Also, I will be skipping those common tours, mainly focus on the new discoveries of must do, must stay and save money tips!
Most of the tricks are the combined efforts of muscleman and myself while googling online, reading other people's blogs and dayres. Not sure if you have learnt these tricks before but it was definitely eye opening for us, so I gonna jot them down anyway!
Here are the pointers that I'm covering:
- Pre-Trip Preparation (Save money from cashbacks)
- SQ Flight - Kids' Freebies!
- Airport Transfers
- Taipei
- Hualien
- Cingjing
- Tai Chung
- Gao Xiong
- Hospital That is Near XMD / Clinics in Gao Xiong
Some of the highlights of Must Stay/Must book:
- Kindness Hotel in Gao Xiong (they serve BF and Dinner with only SGD80+/night!)
- Join this line group for airport transfers, it was almost half priced from what hotel/uber quoted me
- Klook tour for Taipei jiufen, Shifen
- Klook wiFi router in Taipei (more of it under Pre-Trip Prep)
- Book DIY bubble Tea experience direct from outlet. Kkday was slightly more expensive
- Must go: Taipei Children's Amusement Park. Each ride is less than SGD1 for my 3.5yo mostly!
Pre-Trip Preparation
Hotels Booking & Trips Booking
We used shopback for most of our hotels, High Speed Rail (HSR) and train tickets. We chose days where there are 12% cashbacks for the bookings (can be on SQ, agoda, expedia or hotels etc) and proceeded with the booking. This auntie act of ours earned us $100+ worth of cashbacks okay, dont play play!
Certain train tickets are available on Klook, for instance, we bought tickets from Taichung to Gaoxiong (Zuo Ying station) and Gaoxiong to Taipei on Klook. But the ones from Taipei to Hualien we gotta buy from the HSR website direct, without shopback. Must buy these tickets fast too, they get sold out quite fast.
If you haven't have a shopback app, you can get a free $5 by signing up through this link!
Background on how this app works.
Shopback app --> click in to respective sites from it (e.g. Klook, kkday, various hotel sites etc) --> make your bookings from the individual sites --> wait for cashback to be credited to your acct! --> withdraw the money to your bank if you want, or keep it inside and procrastinate like us. LOLLL
WiFi Router
We didn't get Changi Recommends, but a direct Taiwan version from Klook for obvious reasons. CASHBACK from shopback. haha and it was also cheaper in comparison to CR cuz we're using for 15 days. It works perfectly and it's half the size of Changi Recommends! make it portable in my small lady's bag. Anyway, here's the link for keen renters.
SQ Flight - Kids' Freebies!
Prolly known to some, but I didn't know kids are entitled to cutesy freebies! Here are the stuffs we've been given.
Spot those prints of Singapore (nonya kuehs, kong guan biscuits etc) in Mickey outfits!
So yes parents, if the crews forgot to give you, you can actually ask them if your kid is entitled to a kit and they most likely will give you. A kind steward noticed that we didn't get it and arranged this for us!
Oh and you can request for a kid's meal, which we didn't, cuz we didn't know. Only knew about it when the crew confirmed with us that our kid doesn't have a kid's meal during our return flight. Quite obvious we only started flying our 3yo recently. We belong to camp kiasi parents, didn't want to try if our then infant would be cool on plane or not ;D
Airport Transfers
Airport to Taipei Main Station
Upon touching down, we took the train located at basement, bought express tickets for 4 adults (forgot the price but I think it’s SGD4-6 per person based on my memory), kid travel free. Supposed to have 13 stations, but the express compressed it to 4 stops! We took the train cuz we were staying over at Taipei for the night, while taking the speed train to Hualien the next day. So we stayed near Taipei Main Station, which was exactly where this airport train brought us to via the 4 stops.
Meaning to show the leg space between the seats but a poor angled picture, sorry for that. Anyway, we were seated at the front that's more spacious, and there was this extended table that acts as charging station in the train! It provides all the possible phone charging points somemore.
