15th Apr 2018, Sunday
Time to pack our luggage again as we head down South.
Our first place of the day is 中台禅寺 (
Chung Tai Chan Monastery) which is in Nantou county. Fun fact: Nantou is the only county in Taiwan that is not against the ocean. It's surrounded by mountains.
On the highway we passed by lots of 檳榔树 (
betel nut trees) and also the mountain which 'collapsed' in 1999 due to the massive earthquake. Xiao Xu told us his personal experience of the earthquake and I was just thankful that we don't have natural disasters in Singapore. How lucky.
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| Our first tunnel in Taiwan |
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| Chung Tai Chan Monastery |
Chung Tai Chan Monastery is one of the four famous Taiwan Buddhist monasteries so it was no surprise to see many tourist buses (at least 10, I'm not kidding) in the parking lot!
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| Some stalls beside the parking lot of the monastery |
I was kind of hungry having had my own petit breakfast that I was happy to see vegetarian sausage. My parents weren't that hungry. For their breakfast, they decided to eat the leftovers from previous night's night market.
We were very lucky as they were giving free guided tours which is not the norm. We had 5-10 mins before the tour started so we wandered around the garden.
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| Museum which was not part of the tour |
We were given an introduction by a nun and then a volunteer guided us for the remainder of the tour. The tour covered the main hall which is really stately.
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| Entrance to main hall |
Our guide asked us: Do you see these three doors? From left to right, the words on the top of the doors read: 解脱 (
to extricate oneself), 法身 (
dharma body or
truth body or
dharmakaya), 般若 (
wisdom). Which do you want?
Someone in our group: To extricate ourselves from suffering.
Our guide: Are you sure?
Someone else in our group: Wisdom!
Our guide: Yes, to extricate ourselves, we need wisdom... so let us go through the doors of wisdom. 😂
We headed in and got to tour floors 5, 9, and 16 which are not usually open to public. Every floor is stately however, I think floor 16 which housed a 7-stories-high wooden pagoda is especially so. We weren't allowed to take photos (I'm guessing for safety reasons) but we were quite fortunate to receive free brochures with more details and pictures (these were not given out in the past according to Xiao Xu)! The tour lasted slightly more than an hour and by then it was almost time for lunch so we decided not to wander around the grounds and to proceed on with our itinerary.
Our next stop is Feeling 18 巧克力工房 (
Feeling 18 Chocolate Factory). The name is a bit misleading. My mum thought that there will be chocolate factory tour but no, there isn't any!
Feeling 18 Chocolate Factory has half-hourly (or was it hourly) samples (while stocks lasts). We can also get free coffee/tea if we bring our own cups to their coffee/tea place across the street.
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| Place to buy ice-cream and chocolates |
We were hungry, so we decided to have lunch beside their coffee place which has vegan options.
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| Lunch venue |
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| Was a good and tasty meal! And cheap. |
The place provided cups for us to get our free coffee/tea from Feeling 18. lolol.
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| The free menu (which is good enough for me) |
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| Proper coffee/tea menu |
After lunch, mum and I went to look at the chocolates.
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| Anyone would be spoilt for choice |
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| Gift boxes options |
There were very few vegan chocolates on the menu... If I remember correctly, only 6 were vegan. I bought the pack of 4 vegan chocs for 120 which is a bit cheaper than buying them individually at 35 each. Tbh, after I tried the vegan chocs, I thought they tasted quite normal (definitely not bad quality). Not sure what the hype was all about as this seems to be a popular tourist destination.
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| The packaging is gorgeous |
There was nothing else to do in the vicinity so we left for 日月潭 (
Sun Moon Lake). There are about 200 邵族 (Aboriginals) staying there. The lake used to be Taiwan's biggest reservoir. However after boats were allowed on the lake it got polluted so it is no longer used as a reservoir.
Once there, Xiao Xu gave us three options:
1) take a boat ride,
2) cycle around,
3) just take photos.
