Taiwan Day 1 - Cingjing

On 6th Jan 2013, I boarded scoot, and scooted off to Taiwan. My first time in Taiwan!!!
Reached Taiwan at 5+. We reached before arrival time, thankfully no delays or all our plan later will be screwed. After collecting our luggages, went to search for the ubus to get to Taoyuan HSR to train to Taichung to get to our first destination: Cingjing (I always pronounced it as ci jing last time and nobody can understand me.).

Booked online for discount up to 35%. Plus there's no queue to collect the ticket also. Lots of benefits.

After collecting our HSR ticket, our stomach were rumbling. We were damn hungry so we went to the 7-11 to search for food.

Our first meal in Taiwan. My ramen and muihong's curry rice. The ramen is abit oily but still acceptable. Afterall, they're just instant food.

After reaching Taichung, we went to make our Youth card. It's for people below 35 years old and you get discount at certain places like Taipei 101, cingjing farm and the ferris wheel.

Went to find our driver to the minsu at 9.30am. Drama starts. We have no idea how to find the driver except to wait at exit B1. Then 9.30 passed and still no driver. So we started to worry. Muihong went back to the HSR station to get someone to call the minsu for us (the troubles of not having a working phone). Apparently, it's suppose to be at the opposite carpark. So there were like 4 people, including the driver waiting for us. Damn paiseh.

So we thought we can sleep on the minivan. Suddenly, the driver started introducing the place to us = no more sleep. He also bought us to pluck strawberries at puli before going up to cingjing.

Red strawberries

The driver told us because we're there on Sunday so there's only small strawberries left. All the big and juicy strawberries were stolen by the people on Friday and Saturday. The strawberries are really sweet! One box (plucked by us) like that cost 150twd.

We arrived at our minsu at around noon. Taking this minivan/car is much better than taking the bus cause it sent us directly to the minsu. Book the ride direct with the minsu and pay the driver. The ride cost 350twd.

We stayed at star villa basically because they allow us to book and pay online. Some of the other minsus required us to call them/pay through paypal so we opted for something more convenient for us.
We stayed at the cheapest room (Leo & Capricorn-comfy double suite). Paid 2000twd for a sunday night, They have different pricing on different days of the week.
I forgot to take a picture of the room but it's similar to the one provided on the webpage. Doesn't feel as small as the picture feels though. Able to connect to wifi from the room too. They provide teabreak and breakfast. We didn't get to benefit from the teabreak cause we were busy running around and by the time we came back from the farm to shag for teabreak and had to prepare to go to the hotspring. Their breakfast consists of porridge + a variety of side dishes (pork floss, vegetables etc) , drinks and bread/toast. They also provide egg and bacon!
The minsu owner is very friendly and he told us he'll drive us to cingjing farm at around 2 so we can catch the sheep shearing show.

Walked down to the 'main' area where the bus will stop in search for lunch. There's 2 zi char stalls there and we settled for lunch at this zi char stall which appeared to be quite crowded. It's the one right beside the road. The food there taste like crap. Their vegetable cmi, the pork is hard (apparently shan zhu rou is suppose to be hard and chewy) and their hotplate tofu tasted weird. So we had a not-so-yummy lunch.

After lunch, our room was ready and we went to our room and slack around and it's time for cingjing farm. The main purpose of coming here. At least my main purpose was to feed sheep.

Cingjing Farm

Entrance fee: 100twd

Sheep shearing show

The show is quite boring actually. Nothing much, just watch them shear the sheep. There's also a performance by the sheep-dog. I think we were to shag to fully appreciate the show cause we hardly slept the night before.

Sheep feeding time

This is my most calm photo of the process of feeding sheep. Didn't know I'll be so scare but IT'S DAMN FUN! I LIKE!!! Plus, it's cheap! The food only cost 10twd.

I strongly recommend to get the food in the box like the one I'm holding instead of the paper bags kind. It's safer. I've seen at least two people who had their paper bags tore by the sheep (if this happened to me, I think i'll get phobia of sheep). These adorable and hungry sheep. They made a few kids cry but still I think kids will like coming here.

Sheep milk & ice-cream

There sheep ice-cream taste like sheep. No joke, it really feels like I'm eating the sheep. Almost puke and to think I like goat milk. I like the milk though.

Shit

米田共 also known as shit. Haha, they should have that on every sweet. Then I will be giving everybody shit. Haha, damn funny. They're actually cola balls.

After feeding the sheep we walked to another place for the horse show. I was feeling damn sleepy during the show so no pictures. I regret not getting carrots to feed the horses.

It's time to return to the minsu. On the way, we have to walk down 487 steps. Thankfully, we're walking down and not walking up.
The scenery there is really like painted pictures. You're really like reaching/above the clouds and living in the sky.

Cherry/Plum Blossom

Sunset

We booked a trip for hotspring too. 700 twd for public pool. If you want a private room, it'll cost a freaking 1000twd. After fetching us, we went to another minsu to fetch another group and they're Singaporeans too. There's quite a lot of Singaporeans and Hong Kongers in Cingjing. They're advertised as the best hotspring in the world. You have to be in swimsuit and you need swimming cap too (unless you're botak). If you don't have swimming cap, they will actually give you shower cap or you can spend some money and get one from one of the shops there. They provide lockers for 10twd. Hotspring is damn shiok although when you first step in it's damn freaking hot. 先苦后甜。We reached at around 7 and the driver was coming back at 9pm to fetch us. Nobody will really soak in hotspring for 2 hours, most likely you'll faint.

So after 1h + we went to get dinner at this zi char place recommended by the driver.
He recommended dishes like shan zhu rou, fish (I forgot what kind), bing lang flower and gan zhe xin.

甘蔗心

We only tried one of the dishes recommended which is the sugarcane xin (shoots?).They taste abit like bamboo shoots actually.

At 9, the driver drove us back to our minsu.
Taiwan drivers are really nice, very chatty. They have to multi-task on the job, while on the job, they have to act as tour guide introducing the place too.

I'm not sure what's the temperature like at cingjing but I was wearing a short sleeve shirt + jacket + one layer of my trench coat. Kept me warm sufficiently. When I wore both layers of the trench coat for lunch, felt too suffocating. By the way, I got the trenchcoat from qoo10 at $42.80. It comes with a belt, but for some reason, I always forget to bring out the belt. :x

The hot spring ended our first day. Went back to the minsu to bath and sleep. We have to be up at 3+ am because we booked a hehuashan sunrise tour which is at 4.30am.

For the rest of my taiwan post, click here. 
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