for ice cream 铜锣烧 (NT50) and Alishan coffee (NT90) to bring back our hotel to eat/drink. As we were feeling lazy and tired after the long walk, we decided to buy cup noodles back for dinner as well!!! Yay! Cheap but yummy dinner for tonight! 

9pm 

We NUA for many hours and finally decided to eat dinner and bathed Lolz... Hope I can sleep early tonight after the long walk! tomorrow we are leaving at 7am too!!! 

Ahh.. I took so many pictures from

Alishan but cannot possibly upload all here! So for a better "spread" of pretty photos on Alishan, you can browse my Facebook k! Nitez all! 

Day 1 @ Taiwan (15-24Jun15) - 前往阿里山，嘉义 (Part 2)

15/6: 

7.18am

Had breakfast and my antibiotic medicine. Refilled my bottle water from the water cooler in the airport. I think it's really a cool idea to provide not only cold but hot and warm drinking water in the airport cooler water dispenser! Really thoughtful idea! Taiwanese 就是有人情味！

Went to check the Ubus timing for shuttle from Taoyuan Airport to Taoyuan HSR station. Saw this very familiar looking Hi-Life cafe :) Suddenly missed Yvonne because it was where we had our first breakfast in Taiwan last February after we starved for the whole night on the plane :P

That's me and Hi-Life cafe last year!

Noticed that there is Ubus shuttle every 10-20minutes to Taoyuan HSR station so walked back to look for the telecommunication booth first. 

Directions:

Ubus Shuttle - Turn left when come out of custom and go down the escalator on your right. You will see Hi-Life Cafe which is something like a 7-11. You can have your breakfast here. Then walk straight and turn right. You will see a row of Ticketing counters. 

Telecommunication counters - turn right after you come out from customs. There are 3 teleco for you to choose from. Friend advised me to take 台湾大哥大, which is a good teleco like our Singtel. Opposite the teleco counters you can find the tourist info counter too where you can grab your maps. But sad to say they no longer have English and Chinese maps on display so you need to ensure the staff is there to enquire for the English and Chinese maps. 

The teleco counters opened at approximately 8am. But you can start queuing at 7.30am if you come at a peak hour. But since it was still early, there seemed to be no crowd (yet).

8.25am

Bought my telco data plan at NT800 for 10days unlimited 4G LTE + 400NT talk time. 

Filled up my water bottle with liang teh using the airport water dispenser and bought the Ubus ticket. Off we go to Taoyuan HSR station. 

9am

I managed to board the southward HSR from Taoyuan to Chia Yi earlier than I expected. Qiuling had replied me to say she would reach Chia Yi TRA at about 11am but our train would be at 1.30pm. I estimated I should reach Chia Yi TRA at about 10.30am, if not latest by 11am. Took the 8.57am HSR from Taoyuan and it would take slightly more than 1hr to reach Chia Yi HSR station. Bought the 对号座 (fixed seat) ticket for NT1005. A slightly more expensive buy would guarantee me a seat lor. One hour ride, I rather I have a fixed seat. Haha :P

On my way to Chia Yi HSR station now and charging my phone. I brought three mini portable chargers which will allow me to charge a maximum of 4 times. Oops.. But I got a mega portable charger too in my luggage. If all my mini portable chargers ran out before the end of the day, I will lug the mega portable charger out with me later :P Coz my phone is for entertainment, communication and photo taking.. :/ I cannot do without my phone de :P

Will take a wink now... :) 

10.38am 

Alighted at Chia Yi HSR. Missed the free shuttle bus to Chia Yi TRA station (show your HSR ticket to get free bus ride). So waited close to 20min for the next bus. 

Meantime, I grabbed a 肉松饭团 from the family Mart (something like cheers or 7-11) and ate as I queued for my bus. The sun was getting hot and I felt cooked. Wonder if I brought too many warm wear lolz 

Noticed people in Chia Yi have a stronger 乡音 than those from Taipei. I wonder why?

