travel: Taiwan 2012 Day 6: Sun Moon Lake: Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village, Alishan

This morning we woke up in our room, and as always, we have been pretty lucky to wake up everyday to beautiful views just outside our window/balcony. Different places, different views, one is no less beautiful than the others.
Sun Moon Lake is truly a sight to behold in such great weather.

Breakfast at Fleur de Chine was a smorgasbord of culinary delights. Anything you could think of and fancy, was there. Braised pork, salty pork, tofu, porridge with more than 10 condiments, different kind of eggs - from plain boiled to salty duck eggs to thousand year egg to poached runny eggs; crazy selection of pastries and rolls (and not the crappy kinds either), salads, and drinks from water to juice to even yakult to get your digestion going.
Sydney 5 star hotels... why don't you come to Fleur de Chine in SML and see what 5 star is all about. *sigh*

After hearty and yummy breakfast, we met our guide from RoundTaiwanRound to look after us from today onwards - Grant Lee. Grant took us for a short stop at Peacock Garden - a small park dedicated to the colorful fowls and some pheasants. Majestic birds strutting around without worry... .

I am fabulous.

hello, blondie!

picture courtesy of RoundTaiwanRound

Then we spent most of our day at Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village (FACV). The bottom half of the park is dedicated to the normal fanfare rides of a theme park, though this place is no Disneyland. I guess hardcore theme park fan would be disappointed. There were a lot of One Piece related merchandise and rides, and their life-size figurines were everywhere.

boobiiesss...

I have to say though, my favourite part is the different displays of Taiwan Aboriginal tribe's houses, from Atayal to Tsao to Ami tribe. Their architecture and house structures are unique, traditional, and beautiful.

1/2heart tried his hands on archery... . (I sucked at it)

Not sure if the people performing in tribal attire there are actually of tribal descent/aboriginal, but this girl is beautiful.

We had lunch at one of the kiosk in the theme park, selling some traditional tribal dish - bamboo rice, edamame/bean in pods, sweet potato, and some steamed yam/taro mixed with mushroom in leaves. Although it looked interesting (cost TWD160), I could not say the same about the taste. Pretty ordinary.

After spending quite some time in FACV, we continued on a long drive - around 3.5 hours - to Alishan, where our next accommodation awaits.

B&B: Season Star
Room type: Moonlight Angel
Cost: TWD2890 (includes breakfast, afternoon tea, and wi-fi is available inside room)

It was already dark when we got here, so we could not see the small tea farm surrounding the accommodation building, but the B&B is charming and clean. Our room is also bright, simple, and clean, and when we walk out of the balcony, the stars are above us. Weather is great and there is not a single cloud obstructing us from viewing the stars.

The B&B host, Gordon (he speaks decent English, btw :)) recommended a local restaurant where we had our dinner - a local eatery specializing in tea infused chicken. It was the highlight dish of the night - crispy and fragrant. Apart from the chicken, we also ordered tofu with wasabi (very refreshing), and some vegetables consisting of snowpeas and mushrooms.

Total damage: TWD580

*also note, that most of the costs of meal I have posted are meal for 3 people, as we almost always eat with our guides, be it James or Grant. For me & 1/2heart, more people, the merrier, and more variety of food we could order, and they know what is good to order (or communicate with the restaurant owner to make sure we are fed yummy food). You could of course opt to not eat with your appointed guide when planning your budget and itinerary with RTR.

After dinner, we joined a tour - also recommended by Gordon - to view some fireflies. Grant joined us for the tour as hadn't seen winter fireflies before (though a few times for summer fireflies), and I am glad as his translation from the tour guide's lecture and trivia about the fireflies contributed so much to the experience.

The fireflies we viewed were of the winter variety, and are called errate/giant saw Snow Firefly. The name 'snow' as the fireflies look like falling snowflakes drifting slowly when they fly.
The winter fireflies live within the forest, unlike the summer variety that live amongst grass/bush, and only the males are able to fly and illuminate, so they are quite sporadic. We saw quite a few fireflies, but scattered throughout the forest path. If you wish to view fireflies flocking together blinking their bright butts in large numbers, then you should go in summer to view them. Grant and the tour guide showed me some pictures of the summer fireflies, and it made me want to go back to Taiwan in summer just to see them.

travel: Taiwan 2012 Day 5: Hehuanshan, Sun Moon Lake

Breakfast at Rose Provence fared better than the dinner we had last night. Choices were quite good, and they have a charming rustic oven to keep warm some bread rolls and portuguese tarts. Also, the fare that we paid was supposed to include afternoon tea; but as we were going to check out early, they gave us some cookies and coffee to go.