Taipei Hotel to Airport
Ok this is the HIGHLIGHT. Basically we were quoted 1,500NT for 4adults 1 child 2 Large luggage and a Medium size carton of goodies to be transported to airport. We tried searching on Klook as well and the prices probably linger around 1,300-1,500NT. Then we joined this line group (courtesy of a dayrean's sharing) and tadah! 900NT with a super huge car, and the most comfy one we ever taken during any point of the trip. Their replies are quite instant too, or they will let you know that they are attending to your quotes and will get back shortly.
This is the link to join the group!
https://line.me/R/ti/p/%40dzq7686m
Typing it out so that if the link fails, you can manually type it in your Line App. Strongly recommend anyone to use this!!
Once you open the chat, they will prompt you with a standard template of question asking for pick up and drop off location, no. of pax etc. You just got to copy paste it onto your type box, and fill in the details and send. The chat will continue from there.
Taipei
We've stayed in 2 hotels in Taipei. One when we arrived, the other when we were going back. Both hotels can be booked through shopback sites.
Apause Inn
Address: 100, Taiwan, Taipei City, Zhongzheng District, Guanqian Road, 8號
Hotel near Taipei main station (exit Z4 via underground link). It’s easily located, entrance is at the right side of McDonald’s. Go to level 5 for check in.
To our surprise, it’s actually quite decent! We didn’t expect much cuz it’s really just a place for a night sleep. It’s bright and clean, provided water dispenser in the pantry and freeflow coffee tea as long u want to make them.
Initially we didn’t have breakfast included. So the receptionist asked us to follow them on Line with 2 accounts and we will get free BF for both rooms. Ok deal!
And their breakfast not bad!
Here's our 3 bedder room, basic yet acceptable.
Cheese melt toast. Oh btw they served BF to per pax, and not the usual buffet style. I like the concept that it reduced food wastage by a lot! They tasted good too. The kid had this Nutella version.
Bf comes with a milk pudding and salad too. It was a very filling BF.
We are very impressed with Taiwanese efforts in recycling. Upon finishing the bf, we cleared our own trays. They have instructions on where to throw food waste, where to stack the plastic cups, where to throw general rubbish, and subsequently the paper waste.
Rainhow Hotel
Don't really recommend this, except that it's location is really fantastic. It sits in the heart of Ximending. Just that the bed actually ranks last for this trip. Not really comfortable and the pillow is rather flat. We got the deluxe room so it's quite spacious, other than that nothing to shout about. Breakfast wasn't fantastic either, most food wasn't on warmers so by the time we have ours, some food was cold. OK since we're not recommending this, then let's skip to next point.
Klook Day Trip to Jiufen, Shifen waterfall and Shifen old street
Thought this worth recommending. I used to travel up Jiu Fen on our own (train to Zhongxiao, take bus to Jiufen), and Shi Fen (bus to Rui Fang and take the train that has frequency of 30mins each train). By the time we finished the sky lantern, it would be dark.
This Klook trip provided transport up to Jiufen, bring you to the waterfall which i never made it to, and Shifen old street for the sky lantern at just $25 per pax!
Pick up was at XMD near our hotel, and a guide will explain things along the way in the bus.
Link to the Klook trip here.
This trip would take you one whole day. If you choose the option with Yeliu, it will be more tiring, and set off time will be an hour earlier. But the draw is, going to one more place only costs $1 more LOL. Oh and avoid going on weekends, cuz the coach can't access the roads on Jiufen on weekend, so we gotta take a bus up from the coach stand. According to our guide Jay Lee, it seems like the coach will send you to Jiufen direct on weekdays.
Rao He Night Market
Many of you would have been to this market, so I won't touch on much on it. Except that there is this new station exit built right outside Rao He! Make it so convenient to go now as compared to the past. OKAY my last trip to Taiwan was 7 years ago during the proposal trip so this new exit may not be that new to of you if you have traveled to TW in recent years.