We chose 3) because my mum can't cycle so 2) is out. The boat ride costs TWD$300 and in my opinion there are more scenic lakes ;)
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| 'City-center' of Sun Moon lake |
Xiao Xu brought us to the place where there's a stone that says sun moon lake and tourists like to take pics with it to say that they've been there. 😂
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| At Sun Moon lake |
We were getting ready to leave when my mum saw a group of people coming out of a shop. She has sharp eyes! She said it's a shop that sells local stuff so she wanted to visit. Off we went..
We bought some stuff for friends which I realised later on that the price here is a lot cheaper than in Taipei or other places. :O
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| Mushroom ice cream |
The ice-cream sounded exotic so we bought one to try. Then I remembered it's probably not vegan so I didn't taste it. It was just ice-cream with mushroom bits in it. Really odd.
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| Driving off to our next stop... |
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| 檜意森活村 (Hinoki village) |
The village was much bigger than expected. It is at the base of 阿里山 (Alishan) which is home to many precious trees, one of them the Hinoki (Cypress in English) tree. These wood from the trees have a fragrant smell which comes from its oil. And because of this essence/oil they are resistant to mold and humidity. Thus hinoki wood is considered very good quality wood and they cannot be used to make paper.
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| We entered the village |
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| Activity going on |
We walked to the Forest Exhibition Club Center where there was a ceramic exhibition going on
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| Close-up |
We wandered around the village~
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| Spidey. Check out the reflection in the window |
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| My dad posed for pictures with these superheroes. hahaha. Batman was there too |
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| The village comprised of shops selling different stuff |
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| This weaving machine looks old! Since 1960s? |
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| We visited a shop selling soaps |
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| Too nice to use |
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| All soap! |
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| It seems a bit impractical to use soaps of such shapes. hahaha |
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| 酵母 (Yeast) shop |
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| The first mouthful was sour, but somehow must have adapted to the taste because it was not sour anymore after that |
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| Shop selling cat stuff |
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| Shop selling coasters |
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| Hakka flowers on coasters |
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| Shop selling mud cleansing products |
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| Shop selling pineapple cakes |
嘉义 (Chiayi) is home to pineapples so Xiao Xu did ask us to try the traditional pineapple cakes here. My parents were skeptical at first because pineapple cakes are usually really sweet but the traditional ones are not! My mum bought a box of them. LOL. As I couldn't eat...
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| I drank |
The taste was quite interesting because the fruit wines I've tasted so far are all from berries. I almost bought the bottle but I realised it's way more expensive than what I would pay for fruit wine. Plus I'm not a big fan of pineapples.
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| Last shop that we visited, which sells products made from various precious wood |
I bought a wooden standee for my phone. It's been very useful especially for video calls when I need to do them from home. Previously I've been propping my phone up with various things and my phone keeps sliding down.
It was 6pm so we headed to our hotel - Chiayi King Hotel.
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| Grand lobby |
We were informed that our room for 3 was upgraded to a room for 4!
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| Our room |
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| It's super spacious, even more spacious than Carlton's |
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| We got a bathtub! |
While settling down in the room, I got an earthquake alert on my phone. But we felt nothing. Maybe we are just not very sensitive to Earthquake tremors.
We were going to head out to 文化路夜市 (Wenhua Road Night Market) only to realise that it has started raining. Mum was not too keen to be at the night market in the rain.
Luckily for us, there's a restaurant in the hotel. As we were hotel guests, we were told that we do not need to pay service charge.
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| Restaurant |
We wanted to order two vegan hotpots to share because it seemed like quite a lot of food. However the restaurant had a policy that each person needs to order a set (I think it might just be a weekend policy though). Since they already served the free appetiser and tea for us, we were too paiseh to leave. The total cost was still reasonable though.
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| Vegan hotpot |
The vegan hotpot set (360 TWD) came with one bowl of rice, one bowl of porridge, fruits, dessert, drink, and the hotpot itself. I was so full omg.
By the time we were done with dinner at 8.45pm, the rain has stopped. Chilled in the room for a while. My dad wanted to go out to walk since he was very full. My mum didn't. I was too tired to accompany him. So we decided to just stay in the room and have an early rest.
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| Day map |
Stay tuned for Day 4!
