Experiences In Taiwan...

It's time for our annual family retreat! This year, we have picked Taiwan

(7 days 6 nights).

The itinerary was planned two months ahead in October. Both my husband and I have been to Taiwan numerous times but we had never travelled there with our children. So, we decided to let them have a different kind of experience - homestay.

We had chartered a transport from Taoyuan to Taichung and that had made our life so much easier travelling from province to province, city to city and town to town. Of course, along the way, we stopped over at some interesting places not only to stretch our legs but also for food as well as sight-seeing.

1. Sunflowers Field

2.Nanzhuang Old Street

The above picture shows the entry to a side alley with lots of interesting tidbits and souvenir shops. Since it was a Sunday, it was really crowded and there were street performances from the local troupes.

If you have been to Nanzhuang Old Street, you would have seen this owner selling deep fried octopus, mushrooms & sweet potatoes every weekend for the past seven years. Oh yes, those are gigantic tentacles of a delicious octopus which you ought to try. Simply delicious!

3. Wenshui Old Street

Next, we stopped at Wenshui old Street but it was not as happening as Nanzhuang.









4. Dahu Beer Factory

The fourth stop was Dahu Beer Factory. It was the strawberry season, so everything we saw or ate were strawberry-based products such as strawberry hotdog, strawberry beer, strawberry wine, strawberry cookies, etc.








The last stop of the day before retiring to our homestay, was Fengjia Night Market. I was too busy shopping, so I had no time for pictures, sorry. It was one hell of  a night market. There were so much to buy and eat, so you bet I'll be returning to Fengjia again soon!

Finally, it's time for...

The next two nights, we were at Garden Life, experiencing a very hospitable homestay. We were given an individual unit for five. It had a clean and quiet ambience and it was convenient for our breakfast as the kitchen was just next door. My husband and I enjoyed the home-cooked Taiwanese congee with various yummy side dishes.

The next day, we had joined a day tour to Qianhua, Taizhuang International Flower Carpet Festival, Summit Resort, Mushroom Villa and Lavender Forest as well as dinner at 'Master of Mushrooms' steamboat restaurant.

2. Flower Festival

1. Qianhua

3. Summit Resort

4. Mushroom Ice cream from Mushroom Villa

5. Lavender Forest

On the fourth day of our journey, we bid the wonderful Mr and Mrs Lai goodbye and headed to Taipei via chartered transport. The driver, Mr Lee, suggested to stop over at a few attractions which had not been in the itinerary.
The first stop was a farm where we bought two bottles of milk to feed the "horny", oh I mean the hungry pigs.

The next stop was lunch at "Big thumbs eating house" in Xinzhu. It was strongly recommended by Mr Lee and we had no regrets because the meat balls were the best!

We hit the road immediately after lunch. The following stop was Shifen, where we took some pictures at the magnificent waterfall. Next, at the side of the railway track was where we wrote our aspirations, hopes and dreams on a lantern and watched it rise into the gathering sunset. This tradition originated from Zhuge Kongming during the Three Kingdoms era and made popular by the renowned Taiwanese film, " Apple of my eye".

Jioufen.

We arrived just in time before dark to take some pictures at the Golden Waterfall. We took a leisurely stroll through food alley to taste some of the local food and bought souvenirs before nightfall.


Next, we headed towards Taipei city. I thought we had checked into the hotel at XinMenDing late but the crowded street told us that the night was still young. After settling down at the hotel, we did some light shopping around the area before turning in.

For the next 3 days, we just laid back and took our time to savour the many wonders and charms Taipei had to offered like the National Palace Museum, Tamsui, Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, Shilin Night Market, Taipei 101 at World Trade and Wufenpu.

National Palace Museum

Tamsui

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

Taipei 101

At Wufenpu, the boys were not interested in shopping so they left but never mind, their lose is my gain...haha. Honestly, I spent less than US$50 and I bought home more than 10 items including dresses, skirt, blouses, legging and sweaters. I had a great time! As for the boys, they ate their way back to hotel and rested before our last sumptuous dinner in Taiwan. You cannot imagine how much we stuffed ourselves during the entire trip. There was no moment of hunger, only a full belly at all times.

 

Last but not least, here are our thoughts about the trip. Let's start with:-

 

Papa

Generally, the most prominent area that I had enjoyed in this trip was the Taiwanese local food, which has proven, yet again, to be the best food I have ever tasted. Out of all the incredible local dishes, the one delicacy that I particularly adore is the grilled cuttlefish. The Taiwanese foods are so delicious that I don't think I will ever be tired of them. Apart from the succulent and aromatic Taiwanese cuisine, another feature which I like about this trip is the homestay. As the homestay is located on a mountain, the air was fresh and cooling, simply just perfect for me. The service provided by the owners of the homestay, Mr and Mrs Lai, was also remarkable. They were warm, friendly and sincere towards us. Besides, I was also really satisfied with their homemade congee, probably one of the tastiest there was. This trip had definitely been successful, but all of this would not have been possible without my wonderful wife. Thank you for giving us such an awesome trip. 

 

Mama

Generally, the Taiwanese are friendly, helpful and warm.  Especially at the homestay, it felt like visiting old friends. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude towards Mr and Mrs Lai from Garden Life Homestay. They have helped me a lot in planning our stay in Taichung.

I might have been to Taiwan numerous times but many of the attractions was my first visit. Such as Fengjia in Taizhuang, Shifen, Taipei 101 and Wufenpu. Taiwan is now my official shopping paradise. Besides that, I particularly missed the local dishes at the night market. All in all, I will be back!

 

Older Son

I like Taiwan as a whole because the people and the culture there is especially sincere and honest. After the often cold attitude us city-dwellers get, (Especially Singapore) renewed my faith that there is still hope for mankind.(Just kidding, mankind ain't that bad... yet!) Anyway, the land's great, the people nice and so much more cheerful and the food is just awesome, what's there not to like?

 

Younger Son

I would say that this trip was generally awesome. The only feature about Taiwan that I could possibly dislike is the annoyingly dry climate, which resulted in my having cracked lips and undesirably rough skin. However, what I do like about Taiwan is firstly, the people's attitude towards each other. It is common belief that generally city-dwellers have colder and more aloof attitudes than country folk, but I think in the case of Taiwan, the general feeling of the people, regardless country folk or city-dwellers, is that of warmth and sincerity, both virtues that I personally highly regard. Another feature of Taiwan which I enjoyed was the cooling, windy weather. It was neither too cold nor too hot, just absolutely perfect. I am no penguin, so I cannot stand the extreme cold. I enjoy the heat, but not the stifling heat as in Singapore, so Taiwan's temperature suited me very well. The last feature of Taiwan that I like is its local food, which I definitely, undoubtedly would give my thumbs up, especially the hua-zhi (grilled cuttlefish). A successful trip to me is one which has lots of succulent food to devour, and this little sojourn to Taiwan has definitely met that requirement, thank you very much. All in all, 9/10 for me. (1 point taken away for dry weather, I guess.)