JETTING OFF TO TAIWAN (PART ONE) - Tai Chung One Day Tour, Feng Jia Night Market

Been anticipating this trip for the longest time! Roughly 6 months back, we booked this trip together with his paternal side cousins' family, since both parties are going at the same month. So why not travel together? Hehe
Did quite a lot of research as its our first time visiting Taiwan, and reading other bloggers' posts helped me, thus hopefully mine will help too :P
During our stay in Taiwan, we stayed in minsu/ airbnb apartment as its more affordable and the location is really good; we managed to find better ones! I will share our accommodation in another blog post.

DAY ONE (25th Oct '15)
We flew to Taipei via Jetstar at 7.10am and reached Taoyuan Intl. airport at 12pm-ish. The timing in Taiwan and Singapore is identical! GMT+8

Before clearing the immigration, you will see these 3 booths and that's where you can purchase a pre-paid sim card. Got 台灣大哥大 Tel Co - Package D with 10 days of unlimited internet usage and TWD 100 for local or overseas call.
Cost: TWD 500 (S$21.70)

Understanding Taiwan's railway system:
There are 3 types: HSR (高铁) ; Bullet train
                              TRA (列车) ; Choo-choo train
                              MRT (捷運) ; Just like SG's MRT
As there's no train service from the airport, would need to take U-Bus service no. 705 located at the ground level to Tao Yuan HSR and from there, you will be able to travel to other locations.
Cost: TWD 30 (20 minutes ride)

We need to get to Tai Chung TRA to deposit our big luggage as we are heading up to Cing Jing on Day 3, as its not advisable to carry so many luggage up.
From Tao Yuan Intl airport, we took U-Bus service no. 705 to Tao Yuan HSR and then transferred to Tai Chung HSR. A week prior the trip, I booked the HSR ticket online as there is an early bird discount. The downside of booking online is that, if you have missed the train, you will need to re-purchase and no refund will be given. Thus, I gave myself 2 hours allowance just in case there's any flight/ immigration delays and it worked out pretty well!
Book HSR online tickets: http://www5.thsrc.com.tw/en/
Cost: TWD 530 per pax (S$23.40) 

* Do note that Taichung HSR is connected to New Wurih TRA and not Taichung TRA! *
Upon reaching Taichung HSR, follow Exit 3 towards TRA sign and its about 5 minutes walk, then bought the tickets towards Taichung TRA.
Cost: TWD 15

After coming out from Taichung TRA, turn right and walk to the end for the baggage room.

If you're considering placing your luggage for more than a day, I would recommend that you to place it in the baggage service room instead of lockers.

The lockers are charged by every 3 hours whereas baggage service room is charged per day.

Cost for Medium luggage: TWD 50 per day

              Big luggage: TWD 70 per day

The officer will issue you this receipt, and you'll need to produce it upon collection.

Make sure not to lose it!

After that, we separated into 2 cabs and off to our minsu at FengJia area. The cab drivers will not go by meter, instead they will give you a fixed amount.

Cost: TWD 250 per cab

Read here for my reviews on our accommodations in Taiwan.

After settling down in our rooms, around 5pm we headed down to FengJia night market for some noms! Here are some of the foods that we ate :D

Omelette with some pork floss

Black pepper chicken with sunnyside up

Pig's liver noodles

Grilled cuttlefish

Glutinous rice roll with Taiwan Sausage

Mr Eggy

Outer part: Caramel

Inner part: Matcha cream

Kinda like a bread-ish pastry

Yam balls

Cheese balls! These are so good!

Chewy and cheeeeesy

Steak cubes

Leon's favorite street snack!

Best egg crepe in FengJia! 

Handmade dough and its 'fried' on the spot.

Sadly, this stall has no address as its located along the small alley.

Maybe can try googling for the stall name: 脆皮蛋餅

Grilled oysters with lemon.

Chou (fermented) tofu

So smelly and nice!

Grilled corn

Not as fantastic though.

DAY TWO
Leon's cousin booked a one day tour (9AM - 7PM) consists of 2 Toyota wish cabs to 5 places.
Cost: TWD 6000
1) 紙箱王 - Carton King Creativity Park (No.2, Aly. 2, Sec. 2, Dongshan Rd., Beitun Dist., Taichung City 406)
Everything is made up of cardboard, including the furniture! Also, the souvenirs are really interesting, unique and affordable! They even have a lomo camera that's made up of cardboard, and in case of faulty, you can bury the camera in soil and it will grow a plant :O
Cost: TWD 200 per ticket includes TWD 100 offset coupon

After that, they drove us to this place called 東東芋圓 - Dong Dong Taro Balls, which is very popular in Taichung. Looks like black ball dessert but the taste is much more better. The taro ball, sweet potato balls and tapioca balls are so Q!
Address: No.48-3, Sec. 2, Dongshan Rd., Beitun Dist., Taichung City 406, Taiwan

