Jiaoxi 礁溪, Taiwan Trip (Day 4)

16th May 2018, Wednesday,

Rise and Shine!! Today, we are heading to another town (Jiaoxi) in Yilan and this town is famous for their hot springs too. We got up, packed our luggage and headed down to meet Mr Zhu, our taxi driver who will drive us to a couple of places first before dropping us at our booked Jiaoxi hotel. We left around 9 am and Mr Zhu wanted to bring us to a popular attraction in Dao Tong town along the way, namely Qing Shui Geothermal Park, where it is a hot spring park and tourists can even cook eggs in the hot springs. However, the park was under maintenance when we reached there. Such a pity.....

So Mr Zhu drove us to our next destination which is the Kavalan Distillery.  When we reached there, Mr Zhu told us to go into the theatre room to watch a short video, which is the introduction of the King Car Group company. It is a big international company, as it has operations around the world today and they own quite a lot of products, such as Kavalan Whisky and Mr Brown Coffee. There was a tour group in the theatre room too. As there was a guide bringing them around and doing the explanation, we decided to follow the group so that we can also listen to the touring of the distillery.

King Car Group

Arts Gallery

Arts of Places in Taiwan

The guide brought the group down to the basement and there was a exhibition on paintings which were put on sale.  Most of the paintings were very real and interesting. After the viewing, we went up to the main entrance, where Mr Zhu got us to gather in front of the main building and took photos of us. Next, he brought us to the distillery to see how their whisky were made. There were other buildings where mineral water (one of the company's products) was made, but we decided to skip as we don't have much time.

Start of the exhibit

Oaks for the barrels

Fermentation Machinery

Distillation Machinery

Aging Warehouse for wines

When we reached the distillery building, Mr Zhu got us to take photos again (always have to take group photos in every place..-_-!)....After that, he instructed us to go upstairs. But i realised we were at the exit side, so i went out and went to the entrance side. Ss saw mi went out to a different direction, so she followed me...hahaha...There was no tour guide except videos and displays for visitors to watch and read. First start, the display on how the barrels to store the whisky were exhibited. Different types of woods and sizes were carefully picked to make the barrels in order to store the whisky and the whisky will be kept for years before they can be packaged to sell in the market. After that, there was displays showcasing the machinery for every stage of the process. The whole process is Malting -> Milling -> Mashing -> Fermentation -> Distillation -> Maturation in Casks -> Blending -> Blending -> Bottling. There are also glass displays which allowed visitors to see the whisky barrels kept in their warehouse, the machinery for fermentation and distillation.

Barrels Display in the hall

Wine tasting samples

After the visit, we went to the "spirit castle" and saw the big hall where there were tables and chairs setup for wine tasting session. As there was another 5 minutes wait, we went around the big hall and the souvenir shop. When the time comes, we went for the wine tasting session. The staffs gave us a small cup of wine each to let us taste. But i didn't taste it, there were also other wines with other flavours displayed on the table. But it was not for tasting and just for introduction. The wine tasting session lasted for around 10 mins, after that, we went back to their souvenir shop and we bought some of their coffee and wine. Mr Zhu told us that this brand was sold in the whole of Taiwan and were very costly.

Artemis Garden Signboard

Starter Kit

Our master pieces

After we finished our shopping, we went to Artemis Garden. There was a minimum fee of NT$100 to enter the garden. There were not many people around in the garden, so it was kind of quiet and lonely. There was a DIY activity that uses tissue towels design to paste on a drawstring bag and it costs around NT$100 for each design. So we decided to do each bag for ourselves though we were hungry. The activity is quite easy to do, just the cutting of the designs part require a lot of patience. It was fun doing activity together...hehehee....By the time we finished our activity, it was around 3 plus. Really hungry...we went over to the garden's cafe and bought lunch sets for each of us. The food was quite good and really big portion. After the lunch, we spent another 15 mins to go up to the 2nd level of the garden to view their flowers (specially recommended by Mr Zhu).

Flavourful Factory Shop

Different dried fruits

Preserved Fruits

After that, Mr Zhu brought us to Agrioz Candied Fruit Museum to visit. There was nothing much to see though, except to buy their products. Hence, we didn't spend much time there, just shopping around their shop. Once we are done, Mr Zhu brought us to Wang Long Pi (a lake) to visit and he let us to go explore the area for half an hour. However, we just walked a bit as we are already quite tired. So we just took some photos around the lake and with the swans around. Finally, we ended our tour for the day. Mr Zhu told us that he will need to drop by a pantry shop to get some snacks for his wife and asked us if it is okay. So we agreed and went along to the shop. It was a "bonus" for us when we tasted the pastry products in the shop. We were busy getting the stuffs within minutes...hahaaa...The pantries were so niceee....I even bought a small cupcake back. In the end, Mr Zhu had to wait for us to finish shopping. Before we leave to our hotel, Mr Zhu bought us spring onion pancakes to try.

Wang Long Pi Lake

Spa tub

Later, he drove us to our hotel and we paid for his services for the two days. We went up to our hotel rooms after check-in. OMG...the toilet were sooo big...with shower and a spa tub. We ate the pancakes and after that, we arranged to leave the hotel for dinner at 6 plus. So mi and S went and soaked our legs in the tub. It was quite relaxing, just that it took a long time to fill up the whole tub. After that, we took a cab down to 櫻桃谷 for cherry sakura duck. We ordered 4 cooking ways for the sakura duck. We had to order a whole duck as they don't sell half or quarter portion of the duck. We also ordered a seafood soup, ended up we can't finish all the food. Everything was super big portion. However, i do like when the duck skin was prepared with sushi rice. Soooo full after the dinner....Then we took a cab back to the hotel.

櫻桃谷 Restaurant

Cherry Duck Skin in Sushi

Duck Skins wraps

After that, we walked to find Chilli Hunter as S wants to go there to buy chilli sauces and it was near to our hotel. There are many different chilli levels, there are even different chilli noodles and chocolates.

Miss Chilli

Different types of Chilli Sauces

Chilli Beers

After getting the chilli sauces, we walked back to our hotel to have "spa" in the room (should have stayed more nights).

Places Visited:
Kavalan Distillery
Artemis Garden
Flavourful factory
Wang Long Pi

Hotel Stayed:
Garden Hot Spring Hotel

Tai Ping Shan 太平山, Taiwan Trip (Day 3)

15th May 2018, Tuesday

Today, we got up a bit early as we were going hiking at Tai Ping Shan.  We had also arranged a driver for today and tomorrow to drive us around the attractions. Breakfast was provided by the hotel, so we went to have breakfast in the canteen. It was buffet style but with simple dishes such as hotdogs, porridge, veggies, peanuts, salads. After breakfast, we went down to meet up with the driver, Mr Zhu. He was waiting for us at the hotel's entrance, we got on his car after introducing ourselves.

View from the top

Visitors Information Centre

Old Train Model?

The journey to Tai Ping Shan took around one hour to reach the entrance, where we bought our entrance tickets and another one hour to Cui Feng Lake. The driver drove us up to the visitors information centre and we had a short toilet break. There were no staffs on duty in the centre too. Then the driver told us to take a photo together and to also pose for photos... -_-!.....After that, the driver drove us up to the lake. By the time we reached the lake, it was around 10 plus. It was misty when we reached the start of the Cui Feng Lake Trail. We walked up to Cui Feng Mansion for toilet break before starting our hiking.

Starting Point of Cui Feng Lake Trail

Cui Feng Lake

Hiking trail

It took us around 15 minutes to be able to see the lake, where we stayed to take photos. After that we continued on the trail for another 30 mins or so. We did a u-turn back to the start of the trail as the whole trail needs 2.5 hours to complete, which we did not have the time to do so. We met up with the driver at the start of the trail, where we requested him to drive us to Tai Ping Villa. It was another one hour just to reach the villa. There were also other attractions like the waterfall which will require to take the Bong Bong train. Unfortunately, the train was closed for maintenance. So there were other attractions on the mountain that we can't go without the Bong Bong train.

Lunch

Cooling...

Bong Bong Train Station Closed

When we reached the villa, we asked around if there was any place for lunch. The staff told us that there is a canteen and a cafe located up the stairs. So we followed the directions and wahhh.....the stairs were soooo high...didn't expect need to climb so many steps before we can eat....hahahaa....However, there were many trees with red leaves, which really beautify the stairs.  Finally we reached the canteen, the lunch set comes with 6 dishes (consists of 2 veggies,2 meat and 1 soup and 1 toufu dishes) and it cost $250 per person. After lunch, we continued climbing up the stairs to start on a new hike trail.

Start of another hike trail

But gosh, there were so many steps up the stairs and we had to keep climbing. At the same time, we also turned our pokemon go on to clock the steps for the eggs. Got to admit, it was quite distracting with the pokemon go app turned on during holidays... :P....The hike trail we walked was on a forest trail and we saw a lot of big branches along the trail, where we had fun taking photos. It took us 30 minutes to reach the starting point of another hike trail. However, we walked a little up the trail and saw the trail was with rocks. So we forsake the idea of continuing the trail and u-turned back down with the same trail. Tired with all the climbing up, my legs were wobbling when climbing down the stairs.

When we reached the last part of the stairs, i saw our taxi driver helping a group of aunties taking photos. The group of aunties kept taking photos, one after another, pose after pose until the aunties realised that we were waiting to walk down the stairs. One of the aunties in the group invited us to take a group photo with them when they got to know where we came from.  Later, the taxi driver helped us to take photos with them with one phone after another. While we were taking the photo, a pair of uncles carrying their bikes down the stairs. One auntie was very sporty, she went and asked the cyclists whether she can borrow one of the bikes to take photo with. Another auntie in the group suggested to her friend to invite the two cyclists into the photo taking. So we all took multiple group photos cos need to pose and with different phones. Gosh, it was finally over...legs still shaking from the climbing....hahahah

After the photo taking, we went for a short toilet break and headed down the mountain. It was around 19 degrees and started to rain. When the driver was driving down hill, the fog got so thick that everything was white...can't even see the road clearly. Really lucky, we headed up the mountain early.
We were quite tired after the climbing and walking, and think we fell asleep on the journey back to the hotel which was about 2 hours ride. Glad we reached the hotel and can go back to the room to rest for a while. So we agreed to leave the hotel at 6.30 pm again for dinner at the night market.

S went for a shower while i turned on the TV to watch. After her shower, i just chatted with her and had potato chips to pass time. When it is time to go out, we went  over to the other room to find KT and Ss. When KT opened the door, they two were napping and Ss even changed into her pyjamas and napped...hahaha...Then we waited for Ss to change clothes and then we went down to the night market. When we reached the market, i looked for those recommended street food to try. We tried the
dragon phoenix roll ($25) as recommended online. It was good. Then we had giant sausages (3 for $100), tasty too. We also had spring onion bi ($30),pork rib cubes, chicken wings ($25),mutton soup ($70), guava ($50).We also got papaya milkshake ($50) and tea. KT and S bought bubble tea drinks where they can seal their own drinks.

Dragon Phoenix roll

Sausages

BBQ

San Xing Cong Bing

Peanuts Roll with Ice Cream

Mutton Soup

After that, we just walked through the market. However, we can't really find any dustbins around. So when Ss tried to throw away the litter in one of the stalls, she told us the stall auntie scolded her...hahaa... We kept walking until the other end of Min Sheng Road, where we found the Yi Feng Spring Onion pancake. It was shared with a soya beancurd shop, where you will have to buy the beancurd in order to take a seat inside the shop. So we ordered a bowl of cold soya beancurd, spring onion pancake without egg and one with egg. However, i don't find the pancakes (not crispy) and the beancurd (not smooth) that nice, as compared to the those we ate in Yilan. After eating, we walked back to the hotel and rested for the day.

Places Visited:
Tai Ping Shan
Luodong Night Market

Hotel Stayed:
Herb Art Hotel