Tantalizing Taiwan - A 10 day trip with Family and Friends

Taiwan was always on my list of to-visit and to-see places. Somehow, I could never convince family and friends (usually the ones I used to travel with) to tag along with me for a holiday. Taiwan, according to me, is the most under-rated destination globally. The country has so much to offer and it is only the last few years that proper marketing was carried out to increase tourism in the country.

So lucky enough for me, there was a Scoot Airline sale and we could grab Buy1-Get 1 offer. 6 of us (2 families) planned a visit during the Cherry Blossom season. Well, that was the ulterior motive after all - to see the Taiwanese Cherry Blossoms (they call it red hot colour)! So began our 10 day trip to see the highs and lows of Taiwan.

Red Hot Cherry Blossoms

Day 1: We landed in Kaohsiung airport in the morning around 10am. Incidentally, I dropped my cap before clearing the immigration and was looking for it all over the place. I took a chance and approached the security who was extremely kind enough to go inside and search for it. Not only did he find it but he safely handed over to me without any hesitation. I was grateful to him! Began my journey of falling in love with Taiwan :-)

After the initial airport saga, we headed to the railway station to board the HSR bullet train. The trains are similar to what you find in Japan and China - high speed (appox 300+ km/hr) and an experience which is worth every $. We reached Taipei 3hrs later and transferred to local metro heading towards Ximen. We booked a small hotel, Muzik hotel for our stay in Taipei for 3nights. Travel was seamless thanks to the developed infrastructure the country offers to its people.

After checking in, we booked 2 taxis and headed for Taipei 101 (the magnificent structure which was once the tallest building on earth). There is a viewing gallery from where the entire city is visible. We were a little unlucky to experience thunderstorm and hence, could not see the city as well as we should have.

Taipei 101 is known for the famous restaurant Din Tai Fung which was incorporated in Taiwan and is famous for authentic Taiwanese food. DTF has branches in Singapore and the restaurants are always crowded with long waiting time. It was part of our plan to dine in DTF at Taipei 101, which by itself is an experience. Our friends are vegetarians and we were a little worried whether we would find vegetarian options in DTF. In Singapore, options are plenty in the menu. DTF at 101 was really crowded and we were asked to wait for 30mins. While waiting, the staff was kind enough to ask our menu preference. They had a separate vegetarian menu with umpteen options. I was in awe! We chose so many dishes and placed the order while in queue. The service of the restaurant was outstanding - far better than the ones in Singapore and the staff was extremely polite. The experience was way beyond what we had expected and it was certainly an experience I would recommend anyone visiting Taipei.

Day 2: We hired a huge van with a guide who picked us up after breakfast.  Our guide, David, is a friendly man who is always well dressed (suited) and speaks good English. He had helped us finalise our itinerary when we planned to travel. He owns a company and has many guides working with him to run the travel company. This was definitely the best decision of our trip as we were travelling with 2 toddlers and the flexibility aided us at every stage. The guide also helped us in sourcing vegetarian food at the various restaurants where the locals dont converse in English.

We had to deviate from our originally planned itinerary. It was raining and hence, visiting a national park did not favour us. We visited the Fisherman's wharf and due to the heavy rain, just spent some time at a local cafe subsequently buying the Taiwanese Nougats. The structure was huge but we couldn't really experience much. It is strange how it rained during the month of February.

We decided to head out for lunch to a unique cafe - Oia Cafe (it has Alpacas!). Specialty of the cafe - cute little alpacas are roaming freely and you can cuddle them / feed them. Taiwan is famous for themed cafes and Oia certainly features in that list.

We spent some good time at the cafe before heading back to Taipei City. The rain had stopped by the time we reached our hotel. Evening, we headed to the Ximen night market. after strolling for a few hours, we headed to another themed cafe for dinner - Modern Toilet Restaurant. Taiwan is really about good places for food and themed cafes to explore. We were served dinner on toilet bowls and we had to relish our food despite the presentation. Pictures below will justify the emotion better than I can narrate.

Toilet bowls instead of sofa / chairs

That is chocolate ice cream for you!

Served on a toilet bowl

Day 3: One of David's colleagues - Ms.Her was at our service. Though she couldn't speak English, she was well-versed with Google Translator and could multi-task (driving and typing). She suggested and brought us to Yilan county. It is in outskirts of Taipei and is a beautiful country side. Home to the famous Crayon Factory, the place is not at all crowded and is absolutely not touristy. The children went wild looking at the variety of colours offered at the outlet. The concept of the factory is really unique and there is so much to learn out there. There were different stations and each child has to complete all, ranging from - crayons, to marker making to face painting and just scribbling using a variety of colours. The children were elated at the sight of the colours and they actually got a face painting done!

