Day 2 in Taiwan!
Monday, December 24, 2012
So Day 2 in Taiwan begins...with a big hearty breakfast! Breakfast is the other thing I keep in view while choosing for the hotels. Of course free breakfast will be the best, but free doesn't always mean good (like what we're to experience soon in Taipei). But back to Day 2, the hotel provided a rather good spread of local delights (local breakfast in Taiwan = porridge + side dishes). The place was well kept and there were TVs that showed the daily news updates and stuff. I liked the floss & peanuts (my main side dishes) and also the cold milk tea, although it's kinda weird to drink cold stuff with the porridge but went ahead anyways. It turned out quite good such that it helped in the making of my daily business that I wish to settle before exploring the place ;)
Breakfast: provided. Not bad, replaced punctually!
Next stop is to Yamay theme park in Houli town. Most people tend to visit Leofoo Village theme park but on my lil' sis research, she encouraged us to go Yamay instead - good choice sis! We had planned to take a taxi down because of the long distance as shown on the map. However, after the advice of the information counter at Taichung HSR, we changed and decided to travel by public transport instead. My father wasn't feeling really well so we had plan to cancel the theme park event, which we also contributed to our decision in taking public transport because time weren't the concern already. In the end, we took a bus from outside our hotel and went to the railway station to take a ride down to the theme park station.
Amazingly, the journey via railway was quite short too! And it was quite cool to take the railway because this is quite different from the mrt feel back at home.
Cost: NT$31 (Taichung > Houli)
The very very laid-back feel station layout - how great if life can travel at a slower speed...
So after arriving at the station (that consist of loads of pictures with info about the station background), we were kinda lost as we did not know how to proceed next. There were a few touters (tricycle + taxi drivers) present at the gates who kept questioning where our destination is. Initially, we wanted to try the horse ranch which is the replacement event of theme park. However, they told us that riding horse is only available for experienced riders (no choice must go learn horse riding already!). So in the end we chose to take a cab down to the theme park. Along the way, we chatted with the driver and asked about the theme park. It was initially a duo park consisting of the wet & dry parks. However, they close the wet park during the winter season and we only had the dry park to go. It's great for me both ways, but I think my sis really wanted to go the wet one. We even brought all our swim suits and bath stuff. Luckily they were light!
We also bought tix to the park from the taxi drivers who said that he can sell us at a discounted price that we will not be able to get. I thought that we had a bargain with the discount. However, later we came to realize from another driver that he will be willing to let the tix go at NT$400 to us had we met him -.- (we should have bargained!).
taxi ride cost: NT$200 (pre-fixed rate)
duration: 10-15mins
Looking at the bright side, we saved NT$80 had we bought from the tix counter. Ok enough about money, talking money spoils mood. Upon arriving, we saw 2 gigantic dragon/lion-phoenix statues. It looks like a lego-made structure but it's not. Looks interesting though, so *snap snap*!
My sis & I made a few poses with the structures too. But...the sun was really bright that day so I had abit of difficulty opening my eyes, as seen below: of course, the poses remain =)
There were these very pretty turning fans placed just after the gates which makes the park a much happier place to visit.
Here's the map of the place, and we aimed to try everything at least once (which we didn't cos some really too kiddy for me & "kiddy" for my sis already, heh heh.
A picture summary of what we sat! Everything was so fun!
Oh ya, remember to bring ponchos for the wet games!
Oh ya, remember to bring ponchos for the wet games!
We had a quick lunch at one of the few diners in the park.
The dishes there were okay, and we chose to eat at the Chinese themed restaurant (there are western, itallian etc.) The prices are comparable to back home, but it's considered higher there I guess. I would choose mushroom + minced meat rice the set (+ meat ball soup) to get for this meal!
Then we took this uber cool ride. Even the picture looks exiting already! How this machine works is that the coaster carriage will park onto the top end of the tracks, then the tracks will turn 90degrees down to connect to the vertical track and *ZOOM* down it goes at free fall! It's one of the most exciting ride of my life cause this ride forces you to look forward over the horizon (its v high by then already), then it slowly tilt downwards and forces you to look at the height you're dropping from. whoosh, heart pumping mega-thrilling ride. Rode it 3 times and everytime I see this pic, it still brings thrills~
The video is here! (Spot me and my sis and my father!)
Also had the chance to get some bumper action (can't wait for gentings bumper cars too!).
Before we left, we made sure to make our mark there & showing abit of our masculine side...
HAHA, it was really fun! I believe what made it real fun was the fact that there were very few people there. Crowds are always a downer (at least for me). And then we took a cab to another famous market called the Fengjia night market in taichung. This night market was even more crowded than the first one we visited the previous night, but generally, both were good night markets to visit!
We bought this really long ice-cream for NT$30, which is really worth it! (Normal height ice-cream sold at the temple at SML was like already NT$50/stick, luckily we came here first and didn't got cheated...heng)
I drank my second cup of bubble tea of the trip too. It wasn't really good (to me) either. Gotta keep looking!
Then, the main dinner was a meesua stall we went amongst the huge crowd (yep it was squeezier than the other night market). The meesua tasted good! But the service of the waiters weren't so good, I guess that's how alot of busy business owners are these days. If I ever were to become a businesswoman, I will remember to keep the service awesome so that my customers will enjoy their experience...
Day's summary: Kiwi > Taichung Station > Houli Station > Yamay Theme Park > Fengjia Night Market
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