So if you are heading over from XMD, take the direct train (green line) and stop at the final stop 松山 Song Shan. Look for the exit (i think it's 6 but can't be sure) and it's right opposite Rao He once you head up. From the same exit, Wu Fen Pu will be on your left, but there is a nearer exit for Wu Fen Pu. Just ask the station masters and they will gladly assist.
A shoutout to this raohe night market 家乡碳烤鸡排。Didn't take a picture of it so i grabbed the below picture off the net. It's really nice, and filling. OH if you are keen, 幸福堂 BBT has a stall right behind this chicken stall. No queue at all, but the staff prepared the drink quite nonchalantly. Didn't really bother me la, so just FYI!
Image credit: https://images.app.goo.gl/5qcZES7QcLEfhgrt5
Children Amusement Park
It's a super cheap theme park for kids! Entrance fee was SGD1= for adult, kiddo went in free. Each ride was either less than $1 or the most thrilling ones $2.50 SGD. My girl stands at est. 104cm, so she could only play those rides with minimum 100cm height. Good enough! In fact, quite many rides for that, though could be better if she could play others too.Getting there info from the website.
The shuttle bus doesn't work on weekdays. So we chose to alight at Shilin station, where there are a lot of bus choices that go to the park. We took bus 255 and it stops right outside the park (also the last stop). Red 30 seems empty too but we missed it, bus 620 was packed with students so we pass it.
This slide was quite thrilling!
Snacks from XMD
There are a handful of snacks souvenir shops in XMD, they belonged to the same parent company. These 2 snacks got our taste buds. Go try it before you buy if you wish!
This star fruit juice with plum is quite refreshing! It's located right outside the MRT exit that's in front of the huge Watson's (at XMD side). We saw a queue and went to get it, I love the sweet and sour combination probably cuz I'm pregnant. My husband doesn't really fancy it :P
Hualien
鐵路便當 and Train Ride
Wanna shoutout to the 鐵路便當 store at Taipei main station! This 古早味smth排骨smth飯 is very nice! With meat, 2 types of veg, braised egg and some sauce, it’s NT100 and it’s the more expensive one that I bought. It’s right before the escalator to 月台.
Each seat comes with a cover at the handle. Open it up and pull the string, and it becomes the meal table. Save much space!
慢点民宿 Slow Living Seaview B&B
Address：No. 68號, Haibin Street, Hualien City, Hualien County, Taiwan 97048
Can be booked through shopback sites
Apparently they ranked no.6 on TripAdvisor. We trust TA reviews as a lot are genuine reviews since our hiking/adventurous trip days. So here we are at man Dian!
Each room has its own theme but they are all tied to retro styling. Our toilets are spacious too.
The minsu is located near the main night market, and right in front of the sea/beach. However, the beach was undergoing some construction while we were there so it was a pathetic sight.
There’s a camper van coffee place behind our place, and we decided to buy a cup and yolo sit at the bench behind and gaze at the sea.
Breakfast from first morning. Oh the breakfasts are served to your room! The club sandwich is actually good. The tea is really nice too. The hello Kitty plated one was for the kid.
Second morning had a change in menu. The cutlet was actually very nice. They sandwiched fruit slices together with the cutlets, which makes every bite refreshing.
Btw the minsu owner quite good looking. Hahaahha
Night Markets (YS = Ye Shi)
The driver told us the major YS are combined into this one that’s near our minsu. So it’s a 3 YS into 1, but still manageable. Not too crowded and I can find good food too!
So it’s 原住民，自強 and 福町夜市s into 1 YS
There’s a huge fun fair that doesn’t have many people. NT300 for 6 credits, kid’s rides usually uses 1 credit.
Food wise, we tried some random tze char store near an intersection of markets. It was terrible. The street bites was way better. There was another stall selling fried bee hoon, that’s not bad, but the 黑輪 (關東煮 alike) and 雞絲飯 were disappointing.
