Day 0 to Day 1
It was our first leisure trip together in Aug 2018 & celebrate birthday together.
A backpack trip without any luggage. We took a red-eye flight out on 16 Aug 2018 from Singapore via Scoot & reached Taoyuan in the morning.
My very kind, friendly & creative friend goes by the name York Barsoul hosted us for a stay at his pretty large abode made out of containers. Very nice yard which was in progress of building up the facilities such as a home restaurant & bar.There are cute doggos & meows too (didn't manage to take a pic cos meows are shy)!
We wasted no time when we reached the place. After an hour of resting, we went for breakfast & ordered dumplings & youtiao as it is very popular breakfast menu.
We headed off to Shihmen Dam which is located in northern Taoyuan City which is the third largest reservoir in Taiwan. It is a place made up of beautiful scenery of lakes & surrounding mountains. However, the period we went was super sunny & scorching.
The dam serves different functions & purpose such as generating power, watering for agriculture, flood prevention & drinking water. It took us about 2 hours to walked the whole area. It is a good place to view various flowers during spring-summer period although it is very humid & scorching hot. Slide right to view the photos!
It is a worth a visit if you are in Taoyuan, address as follows: 復興里 335, Taiwan, Taoyuan City, Daxi District.
After Shihmen Dam, our second stop: Cih-hu Memorial Statue Park (慈湖紀念雕塑公園), opened in Cihu by the Daxi Township Government in 1997. It is a park whereby there are approximately 100 bronze statues of Chiang Kai-shek’s that were donated by various localities of Taiwan. It is also the mausoleum of Chiang Kai-shek & his son Chiang Ching-Kuo. A park of rich history whereby he was the leader whom led Republic of China & Kuomintang. We had a walk around the park to check-out the various statues & took some photos for memories. Our trip to the park ends with their local flavour ice-cream pop. Taste really awesome for a summer! If you are into history, this park is not to be missed too! Address: 慈湖停車場 335, Taiwan, Taoyuan City, Daxi District
After 1.5- 2 hours spend, we head to our 3rd stop: Daxi Old Street (大溪老街). It has a really rustic charm of the architecture which were still in use till date. The street has quite a handful of specialty stores, snack bars and stores dealing in wooden products.
We had a simple lunch at one of the store selling local snacks called 米腸 (Glutinous Rice Sausages) & explored the streets abit.
We head back to our friend's place to have some rest & head out again in the evening as my friend's wife Ella took brought us out to Zhongli Night Market for dinner. In fact, this is my first time to visit a night market in Taoyuan as usually we travel to Taipei instead. It is a local culture in Taiwan where everyone enjoys the food & drinks. It is also the birthplace of Bubble-Tea! Ella brought us to an eatery that sells Mala Smelly Toufu. It taste really good & ingredients are fresh!
After dinner, finally to visit Barsoul. One of the things I love when overseas is to visit bars & observe their local culture. Had nice cocktails & had a surprise from the host which made it really memorable indeed.
Day 2: we only packed what we need & depart from Taoyuan to start our next trip to Houtong Cat Village which is nearer to Taipei. We took a train ride & reached before noon. Although it wasn't my first time to Houtong Cat Village, but i have always enjoyed visiting cos of the roaming cats that was similar to Japan's cat island. Houtong Cat Village is surrounded by mountains which makes the place feels fresh & rejuvenated.
A short of history of Houtong was that it was once a rich small mining town & renowned for a well-preserved culture surrounding its railway, which was built during the Japanese ruling. From 1990s onwards, coal mining starts to decline whereby more people shifted out from the area. Only till 2008, the place started to thrive again thanks to a local cat lover began to care for abandoned cats in the town while finding and organising volunteers to post photos of the cats online. Most fell in love with the adorable cats which in turn revive the village once again as a tourist destination.
Some of the cats were caged up by the residents, probably for the safety of their own cats against the roaming ones although I find it strange. There are also several cat cafes that you could visit as coffee was nice, there are also cats merch sold by the locals as well. A great place for all & interact with the cats.
To get there: From Taipei main station, take the northbound line towards Ruifang (Pingxi Train line).
We continued our journey to Shifen Old Street (十分老街) which is just few stops away. Shifen Old Streets, a collection of lanes and alleys in and around the Shifen railway station area was initially built for transporting coal during the Japanese era, which the track runs straight through the village for convenience.
