Hello hello! Its day 2 of my Taiwan travelogue. For day 2, its all about traveling to Taichung, Cing Jing. It's where all the "MehMeh's" are.
Woke up early the next day just to do some last minute packing in case we left out anything behind. By the way, Even, the host was nice enough to help us transfer/carry our luggage to our next apartment that we'll be staying from day 3 onwards. :D
#UsAgainstTheWorld
I'm not sure about other areas/district of Taiwan. But at Xi Men Ding, most of the shops won't open till 11am+++. So if you're out early, the only thing you could have is either Ru Rou Fan or fast food such as KFC.. We were roaming around the street for quite a bit to search for breakfasts but nothing much.. So we decided to settle down on a Ru Rou Fan stall.
Breakfasts was ridiculously cheap. I ordered their dry noodles for only 35 NTD = $1.50 SGD?!!! And their Ru Rou Fan was only 45 NTD for the bigger bowl and 25 NTD for the small one!!! How to resist such temptation you tell me?!!!
After our breakfast, we quickly went to the train station to get our tickets to TaiChung cuz I heard that they have timing for that...
Took the train from XiMen train station to Taipei Main station. Bought our tickets to TaiChung for 740 NTD = $32 SGD est...That's probably my most expensive train ticket ever... LOL!
P/S: We took the HSR (High Speed Rail) to TaiChung just for your info. :)
I think you can take a bus to TaiChung too if I'm not wrong, but we just decided to take the HSR there cuz its much faster.
The previous time I came to Taipei I didn't get the chance to have my "Bian Dang" Bento in Chinese. So this time, I manage to get myself one on the train. It costs 100 NTD = $4 SGD est...
Time taken to travel there is about and hour. So yea, you can take your time to eat.
When we reached TaiChung station, we alighted and headed down to the ground level to get our bus ticket up to CingJing. While you're on your way down at the ground level, you'll be bugged by Taxi drivers wanting to drive you there. My advice is, DON'T!!! They're pretty persistent and will try any method to get you to take their taxi. This is when you have to shrug them off and proceed directly to the bus ticket counter. Furthermore, the bus ticket package also includes the CingJing farm where you get to see lots of "Meh Meh's".
The bus ticket to CingJing + Tickets to CingJing Farm costs 600 NTD = $26.50 est...
After we bought our tickets, there's still a bit of time left, so we went around the station to take a look, and also to do a bit of shopping.
After much shopping around, we went back to the ground floor and waited for our bus.
The bus ride was about 1 - 2 hours if I'm not wrong??? I can't really remember anymore, all I know is I was woken up by the jerking of the bus when we're up on the mountain.
After the pretty much scary bus ride. We finally reached the mountain top. The moment when we step out of the bus... IT WAS HEAVEN!!! And I mean it. The air was cold and its super windy! My friends and I were like saying this is the reason why I'm here!!! LOL!!!
As we're walking to a place to put our "barang barangs", my friend called the host for the Minsu that we're staying in for the night. Over at CingJing, there's quite a number of hostels and minsu you can stay imo. As our bus drove up the mountain, we saw quite a few, there's some really really chio and instagram worthy ones!!!
Sat down at this place where there's 7-11 and other miscellaneous shops to wait for our host to drive us up to the minsu. While we were waiting, I took this opportunity to take a picture of my outfit of the day. Hahah! XP
About 30mins later, the host contacted my friend and told us that he's waiting for us at the carpark nearby. Actually, everything was pretty easy, from booking of the hostel, the communication, the contacting of the host and etc... Ohyah, the name of the minsu we stayed in was called Starry Minsu if you'd like to know. We booked a 4 person room for 4600 NTD ($203) and added a extra bed for 500 NTD ($22) which total up to 5100 NTD ($225.60) = 1020 NTD ($45 est SGD per person). This is inclusive of the host driving you up from the place you alight from the bus + Dinner + Breakfast the next day + Friendly People + Sunrise + Chilly Weather + Full of Insta Worthy Places. WHAT'S THERE TO HIAM?!!!
Here's the view when we reached the minsu. Looking down from the open garden area. The view is quite intimidating to me tbh. Hahaha! :/
As we reached the place, we were explained to about the rules and regulations and the do's and don't, and also to pay the full amount of our stay for the night. The hosts are very nice, I think its a family owned place. Like there's dogs and children and everything is just so homely. We were told that we could see the sunrise the following morning if we were to able to wake up at 5am?? LOL! And that dinner is almost ready that we can just head on down right after we've unpacked our stuff...
Here's how our room looks like. Its actually pretty simple, just 3 beds, and TV and a bathroom. No fancy stuffs. Hahaha! But we managed to keep ourselves occupied with instant beef noodles, poker cards and monopoly deal. HAHAHAHA!!!
After we've settled down and unpacked our stuffs, we hurriedly went for our steamboat dinner that is included in our stay at Starry Minsu.
This place is so pretty that everywhere is so instagram worthy!!! I wished we could have stayed for 1 more night. :(
The dinner that was prepared for us. It was really good, and the people there are super friendly. What's more, there's no additional cost if you want more rice on your plate. Hahahaa!!!!
After our dinner, we headed back to our room to chill and play cards. We kept ourselves occupied by betting on who gets to choose their bed for the next minsu that we're staying. Hahaha! We played till about 1 or 2am-ish I think??? And we're pretty worried about how are we gonna wake up to catch the sunrise later on. Oh btw, we set our alarm at 5.45am when we're supposed to set it at 5am! HAHAHAHA!
That's it for now, till the next post!!! ♥