The scallion snack was nice and crispy, sweet potato balls were great and a hit with the kid (the stall is this yellow looking stall with a snaking queue. Located near some fried crabs. Forgot to take its pic), the sausage within sausage thing was nice but i prefer the 糯米肠, it was peppery and nice, and the last 不一样，疯味 we had the aboriginal yuan zhu min flavour pork. The outer skin tasted like prata, quite nice overall. Anyway that's all we tried over 2 days. LOL quite loser but we couldn't stomach more.
There are also public toilets available at this night market, but you got to have ur own tissues ya.
So my hubs got hooked onto this game after looking at others playing with zero success. We need to push the bowling ball at right strength, and keep the ball at the groove at the back. Not easy! Too hard it rebound, too light it doesn’t get up. I told him to study success story in the TV above. But he still failed. So Ben Xiao Jie took over the second baton.
I studied for a while, and realize you have to use your finger strength and not the wrist/forearm or biceps cuz the latter gives too much force. And I think it helps that ladies are generally gentler in strength. Because... I succeeded after a few attempts!! Ahahahha wha the cheers behind me, as if I won Olympic can. Haahha moral of the story, study success stories in detail, may help in your success story! Lol!!!
The kid had a lot of games too, and won herself some small toys. More games than the above videos actually. LOL this YS quite family friendly and not exactly crowded.
Driver
We booked a driver in hualien for 2 days. 1 entire day of sightseeing and the next day to drive us up to cingjing. Won't exactly recommend our driver Tiffany and her husband. They were the most expensive driver that we engaged in this trip, but their service wasn't the best. The husband gave the vibes of "I wanna quickly finish this job" as his main job wasn't driver, he was just standing in for his wife who got overbooked. So he wasn't flexible in changing itinerary at the last minute.
Sight Seeing
Attractions in hualien are mainly sight seeing/museums, we actually skipped some since we're not inti them. En route, we saw this 飞行伞 thing! Our driver said we can register beforehand, and the company will drive ya up to mountain and fly down! SO COOLLLLLLL but it was raining so it wasn’t available. Also it isn't a family activity la, not suitable when we have elders, kid and a preggers, that left only my hubs to do it and it kinda 扫兴 right if he does it alone. Hahaa but I will come back and try again next time! KKday does have a promo for this Hualien 飞行伞, rem to use shopback. ;)
A few places we went for sight seeing: 鲤潭, 花蓮觀光糖廠, 雲山水 and 開心農場 .
鲤潭 - This lake will be awesome if not for the weather! You can choose to pedal the boat with your family, or use the motor version. This pic shows the traditional dragon boats, but they have new cutesy ones too! It was pouring quite badly so we opted for sheltered speedboat where a boatman fetched us one round for NT800. Else it would be cheaper. The lake was calm though, cuz it’s not open sea, so no waves.
A few places we went for sight seeing: 鲤潭, 花蓮觀光糖廠, 雲山水 and 開心農場 .
鲤潭 - This lake will be awesome if not for the weather! You can choose to pedal the boat with your family, or use the motor version. This pic shows the traditional dragon boats, but they have new cutesy ones too! It was pouring quite badly so we opted for sheltered speedboat where a boatman fetched us one round for NT800. Else it would be cheaper. The lake was calm though, cuz it’s not open sea, so no waves.
AND! U gotta try their drinks! We ordered 木瓜鲜奶cold, pumpkin 鲜奶warm and taro one warm. ITS SO TASTY! The papaya one is refreshing. Taro was thick, and totally taste like a less sweetened version of orh nee, and my favourite gotta be the pumpkin milk warm! Its sweetness comes from the pumpkin itself and the warm drink warm us up a little in the cold weather.
Oh and there’s a swing outside the store. Hahaa if U have a kiddo (adult also can la my husband was swinging happily) it’s great to have some fun time there, or for pictures.
花蓮觀光糖廠 - The fish pond and feeding is irrelevant to the product but it’s a huge pond there with kids feeding the fish, mine no less. It’s only NT10 for a long tube of fish food, and the girl had so much fun acting fairy and 撒 the food out.
