Trip To Taiwan – Day 2

12th October 2016

Coke Liao had to depart for Singapore to attend a friend’s wedding so he asked his friend Ching Man Zhu to replace him as our tour driver for the remaining duration of our Taiwan trip. We gave him the nickname Ah Mang Ker.

Ah Mang Ker came to our hotel at about 8am and brought us in his Volkswagon 7-seater MPV to CCC Café for breakfast. This café serves Western breakfast with good coffee.  We went to the first floor of the café after placing our order as it was cosier there with nice deco, soft toys and a small aquarium.

After breakfast, we proceeded to the Taiwan Times Village(寶島時代村)  in Nantou County’s Caotun, a 30-minute drive from downtown Taichung.  This completely-enclosed attraction covers an enormous 50,000 sq. meters of space and has plenty to occupy young and old alike. It is all part of local businessman Jiang Ching Liang’s significant efforts to to preserve Taiwan’s heritage, with the help of an enthusiastic staff and his TV star wife Xiao Pan Pan.

Once we entered the Presidential Palace-inspired building façade, we were seemingly transported back to the “old Taiwan”. We were taken into a maze of recreated old Taiwanese streets, alleys and neighbourhoods, complete with ‘mom-and-pop’ neighbourhood stores, little eateries, pedicabs, police station, photo studio, barbershop, classroom, streets stands, old military village, early music, signage and slogans from the Japanese and ROC eras and even a wooden train station with steam engine–all designed to highlight Taiwan’s 4 ethnic groups.

Taiwan Times Village is a live museum whose friendly staff members play their roles in creating this journey back in time. The staff include KMT soldier, policemen, student, old granny , pedicab driver, doctor, shop owners, street vendors and artisans, all interacting with guests. The museum’s special facilities include a full-size banquet restaurant, food court, and a large stage where special entertainment and performances sometimes take place.

We enjoyed our trip to Taiwan Times Village. It has easily become one of the most memorable places we visited during this trip to Taiwan.

By the time we left the Taiwan Times Village, it was time for lunch. Ah Mang Ker recommended Hu Guo Xiong Traditional Noodles (胡國雄古早麵) and that was where we ended up for our lunch.  We ordered braised pork rice, braised eggs and some noodle dishes. I did not try the noodles but the braised pork rice was nothing to shout about.

Our next stop was at Feeling 18 for ice cream. The ice cream was good and in a few minutes, we were then on our way to the Old England Manor about an hour’s drive from Feeling 18.

It is hard to miss Old England (老英格蘭) on your way up to CingJing. Standing tall on the highlands of Nantou, this traditional English mansion with its impressive Tudor-style exterior and a gigantic Gothic-style clock tower is a majestic sight to behold. It is a minshu (homestay) where East meets West – timeless English grandeur in the heart of Taiwan.

Opened to the public in 2010, this charming mansion is said to be owned by a retired teacher who invested hundreds of millions Taiwan Dollar on this Tudor-style mansion. With the cheapest suite going at about TWD20,000 (RM2,600), this can be said to be one of the most luxurious and expensive minshu in Taiwan.

To explore the interior, you will need to be a guest staying at the mansion. But there’s a way to work around this – simply spend TWD550 (RM72) for their standard afternoon tea set and you are in!

That is the reason why tea at The Old England is so popular.  It is the only way you can gain access into the mansion without having to pay for a night’s stay. There were seven of us and we decided that we did not wish to spend about RM500 just for a high tea. We just spent time outside the mansion taking in the lovely sights and clicking away on our cameras and smart phones.

After Old England, our next stop was the Small Swiss Garden, also known as Taiwan’s Little Switzerland because the garden emits a Northern European atmosphere. It is located just next to the Carton King restaurant.

From the Swiss Garden, the verdant peaks in the distance amidst the clouds are pure unadulterated beauty that literally takes one’s breath away.

The entrance fee of NT120 per person allows the visitor multiple entries into the garden within the same day so that the visitor can enjoy the different views in the day and at night time.

The colourful flowers, bald-cypresses, red maples, the orange pumpkins,  the spiraling spinwheels and LED artificial sunflowers of the garden give it a unique atmosphere.  There are also quite a lot of ducks, geese and pigeons in the park. I saw a lovely spider in the greenhouse in the garden.

I was the only one in our group who spent some time on the hill overlooking the lake. The views of the trees and winding paths on the hill are so idyllic. And I had a great view of the garden from the hill.

 

After leaving Swiss Garden, Ah Mang Ker drove us to Ming Ren Du Jia Chun (Celebrity Resorts) where we checked in for one night’s stay. This is a lovely minshu with a great view from the upstairs balcony.

After an hour’s rest, it was time for dinner. Coke Liao had planned for us to have our dinner at Inako Scenic View Café Restaurant so Ah Mang Ker sent us there. We invited him to join us for dinner and he graciously accepted.

Inako Scenic View Cafe Restaurant  is well-known among Taiwanese for its food and scenery. It has been featured by their local magazines and visited by Taiwanese celebrities. Perched on the cliff side of the mountain, the alfresco dining restaurant boasts a lovely view of the surrounding greenery and mountain ranges. But sadly, it was already dark when we arrived so we could not see much around of the scenery.

We ordered one whole Urn Roasted Chicken of Earthen Jar Chicken (甕缸鸡), stir-fried Shanshu Fern, stir-fried betel nut flowers, braised bamboo shoot (鸡汤滷桂竹笋),stir-fried fresh mushrooms and prawn pancake.

The signature urn roasted chicken is very famous dish and this is a must try at the restaurant. The chickens are marinated and then cooked in huge earthen jar over high flames placed outside the restaurant. The chickens are hooked up-right and roasted. The essence and fats from the chicken is then collected at the bottom. Each earthen jar can cook four chickens at any point in time. Every now and then, a staff will take out each chicken from the jar and spray them with a layer of oil before putting back to roast, resulting in the crisp skin and tender meat.

The dish comes with 1 pair of cotton gloves and plastic gloves.  One person has to wear the cotton gloves before putting on the plastic ones. He then breaks the chicken into small pieces . The chicken skin is very tasty as it has been roasted until very thin and crispy. The chicken meat is tender and tasty even without the salt & pepper condiment or the special dipping sauce. We finished the chicken in no time and ordered a second one! By the way, the price of a roasted chicken cost NT $560 (RM73).

The other dishes were nice too with the exception of Shanshu fern. We found this dish to be a bit bland. Oh yes, the Shanshu fern is actually a fern that we can find growing on trees here in Sarawak. It is known locally as Bird’s Nest Fern (Paku Pandan ). Many Sarawakians keep these ferns as ornamental plants without realising that they are edible.

On the way back to our minus, we stopped at 7 Eleven to buy some drinks. By the time we were back in the minus, we were dead tired. After a quick shower, it was time for bed!