台湾春天之旅 2013- Getting to Sun Moon Lake (日月潭）

We woke up early in the morning today to prepare for a day trip to Sun Moon Lake (日月潭）-SML. Its a 2hrs drive away by coach and we are gonna take 南头客运 from 干城站（Gan Cheng station) there.

干城 is located in 1 of the street from main exit of Taichung station. As we are not taking train, there is no way we can get to the front exit from rear exit as you will need to produce a valid ticket to get into the station.

Thus, we did a bit of recce and realised there is an underpass that leads to the front station. Its in a small alley to the left of our hotel, just before the games arcade.

Underpass to station front

Taichung station- 台中站前

We finally got to see Taichung station front, hehe keep exiting from the station rear and didnt came to to the front. This station is built in 1905 and has been influenced by Japanese architecture, it emits a special old school feeling as we stood in front of the station, admiring it.

GuoGuang bus terminal

To the right of Taichung station is Guoguang bus terminal （国光客运站). This is not to be confused with Nantou bus terminal which is further down. Here, you can board coaches bound for other cities like Taipei, Miaoli, Tainan. I didnt really check out what they have to offer and we moved on quickly.

Monday morning in Taichung

Temple

My dear google map states that Nantou bus terminal is 400m and 2min walk away from Taichung station. But when I checked with receptionist of my hotel, they told me its at least 15min away, thus advising us to take a cab.

I was quite stubborn, 15min walk is not gonna kills us and further more I would love to see abit of Taichung city life. The kind receptionist had given us instructions to keep walking on the right side of the street of Taichung station and we did so when we exit from the underpass.

Live chickens! Had been a long time since I last these.

We passed thru wat seems to be a wet market street. Its only 8+am and some of the stalls are not open yet. There is not much of a crowd too. Got excited over seeing a wet market here and slowed down our pace here.

Wet market in Taichung

We came to a cross junction at the end of the wet market and spotted some shop houses diagonally across and decided to go check out whether the bus terminal is located there as there are some buses parked infront of the shops too.

Little piglets roaming around

Was so happie when we spotted Nantou bus located in 1 of the shops. You might missed it if you are not careful. The shop itself is sparsely funished with 1 ticketing counter in front, 2 rows of seats inside. Lucky for us, we were looking at the various sign board and spotted theirs.

Bus to SML

Route of the bus

There are 3 packages availble to SML. NTD330, NTD660 and NTD 990. We chose the NTD990 package as wanna spend a whole day there to visit the attractions. It includes return tickets to & fro SML, unlimited ferry ride, 2way SML cable car, tickets to Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village，1 way bus ride to 向山 and round the lake 1 day bus tour.

The 2 other options would are either without tickets to the cultural village or just the tickets to&fro SML only. It is cheaper to get this package and thus we brought, I was only praying that weather would be good for us to enjoy our trip.

Coupons on the ticket

Bus to SML

The coach Nantou Bus is using is pretty new and kept clean, which makes the trip more comfortable. There are also scheduled departure timing of the buses to&fro SML so you can planned your trip better knowing the timing of departures.
 南头客运 website - SML bus schedules

Interior

We took the 9am coach and is scheduled to reach SML at 11am. Along the way, the coach make stops at Taichung station, Taichung High speed rail station and 1 other train station that I cannot recall the name.

I am not sure whether to purchase the tickets should you want board from these stops though.

Back to Taichung train station

On the freeway towards SML

1 interesting thing is, the coach will make a schedule stop at a university located on a mountain. Funnie to haf a university here as it is pretty inconvenient but the students seems to be used to it. Half of the passengers got off here.

Univeristy in the mountains

Reaching SML

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We slept all the way till we reached SML after the university stop and was only awake when driver makes the announcement of reaching. Hehe Its a gloomy day today and I hope the rain will stay away till we finished our day trip  here.

台湾春天之旅 2013-Che Cheng station (车埕站)

Che Cheng is 15min away from Jiji station and its the terminal station of Jiji Branch line, trains will turn back at this station. We reached there at 16:48 and its getting dark as we disembarked.

The station is built in the middle of mountains and gush of fresh air greeted us as we disembark. The original station which is constructed of concrete and steel was badly damaged by an earthquake. It has since been replaced by a wooden structure.

Passengers boarding train

Pretty flowers everywhere

As usual, I went and brought return tickets 1st at the ticketing counter to Zhanghua. We then proceed to explore the place. Its pretty quiet for a sunday and I wonder whether it is due to the timing as its getting dark.

There's a old street behind the station but we decided to skip it 1st as were still full from previous feasting in Jiji, we didnt have time to come back here later though.

Came across CheCheng wood Museum and went in, admission is free but it closes at 17:30 if I didnt remember wrongly. 1 can see the history of logging in Taiwan here. There is also a workshop here offering classes of making objects using wood. Had no time to tried but we saw a lot of parents making chairs and other small items with their kids here, seems pretty interesting to me.

