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.
Finally, we reached our destination in CJ, and the place we booked is as shown:
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...
And I took this shot (I think it's really nice, like got the romantic feel)...
We trekked all the way uphill back to the hotel and had our dinner in the hotel's restaurant. We bought the set meal for 5-6 pax (the 3-4 pax set consist of 2 less dishes) and there was free-flow of rice. The food was quite nice (actually all hot food tasted nice in the cold weather).
Then on our way back to the hotel, my father and sis played the spot-the-mist-outta-our-mouth game. There was definitely mist coming out of our mouths while we talked, but I didn't manage to capture them with my camera though...
So the day at Cingjing Farmstay ended and here's one chop to sum up our experience :
Summary: Taichung Station > Cingjing Farm > Cingjing Sheep Farm > Horse Show
