Taiwan 2015 Jiayi 嘉義/地久橋-石卓-雅琇山莊

We kick start our day by feeding our tummy with bacon toast and egg toast sold in food truck. My favourite breakfast in Taiwan. More breakfast stall can be find easily at the street opposite of 85 building on the way to subway station. Next we travelled to Jiayi from Kaohsiung Mainstation. Planning the transportation to Jiayi is indeed tricky. The availability of train to Alisan is limited and their bus or train schedule is hard to understand for a half-banana me.

Our first train ride in Taiwan

The train usually departed on time from the platform unless there is delay. We ran all the way from the ticket entrance to the platform and managed to jump into the train at the last minutes before the door closed. It really closed right we got onto the train. *relief* The journey took around 2 hours to reached Jiayi and by the time we reached we missed the last train to Fenchihu. So we opt for backup plan which is cab (More like our priority plan since we din plan our transport in advance). Just pay slightly more but totally save you from all the troubles. We met a very friendly taxi driver that offer to fetch us to Fenchihu and some attraction along the road for TWD1500per car.

We take away two packets of the signature food in Jiayi - Turkey Rice on our way up. (because the taxi driver haven’t have his lunch yet) and enjoyed it at the first stop of our way to Fenchihu - ChuKou 觸口，天長地久橋. ChuKou is the gateway to Alishan. Two suspension bridges were built to cross the river to get to Alishan during Japanese occupation . Both bridges is named Tianchang 天長 and Dijiu地久 to memorate Japanese emperor and empress respectively.









Second stop was 石棹新天山茶葉民宿（Tea Homestay). Once we got there, the owner start serving us different kind of chinese tea and explain each of it to us. In the end, we bought some as souvenirs. The owner claimed that they sell tea leaves made in Taiwan compared to tourist attraction that sell imported tea leaves from Vietnam. Not really sure whether it is reliable or not but their tea did tastes good. As shown in their name, they actually offer room for traveller too other than tea experience.

We finally touched down to Fenchihu by 3pm. Why we chose to stay in Fenchihu? Because it is cheaper than Alisan! There's our first thought when looking for Alisan accommodation. The room rates per person is roughly TWD900 per night. While Alisan will be more than TWD1000.  But there are other consequences from saving the penny. Anyway the attractions in Fenchihu are worth to stop by for an hour or two on the way up to Alisan. Our home stay in Fenchihu named 雅琇山莊 (yeashow) which is owned by the ex-mayor of Fenchihu. We reserved our room through email from their official website and paid on the spot when arrive to the homestay.

雅琇山莊 (yeashow)
email: y2561336@gmail.com / y2561336@yahoo.com.tw
Address: 嘉義縣竹崎鄉奮起湖159-1號

The entrance to the hostel with a 3D painting

In order to get to the home stay you have to walk down the stairs located at the same row with 7 eleven.  The home stay is an old building which is not convenient if you have a large luggage. We need to carried our luggage up the narrow stairs to reach our room at third floor. They provide us room which can accommodate up to 8 person. No pictures shown because I forgot to take the picture of the room. The weather in Fenqihu is cold thus they don’t have aircond inside the room while the blanket provided is too thick for summer. The bathroom served hot water for limited time. The staff is friendly in helping you to arrange transport to Alisan for sun rise. Although the window is cover with net, yet the bug still managed to came into the room especially at night.

We went there in summer so sunrise occur at around 5.30 in the morning. The staff suggested us to leave the home stay at 2am. Moreover we need to bring along our luggage together for sun rise as there wont be enough time for us to get back to home stay. They don't help in arranging transport back to Fenchihu too. So we eventually gave up on our sun rise plan. A good rest is more important to survive the following trips. So I will suggest to stay in Alisan even though you need to pay slightly more. It is more convenient and the starry night is beautiful in Alisan according to my friend who stayed there.

Milky way at Alisan captured by my friend. Check out his fb for more.

Next post will continue on attraction in FenChiHu. I'm never expected I'll write so much for the one night stay over there. Lol Perhaps too naggy.

Taiwan 2015 KaoHsiung 高雄/美麗島站-六合夜市-高雄市立图书馆-新光碼頭

This post is still about our day 3 in Kaohsiung for Taiwan trip. More for Kaohsiung on my previous post: 

Taiwan KaoHsiung 高雄/85新宿-金記溫州餛飩大王-雙妃奶茶

Taiwan KaoHsiung 高雄/駁二藝術特區

We went back to the hostel in the evening to watch sunset from our hostel. On our way back to hostel, I found a book vending machine in the subway station! To be more precise, it is a self service lending and returning book machine owned by the council. This makes lending and returning book more convenient to the citizen. May be Malaysia should take in this idea by placing vending machine at subway station or our coming soon MRT services. It may promotes reading habits and also public transport user. 