CheCheng Wood Museum

Mr Love, trying to open a carriage

Ta-Q-Bin spotted!!

Wood crafting classes in progress

We walked around the premises and came across a beautiful sight. A pond which nice wooden structures and mountain as its backdrop. It gives out a serenity feeling and I wonder how nice it would be to sip coffee here under the cooling weather and listen to the flow of water. Therapeutic  isnt it?

Later, we learnt that this used to be a timber storage pond and was converted to an eco-pond after this storage area was no longer need with the decline of logging industry. At least, it didnt became a white elephant after serving its purposes. Great move.

Gift shop

Lavendar

There is pretty much nothing to offer here but somehow, I like it here better than Jiji. Perhaps of the cool weather, perhaps its a quieter town. It makes one feel at least, taking in the sights mother nature had created.

Steel robot built with steel from tracks/trains

End of track

Out of service trains

There is also a mini display area relating to trains near the end of the tracks. Here, 1 can pose with trains tat have been out of service and seen better days, equipments relating to train services.

Point machine- if I am not wrong

Water tank

Against the mountain as backdrop

Funnie that people would eat the fruits here

3 persons clogs!

The trains frequency dropped as we enter night time and we had to cut short our sight seeing to catch the 18:26 train back to Changhua or the next train would been at 9++pm.

To horror of some travellers, the ticketing counter was closed as we went bak to the station. Was secretly smug that I brought tickets beforehand. Haha. Many just got on the train without tickets.

Ticketing counter closed

Taiwan trains will have a train master on every train and they would check your tickets as we pulled out of station. Those without tickets may purchase from him. But that is under this special circumstances that the ticketing counter is closed. Else, if you got on the train without valid tickets or the correct ticket types or underpaid, you will be liable to pay a fine. Not sure about the amount though.

Panoramic view of Checheng station

Love the tickets

Not sure is due to the weather, but I developed heat stroke towards the end of the journey, had a super bad headache that results in vomitting. People were casting sympathetic looks at me as I vomit my guts out. Many offer me seats in the crowded train from Zhanghua to Taichung city.

Hubs was super worried, brought a hot chocolate at Zhanghua station for me, hoping to ease watever I was suffering from, but to no avail. We gotta cancelled our plans to the nearby night market and checked into the hotel for me to rest.

Bye bye Checheng

Funny thing is, after a long short shower, the headache was slowly easing. Though I still dun feel good enough to shop in the night market, but at least I feel better enough to step out of hotel to get food. I knew if I skipped dinner, Mr Love will follow suit, the last time I wan is him gettin gastric here..So, we brought a bunch of food from the 7-11 near us to feast in the comfort of our hotel room and got a early rest.

Drinks I make during the haze

We were pretty much confined to our hse and office during the haze when the PSI reading hits 400.

Did not want to go anywhere as I didnt managed to get the N95 masks and didn't want to risk going out without proper protection. Hehe kiasee ma.

Anyways, wkend is spend mostly at hm and since the weather is so unforgiving hot and feels like we r burning in a furnace, I decided to brew 凉茶 for Mr Love and my parents.

After wrecking my brains, I decided to try cooking barley water which seems to be the easiest and happily went to market to buy, but alas guess I am not the only 1 to think of this.

Barely and green beans are all sold out, be it the market, provision store or NTUC, there is non left. There are people who are more fast minded than me lo..

In the end, I settled for a pack of chinese barley (last) which the store owner say is much better than the Holland counterparts though with a slightly stronger taste, I aso brought some water chestnut,they are good for cooling heaviness too.

Tried brewing the barley 1st and I realised I didn't noe how much water or rock sugar to add . win oredi. Just follow my gut feelings. Steady.  Turns out didn't taste too bad though it really came with a stronger smell than the usual barley drink but luckily the ever fussy Mr Love drank 3 big cups after I cool them in the fridge. 

Feeling somehow encouraged, I tried the water chestnut drink the next day. Its nice alright but the preparation process is a nightmare.  Now den I realised why mummy dun prepare this drink for us. Its really a lot of work! 

While the 大爷 was playing his zombies game in the living room. I soaked and scrub the 600g of water chestnut.  Then have to scrap off its skin and then cut to smaller pcs for easy boiling.

600g comes up to ard 20 water chestnut and it took me an hr to clean them. Then another hr to brew them before the cooling down process starts. 

I started to prepare ard noon but it wasn't till early evening den we get to drink the ice cold version.  Too much time required. If not for the whole day I have on hand, I tink I would need 2 days to prepare this drink. 

But then again,its much cheaper and healthier to male ur own as you are able to control amount of sugar added.

Not sure whether I would have the patience to make this drink again but I reckon I better stock up on barley for convenience sake. Hehe