I am finally back from Taiwan!! Have not been updating but just to summarize my trip... Its like 'Going to War' shopping... LOL.. Its a pity that Keani couldn't join us in the last minute but she would have freaked out at our pace.. To be honest, even I was surprised with myself that I could do all that walking.. keke... When we arrived in
Taoyuan International Airport, there was this BIG group of fans... (no... not for welcoming us.. keke..) at the arrival hall waiting for some Korean idol.. So, the moment we touched down, it was screaming all over.. Interesting to stand and watch these fans chasing after I don't know who..
Ok, after the confusion there, we took the U-Bus to the High Speed Rail Station (
THSR) to make our way down to Kaohsiung.. I have to say that the train is really cool.. Reminds me of the bullet train that I took in Japan.. Fast and comfortable. We managed to find our hotel after looking for it for a good while.. The reception guy was kinda strange.. I really hated the way he said 'Hi' to us.. Still gives me the creeps when I think about it now.. LOL. We stayed at 'Dreamhouse' which is one of those boutique style hotel converted from residential units. Nice and cute as the rooms all have different themes. We stayed at the one with the 'Country/Farm' theme.
That night, we went to Liu He Night Market.. Great street food but the place was relatively small.. Visited 'Qi Jin' on the second day. The seafood was cheap but in my honest opinion... only so-so... Nice island with interesting spots to visit.. Great for those who loves to walk.. keke.. Instead of returning to the port that we came from, we took the other ferry to Ai He (Love Pier).
Strange that two women is going there together but what the hell.. since we are already there might as well visit n take some pics of the place.. keke.. We met a nice guide that told us since we will be going to Rui Feng Night Market that will be more 'active' only after 7, we might as well take the bus in which we really did and ended up taking a bus journey of around an hour.. Boy did our butts hurt after that.. keke... The night market was CROWDED.... It was so jammed packed with people that I did not know how to buy things anymore... Took me awhile to get adjusted and started pushing my way around as well.. (If not I will never get anything..) Early next morning, we took the interstate rail to Jiayi where we will be picked up for our 2 day 1 night tour to Alisan... What a big difference.. the train station looked like a scene right our from the 70's.. It had a 'nostalgic' feel to it.. keke..
The scariest part is, the train station did not have any form of elevators or lifts... We lugged our big cases and climbed the stairs.. Gosh!!! Thank God the travel agency was just across the street from the station, if not I think I would have gone crazy.. especially when the sun was scorching... We had our packet lunch bought from the rail station at the agency while waiting for the transport and we kinda hit it off with the girls there. They were kinda surprised that we planned our free & easy holiday on our own. The journey to Alisan let us have some time to doze off a little but the mountains is really beautiful.. Shame that it was quite foggy but we could still see something..
The moment we got off the vehicle, I realized that the temperature dipped by 10 - 15 degrees and I was thinking to myself.. Great.. I think I would have a problem.. True enough, as the hotel we stayed in was quite old, the insulation was really bad.. I had a totally sleepless night due to the cold and had to wake up at 4am to go take the train to the higher part of the mountain to see the sunrise..... Thankfully they were selling hot drinks up there or else I think I would have froze to death... LOL.. Pity that it was too foggy.. in the end, we never saw the sunrise... *Sob sob* I bought lots of tea from there which is my consolation.. I just lurve tea!!
Street (奋起湖老街) - to eat the 'famous' Railway Bento (铁路便当). Bought a lot of ginger tea from there.. haha... When we arrived back in Jiayi, we also went to the Wen Hua Lu (文化路) Night Market before heading to our destination. As we were relatively early, there was not much of a crowd but pity that we only had about an hour so we didn't really have the time to look around. Thankfully the journey to Yunlin was only about 45mins so by the time we checked in, we still had time to relax before going to bed. Next day was supposed to be a real adventure as our target place is Jian Hu Shan Theme Park (剑湖山). We arrived there at around 10am and to my disappointment, there were not much people in the park. There were a few student groups
around but they left at around 2pm which made the park more or less... empty!!! Other than the fact that I did not wanna go on a roller coaster ride all alone (can you imagine one poor soul on a huge coaster... I wouldn't know what to do at all.....). The worse part was, the power to the park went out at around 3pm.. Gosh!! What luck we had.. At that point I was telling myself thank God I was not on any of the rides.. I would not like to be hung in the middle of the tracks... I also missed the haunted house too.. You can say it
was more or less a wasted trip there. So next time when I have ride buddies, I will go back there.. =) We waited for our Taxi at the main entrance of the park at 5pm to take us back to the hotel to collect our luggages to move on to the train station for our ride to Taichung. We were so relieved to see escalators in the station.. The thought of carrying our cases and climbing the stairs really scared us... LOL. As per planned, we headed to Feng Jia Night Market(逢甲夜市) almost immediately after we put our stuff down in the hotel room. This market is really huge and the winds were sooooo strong I had a feeling I would get blown away.. To be honest, I wasn't prepared for such cold winds as the weather forecasts that we had checked before we left Singapore tells us that the average temperatures would be around 24 - 28 degrees.. so I had to get some thick clothings to keep 
myself warm.. Also, as we travel further north, it is supposedly going to get colder. Before moving off to Taipei the next morning, we went to the much recommended restaurant Wu Jiao Chuan Ban(伍角船板). The food was really good but the prices are rather steep. On the way to the High Speed Rail Station, we picked up our Sun Biscuits (太阳饼) and Pineapple Cakes (鳳梨酥) along the way at the taxi driver's recommendation of the best shops...