We didn't get to see nice sunset in our hostel. The view from our room in 16F was partially blocked by the building. So the differences in room rates do matter. Anyway I still enjoy the moment of chilling inside the room and observing landmarks around while the other taking rest in the room.

Dinner was spent in night market again. The main reason is I wish to visit the most beautiful subway station in Taiwan, and second in the world, the Formosa Boulevard station 美麗島站. The dome of light is a said to be the largest glass work in world made by artist named Narcissus Quagliata using coloured glass from Germany. The dome tells the story of human life in four chronologically arranged themes: Water: The Womb of Life; Earth: Prosperity and Growth; Light: The Creative Spirit; and Fire: Destruction and Rebirth, with an overall message of love and tolerance.

Liuohe Night Market is similar to Kenting night market. The food available here is more or less the same with Kenting night market. Their specialty will be 鄭老牌 drink stall that is popular for Papaya milk. It has a strong milk taste and personally we prefer milk tea over it.

Liuohe Tourist Night Market 六合夜市
Opening hours: 17:00-1:00
Address:高雄市新興區六合二路
How to get there:Exit 11 of Formosa Boulevard station. Turned left to the street to get to the night market.

Papaya Milk

After food and getting a sim card for my friend, we headed back to hostel. This time we used another route to get back 85 building through Exit 2 of San Duo Shopping District Station. On the way we pass by the public library of Kaohsiung. It is called a green library as it reduces the electricity consumption by letting sunlight to get in through the glass. Another fun facts I found online is that the library is built from top down approach and there are no column inside the building!

Kaohsiung Main Pulic Library 高雄市立图书馆
Opening hours: 10:00-22:00
Address: 高雄市前鎮區新光路61號(近中華路口)

Beautiful Public Library in KaoHsiung

Before we ended our day we went to Xin-Guang Pier 新光碼頭 . Never come across this place when I research on Taiwan before our trip. Coincidentally spotted it in the evening from our room and decided to pay a visit to there last minutes. Personally I think that this is the best place to capture the significant 85 Sky Tower in Kaohsiung.

Xin-Guang Pier 新光碼頭
Address:苓雅區成功路、新光路底
How to get there: Exit 2 of San Duo Shopping District Station, walk straight till the end of the road along XinGuang Street. On the way will pass by public library of Kaohsiung and 85 Building.

A little shaky cause I didn't bring my mini tripod along

The 85 Skytower is the 2nd tallest sky scraper in Taiwan. The building was design in the way to resemble the Chinese character for tall "高" which is also the first syllable of Kaohsiung 高雄.

So we spent some time chilling on the bridge and enjoying the sea breeze. While chilling there, I have a nice chat with an uncle. He told me that there is still many places to explore in Kaohsiung that one day is definitely too short. One of it that I remember is the roof top view from public library of Kaohsiung. I guess next time I will plan to visit South of Taiwan alone instead of travelling around the island. There are also some street performances where few teenagers playing guitar and singing at the Pier. Bicycle trail can be found here too. Our Kaohisung trip ended with night view from our hostel room.

Night view from 85 building (You can see Xin-guang Pier from this pic)

Taiwan 2015 KaoHsiung 高雄/駁二藝術特區

Continue from Taiwan KaoHsiung 高雄/85新宿-金記溫州餛飩大王-雙妃奶茶, we visited the famous tourist attraction in Kaohsiung, 駁二藝術特區（The Pier-2 Art Center) after lunch.

Park along Dayong Rd on the way to Pier 2

 駁二藝術特區（The Pier-2 Art Center) 
Opening hours:10:00-18:00 (M-T) 10:00-20:00 (F-S)
Address:台灣高雄市鹽埕區大勇路1號
              No.1, Dayong Rd., Yancheng Dist., Kaohsiung City
              803, Taiwan 
How to get there: YanChengPu Station, Exit 1, head straight along Dayong Road for 500m (about 5-10 minutes). Pier 2 entrance is at your right.

Another thing made me love Taiwan other than their natural habitat is their effort in promoting art and culture. Pier 2 used to be usual warehouse for port until it become abandoned. The artists in the town then turned the abandoned warehouse into an art center. Even their washroom is artistic and clean.The most popular art pieces will be the 3D wall art of station and “bumblebee”! 

I'm so tiny in front of bumblebee. :D

From time to time, there are different exhibition held inside the warehouse, some required entrance fees while some not. (Refer to their website for exhibition available). At out time of visit there were only two exhibition held in Pier 2. One of it is NewVision poster design exhibition and Steam Train Exhibition which does't attract us. 

