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Day 4 photos are in da house!

Early in the morning 630am, we proceed to the cafeteria where we had our dinner last night. There was quite a variety of food and the buns were the most unique of all. Didn't really up my appetite like the previous 2 days in kiwi though...

And we packed and proceeded to the next destination: Sun Moon Lake!

Bidding goodbye to the apple garden that we didn't visit (not sure if it's the name of a hotel or a real garden too though).

We stopped by a bus interchange in the town of Puli and boarded the bus to SML.

CJ to Puli: NT$117

Puli to SML: NT$23

Before leaving the interchange, I saw this pretty view from the bus. It has like apartments with a mountain background and a very plain space in the fore ground. Looks simple but eye-catching at the same time. Just hada snap a shot of it =)

So we arrived here at SML and we saw this visitor centre. I thought that it will be easy to move around as we have the centre worker's to ask for directions. However, the counter staff (a woman with black specs) was rather reluctant to reveal info on how to go about in SML and only answered whatever we asked. Think it's because we didn't really "seem" interested in getting the SML deals that the centre was selling, but that's really bad service. What a disappointment. Boo to you woman, you're ruining SML's  and taiwan's friendliness reputation. Luckily there were these helpful girls at the front platform that were kind enough to tell us which bus to board to get to our destination. 

There's this round-the-lake bus concession that is for sale (sadly from this bad-service woman) but we didn't buy as we had our Easy card to use. Here's the first police station we saw in Taiwan too:

And here's the place we stayed:

This place has by far the best host of my whole trip. I read about the good reviews from the net but had to experience it to believe it. Yes, the lady boss and boss of the apartment were doing their job but I believe they went beyond what they could have just provided. When we arrived there, the lady boss gave us maps for SML and gave us tips on which stalls to visit and where to go. She even told us about a free cultural show to watch in the evening which we visited that night. They also provided certain tickets at discounted rates to their occupants so in my opinion, it's better not to rush into buying the package from the visitor's centre (heng we didn't).

So we went about the streets to try the food lady boss recommended. It's so-so actually, maybe we didn't have the same taste. But at least we knew which stalls were the popular ones so, thanks lady boss!

Then I tried the 4th milk tea which had a long queue (again my singaporean side) & also these 2moro celebrities picture. I thought it will taste real good from all the advertisement and promotions, but actually, it tasted normal only.

We bought these muah-chees there too. They were interesting and the right-hand stall had a bigger crowd.

We bought from lady boss a 3-way boat tix for NT$100 and traveled to the 3 destinations...by boat of course. heh heh. The boat ride was fun!

On the boat, I also got to hear interesting stories from a boatman about the place. Like the famous 'ah po cha ye dan' (grandma's tea leaf egg) that is very famous in that area. According to him, the stall was opened by the 'ah po' when she was only 18 years old and she began selling the eggs till she became an ah po. Interestingly, she is the only sole egg seller given the rights to sell such eggs in that area and although her grand children are managing the stall now, the rights will end once she passes away. One egg cost NT$10 and her daily sale goes up to 10k per day (Wow, she's a real rich ah po). Wouldn't have known this fun fact if we didn't take the boat! *hint hint to take boat* Worth it!

The egg tasted really good! And when I went to buy the eggs, every buyer was buying by the tens. I had wanted to get only 4 but decided to buy 5 instead (so that at least no need to get change). Look at that crowd man!

Saw this blue-headed bird that was attracting quite an attention. Blue head leh! Of course must take photo right =P

Everywhere we went, the scenery was just as nice...nice, nice, nice!

And I saw this really blue patch of waters while waiting on the jetty (no photoshop involved). Like from a paradise island one. So cool. Wished I stayed on an island that has waters as blue as this...

There's this pink boat too. At first I thought someone was getting married that day, but it was ferrying normal passengers.

Saw this picture and remembered taking it for the layers after layers of mountains...Like this photo lots!

So after the boat rides, we went to the venue where the cultural show was held.

Day 3 means a shift in destination and hotel!

On Day 2, we went to this 'Nantou Bus' Service stall along the main streets of Taichung and obtained a few information on travelling to our next destination: Cingjing Farm. Alot of people we asked had doubts about going to CJ on our own and they would always recommend having a guide or just taking a one-day tour. At first, I had doubts about getting to CJ after hearing the comments. However, after trying it once, I believe that most worries are unfounded. What's more, the main thing for travelling free & easy is the excitement of doing new stuffs and not knowing where they'll bring you too. Best is, the process and the satisfaction of achieving your target (if not, the unforgettable process is good enough too!).

