This marks the first day of our free-and-easy trip to Taiwan. We arrived at Taoyuan International Airport in the wee hours of the day. The temperature was 18 degree celsius. Afterwards, we headed to Taoyuan High Speed Rail. From there, we were bound for Taichung High Speed Rail which took around forty minutes.
@Taichung High Speed Rail:
Following that, we took a private bus to Cingjing Farm. It was a long journey of about one and a half hours. On the way to Cingjing, there were picturesque villages. With hills on the backdrop, the scenery was breathtaking.
After lunch, we took a private van catered by our minsu to Cingjing Green Green Grasslands. It was a journey of around 10 minutes. The entrance fee was NT$160 per person.
The view from there was beautiful.
When we went back to our minsu, it was already almost dark. Feeling really exhausted after a long day, we decided to turn in early. This ends our first day at Taiwan.
Alas, after a long journey, we reached our minsu called Shangrila which is located at Cingjing. It looks like a quaint country cottage and also had Christmas vibes radiating!
Thankfully, our minsu was situated near a number of restaurants and mini marts. We were ravenous and headed towards Carton King Restaurant located at Cingjing Swiss Garden, which is located quite near to our minsu. It was a good lunch (or maybe because we were famished). We ordered steamboat which is Japanese style-fish soup mellow wood with sirloin beef slices for NTD430, confit lamb chop with orange honey sauce for NTD350 and their most popular Boston herb roasted spring chicken for NTD380. Personally felt all were up to standard. The steamboat soup was not too salty, spring chicken was soft and well marinated. The lamb chop was soft and tender but the portion of the lamb chop could be larger for it's price.
After lunch, we took a private van catered by our minsu to Cingjing Green Green Grasslands. It was a journey of around 10 minutes. The entrance fee was NT$160 per person.
The view from there was beautiful.
Besides, we managed to see many sheeps who were feeding on the grass, ponies and horses for tourists to ride on!
Thereafter, we proceeded back to our minsu to have in-house high tea. The biscuits and tea tasted unexpectedly great!
After high tea, we went back to our room to rest before going out for dinner. In the evening, it was starting to get really chilly. Apparently the temperature there was around 4-5 degree celsius. We went to one of the nearby restaurants- Cingjing Patite Restaurant to have dinner. We ordered steamboat with lamb slices for NTD300 and lamb chop with pasta and greens for NTD320. The steamboat was quite normal and the lamb chop was a letdown as it was not tender enough.
Following that, we decided to go to the nearby Starbucks to have a warm drink and a dessert. we ordered mocha and savoured a slice of waffle while surfing the Internet.
Carton King Restaurant 紙箱王
南投縣546仁愛鄉定遠新村28號(小瑞士花園)
http://www.cartonking.com.tw
Patite
南投縣仁愛鄉定遠新村26~1號(星巴克二樓)
https://zh-tw.facebook.com/pages/清境patite洋食館/