2) 新社花海節 - Xin She Sea of Flowers Festival (Xinshe Dist., Taichung City 426, Taiwan)
Was pretty excited to visit this place, although I am not a 'flower' type of person but it looks so good on the website/ blogs! Sadly, we went during the wrong season :( Usually occurs on the 7th of Nov to 7th of Dec yearly!
Thankfully, the drivers still drove us over to take some pictures haha

3) 新峰農場 - Xin Feng Farm (No.265, Sec. 2, Zhonghe St., Xinshe Dist., Taichung City 426, Taiwan)

You get to experience harvesting the fruits there, suggested periods for grapes are from June to August and from October to December. The breed is Jufeng grape (巨峰葡萄) or also known as Kyoho grape, that is famous for the dark purple thick skin and chewy sweet taste with a bit of sourness to it.
During April and May periods, you can pluck peaches in their farm. November and December periods, you can pluck tangerines and oranges, and from February to April are the seasons for loquat.
Cost: No entrance fee, only need to pay for the fruits that you've pluck.

A tip for sweeter grapes; choose those that are more opaque and dark in color! 

Cost: TWD 370 for the amount that we plucked

4) 百菇莊 - Mushroom Garden (No.2-1, Xiezhong St., Xinshe Dist., Taichung City 426, Taiwan)
They have a great varieties of mushroom related products. You will get to eat, harvest and learn the different types of mushrooms at one place!

Mushroom braised pork rice.

Mushroom sour and spicy soup.

Mushroomsssss soup

5) 薰衣草森林 - Lavender Cottage (No.20, Zhongxing St., Xinshe Dist., Taichung City 426, Taiwan)
"There were two girls love coffee and herbs, and they drew their story and recorded their feeling into music while traveling. After years working in Taipei and Kaohsiung, they decided to quit their jobs and started being farmers. They tried to grow lavender but bought a hill in nowhere, where there was no cell phone signal and no tourists. It was harsh, but they wanted the aroma and the beauty of purple lavender surrounding a coffee shop in the hill. After years effort, they made their dream came true." - rtaiwanr.com
Cost: TWD 200 includes TWD 100 offset coupon

Sprayed ourselves with lavender mist before entering the place as its said to cleanse oneself before going up the hill. If not the mountain god will be angry :O

Cost: TWD 50

The fireflies will be back on April!

Going up the hill for ...

WISHING TREE

Wish written by Leon :)

 

Ice creams!

Flavours: Rose, Lavender, Peppermint choc, Plum yogurt and Lemongrass.

We got both rose and lavender flavoured ice creams!

LOVE IT! Very rich and creamy in texture and flavour.

Cost: TWD 90 (Used coupon to offset)

At one of the retail shops, that you can get to D.I.Y lavender essence bag and even bath salts!

I went for the bath salts hehe!

Fragrance: Sunflower, Lavender and Rose.

The sunflower bath salts smelled really good! Regretted not adding it more :(

Cost: TWD 180 (Used coupon to offset)

6) 元明商店 - Yuan Ming Shang Dian (台中市西屯區朝富路18-2號)
Website: www.top-suncake.com.tw
Last minute decision to visit this place to get Taiwanese pastries such as, Sun cookie (太阳饼) and Pineapple cake (鳳梨酥). Leon and I bought Sun cookie (box of 15) and assorted chocolate, strawberry and malt flavoured sun cake (box of 15) each, while the rest of the fam got more! Hehe
Since we are delivering it to Taipei, we had to spend over TWD 3000 for free delivery charges. Sadly, we saw this shop at XMD area but its okay, as its delivered right to our BNB.

The drivers that we had engaged are really friendly and patient people, never rushed us once to anything. Always glad to share information about places and their experiences with us, also helping us to take group photos.
Here's the contact for our driver:

After that, the drivers drove us back to minsu. Rested for 30 minutes before heading down to walk the uncovered street foods in Feng Jia night market!

Located right outside our minsu's alley!

More fried chicken!

Love Taiwan's fried sweet potato with plum powder!

So much nicer than SG's shihlin food stall.

More squid :P

Must eat fried sweet potato balls when you're here!

So Q! So unique in texture! Love how the food feels in my mouth.

Unforgettable taste haha

Mozzarella cheese sticks

My marksman Lim <3

Baked potato with cheese!

Similar to our local "yong tau foo" but its at the streets!

Finally get to try 糖葫芦, also known as bing tang hu lu.

Its fruits coated with candied sugar!

Said to be the best egg crepe in town but... 

its such a disappointment.

Back for the best egg crepe!

I always ordered the one w/ soy sauce paste (醬油膏).

Missing it so much now! :(

• Accommodations in Taiwan (HERE) - Tai Chung, Cing Jing & Tai Pei
• Jetting off to Taiwan Part Two (HERE) - Nan Tou Half day tour, Cing Jing & Tai Pei
• Jetting off to Taiwan Part Three (HERE) - Tai Pei One Piece cafe, Wu Fen Pu, Rao He Night market, Shi Fen & Jiu Fen
• Jetting off to Taiwan Part Four (HERE) - Tam Sui, Shihlin Night Market & Pin Tian Mu Chang

Thanks for reading.
K, Bye.