Crayon Factory

Butterfly on my hands

It was late afternoon while we got back to Taipei city. Ms Her brought us to a museum. I am absolutely not a fan of museums. Hence, I decided to sleep in the van while the troupe went in to conquer the history. It was drizzling and a nap helped regain my energy. It was evening by the time we returned to Ximen. We headed to the Night Market once again and relished on the street food (such as the Stinky Tofu).

Fun Story: Ms. Her drove us almost 20kms into the city to buy cheap diapers (as I wanted to purchase some). We were wondering if that place is something unique or is another sight seeing place for her to drive us so far. Only upon reaching we realised that it is a factory outlet and hence offers cheaper products. Additional 2hrs spent just for diapers!

Day 4: 
After breakfast in hotel, we were again greeted by David. We started our journey to Yangmingshan National Park (north of Taipei) to witness some amazing Cherry Blossoms (the entire reason for our holiday). YMP experiences early cherry blossoms in the country. It is a huge national park and is also home to natural hot springs. Tourists can dip themselves in the natural hot springs and enjoy the warmth in the cold weather.

Sulphuric lake in Yangmingshan National Park

We proceeded to Maokong mountains and were mesmerised to see the view. We headed off to take the Gondola and landed at the entrance of Taipei Zoo (it was a treat for the children). There was hardly any crowd and we could see the animals clearly (all to ourselves). This is by far one of the best gondola rides we had taken. The gondola had a glass bottom and it gave thrills to the children aboard.

U Bike - pay as you go

We finished the sight seeing really late and just grabbed some dinner on the way back to the hotel.

Day 5:
We had an early breakfast and checked out from our Taipei Hotel. It was a beginning of our road trip  to the neighbouring districts. Off we headed towards Hualien. Our first stop was at Qingshui Cliff overlooking the Qixingtan beach. The view of blue waves hitting the cliff was stunning by all means. One could spend a few hours just admiring the beach scenes.

View from Qingshui Cliff

We stopped at a Taiwanese cafe for a quick pure vegetarian lunch and headed towars Taroko Gorge. The cliff has narrow roads and there are possibilities of rocks dropping. We alighted from our vehicle and wore protective helmets before going further to view the gorge. Water was gushing through the channel and it was a little fearful with the children around. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the view and proceeded further to view the pagodas and temples inside the national park. We spent the entire afternoon admiring the view and taking numerous photographs before exiting the Taroko National Park.

At the gorge!

We checked into a cozy Air BnB called "Owl Cafe" (another themed hotel / cafe). Everything about the place was about owls - the decor, artwork, mirror, lamps, etc. There was a fun element in this place. Too bad, we were here only for 1 night.

Night market at Hualien is equally vibrant as Taipei's but it was less crowded. There were many shops and we purchased more of the Taiwanese nougats for snacking :-) Taiwan is famous for its street food. If given an opportunity, grab the street food instead of hunting for expensive restaurants.

Day 6:
We checked out of Owl cafe post breakfast and headed towards "Little Pine Garden". This was a mini zoo made of wood. All animals were carved out of wood and the garden provided lovely view of the town. The children enjoyed playing here for sometime and we decided to proceed to Hehuashan mountains. Our guide, David, asked us to wrap up more as the temperature was 0 degrees at the mountain peak.

Taroko National Park

Passing through misty roads and cherry blossoms, we arrived at the peak. It was biting cold outside and we could barely take the cold. The leaves had frozen and there was snow on the trees. Most importantly, we wanted to take pictures on our phones without removing the gloves (I classify this as our modern problem).

Misty roads leading to Hehuashan Mountain

Icy trees and chill weather

The holiday was getting even more interesting - We had covered the bullet train, a densely populated city, beaches and now a snow capped mountain. David was amused at our amazement of the variety that Taiwan has to offer. He drove us straight to Qing Jing Farm. It is a ticketed attraction. We initially believed it to be an amusement park. Once we were inside, another surprise awaited us. This was like a mini New Zealand - lush green fields with many sheep!

I love sheep

Swiss Garden

The children had so much fun and so did we adults. There was sheep feeding, horse riding, walk to the little Swiss Garden / Windmills - the place was quite scenic. We spent a few hours before realising that we were starving and needed some quick lunch. There was a pizza corner outside the Swiss Garden and the shop had a man made oven to bake the pizza. The food was absolutely delicious - one of the best pizzas I have ever tasted and it was vegetarian!

Pizza corner

We had booked our accommodation at Julie's Garden (an Air BnB). It was almost evening by the time we checked in to the little garden. The place had cats, dogs, ducks and little birds. This was a treat for the children. The place is located up on the hills so the place is cold. Temperatures had dropped and we decided to stay indoors for the evening.

Balcony of our Panoramic Room

Day 7:
We were greeted by a panoramic view of the place early morning. Our rooms had panoramic windows that offered view of the sunrise, mountains and cherry blossoms. The place was simply magical. We spent some time more at the place before enjoying a sumptuous buffet breakfast and heading out to our next destination. The fun part of the road trip is the wide variety of landscape that we get to enjoy.

