My friends and I went to Taiwan last week. Generally, we had the most awesome experience. I admire Taiwan’s government, infrastructures and especially the people. I will definitely go back and explore more cities and provinces.
We spent four days there and here’s a summary of our Day 1. Enjoy!
We booked our Taiwan trip early this year so we had a lot of time to “plan” and layout our itinerary for this four-day vacation. Our visas were processed by a travel agency and costed us Php 2400 per head. (Yes, Taiwan requires a visa even if we are just close neighbors). Our airplane tickets costed us about Php 4,000 each. We were lucky enough to avail Cebu Pacific’s Piso Fare promo so the “fare” only pretty much covered baggage fee, insurance and fuel surcharge.
Unfortunately, the payoff of the cheap plane tickets was the inconvenient schedule (well, for some of us). If you asked me, I prefer going to NAIA at night. Less people and less stress (but without air-conditioning!). What’s even more unfortunate was that all travellers are required to pay travel tax (Php 1620) and terminal fee (550). Ugh!
We left Manila at around 10PM. (None of our flights were delayed. Thank God!)
Day 1 – Airport, Taichung and Cingjng Farm (Nantou County).
We arrived after roughly two hours at Taipei’s Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, which was a breath of fresh air. It’s simple but efficient.
From the airport, we rented a private mini van to bring us to our hotel in Taichung (NT$ 5000 or Php 7500). Our ride was a Volkswagen Transporter Sportsline so our trip was unbelievably comfortable. The ride took us about 2 hours without traffic. I think heavy traffic is rare in Taiwan since they have a systematic transportation system.
Taichung literally means “Central Taiwan”. We decided to start here since our main destination was at Nantou County, which was a bit more to the south.
Our first hotel was Hotel 53 previously booked via Agoda at about Php 5746.78 per night. We took a room for four people (we were five). We slept once we checked in at 3AM. We had brunch at a nearby food stall and had dessert at an ice cream parlor across our hotel, Bee and Milk (I’ll reserve that for another post).
The weather in Taichung was actually nice. It was sunny yet the wind was cool enough to not make you sweat.
At 12nn, we were picked up by our private van to bring us to Cingjing Farm (NT$ 8000 or Php12000). This took about 2 hours. Taiwan’s roads are unbelievably flawless. There are no potholes and everything’s just properly asphalted.
Nantou County like most of Taiwan’s land area is mountainous so naturally the roads spiral to the top.
Cingjing Farm is a place to experience life in the countryside. It’s like a giant petting zoo! (Entrance fee: NT$ 160 Weekday and NT$ 200 Weekend for Adults).
The sheep run freely mingling in the vast lands of the farm. Tourists can pet and even feed them with little grass balls (bought in the vending machine).
The sheep were so adorable. They’re so soft and cuddly. They were so friendly that even children could touch and play with them. One sheep even practically begged us to give her food.
Although the hike was long and tiring, you would not mind it because of the cool weather. It’s unbelievable how the farm has been properly maintained. There was no pollution only fresh air and green grassy mountains (and sheep poo :)).
The farm also holds horse and sheep shows. We only had the chance to watch the horse show. It was so much fun despite of the bees attacking the audience. The equestrians performed amazing stunts on top of fast running horses.
After Cingjing Farm, we passed by The Old England Hotel. It’s actually just a fancy themed hotel so we weren’t allowed to enter. We just took photos from the outside.
Our last stop for Day 1 was of course our hotel, Cherng Yuan Hotel Sun Moon Lake (Php 7724.90 per night). This was the best hotel of the trip. We booked the quad room. The quad room had two queen sized bed and a couch. The bathroom had a bath tub with jacuzzi and a separate shower area. The management was also nice enough to provide us an extra bed. The hotel room was just heaven. This was the view from our balcony:
