SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2015
Taichung Bound
Yeaaahhhh!!! I got my girl, Tracy, back traveling with me this weekend. We wake up on Saturday and make our way to Taichung on the TRA. She hops on the express train at Hsinchu and I hop on at Miaoli. About 40 minutes later, we’ve arrived in the bustling city of Taichung.
We dropped our stuff off at our hostel/hotel. The place is called Chance Hotel and is a stone’s throw away from Taichung Station. After asking the hotel where a good place to eat is, we set out on a 15 min walk to a day market. On the way, we found a minion wall (CUTE!) and briefly walked around. My personal favorite was the emoji pillows.
After we ate lunch, we walked back to the station, hopped on the express train and headed north to Fengyuan Station (10 min train ride). From the station, there was a free shuttle that went to this flower festival they were having in Taichung.
Flower Carpet Festival
The bus ride was approximately an hour from Fengyuan station and the flower festival was at Xinshe sea of flowers. Unfortunately, it started raining while we were on the bus. Of course, we both left our umbrellas at the hotel. I know, that was genius, right?! But, we found a lady that sold umbrellas and each bought one for 200 NT.
It was really pretty there. It was just fields and fields of flowers. You could see flowers in all different colors and in different arrangements to create a great image from an aerial view (I assume). I was pleasantly surprised to see they also had fields of sunflowers. I had a lot of fun and I’m glad that Tracy and I went.
I got my flower crown! |
Little Fiesta
We got back to the hotel around 6:20pm and got ready to go and meet Rebecca and Ariel for dinner. We took a 5 minute taxi to a “Mexican” restaurant. I ordered Tacos de al Pastor. I thought it was one of the worst foods I’ve had a restaurant. It’s not that I don’t like tacos, but there was just so much wrong with these tacos. We did order an appetizer of nachos to share which weren’t too bad. Maybe my expectations were too high. My entree, appetizer portion, and pina colada cost $605 NT. The one thing I did like was the interior design. It was very colorful and “fiesta” looking.
Zhonghua Night Market
Afterwards, we took another taxi (about $120 NT) back to the train station. Then, we took the free blue bus in Taichung two stops to Zhonghua Night Market. This night market wasn’t particularly big. I saw some places sell shaved ice, oyster pancakes, fruit, and popcorn. We went around 9-10pm and there wasn’t a huge crowd. We did walk by some clothing and shoe stands.