DAY 1
Our first stop in Taiwan - Taichung! We landed in Taoyuan Airport and took the High Speed Rail from Taoyuan Station to Taichung,
I checked, double checked and triple checked the weather in Taiwan before going and all of the weather apps showed temperature ranging between 18-22 degree Celsius but I saw so many people geared up in their down jackets and scarves, which got me a lil worried about underdressing for the weather.
What everyone was wearing
What I was wearing - a dress with a cardigan
What Kw was wearing - shirt and jeans
And it turns out? The weather really didn't warrant the need for winter wear! It was chilly just like in a slightly colder air-con room but I felt totally comfortable!
Us waiting for the train
Our first meal in Taiwan: instant 便当 from 7-11
Not sure if it's just us being too hungry but I thought that their Lu Pai Gu Fan was quite nice! And one good thing about their HSR is that you're allowed to bring food up! Yet the train was still pretty clean!
Finally got to our first destination!
Our first hotel/apartment: Grano House.
A cosy room (with soft toy somemore wtf)
The room is quite small but I don't usually have issues with that. This place is also quite difficult to find because it's hidden within an alley. There is also no signboard or indications to show this is the building we're looking for. The reception is also really pathetic - which is made up of one table and one foldable chair below a flight of staircase. But all these didn't bother me at all because Grano House was 3-minute walk away from the largest night market in Taichung - Feng Jia Ye Shi (逢甲夜市)!
There was a 85dc Cafe right around the corner with delicious looking cakes so we decided to go for a teabreak!
We ordered warm pearl milk tea + chocolate cake + mille crepe which was very good!
FYI, we had milk tea every.single.day in Taiwan for 9 days - 一点也没有夸张! Some days we even have 2 cups of milk tea from different places lolol. But that was my plan anyway - TO DRINK A LOT OF MILK TEA IN TAIWAN!
So we were supposed to go to Gaomei Wetlands & Mazu Temple which were about 30-min cab ride away. But the weather was quite bad which made us quite lethargic + the fact that I barely caught a wink the night before, we decided to just nua in our room until nightfall so we can just go to Feng Jia Night Market!
Along the streets of Feng Jia.
There were a lot to see and eat. Most things were also reasonably cheap like their scarves and shoes etc. If only it wasn't winter season while I was there...
$10 串烧 - we saw steam coming out of the food but it was all a lie because the food weren't really warm at all -_-
The chicken + onion combi on the top left hand corner of this photo was our favourite!
Taco ballz
Popular night market snack - 大肠包小肠
It's basically taiwan sausage sandwiched in glutinous rice that's shaped like sausages. They also added some other stuff like cucumber in the '大肠'. My verdict - not fantastic.
贡丸汤 - very nayyyyy
阳春面 - ordered it without knowing that Yang Chun Mian means noodle soup with no ingredients inside, pure noodle + soup -_- the noodle itself was okay but I still prefer to have 料 in my noodles!
I think this was called 九岑塔蛋饼 or something. Egg + something like prata + lotsa ingredients inside
Red milk tea (2nd cup of the day btw hahaha)
This thing, is supposed to be soya beancurd. But it tasted nothing like soya beancurd and neither was it nice.
Trying out artsy effects of my camera
Taiwan Sausage is also something I kept eating at different night markets
Chee Cheong Fun which I was too full to eat at this point.
That wraps up our first day in Taichung!
DAY 2
Despite being a city, Taichung is not the same as Taipei in terms of its public transport. It is not exactly convenient to get around in trains and buses. And it usually takes like 1 hour++ to go by bus when a cab can bring you there in like 15 minutes or less. So that was also our main mode of transport in Taichung.
Spent the whole of day 2 in its downtown. Planned the itinerary such that most places are within walking distance!
A breakfast place just around the corner of our hotel. Not sure if it was because of weekend, most shops weren't open at 9am. So we didn't really have a choice for our breakfast.
We ordered 2 small soymilk and we were greeted by 2 not-so-small bowls of 豆浆.
My 猪扒堡 which was good!
三宝烧饼
Despite settling for this place only because we didn't have a choice, I had a hearty and delicious breakfast!
After breakfast, we took a cab to our first stop!
Confucius Temple 台中孔庙
There's nothing fascinating about the temple though. I only went there because the date of results release was a midst my itinerary planning so I thought I should go pay some respect hahahaha. Plus it was within walking distance from the other attractions!
Next stop: Banana New Paradise 香蕉新乐园
It's basically a cafe with super old school / vintage decor. Once you step into the cafe, it's like stepping into a different era.
Very challenging to take a photo of its signboard -_-
"Hair salon" along the old streets
Ok so this is him being sarcarstic to me about something hahahahahha
Even the menu is like old school comic book
We didn't order much cuz we were still full from breakfast. The siew mai was unusually sticky and the custard bun was bleahhhhh. The food was way below average but the place was very picture-worthy!
Next stop: 一中街
Passed by our first 50 岚 aka Koi in Singapore
Ordered our favourite ice cream milk tea (which didn't taste the same as the ones we have here. The one in Taiwan had a weird, slightly bitter after-taste.)
Yi Zhong Jie is like our Bugis Street but with more things to see and more clothes!!! Once again, if only it wasn't winter........
Delicious BBQ corns!
Next stop: Miyahara 宫原眼科
This place used to be a clinic owned by a Japanese ophthalmologist during the Japanese occupation period but it has now become a pastry shop that sells pineapple tarts and other traditional pastries!
All queuing for the gelato!
They have the largest variety of chocolate ice-creams I have ever seen and I randomly chose one cuz all the names were super pretentious and idk what their differences are.
第二市场
We dropped by this place called the Second Market because Kw's brother told us there were good stuff but most stores were closed when we went. Could be because it was a weekend? I wasn't sure either. This place is super worn down, more so than the wet markets in Singapore. But there were many stalls selling food!
We didn't get any food because we were still full from everything else we ate earlier on.
And then we walked to 春水堂 - tea house that's supposedly the origin of all bubble teas.
Again, we only ordered pearl milk tea cuz we were too full!
Lo and behold................
THE MOTHER OF ALL PEARL MILK TEA!
This has got to be the best pearl milk tea I ever had!!!! Except it was a tad too sweet for my liking but the texture and taste was perfect! Had I not been too full I would've ordered another cup for myself!
The rest of the evening was pretty unhappening as we sourced for an universal adaptor (cuz I brought a faulty one to Taiwan :/ ) and we went back to Feng Jia Night Market for more food~
Oden aka Tempura in Jap
This is like yong tau hu where you pick the ingredients that you want and they serve it like this - in piping hot soup! Comfort in a weather like that.
That marks our last night in Taichung!
The next morning, we had breakfast at the same place before making our way to Cingjing!
I ordered cheese omelette this time. And they gave us more reasonably-sized soymilk this time round lol.
Xiao long bao - which was quite disappointing (it was only about $3 though!)
There are some other parts of Taichung I wish I had time for like Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) and Gaowei Wetlands (高美湿地) which I didn't have a chance to visit. But I'll be back to visit these places!!
Will blog about my stay in Cingjing in the next blog post!! Stay tuned!
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