Currently, it is marketplace surrounding the train station and exposed whereby people could get across freely the train track which runs straight through the centre of town. The marketplace area of Shifen is a great place to grab their local delicacy snacks and some souvenirs which is also famous for lighting the sky lantern (天燈). However, this practice has become very commercialised that it is polluting the area & affecting the wildlife. There was a short downpour when we were there, so we went for mango dessert first & bought other snacks when rain stopped & made it to the 40m waterfall located 30 minutes away by walking northeast from the train platform area on either side of the tracks.
We spend around 2.5 hours at Shifen & made our way to our last stop to Hualien City & reached in the evening & was raining. Good thing that it is cooling & we were weather-prepared. After checking-in to the hotel, we unload our packs & went to nearby eateries to have hot noodles soup with mushrooms & braised pork. Bought some takeaway snacks & beer back to our room to chill & rest for the evening.
Day 3: Tian Siang Visitor Center, Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園)
Named after the Truku aboriginal tribe. The marvel of Taroko Gorge was created by the continual rising of the mountains combined with the erosive power of the Liwu River. Literally we spend the entire day at Taroko National park as it is a huge place to explore. It is also for us to recce the area for future plans to do multi-day trekking & camping.
Before we take off for the day, replenish energy first! There aren't much eateries at the area, however there's one 7-11 convenient stores. Love their local flavours!
Lots of walking, enjoy some of the sceneries 😃
More nature below check out the tunnels & gorges. This is one of the memorable trip together as we saw how magnificent the national park & nature is. Some areas are closed as it requires permit from the authorities.
After Taroko trip, it was already late afternoon. We took the bus back to the town & head to Ziqiang Night Market. It is a very spacious place with lots of food, drinks & UFO game catchers. Had our braised pork rice & organ soup as main. Managed to have a cute friend for dinner with us too! After which, we walked around & find more snacks. Managed to catch 2 plushies. Overall, Hualien City I would say it's a vibrant & nature place to be at.
This was the funniest thing we saw at Hualien Nightmarket. Super amused by it 😆😆
Day 4: From Hualien City to Taipei
We depart from Hualien City in the morning & got on the train to Taipei. The duration of the trip was about 2 hours, we bought drinks from convenience store & the railroad bento (台鐵便當) cos it was one of the must-try for the trip.
After we checked in our hotel at taipei, we had some snacks before making our way to Xiangshan (Mt. Elephant) at Xinyi district. Xiangshan with the altitude of 183m, could get a nice view of Taipei 101. The main route to the peak was by stairs (which we don't quite enjoy lol). Descending was a different route & we passed by some large buddhist inscriptions on the boulders which was quite awesome in my opinion.
We ended our night at Shihlin Night Market with more food 🤤
Day 5: Wulai District
Planned a day trip to Wu Lai. In order to get there, we have to change a bus at Chiang Kai-Shek Station, so we en-route to took some photos outside of the memorial hall & went for breakfast at Starbucks. Real tasty in my opinion (perhaps anything outside of SG also taste good lol).
The journey to Wulai district takes about an hour. It is famous for the famous mountain village, waterfall & hot spring resorts. We did not go for the hotsprings though but away from the hustle & bustle, it is a nice place to be at. There is an aboriginal culture center across Wulai Waterfall which was remodeled into a museum of aboriginal folk art. The museum introduces the aboriginal culture, customs and habits of Atayal Tribe and demonstrates the historical artifacts.
After the museum trip, hiked up to where the tram ride & cable-ride station to have admire the view of the waterfall. Absolutely stunning! After which, we took a tram ride down & hung-out at one of the local tea cafe. The boss is a very passionate guy & shared with us alot of history of the aboriginal tribe history. We took some funny photos with snow app as well!
We depart from Wulai & back to Taipei train station to visit the underground book street. It is a really long running bookstore with large selection of books. We totally enjoyed our time there before taking a train back to Taoyuan.
Day 6: Departing day back to Singapore
The sun was up early in Taoyuan although it shares the same timezone as Singapore. From our room inside the container ard 7+ , it was this bright, we said our good morning to kitty boy & hung-around abit.
Our friends has kindly brought us to a Japanese restaurant & we had really nice chats & food there. Ordered curry katsu & matcha ice cream. Taste real good!
Before we depart for Taoyuan Airport in the evening, we had our last meal at a local eatery for some mee sua & ice kachang similar dessert. Really good hospitality from friends! This sums up our Taiwan trip, hope to be back again after the pandemic 😃
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