One of the entrance of warehouse

There are also different art pieces outside of warehouse which is open to public. 

They are way too cute~

Walking straight down from Pier 2 will reaches 真愛碼頭 Love Pier. Along the street you can see different kind of art work that most of it are remade using recycle material or container.  

It reminds me of hounds of baskerville

Random Wall Art

Muscle Man. Spot the Odd!

The Smoke Room

Theoretically walking down the road will leads us to Love Pier. Not sure whether we miss the turn or they are under renovation, we came into this at the end of the road:

Look like an abandoned place

This was the place where they shoot for Taiwanese Drama, Black and white 痞子英雄. The police headquarter and the gun shooting scene. I guess they move everything into the new themepark in Kaohsiung. Anyway the view from the Pier is still nice where the significant 85 Building with clear blue sky can be seen on the bridge. 

If you dislike walking, bicycle for rent is available everywhere. Since some of my friends don’t know cycling, so we chose to walk around. Personally I don’t think it is necessary to rent a bike. It’s not too hot to walk under the hot sun since the wind is strong. Acceptable for me but the boys can’t stand it. That’s lead to the pictures below:

Trying their very best to hide from the sun.

Thus without staying long at Love Pier, we headed back to hostel for some rest and the recommended sunset view by the hostel staff. On our way walking back we bump to this, the garbage truck of Taiwan which I read from one article that it was one of the must see thing in Taiwan. Their garbage truck comes with very cheerful music that to  encourages remind the citizen to throw their rubbish. This is their policy to ensure the cleanliness of ground where trash is delivered straight from home to truck without ever touching the ground.  

The rubbish collection runs on schedule and not on daily basis. So I will say how lucky we are to bump into this. haha 

Next up I will be writing on the evening view from our hostel-Formosa Boulevard Station-SingGuang Pier 新光碼頭.

Taiwan 2015 KaoHsiung 高雄/85新宿-金記溫州餛飩大王-雙妃奶茶

Day 3 started with breakfast in Kenting hostel before we check out and do out laundry. We separated to two team, one heading to Kaohsiung and the other one going to the east part of Taiwan. We rented the same van to Kaohsiung from WuDage that costs us TWD300/person who dropped us right in front of 85 Building 85大廈.

Before we leave we took a group picture at the entrance of the hostel and also with WuDage. 

Our stayed in Kaohsiung was at 85新宿(85XinSu) inside of 85 Building. We booked two room, one with seaside view named Riviera and one with normal view room named Edinburgh. 

There are various hostel inside 85 building. The same floor will have room from different hostel. Every hostel provide room with different theme and view. 

There are more room type on their website. The room can be book using LINE (by scanning the QR code) or email or online booking. The online booking site is in Chinese Traditional. If you wish to see sunset it is better to book room at higher floor. The view of our room is partially blocked by the opposite building. 

You have to get to two elevator to reach the hostel room. First took the elevator to 12th floor where you can find the different hostel here and also 7 eleven. The hostel will provide an access card to enter the second elevator that brings you to 13th floor onwards. 

The fascinating interior view of 85 building

After settle down in the hostel, we went out to get the train tickets for the following day. 

The nearest subway station is Sanduo Shopping District 三多商圈 which is 600m walking distance.

How to get to the subway:

Turned left from the lobby and turned right at the cross junction. Continue straight until the you reached the mall. The subway entrance is located at the Vie Show Cinemas. 

After getting the train tickets and it's time to feed our stomach! We had our lunch at 金記溫州餛飩大王 which is recommended by the famous Taiwan travel show 食尚玩家.  

金記溫州餛飩大王(Direct translate to Kim's WenZhou Ravioli King?!)

Opening hours: 14:00-21:00

Address: 高雄市鹽埕區新樂街163巷1號 Kaohsiung YanChengpu Xinyue Street 

How to get there: YanChengPu Station, Exit no.2, turn left into Street Xinyue and walk straight. The shop is located inside the small valley at the left. Roughly 1/2 minutes walking distance from the subway exit.

 As you can see from their name, their signature dish is the Ravioli (餛飩) noodles. The dumpling was delicious and very filling.  Noodles are just normal.  The dumpling (小籠包）can be skipped as it is not juicy and the dumpling wrap is thick. We ordered 4 bowls of noodles and one dumpling with drinks that costs around TWD605in total for 6 person. 

