Taiwan Travels Part III

Day FIVE (Hualien > Taichung)

Bye Hualien, you have been good to me. The beautiful scenery from the train.

a train ride is not complete without a 便當!

D's sushi bento!

We had to take a train (Zi Qiang Hao) to Taipei, then transfer to High Speed Railway to Tai Zhong.

a touristy pose at the Taichung station

Taichung station exudes a historical vibe with a mixture of old english architecture touch up with simple modern concrete and displays of old monuments from the past.

Chose a better hotel, Holiday Inn Express, here since we are having a 2 day stay! Was totally unsure where our hotel is, so we checked out the tourist info centre which is within the station building itself. Did I mention Taiwanese are a friendly bunch of people? I've never met a rude local to me throughout the whole trip, at least none that I can recall. In fact all of them are so friendly and patient with all my queries, it really made my trip so much more happier. You can also get more information on how to get to Cing Jing Farm/Sun Moon Lake from the info centre.

Finally! A hotel worthy room for this trip!

Holiday Inn Express is just a stone throw away from the Taichung station, with a 7eleven and huge park just opposite. And in the same building lies a branded goods and sportswear outlet!

The sportswear outlet carries brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, Lacoste and more. I personally thought the discounts were really good! D and I bought mostly Adidas items. My biggest buy was a Adidas varsity-style jacket for about SGD$130. It was on 40% off! I had to get it. We got tees were priced between SGD$15 - $25 bucks too. The more you buy, the higher the discount.

Tai Chung is the city that lies one of the most vibrant and busy night markets in Taiwan, a must-go destination in Tai Chung. Unfortunately, we are a far cry from the night market. We asked around and locals say it takes about an hour to get there by bus. Cool, I wanted to try all their public transport, so we took bus no. 5 from just opposite our hotel. Started early at 530pm, hoping to reach the market at dinner time. But boy, the whole journey took almost 90 minutes!

We were dead hungry and tired by then, almost like a train ride between cities! This was probably caused by the bad traffic during peak hours too. Stop to alight is Feng Jia University.

You won't be able to see the night market from here. Ask for directions, the night market is located just outside Fengjia University.

There's such a wide range of food, I wanna try EVERYTHING!

first stop - scallops!

sweet potato fries

大腸包小腸－ this is one of the famous must-trys at Feng Jia. At one entrance to the market you will see people forming a long queue to get this. i thought it's suppose to be a sausage wrapped in another sausage... but it turned out to be a roll of glutinous rice wrapping a sausage with toppings of your choice. Didn't really like it =(

popular charcoal-cooked chicken chop. yums.

at one of the ends of the street market, we spotted many people slurping cockles...

so we joined the queue! nah, I'm not a fan of clam-typed seafood. But D exclaimed that this is da bomb.

cute pancakes, hard to resist!

so proud of D who finally did some real shopping. Bought 2 pairs of slippers at their local shop, Paidal. Their slippers comes with an arch at the sides so that our feet can rest fully and comfortably following the shape of the slippers, so I believe it will be a good buy! Buy one free one sommore, sure buy.

then we continued eating and of course a must have bubble tea.

Bought some supper back to hotel room to enjoy before bed! Cab fare back was 200twd, which is about sgd$8. Quite reasonable, considering it is quite a distant away. Should have taken a cab there instead.

Morning breakfast at Holiday Inn was awesome too. I had 3 servings!

I can eat guava everyday. Plus some sour pomegranate for antioxidant.

We checked the Taichung map and it seemed like there's nothing much to do. Why everyone said Taichung is good?? Even if I stayed near Fengjia, there's nothing nearby besides the night market and some huge malls which are within 5-10 mins in a cab.
Most of the attractions, I heard later, were located in the outskirts, so we will need to travel out. Anyway, we wanted to take it easy so we just strolled around our hotel, did some shopping at the outlet stores and decided to visit the Confucious Temple which is just a short 5 mins walk from our hotel.

On this day, 11 October, it happened to be Taiwan's National Day. I thought there will be celebrations along the streets and all. But no. Unlike Singapore, there was no open declaration for the love of the country through the hanging of the nation's flag. In fact, everything seemed like a typical day. Asked the hotel staff if there will be any celebration event or party, but nope. Only one main concert party at Hsin Chu. Apparently every year a city will be chosen to be the venue for the celebration.

past by the park nearby and decided to take some pictures!

along some shopping street ...

entrance to the Confucious Temple.

it was overall a mediocre experience. I personally felt that there were nothing much worthy to see. I love to visit old, historical places and learn about the stories behind them. Sad to say, this Confucius Temple is more of a temple built to commemorate and remember the works of Confucius, not exactly an old temple that was once used by the great man.

this is our only consolation. A bowl of yummy beef noodles. It's really a bowl of goodness. You should try it if you happen to be around the area.

We walked around the main street and found this unassuming shop. When the door opened, we had a whiff of freshly baked cake smell. Peeped in and saw a big group of people inside a small shop, queuing to buy their cakes. The butter cakes just came out from the kitchen and they are snapped up immediately. As typical Singaporeans, we joined the queue. We had to come back an hour later for our cake, and if we missed the timing, there goes our cake too.

There! our twd200 (if i did not remember wrongly) castella cake. We brought it back to hotel immediately, eagar to sink our teeth in it. On the first bite, we were puzzled. It tasted like normal butter sponge cake, what's so special about it. But as we continued eating for the next 2 days, we realised. The goodness of this cake actually lies in it's simplicity. The cake is soft and moist, so much so that you can eat it on its own without a cup of tea/drink. The cake is honey sweet, but just the right amount of sweetness, tasty yet not overloaded.

There is a similar shop down the street with the same golden box packaging, so make sure you buy from the right shop if you are planning to.

During our one hour wait for the cake, we walked around nearby and spotted a parade nearby. Heard it's a parade by the different temples or... something like tt.