Taiwan Jun 08

This recount is a few years too late but anyway, it is better to be late than never.

This trip was our first overseas family trip so we were all very excited. It was hard getting my father to join us on this trip as he hardly even leave our neighbourhood.

We went with a tour group so we managed to cover quite a few places in Taiwan within a short period of time. Don't have a day by day record since this trip was taken a few years back but below is the itinerary:

Day 1
Depart for Taiwan
Went to Taipei 101 and Ximending.
Went to the viewing gallery of Taipei 101 but the view was quite disappointing. Probably spent on 10 min there. Not worth the visit.
At Ximending, the items for sale seem more suited for youngsters. We bought a few tops but later found out that the quality is bad because the colour runs.

Day 2
Went to Chiufen, Yilan National Center for Traditional Arts, Nantian temple and watched a Ami aboriginal cultural show. Enjoyed ourselves very much at Chiufen. the traditional arts center was quite boring. The performance was good.

Day 3
Went to Taroko Gorge, which is a beautiful place. This is not a sight that can be seen in Singapore, an urban city.
The tour guide brought us to a lingzhi center, where we were convinced to buy really expensive lingzhi, which is believed to have healing properties. Such places are unavoidable when joining a group tour as the tour guide can earn commission by bringing tourists to the shops. According to our guide, Taiwan has three treasures, lingzhi, royal jelly and 'lutai' which direcly translates to deer foetus. So, naturally we were brought to the shops that sell these products.
Also went to Chulu Ranch (didn't see many cows there) and stayed that night in a hot spring resort.

Day 4
This was a day for sightseeing. We went to see natural features like the Maobitou and Eluanbi.

Day 5
Spent today at Kaohsiung. Went to Fo Guang Shan Monastery, shopped at Dream Mall, took a cruise along the Love River, saw the view at yet another tower, Kaohsiung 85 Tower. Bought lots of snacks at Liuhe night market. I love the night markets in Taiwan. There is so much delicious and unusual food there. The night market food definitely tasted better than the restaurant food.

Day 6
Went to Sun Moon Lake, which was a real disappointment. We only made a loop round the lake, all the while on the bus! Only saw the view of the lake through the glass panel of the window.
For the rest of the day, we went to Wenwu Temple and the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village. There was much to see and do in the village. The village had an indoor theme park so I tried the Viking for the first time in my life. It was memorable. I still remembered gripping on to the rail for my life. My heart was gonna pop out (like how I felt when a plane takes off or descents). Glad that the ride was over, finally.
Went to another night market, Fengjia night market. This was a happy night. More food, good food.

Day 7
Went to a tomato farm, Gu Gong Museum, and Zhong Lie Ci.
Spent the night at Shihlin Night Market. Yay

Day 8
Nothing much happened on that day. We departed Taiwan on that day.