But what I love most about this place is the killer view we got when walking out of our balcony this  morning. The sky opened up, and it looked like we were in between and above clouds.

Some pictures taken when the sun was out of beautiful Rose Provence and surroundings:

After checking out of this B&B, our original destination was to soldier on to Sun Moon Lake area to visit Chung Tai Chan Monastery. But how could we pass up this perfect weather to go to Hehuanshan once again, as yesterday's weather was a disaster. James told us that apparently not long after we left Hehuanshan yesterday, it started to snow. So we decided to go back to do a bit of a hike to the peak (yeahh, bring it on!).
James took us to the hiking trail and we were not disappointed. It was still crisp and chilly - around 5-6 degrees - but at least the wind did not blow my head off. The sky was bright and the walking trail took around 1 1/2 - 2 hours round trip for us to finish. There were still traces of snow, making the scenery almost surreal.

James & 1/2heart

We even met a new four-legged friend along the way that kept following us from halfway to the peak of the mountain and afterwards until we reached James' car at the bottom of the walking trail.

view from the top

Snow all around at the peak:

picture courtesy of RoundTaiwanRound

our new four-legged friend.

After the refreshing hike, we went to Puli for lunch at a traditional eatery. Lunch was some noodles, braised pork rice, pork dish, tofu, wine egg (similar to tea egg, but it was also marinated with chinese wine), dumpling soup, and beansprouts.
The dishes style was similar to our first meal in Houtong Village - simple and delicious.

Total damage: TWD215. Cheap or what!

Then we visited 18 degrees chocolate shop for some chocolates and gelato for dessert. We chose 3 flavours (TWD120) for the gelato: Longan, Green Tea, and Chocolate. My favourite? Green tea.

After lunch, we headed to our next destination - Sun Moon Lake - and visited Cih-En Pagoda. Unfortunately it was foggy and raining. Otherwise, the view would be stunning. But I guess Hehuanshan view had made up more than what we wished for.

Then off to WenWu Temple, dedicated to the Gods of War: Guan Yu and Yue Fei, and also Gods of Literature: Confucius and one more whose name escaped me.
The temple is absolutely gorgeous with intricate details all over the place.

Today is our last day with James Huang from RoundTaiwanRound. Tomorrow we will continue our trip still with RTR, but with Grant. James has been very professional and knowledgeable. Rather than a guide, I think we have treated him as more of a newfound friend, and we wish he'd feel the same to us. Our trip would not be even half as enjoyable without him. The last stop for James with us was our hotel for the night.

Accommodation: Fleur de Chine
Room: Washiki Lake View Room
Cost: TWD10900 (includes dinner, breakfast, and wi-fi is available inside room)

This is the most expensive accommodation for our Taiwan trip. But damn, it is worth every penny. Everything about this place is beautiful and their service is impeccable. As soon as we walked in the front door, we were given some apple cider vinegar to warm us up and some chocolates.

the beautiful girl serving incoming guests some apple cider and chocolates

We exchanged a voucher given by the receptionist for some bath salt that smell heavenly

The Water World - their sauna and spa facility for guests is especially nice to unwind and relax after a long day. The spa inside guests's rooms also was fed water from their hotspring water source. But if you were going to stay here and used the Water World, it's best to bring a swimming cap with you as you are not allowed inside the pool without one.

Our room is no less impressive. It is japanese style decorated tastefully. Whilst we had dinner at their restaurant on level 2, the staff re-arranged the room to set our futon style bed.

The room fare includes some tea leaves for us to enjoy ourselves using the tea set already provided. They also gave us a few mochi.

The hotel provides some yukata for the guests to wear around the facility (yes you can wear the yukata to have dinner and to go to spa & water world. As long as within the vacinity of the hotel, you can strut around in them)

The inclusive dinner can be chosen between chinese style or western style. Although most guests opted for Western style as it is a buffet, we opted for their chinese style dinner, and it was totally yummy. So different from the dinner we had last night at Rose Provence... .

And because of the especially nice food, I think they deserve individual pictures...

Now it's time to turn in for the night, but not before my discovery today: me & 1/2heart lost weight. WTF! We have been eating like there's no tomorrow, but when we weighed ourselves in our room at Fleur de Chine, we found out that we lost 2 kgs each. So either: (a) the scale is broken, or (b) all those hiking and walking and hiking (yes, we did a lot) actually burnt more calories than what we managed to put in.

Hmmm...