The draw to this place is their ice creams. The peanut flavor one is nice, and if u are keen to buy the styrofoam boxed up ice creams of 2kg, it’s only NT270-300! That’s soooo cheap!
Another draw would be their little indoor arcade! They had quite a few kiddo play and some adult arcade games. Each game only costed NT10 or 20! OK ON, PLAY.
Otherwise, there’s nth much here alr.
雲山水 - Taking this photo to remind you guys, toilet at this place come at a cost. This store sells bbt and stuffs, and owns the toilet. If u wanna use their toilet, u gotta pay NT100 or buy a drink at NT80 +-. Of course we bought a drink right, but it’s really 不好喝. So if u can 忍 then later ask ur driver drive u to somewhere k. Lol! Else just buy a drink la.
Halfway thru the walk, you will see this mangrove thing, it’s actually very nice! Right behind the camera/me was a small dam alike thing. We gotta cross the stone stumps to the other side. Quite tranquil and I like it! Quench the outdoor hiking thirst a little.
Once you reached the end of the walk, you’ll be greeted by a nice green pasture against the mountain backdrop. Skies were gloomy on my day of visit but I thought it’s pretty not bad already. Good days may warrant nicer view.
To avoid doing
To avoid going up Cingjing from Hualien.
We learnt it after all happened. So we travelled up to cingjing from hualien, and the route was 90% 山路. Think winding roads for 4-5 hours. Cons of traveling up from hualien:
- the authority repairs and maintain the rocky surfaces on and off as poor weather sometimes cause rocks to get loosen and fall. So it can be prevention works for upcoming weather, or fixing a site with fallen rocks from few days ago. That said, 山路 are narrow, so they will close off one direction of road for the repairs, and open only at certain time. Our driver is very up to date with the schedule as she either login to a site or she has a private group chat of updates. So she knew exactly where and when the closure will be. At some point we were rushing from our toilet breaks cuz we didn’t want to miss the opening time and stuck at the closure for 2 hours.
- meandering roads are ok if you are not carsick. But there will come one point where you’re so high above sea level, fog starts to form. Pairing with wet weather, the fog, at many point of time, is so thick that I can’t even see what’s the road in front of our car! Like is it supposed to turn left, or straight or right? And mind you, it’s still 山路 going round and up the mountain. 小 scary 有沒有. The driver was very calm though, haha 習以為常 already. So ok that’s quite comforting to know.
- long hours drive. We left hualien minsu at 9am, on and off took pictures and stopped for lunch break halfway through the mountains, and we reached cingjing minsu at 3pm plus.
After chatting with our cing Jing minsu owner, we realize taichung to cingjing is only 1.5hr drive and minimal 山路. Hualien has a more difficult drive up. LOL ok at least i experienced it so can advise the rest not to go CJ from hualien like we did. 😂
Cing Jing
Minsu: Starry House 清境-觀星園
This is the highest Minsu in Cing Jing, that boasts great views of starry skies, but we didn't get to see starry nights during our stay, probably the bad weather too. We stayed in the 4 pax room, so it was kind of spacious, with a balcony that oversees the nice scenery.
I would say if it's for a night's stay, the accommodation is decent and nice, as they provide bed heater to fight the cold at night. The owners are pretty welcoming too, and will fetch you to and fro Minsu/visiting point/7-Eleven upon request. Each paying night comes with breakfast AND dinner, and their dinners are quite nice, it's comforting steamboat in the cool weather! Some reviews said the Minsu doesn't have heater for shower, that's not true. The owner explained we need to on the tap for a while to let the heater act up, so advised that we only undress ourselves after the water turns warm (and turn off the tap after it is warm. The heated water won't get cooled so fast).
However, for the 3 nights we stayed, they didn't make our room at all, merely changed our towels and empty the bins upon request. So I thought they can improve on this aspect.
The owners were so hospitable though. We often strike small talks with them in car rides and they always love educating us on their climate and cultures. Before we left, they actually gift us a box of tea and a deck of poker cards that were printed with their Minsu and its surrounding views!
Meals
The dining hall and dinner. Each night serves different soup base, and the ingredients are freshly grown in their farm behind Minsu. May look simple, but it was actually really palatable. You should try their chili paste too, quite awesome!
The owners are super nice. They said because we stayed for 3 nights, they didn't want to repeat the dinners for us, and invited us to their personal dining area for a homecooked dinner on our last night! I love their food though!
Attire for Cing Jing
If you're there for a day's trip, just dress as per normal with a shawl/windbreaker will do as the sun will warm you up. If you're staying overnight, prepare warmer clothes for night i.e. long sleeves, pants etc. If your accommodation provides heater in bed, then don't bother wearing too thick. Should you be going for sunrise tour, prepare heat tech from uniqlo and heat packs. You can buy from their nearest 7-Eleven if you did not prepare beforehand. You can also borrow thick down jackets from the tour.
Sunrise Tour
Simply inform your Minsu owner and they will get the sunrise tour guys to call you up for the arrangements. 400NT each pax, inclusive of picking you up and dropping you off Minsu. They also provide thick down jackets for you, but you need to be dressed warmly too cuz it can be super chilly before sunrise. The perks of staying at Starry House is that we were the last to be picked up (can sleep longer) but then first to be sent back. Hehe
Activities in Cing Jing
Our Minsu owner gave us a simple map and explained the activities route/what to expect.
Activities include - 清净农场 CingJing Farm，小瑞士花园 Little Swiss Garden，Carton King, Old England hotel hightea buffet, A boardwalk that we ditched going. Everything is walkable, but with elders I guess you have to break it up else they would find it strenuous. If you're doing a day trip with kid, I would suggest going to the farm and Carton King will do.
Overall, I think CingJing Farm is the touristy must-go spot for close encounters with sheep (kids will LOVEEEE it) and let the kiddo learn through touches. I then realize sheep is not furry soft like cotton wool! The fur is thick and coarse to touch. Other than that, it was the nice greenery that exudes serenity. We didn't let the kid do pony rides though, minimum age was 5 or 6.
Little Swiss Garden has nothing much, but my girl enjoyed feeding fishes and having ice cream on a wooden train bench. There's a food street right opposite the attraction, with Mos Burger, 7-Eleven, toilets with seats (Little Swiss toilets were squats one I think, which my girl didn't really know how to use it yet) some restaurants. local noodles/rice and snacks. The yellow push cart sells some awesome sausage btw!
Carton King was interesting for us! We skipped the Taichung one since we have been to the one in CJ. We went to their restaurant and enjoyed the experiences there with the cartons furniture, and the kiddo was soaked in the fun with carton train rides and a 2 storey slides.
Old England required quite a bit of walk from Carton King pitstop. Initially, we just wanted to get a glimpse of the building, but after the walk, we were like OKAY let's just do the hightea altogether. Prices I think it's alright, not too ex, but not all things are nice la, as you can see from the kid's expressions. The kid set was cute though, and it comes with some juice for the kiddo.
Tai Chung
Driver - Fan Hong Chang 范弘昌 +886 923 918 288, available on Whatsapp
I highly recommend our driver. He always go out of his way to buy small bites for us, and paid for some kiddy rides for our girl. He was also spontaneous in bringing us to local good food when we suddenly exclaim that we were hungry. When we wanted to buy some local snacks, he would stop us and brought us to somewhere that sells it cheaper after that. It helps that he was humourous and polite too! Here's a picture of him, while the little photographer was taking his picture.
Accommodation
Beacon Hotel 碧根行馆
No. 427號, Fuxing Road, Xitun District, Taichung City, Taiwan 407
This hotel sit right at the start of Fengjia night market. Surrounding it are tons of stores too! Alley Bbt is right opposite the hotel, there was no queue and cheaper than Changi Jewel. Hehe. Daiso is right across the other street, and right beside the hotel are beauty stores like Watsons, Cosmed and 小三. Oh, the super famous 天使鸡排 has an outlet at the corner of the hotel too! The main outlet is at the night market, so this side outlet has shorter queue to lay your fingers on the chicken.
The hotel room is not huge, but the bed ranks TOP in this entire trip. Super comfortable! Room is very clean too, and they provide laundry room at level 8 for free (but you wash your clothes yourself la, detergents and usage of machines/dryers are FOC). Breakfast is ok too. Would recommend staying here as most of your nights in Taichung will be spent in Feng Jia and the surrounding streets.
Food
The highlights are always the places that driver got us there spontaneously. Didn't manage to catch all of them, but this one is really worth going.
The noodles, innards and toufu are awesome. They even provide a sterilizing machine for utensils, in case the guests are particular about it.
Feng Jia Night Market
Basically you just walk and eat and follow queues. LOL! Below are some finds that are not too bad.
The chicken shaped stuff is a pancake. This was soso. There was another stall selling similar things but in the shape of elephants and other animals, that tasted nicer.
The beef cubes were awesome according to my husband. We went to Ramadan Bazaar before the trip. Beef cubes were $16 per box, while this was est $5 and were much nicer, I was told la.
Activities
We let the driver plans most of the itinerary, but we can always impromptu change it if weather doesn't allow. We also threw in a DIY BBT workshop from 春水堂, and he helped us arrange it.
Activities worth doing/going: DIY BBT, DIY paper fans at paper factory广兴纸寮, DIY mushroom harvesting at mushroom farm百菇壮园，彩虹村 Rainbow village. The rest are okay too just that I don't think they need any shoutouts. If you engage the driver, you can just follow the tours along the way.
DIY BBT
In case you wonder if he get a cut for arranging on behalf, no. He didn't. We paid direct to the shop and being impromptu I don't think he benefit from helping us. And KKday sold the package at a fixed price, but he managed to inform us it's by class size! So lucky us, the day of our workshop had some sign-ups already, so we were paying slightly cheaper rates for riding on the economy of scale. Upon completing the workshop, you will bag home a certificate and a mini shaker. The shakers are put to good use at my home post trip. The girl remembers this experience and we have been shaking random drinks at home with ice! 😂
DIY Paper Fans
The activity was simple to understand and achievable for a 3yo+. She likes action based activity so this foot the bill just fine!
DIY mushroom Farm
So we harvest our own mushrooms and the staff will fry them on the spot! Akin to those shrooms snacks you find in night market, except that this is damn fresh. For the big baskets of shrooms we picked, it was made into 2 packets of bites at a total of 150NT only. Looking at the photos always crack me up. It brings me back to there and then when the kiddo did 101 entertaining expressions. 😆
Rainbow village
It's just a photogenic place with cutesy postcards and magnets. There was a rainbow playground with sand, but we went after a rain so we decided to give it a miss.
Gao Xiong
Driver - Hong Ren Jian洪仁坚 +886 958 958 783, available on Whatsapp
Our driver was ok, not extremely hospitable like the TaiChung one but is quite a gentle giant. Rates were acceptable too.
Hotel
Kindness Hotel Kao Hsiung Main Station - 康桥饭店
No. 295, Jianguo 2nd Road, Sanmin District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 807
Highly Recommended hotel! it's right opposite Kao Hsiung main station (MRT), provides breakfast AND dinner AND all-day snacks station. The all day snack station is akin to Royal Carribean Deck 5 - FOC coffee tea and juices, biscuits and ice creams! The dinner spread actually taste nicer than night market food honestly. Breakfast has soy milk station too!
Their rooms are spacious, and they provide shampoo/conditioner/shower gel in their bathroom, differentiated by MALE and FEMALE! There's also facial foam provided but nah I didn't use. They also have a laundry room, allow you to use their machines and dryers FOC.
