This trip I went back one is to visit relatives, two is to explore Taiwan. I flew from SG to Taoyuan Airport and took a High Speed Rail (HSR) to Zouying Station from there my cousin picked me up and drove me to Kenting and my journey began from here. I kind of wasted a day flying on Jetstar, my flight was at 7am in the morning, we board the plane and it was flying till 9-ish am they made an announcement that we are 45mins away from Singapore for landing. I'm like WTH. When we landed there's fire engine one standby, still we didn't know what happen. We had to wait till 12pm for the next flight out to Taiwan. That just made me wasted 6 hours of my time which we could have spend more time in Kenting and reach there earlier to see more things.
Here's a quick overview of my trip:
Kenting > Kaohsiung / Pingtung > Taichung > Cingjing > Taipei
We pretty much went to the top and back to the bottom.
--
Chuhuo Nature Fire
Park
This place is just pretty fire coming out from the ground,
there's nothing else around. It's a little hard to capture in the day, maybe
better luck at night. Well the locals were sharing that they make popcorn over
the fire, but it’s kind of illegal.
Address: 259-2 Héngdōng RoadHengchun Township, Taiwan
Gang Kou Diao Qiao
Good photo opportunity place for 10 TWD, from the start to the
end takes about 5mins. In the middle of the bridge you can see some nice sea
view. We also did some jump shot on the bridge, try jumping on it!
Location: 21.98913384
, 120.84197044
Kenting Night Market
This place sells my favorite beef cubes and some of the night
market goodies. There's one stall, which is rather popular selling what we
called in SG Yong Tao Fu, we didn't meet the queue cause we were out at 1-2am.
Address: Kending Rd., Hengchun Township, Pingtung, Taiwan
Eluanbi Light House
Nice photo taking place, there's an entrance fee of TWD 40. And
if you turn left and walk up from the entrance you will reach the lighthouse
faster. It's an uphill walk so you have been warned.
Address: No. 90號, Dengta Rd, Hengchun Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan 946
Beach
Walk on the soft sand and enjoy the breeze. This beach is where
most the locals come to play. We booked an umbrella to chill in to just people
watch.
Address: Maobitou, Henchun Township, Pingtung, Taiwan
Sunset at Guan Shan
If you want to view sunset, this is the place. You will need to
do a mini hike for 5 mins to reach to the platform to see the sunset. I would
also warn you to maybe go and camp there before truckloads of tourists on the
bus come to invade.
Address: No. 17-1, Binlang
Rd., Hengchun Township, Pingtung, Taiwan
Kaohsiung
/ Pingtung
Rui Feng Night Market
This is probably one of the biggest night market in the area. My
sis and I just unleashed on all the food they had there, we tried mochi balls,
smelly tofu,
Xin Jue Jiang Night
Market
Loads of ladies clothes here, I
think this particular night market ladies would enjoy it. We finished walking
the place in about 2-3 hours but that’s a breeze through walking speed since we
have seen the bigger one already.
Salt Hill
As the name says, the hill is made up of salt. You can climb up
and have a shot of the overview place where they dry the salt. You will know
when you reach the place because of the giant cat welcoming you. We had a mini
photoshoot session here, because it just looks like snow in summer.
Tainan Beimen Qu
The famous crystal church that appear in the dramas, this is
where you can find them. There’s also a triangle looking one together with the other
3D structures to take photos.
Lavender Cottage
I would recommend this place to go to, it’s a little hard to get
to but it’s worth it. Along the way there are directions to guide you up, it’s
up in the mountains so you take a taxi or drive up. If you are like me, and
count the signs, there are a total of 20. They serve food up there, and you
probably spend half a day there.
Gao Mei Shi Di
The wetlands are over 300 hectares, but the area is only 1/10 of
Dadu River wetlands. This place has special soils mixed with mud and sand. So
it’s quite interesting to see plants and animals living together near the
waters. As you walk along the bridge, on the sides you can see crabs with only
one huge pincer on one side, the other one is a tiny pincer.
Le Petite Tarte
A little dessert place in Taichung, they serve a few tea sets,
we got 2 of it to try almost all their desserts. Nice place to sit down and
read a book.
Din Tai Fung
Since we are in Taiwan, and we would want to try how does the
DTF in TW taste like. How different can it be from SG? We ordered a couple of
the Xiao Long Bao, which taste somewhat similar. Their sour spicy soup doesn’t
really taste that much sour or spicy.
Fengjia Night Market
Another place for more Taiwan street food, this place doesn’t
seem to have as much food as the other night markets. Still worth walking
around, it’s near the schools here so you get to see quite a lot of students
around.
Gong Yuan Yan Ke Ice
Cream
We had to queue about 20-30mins for this ice cream, they have
another outlet near by which you can sit and chill. They have tons of flavors
to pick from. My favorite one is their milk tea ice cream. If you topup a
little more, you get to put some other biscuits and dressing on your icecream.
Sheng Xing Train
Station
Old train station that exists for locals to just come by during
the weekends to walk around. I went on a weekday, so most of the shops are not
opened. It’s nice to just walk from one side of the track to the other.
Cingjing
Cingjing Farm
When we were there, it was pouring pretty bad. The sheep were
all drenched. The food dispenser machine to feed the sheep ran out of stock.
The place is filled with wet soil and dung all over. They kept the animals so
there’s only area in the whole place that has animals and everyone is crowding
to feed it. During the show because there’s no shelter, and the mist is really
bad you can see much from the umbrellas blocking you, the whole experience is
quite crappy. I would suggest you to go up when it’s a good weather day.
Carton King
This place has a very interesting concept; everything they have
is made up of cardboards. Since it’s pouring the whole way, we pretty much hang
out at this place eating hotpot. The food is alright only, there’s nothing much
around anyway. And my umbrella got stolen here, since they ask you to leave
your umbrella outside the place before entering because all their stuff are
made of cardboard so best not to come in contact with water.
Taipei
Xi Men Ding
This place has so much going on, I walked 3 days up and down and
into the late night. The place transforms at about 11pm into a night market.
They have this dish there which is my new found love, it’s a yam ice cream wrap
with peanut butter shavings, it’s super GOOD! Try finding if you can.
Ah Chung Mee Sua
They serve in 2 sizes, big and small. We had the big one each
not knowing what they put inside the mee sua. My sis finished it all even the
soup, and had rashes the few days, cause she allergic to intestines. So if you
are, try not to take it.
Yong He Dou Jiang
This shop has a few chains around, their you tiao is super
crispy. It just make a good cold weather food coupled with a warm soya bean.
This newly opened café, the owner makes the coffee manually
without the machine. Quite nice place to sit and relax.
Paper st.
Overrated coffee place, this place is all over the instagram.
Coffee is so so, but they have nice interiors. Nice place to chill.
Xie Xie
If you like tea, this quite café, is so white and clean. They do
simple desserts that go well with your tea. You can also purchase their range
of tea that comes with a little cute bottle.
Frog Café
Nice place, but the food is so so. I had high expectations of
this place as the locals rave so much about it. I think the taste of food could
be better with the awesome interior space they have.
好氏咖啡研究室
Nice café with a bit of scientific touch. They have a shop
display next to their café for you to do a little shopping; they are curated
items so the pricing can be a little pricey. For the cups they come in cylinder
glasses like what we have in the science labs, cool concept.
Qsquare
If you decided where to go on your last day after you check out,
you can come here and deposit your luggage in one of the lockers. And just shop
around or catch a movie before you take the HSR to Taoyuan Airport. Taking a
cab from here to the airport is about 30-45mins away depending on how fast they
drive.
Taipei 101 Din Tai Fung
This DTF is big, during dinner time the queue moves quite fast
about 10-15mins. The last DTF over at Taichung their Xiao Cai was sold out so
we decided to try it here, it taste quite different from SG’s. I prefer SG’s
one more.
When you are in Taipei don't forget to get this card for transport:
