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