Bus came and I boarded the bus with a stuffed mouth! Haha no image Liao! Hahaha... 

11.52am

Met qiuling at 11am and we took an offer by a private bus to drive us up to Alishan, all the way to our hotel at NT500 (2pax). On top of that, we need to pay another NT300 (2 pax) for entrance to Alishan. 

Poor Qiuling was down with fever since day one of her solo portion and had to stay at the air bnb in Taoyuan to recuperate before she met up with me today. So happy we finally met up! we have each other now! 

Finally we met! 

1.29pm

Temperature going down as the private bus climbed higher... still driving on to Alishan... 

The wind that blew on my face was so cool.. 22degrees!!! And still going down further... Lucky me that I came well prepared! We stopped a 7-11 for a ten minute toilet cum quick bite break before we continued our journey. 

Saw the 关东煮 and was very hungry! So we decided to grab a quick bite before we continued our journey.

2.23pm

Reached Da Feng Hotel and climbed up 5 storey to our twin room (NT4600 for 2 nights). Signed up for Fireflies guided tour for tonight at NT300 per pax. 

4.22pm

Set out to have lunch and explored the area. Bought returned sunrise train ticket (祝山线) for NT150 per pax. Saw something that I like and started my shopping spree! Tummy suddenly felt unwell so we had 黑糖姜母茶 for NT30 per cup. Tummy was warmed up instantly. No sunset today coz of heavy fog :( Hopefully we have better luck tomorrow. 

As we were walking around the 森林小火车站, I saw this store selling very interesting food called 茶焗蛋. It looked different from 茶叶蛋and I was keen to try out new food that look "safe". Haha! Yummy! The egg white had the 茶香味! I like! ^^

5.40pm 

We explored the 7-11 to decide on what we could have for dinner tonight and went back to the room to rest, before our fireflies guided tour at 7pm. After all, we are two sicky pies... and are still recuperating our illnesses. So we decided not to push ourselves too hard on the first day. 

8.47pm

We came back from our fireflies guided tour. It was a pity we didn't have good cameras but it was a memorable experience watching fireflies flying around the trees and blinking as they flew. Blink Blink Blink. Local guide told us actually the best season to watch fireflies should be May to early June! Had 关东煮 plus 拉面 for dinner tonight! Only cost us NT144 for two bowls! Bought instant milo to drink before sleep to warm up my poor tummy.

10.43pm

Bathed and getting ready to sleep. Tomorrow we need to be up by 3.30am to catch sunrise! Qiuling is already fast asleep but I am not used to sleeping so early.. I will coax myself to sleep soon...

It has been a tiring day for both of us... Glad things turned out well and we managed to meet each other. Looking forward to a even better tomorrow! Good Nitez everyone! 

Day 1 @ Taiwan (15-24Jun15) - 前往阿里山，嘉义 （Part 1）

15/6:

1.19am

I am on the Scoot plane flying towards Taoyuan Airport and blasting (literally) some of my favorite songs. As I looked out of the plane, watching and enjoying the view of the plane flying out of Singapore, I Suddenly feel the sense of peace. 

No, I am not running away from Singapore. Life has been interesting and fun lately with the ongoing trips and the new friends I made recently. However, I know that I had not fully recovered. The trips and the happenings distracted me from being constantly emotional about what I had been through but I know when I am alone, the feelings come back to me like a tsunami...

I am tired of running away from this feeling. I cannot distracted myself forever. No one can "remove" or "erase" the emotions that I hid at the back of my mind. I know it is still there. I want to face it fearlessly and conquer it. I want to stop running away from the feeling. I want to feel sad one last time and move on. 

I tell myself after this trip I will start to diligently look for a job. Yes, I never had the intention to have a very long tai tai life. You can call me silly but I really don't enjoy being a stay-at-home mum. I want to have my own career and my own social life. I want to have my own identity and some achievements that I can be proud of. I want to earn my own keep and to have a say in the household. I like to spend my own money. 

Life's short. If we don't chase our dreams, we may leave the world with regrets... 

Okay, enough emo for the night.. Haha.. 

Taiwan! Here I come! I will have fun, fun and more fun!!! But let's first hope I survive with my pinky! Hahaha! "She" is already 13.8kg leh!! Oh gosh! I wanted to just bring a 20inch cabin size luggage but I realized it was impossible not to bring pinky along. "She" waited patiently at the corner as "she" watched me attempting to squeeze as little things into little yellow and was relieved when I told "her" that "Pinky, you have no choice but to come with me again!" I could literally hear "scream of happiness"! Haha!

But I really love "her" a lot and I knew I can never leave the country without "her"! I had travelled to Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan and previous Bangkok trip with her! And I will travel to many more places with her! ^^

Listening to the sound track from the movie <Home>.

"Feel the light, shining like the stars tonight...

It's better now, feel better now..."

I will be fine after this trip ^^ 

Looking forward to all the places we will be visiting during the trip! I will be exploring new places like Alishan and Hsin Chu too!!! Stay tune to my live blog from Taiwan! Hope it can help you plan you next Taiwan trip! ^^ 

1.51am 

Just took my flu and inflammation medicine but did not enough water to eat my antibiotic :( Will have to eat it when I arrive in Taoyuan and retrieve my luggage le... 

Waiting for my flu med to kick in so I can sleep :P

Meantime, Nitez Singapore! 

Miss me please ^^ 

Hahaha! 

4.47am

Lights on again on the plane and the announcement was made to get the seats upright as we were approaching Taiwan. Frankly I think I only had about 2hrs of quality sleep before I woke up at 3.50am. But I guess I am filled with excitement on what lies ahead in the trip! I will be on my own for the next few hours till I met up with my friend Qiuling at 12pm at Chia Yi TRA station. We hope to catch the 1.30pm 森林小火车 up to Alishan (阿里山).

Friends who knew about my trip had been asking me why I like Taiwan so much that I can visit it every year for the last 3 years. I love everything about the country. The people, the language, the culture and the food! Taiwanese are generally very polite and kind. I had met many kind and nice Taiwanese during my previous trips, who had helped us get around.

I had visited the places along the North and North-East coast of Taiwan, i.e. Taipei, Jiufen, Shifen, Keelung, Yilan, Hualien. I had also visited Taichung/Nantou, Cingjing. During my previous tour group visit to Taiwna in year 2011, we even get to visit Taitung and  Kaoshiung. I always wanted to visit the West part of Taiwan but was told that it would not be easy getting around in public transport. But well, I was glad to know that Qiuling is keen to embark on this journey with me to explore this part of Taiwan which both of us are unfamiliar but very keen to visit. :)

First sunrise in Taiwan! Hello Taiwan!!!

Let's have a glimpse of my itinerary during this 10D9N trip in Taiwan! 6 lodging in 9 nights oh! You are surprised? Well, I need to figure out how to pack and unpack my pinky now lolz but nevermind, let's enjoy the moment ba! Hahaha! 

My itinerary

15/6: Sg->Taoyuan-> Chia Yi-> Alishan

16/6: Alishan

17/6: Alishan-> Chia Yi-> Taichung-> Monster Village-> Cingjing

18/6: Cingjing

19/6: Cinging-> Taichung-> Hsin Chu Nei Wan

20/6: Hsin Chu Nei Wan-> Hsin Chu City

21/6: Hsin Chu City -> Ruifang-> Jiufen

22/6: Jiufen-> Shifen -> Taipei-> Ximending

23/6: Taipei-> Yangmingshan-> Tamsui

24/6: Taipei-> Sg

Excited?! Me too!! I chose the Minsu （民宿) in Cingjing and Jiufen and the Youth Hostel in Taipei! Really like what I see and hope the stay turns out great too! 

Have a glimpse of my lodging for the next few days..

Cingjing Minsu

Jiufen Minsu

Taipei Youth Hostel

5.18am Landed! Stay tune to my adventure in Taiwan! ^^