Cost of bus tix (direct): NT$262

Duration: Didn't seem too long, the scenery was breathtaking enough to keep me occupied

Note: there's another method to get to CJ farm if the direct bus has departed, it's an indirect ride though

So before we set off, we knew it's gonna be a loong ride up the mountains and the winter season means an early night = difficult to get food too. So after buying the tix to CJ, we shopped around for some drinks & snacks. This is when I first got to know this super nice milk tea. I had initially bought this because of the cool packaging it was in...

Nice right! I got the roasted milk tea and my sis got the original milk tea. I guess this can be considered my 3rd cuppa milk tea in Taiwan and luckily, it's delicious! (I bought another 2 for the rest of my trip, even considered buying a whole carton back o.O) For me, I think the roasted one taste better than the original, perhaps that's why I haven't been liking the normal bubble milk tea?

Cost of milk tea: NT$30 (totally worth, should be the ambassador of all Taiwan milk teas)

I also told my family to stock up on some maggi mee in case we were hungry on the mountains and did not have food to eat. And so, we bought 4 cups of maggi mee that took up loads of bag-space. They were rather normal tasting , would try other types if I was to buy maggi mee agian.

Stop to alight: Apple garden (after CJ Farm)

Ambiance: Nice woody feel with chalet-like layout

The outdoor small tea tables do look like the pictures that people uploaded for this hotel but as it's the rainy season, the ground had water puddles and we were not able to enjoy the facilities. The hotel has a very woody feel to it as the whole apartment we lived in was made of wood. The interior is decorated pink which combines well with the woody brown, and its rather photogenic too! I thought wood was supposed to insulate well from the coldness but at night, the room was rather cold still. Must be the power of the mountain top breeze.

We then walked downhill (one busstop distance) to the popular sheep farm to visit the wooly friends. There were crowds at the gate as people were deciding whether to enter or not as the weather was really wet and the show may be cancelled n stuff. But we were only staying for one night so we just went ahead anyways. It was a good choice cos' the show was still on in spite of the rainy day.

Cost: NT$120 (Student), NT$200 (Adult)

No. of sheep available: significant & interactable!

Closing time: 530pm

Cost of sheep food (1 packet): NT$10

Had loads of fun interacting with the free-roaming sheeps. They usually will go to whoever that has food with them (so rmb to buy more if ya wana lure them over!). We tried taking as many pictures with them in action, but they aren't as easy as it looks. There's like plenty more behind the scenes shot then the final nice feeding photos, as shown below:

haha! see, wana take photo still scared. haha~

Then there's the wool shearing show that has this Caucasian man speaking not-too-bad chinese. He's kinda quite rough when handling the sheep, but I guess that's how the shearing works? Yeah, and he also wore a sleeveless shirt in the cold weather, not scared cold one. If I rmbed correctly, he had worked in Taiwan for a year already and was one of the only few people that are certified to shear the sheep's wool. He was rather high and did some wool-scarf performance and then threw the wool all over the place for audience to pick & bring home if they wana. Well, at least his performance was entertaining.

And as it was rainy, the seats were all wet and almost all the audience stood on the benches instead of sitting down. My view was occasionally blocked by the front people carrying the umbrella and shifting here and there. So not courteous one. But anyways, lucky I am tall *ahem* enough and had good eye-sight *ahem hem*, so was able to see the whole show. At the end of it, all the sheeps were released amongst the audience and we could interact with them again. And there was this kind couple who saw my father trying to get the attention of a sheep and had wanted to give some food to my father to feed. He was too busy faking a feeding had (below) and didn't take the food though. Haha, but anyways, the sheep was bluffed by my father also...good tactic yep

And we fed and fed and fed the sheepish friends...(ya, and the camera man that kept taking shots of the feeding w/o my face -.-)

Following, we went down the hill to some street market-like place where food is sold. We had our late-dinner there and I bought my first mountain-pork meat sausage of the trip. Omgoodness, it was yummy! I went to buy more from this stall again on the way back from the horse show and it still tasted so good. I then keep a sausage lookout wherever I went. Think sausage was one of the food I miss most in Taiwan already.

Yay, and we got to see my friends perform. All so stylo-milo!

And here's my sister's best friend of about the same height =P

We took photo with this iconic windmill...

Summary: Taichung Station > Cingjing Farm > Cingjing Sheep Farm > Horse Show