Day 5 began at SML and a home-cooked breakfast by the lady boss and her helper. The spread was quite alot and they will even refill upon request! With that said, whatever they provided were quite enough.
So today's first trip was kinda suggested by the lady boss (she's nice right). So off we went to the Butterfly Park early in the morning as it is opened 24 hours and there's no entrance fee!
Location: 10mins walk from our lodging B&B
Entrance fee: FREE
Butterflies spotted: 2-3
Actually, there were more flowers present than butterflies. The area wasn't netted up either and I guess the butterflies managed to fly away. As heard from the lady boss, this park has a lodging area especially for students that come for a school trip to SML and touring. It's really cool to have such places reserved for students at affordable rates (how I wished there's one student lodge in Sentosa for students here as well).
Next up, we visited the temple we didn't manage to visit yesterday. The bus that we took to the temple from the park did not follow the bus timetable and we later heard from a guard that the bus may cancel trips if there's too few people -.- It's quite irresponsible for the bus operators to do that, since all tourists pay the same price for the bus fare, and they can just cancel as and when they want even w/o the need give any notification. When the bus finally arrived, the driver actually apologized when we boarded the bus (but didn't really give reason so I guess he's apologizing for making us wait so long).
As fot the temple, it's really huge and the most interesting thing about it was the hundreds of mini lanterns hung onto the ceilings. Seems like one can write a wish(es) and just hang it up. Wanted to try it too but...the cost of 1 lantern was super expensive, so ended up taking many pictures instead. Good enough for me! =P
Bus stop: just opposite SML cable car centre carpark entrance
I think the following shot is quite nice with the L.H.S. the traditional temple building & the R.H.S. the upgraded stone building (still in the progress of building). I shall name this photo 'The Past, the Present & the Future':
This is also taken by my papa, cool shot!
The famous stone at an area at the top of the temple if I'm correct. Had quite a crowd wanting to take photo with another similar SML stone (on the same island as ah po cha ye dan) the other day & the queue was so terrible (like 50 people long), and we quickly grabbed this opportunity to take with this stone instead.
We got back about just after 10:30am when the Cable Car Centre began operating. Luckily, there wasn't any queue to board the cable car and we manage to get on after a few other passengers. Best is, we got one car to ourselves! We bought the cable car tix from lady boss who sold us for NT$300 each.
There's this One Piece theme going on at the cable car with Luffy and friend's decal on the car's exterior. And the scenery is just breathtaking...
Lush greenery, blue sky, sea underneath the feet, bird's eye view of everything...*whee wheet*
The other side of cable car is a theme park called the Aboriginal Cultural Village. Because of time constraints, we didn't manage to go in and play the rides. We did a quick shopping and returned to the B&B because a driver we booked has arrived to pick up.
Our next destination was to a B&B in Alishan. However, the journey was rather long and so we had a pit stop along the way for lunch. The boss of the SML B&B actually had informed the driver that we wanted to make a stop along the way to try a recommended beef noodles. But the driver looked kinda irritated and she said she'll bring us to another beef noodle restaurant along (her) way instead - and I thought because we booked a personal cab, we had the benefit to choose what we can do, apparently not. So, I don't think this driver detail is worth the mention here.
Heng, the noodle was not too bad. Or else, (in time to come we will know) that this special arrangement will be quite a cheated trip. Along the way, we stopped by a temple for a short toilet break. As my sis & I have strong bladders, we did not need the break & instead did some wonderful stunts with the adorable statues just nearby. My parents actually joined the fun too!
Also, there's 2 bridges there named 'Tian Chang' & 'Di Jiu', meaning forever and always. Always is still in function but forever is under construction ;)
Continuing on the journey, we went up & up into the clouds...just look at the first vehicle in line disappearing into the clouds:
*TADA* we have reached our next destination.
The 2D1N itenary was corresponded with this B&B owner, and he helped arranged the drivers to and fro from his B&B. One BIG disappointment was that it was actually stated in the itenary that the following day, we will be going for a sunrise watching @ 5am in the morning. However, on this night, the owner said he wanted to discuss the itenary with us and dropped the news that the sunrise watching will be changed to 9am instead. I tried to probe further by asking why not 5am but he just mentioned that the timing has changed and that the sunrise is visible from his rooftop.
Luckily (or unluckily) for us, the driver that sent us to this B&B has actually told us that a road to the mountain top was closed for Dec every morning until 6am before re-opening for entry. The driver also said this was a common practice for Alishan and that the owner should be aware of it. Didn't want to ask about the change in timing until the owner mentioned about it, but I was quite disappointed by the fact that he didn't explain about the road closure and also that he didn't admit about this road closure in our email exchange (during late Nov) where he even stated in the itenary that the sunrise watching session will start at 5am. On top of that, there wasn't any monetary returns for this 4 hours gap + no car trip to the supposed place to watch sunrise. Therefore, although the stay here was rather pleasant - and quite good in my parent's opinion - I wouldn't rate this as my top stay for my Taiwan tour because of the lack in honesty. And to think that the whole 2D1N stay wasn't cheap at all. =/
Well, enough about this disheartening event. Looking at the brighter side of the stay, the room was actually quite spacious:
There were afternoon tea-time set (included in the 2D1N itenary, not sure if those that book just the room will have it or not):
And I took a picture of this! Looking pretty delicious huh!
We were brought to a nearby tea plantation that has a platform with a spectacular view of the sunset. It was literally above the clouds with the sun setting over the horizon like a little closing performance...
I took this shot of my parents which I think kinda look like a wedding pose. Heh heh heh...
And we had real, natural flowers as our photo taking background!
Cool shot:
So night time arrived - very early esp in winter - and these was what we did:
We had a warm hot-pot dinner with yummy food and desserts to make sure everyone was filled to the brim. All the plating of the food was very eye pleasing, with flowers & leaves as the main theme. I think the flowers were taken right out of the plantation the place had. Food was actually the most memorable thing for me at this B&B stay =)
Summary: Sun Moon Lake > Alishan > Afternoon Tea > Sunset > Hotpot Dinner > Star Gazing
The new year is IN! And this is how i spent the last day of year 2012 welcoming the new year 2013...Baking '2', '0', '1', '3' of course! =)
Like how they looked, 2013 were yummy. And I guess that's how this year is gonna be to ;) We spent the last few moments of 2012 by the bays counting down to exploding goodness.
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Happy New Year everyone