I'm overall impressed by what they provide, at a mere SGD 80/night/room during our time of booking.
Dinner Spread - Tou Hua with red beans or tapioca balls (blackball黑丸 style), noodle station, soup station with meatball/winter melons, Lu Rou Fan (have vegetarian and non vegetarian ones), mala pot of toufu and other ingredients, mushroom Pao (MUST TRY), porridge and fruits station.
Snack station food are also available during dinner.
Breakfast Spread
Apart from the temples, the driver brought us to an amusement park that feels like a lesser populated RWS, Dream Mall amusement park, Qi Jin, Pier2 Arts Center, sunset chase and dragon Tiger Pagoda.
I would think the pirated RWS can be skipped. We did let the kiddo play some indoor playground at dirt cheap price, but don't think it's worth the travel.
Tiger Pagoda
I thought it look kinda unique and it helps that there is a popular beef noodle stall nearby (I had non beef noodles) that satisfy the mister's cravings! More about it later. The shop's name = 三牛
Pier2 Arts Center
I LOVE this place! Except that the sun was merciless. So there were a few arts shop (that we didn't manage to visit all, though it was very inviting to enter the air-conditioned place!), quite a few picturesque spots and a mini bullet train ride for kiddo! There is a pier across the street, that gets quite pretty in the evening, and most importantly, there is a 幸福堂 BBT shop across the street!! NO QUEUE and we managed to draw multiple lots for fun. 😁
The pier
The train ride
Sunset chase
Upon hearing our sunrise chasing stories, the driver decided to bring us for a sunset chase. Quite nice of him! So if you're hiring the driver, you can request for it too. But alas, the clouds were too thick that day, so we only caught half the sunset.
Qi Jin
We didn't really explore Qijin as much as we wished as we were a little sick that day. That being said, it shouldn't hinder you to explore it! It's like an island with east coast park activities. The family sheltered bicycle rental was so cheap as compared to Singapore! And theirs was all motorised ok, while I paid $35/hr in ECP to cycle on our own.😂 I also managed to score unique drink carrier for Krys and I here😉
Dream Mall amusement park
Not as cheap as Taipei Children's amusement park, but a decent one for my kiddo! Rides are 100NT thereabout, and photographs are at 150NT.
Food
Night markets are all soso. Liuhe is almost dead, Rui Feng is Super crowded and it was difficult to maneuver with a toddler and elders. The nicest finds are again, brought to us by our local driver!
The store below (printed on the box) sells Bak Zhang, Wan Gor (碗糕 bowl kueh? haha) and 猪肚汤 is awesome! The soup was delicious, and the star has to be the Wan Gor. You have to stand afar and look at the menu board first before joining the queue, because the queue moves damn fast. The staffs are sooooo familiar with their work that they pack at lightning speed. So avoid hogging the queue, only join in after you have decided what to buy.
Hospital That is Near XMD / Clinics in Gao Xiong
My husband and myself got badly bitten by fleas and mosquitoes halfway through the trip, and it got worsen as days pass. So sharing the medical information here in case anyone need it. My hotel recep knew nuts about such info, to my dismay. We had a hard time finding out, and thanks to my one and only Taiwan friend, Don, that we managed to find the nearest hospital! 出外靠朋友，所以最好是好友满天下！hahaa
Gao Xiong doesn't have GP. If you're having sore throat, you got to go to ENT specialist clinic. For our case, we were sent to the 皮肤科诊所 with the help of our driver.
For XMD, nearest hospital that functions 24hr is National Taiwan University Hospital (台大医院）and a private hospital will be Mackay Memorial Hospital. Our singapore experiences told us that public hospital need to wait up for hours before it's our turn, so we turned to private hospital back then. However, Don did say it doesn't work that way in Taiwan, and NTUH is a huge hospital, so should be equally efficient. So anyway, we spent about an hour in Mackay Hospital to treat the bad hives outbreak.
That's about it! Hope the above information helps someone out there for their upcoming Taiwan trip!:)