Nearby the restaurant there is another famous milk tea shop 雙妃奶茶 (TWD30) available only in KaoHsiung. Get back to the Xinyue Street and turn left. The shop is located the left. 雙妃 directly translated to English is called Double Princess. Their signature drink are mixture of Pu-Er and Red Tea and is given a very ancient name for different sweetness such as 美人奶茶 Beauty Milk Tea for 70% sugar and  長壽奶茶 Longevity Milk Tea for 50% sugar. They used fresh milk for their mil tea that make it tastes smoother than usual milk tea. 

雙妃奶茶
Opening hours: 9:00-21:00
Address: 高雄市鹽埕區新樂街173號
How to get there: YanChengPu Station, Ext 2, Turn left to XinYue street and continue staright. The shop is at the left.

We were all recharged after meal and started walking towards Pier 2 駁二藝術特區 which will be updated in next post. :)

Taiwan 2015 Kenting 墾丁/後壁湖-港口吊橋-風吹沙-龍槃-臺灣最南點

The second day started with breakfast in the hostel while waiting for another friend of us who changed her flight due to passport issue. A homely breakfast prepared by the hostel staff consists of porridge, vegetables, nuts, egg and toast.

 

A light breakfast

We headed to Houbihu 後壁湖 for water activity that arranged by the hostel staff. They have different packages to choose where snorkelling charged TWD250 per person without time limit and others includes banana boat, boat rides etc. The sand is covered by dead corals and rock that make it hard to walk around with barefoots. Fishes will swim around you at here and there's big crab hidden in between rocks. We enjoyed there for an hour plus until we scared by the appearance of seasnake. 

We picked up by WuDage at houbihu and have our lunch at restaurant recommended by the him. We rented the van for TWD 80/person/hour. Slightly costly but it comes with karaoke system and can allocate more than 13 person which make it worth the price. WuDage is a warm person and acts like a tour guide more than just a driver when bringing us around. Explaining each attraction to us.  

Lunchplace was at I-forgot-the-name restaurant where served more variety of seafood and dishes compared to houbihu stalls. Tasted around the same but with a better environment. Slightly more costly compared with houbihu but is still cheap (~TWD2390 for 13 person).  After meal desert was in Ice stall in HengChun Town recommended by WuDage for the famous Mango Ice in Pingtung (~TWD165). We ordered another Milk Pudding Ice which I like it more than the Mango Ice personally.

After that he brought us to hundred years old Harbour bridge 港口吊橋. The bridge used to be the only connection to the village last time before they build the concrete bridge next to it. There is "entrance" fee to walk on the bridge which is TWD10/person. We only stayed there for around 30 minutes and head over to the next destination.

The old Bridge and my lovely coursemates

The new bridge

Next we visited to FengChuiSha 風吹沙 (Windblown Sand). According to WuDaGe, the name comes from the strong wind that blown at the area. The wind is so strong that it bring the sand from the bottom of the mountain up to the top of mountain at the place where we standing. 

Our very first group photo of the trip. SMILE. :)

View at Fengchuisha

After capturing multiple photos here then we went to LongPan Park 龍槃 and the view here is even more breathtaking than Fengchuisha. That's my blog background picture. A best place to sit on the grass listening to the sound of the wind while facing the Pacific Ocean at the day. You can also watch sunset and sunrise at here. 

Our favourite pose when travelling around

The last spot we went before our dinner is 臺灣最南點 (Southern Most Point) of Taiwan. The place is not reachable by car so we have to walk more than 800m to reached the most southern part of Taiwan. There's actually a lookout point at this place where you can enjoy sunset but unfortunately it was close when we visit. 

View from the southern most point

Dinner was at HengChun Town 海王子 熱炒 海鮮 燒烤 (Sea Prince) Restaurant. Recommended dish is their Pumpkin MeeHoon. One of the best food I tasted in Kenting. There also served barbecue seafood. We didn't order much seafood here as we had enough of it. 

After dinner WuDaGe brought us to buy some fireworks for stargazing in LongPan Park at night. The boss treat us fruit when we thinking of what to buy. While on the way we get back to LongPan Park we were lucky enough to see little Bambi on the road. The best moment of the day will be stargazing. For the first time in my life to feel totally surrounded by star as there is no light pollution up there. If you are lucky enough, you get to see one or two meteor. My friend manged to saw 5 while I spotted one.  The view is so fascinating that none of us want to get back to hostel at all. Remember to bring a torch with you as it is really dark up there that you can't see the road. There are no fence at the cliff so you to be careful on it.  

The best I can capture using Canon S101

Day 2 ended with beer session with Taiwan variety show in the hostel room. 

Summary of our Day 2 trip 

Houbihu 後壁湖 - Harbour bridge 港口吊橋 - FengChuiSha 風吹沙 (Windblown Sand) - LongPan Park 龍槃 - 臺灣最南點 (Southern Most Point) - LongPan Park 龍槃