Our next stop was Old England Hotel just minutes away from Julie's Garden. The hotel is majestic and is a tall standing Victorian structure in the vicinity. We had to reach Formossan Aboriginal Village but we were distracted by a forest of cherry blossoms on the way. We had to stop as we had not seen so many cherry blossoms during our entire trip. We spent a good 1 hr saturating ourselves to the view only thinking that we might never see a sight such as this again.

Old England Hotel

Soaked in Cherry Blossom

Luck was with us - We reached Formossan Village and were greeted by a forest of cherry trees. Thankfully, the crowd was not much so we could take good pictures with the trees. The aboriginal cultural village offers a lot more than just cherry trees. Various tribal culture is displayed. There are performances, live shows and there is an amusement park inside the mini village. We ended the visit by treating our eyes to a beautiful European like garden.

Tribal performance

European Garden

Stop was for lunch at a small Taiwanese cafe - vegetarian delight again! Our next stop was at Sun-Moon lake. There are Gondola rides across the lake and numerous accommodations at the lakeside. The Gondola ride was okay not as exciting as the Maokong Gondola. We checked into Richforest Sun Moon Lake right at the banks of the lake that offered mesmerising views. Night was quaint at the little town and we relaxed at the hotel itself. We bid goodbye to David as Ms.Her was scheduled to be with us for the next 3 days.

Richforest Lakeside Hotel

Day 8:
This was a dedicated day for Taichung City Tour. Taichung is the largest industrial city of Taiwan and is the 2nd largest city of the country. Taichung itself has many things to offer. Ms Her picked us up after breakfast and we started our Taichung city tour with Carton King Creative Park. This placed is a living example of "out of the box" thinking! Everything in the place is made of cartons / card boards - mainly recyclable waste. There is a mini zoo, cafe, playground and even a mini wonders of the world park. The cafe had everything made of cartons - tabled / chairs / plates....We ate a delicious vegetarian lunch here. The entire place can be covered within 2hrs. Great place for families to visit.

We moved on to see the Xinshe Sea of Flowers. This is a huge land of flowers' field and the flower display changes with season. During the months from Feb - April, tulips are displayed. We were lucky to catch the tulip festival. Felt like, we were back in Netherlands! This is a must visit place for flower lovers. The variety and colours are breathtaking. And fret not, you are assured of good photos. At the time we visited, the crowd was less and we could get good pictures.

Our last stop in Taichung was Rainbow Military Dependents' Village. There is history to this village where an old man named Mr.Huang painted his big house with colourful tribal art to protect it from destruction. Approx 1200 soldiers had built their houses in this settlement and lived until developers wanted to buy the land and construct buildings. It was Mr.Huang's continuous effort to save his house which led to the place becoming colourful and artistic. He painted all this by himself. Part of the settlement was saved and ultimately became a tourist attraction.

Rainbow Village

We reached back our hotel at night and decided to grab dinner just there while getting some rest. The view of our rooms overlooking the lake was simply peaceful. Nature has so much more to offer if we take good care of it. Feeling blessed, we looked forward to what the next day has to offer.

Day 9:
Time was to check out and drive further south towards Kaohsiung. Our 1st stop was Mt.Alishan. It was a rough drive to the National Park as we lost our way and the GPS almost threw us out into a canal :-) Jokes apart, we did reach Alishan and the place was cold. Like any hill station, there is a scenic train here which takes you to interior Alishan to view the Sacred Tree. It is a quick 30mins ride. The forest train was built by the Japanese earlier last century.

We had lunch at the mountain top - there are plenty of restaurants to choose from. Authentic vegetarian Taiwanese food with hot soup - perfect for the chill weather. Once food is sorted, everything falls in place.

We drove straight into Kaohsiung city and checked into the hotel. Kaohsiung is a more vibrant city with many food outlets. It was evening and we were starving. It was our last night in Kaohsiung and our last chance to explore local night markets and food. We embarked on our final night market journey. The market was hustling and bustling with crowd. There was even a live performance by an artist (see below) who entertained us with his amazing vocal and guitar performance.

Day 10:
Our final day at Taiwan was here and we wanted to make the most of it. We checked out of the hotel and went to Pier 2 Art Centre famous for graffiti art and 3D art objects. We photographed some unique pieces and spent some time at the local cafe. We also utilised the time to purchase souvenirs and gifts at the pier shops.

Our final lunch in Taiwan was at Maharaja Indian Restaurant whereby we relished our traditional Naan and Butter Chicken. This was like home away from home. After lunch, our children demanded playground. Ms Her brought us to Dream Mall to wrap up any last minute shopping - it has play area for children and many shops to check out. Soon we realised, it was evening and time for us to board our flight back to Singapore. We witnessed a final sunset of Taiwan - marvelous in its own way and leaving us with rays of hope that some day we will be back again to experience more of this beautiful and highly under-rated country for tourists.

Note: Traveled - Feb-Mar 2017

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