Taiwan 2018 Travelogue - Day 3 Strawberry Farm + Mushroom Garden + Xinshe Castle 新社古堡 + Carton King

After a relaxing 2 days at Nanzhuang, we are headed to Taichung on our third day of our trip.

We felt very refreshed after a good night rest and we started the day with a nearby trip to the strawberry farm, which was incredibly juicy and amazingly sweet.

The kids and parents both fully enjoyed strawberry picking as well as buying about 2kg of the strawberry home. It is really that nice and natural sweet and throughout the rest of our journey, we keep missing the strawberry that we ate.

First time to the strawberry farm

Picking juicy and ripe strawberry to bring home

Cheese... I've got what I need

And I've got nice one too...lol

Stopping for a quick photo shoot

Our Mr Strawberry favorite

Sooo Good....

After a laborious start to strawberry picking, we headed to the mushroom garden where we were on personal guided tour from our driver on how they managed to keep the mushroom gardening fresh and planted.

All mushroom style lunch

Mushroom garden

Twins

SOP how mushroom grows and cultivate

After lunch and our visit to the mushroom garden, we picked up where we left and were headed towards the Xinshe castle.

Each entry was about NT250 which includes a discount voucher for a drink. The place is beautiful and has lots of instagram worthy photos to take, which of course we did.

Situated high up in the mountains in Xinshe, this is a unique place where the castle is built in an European style with a large garden and lake to enjoy and stroll.

Strolling in the beautiful garden

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This feels so magical

Meteor garden shoot alike

Beautiful flowers

Next, we are headed towards the Carton King which is a lot better than my expectations.

I've heard reviews that the premise is small but I thought it was a decent place for kids and we even participated in the stamp chop activities that require us to get a chop from every shop we visited to exchange a complimentary gift.

Pisa

So big still play!!??

Where everything is made up of carton

The smaller version

3 little pigs and the wolf :)

Attending a class but play handphone lol

We ended the day with a return hotel which I booked online at a 3 star budget hotel.

The hotel is conveniently located in downtown but it was nothing more than just a one night stop to rest before we head tomorrow to the sunmoon lake.

Taiwan 2018 Travelogue - Day 1 Taoyuan International Airport + Hsinchu + Nanzhuang

We got up in the wee morning hours as we have a flight to catch at 8am.

We were very excited because this is the first long trip that we will have. We will be spending the next 14 days overseas hence we have to pack everything into our luggages.

We took the Singapore airlines which we redeemed via our krisflyer miles (we are a big fan) and the flight was around 4.5 hours long.

Thank God everything went smoothly in that 4.5 hours.

Fresh & Excited

Awaiting at the lounge for take-off

Ready to embrace the 4.5 hours

A quick nap time to kill the time

Upon reaching, we were picked up by our driver, Rocky 蔡先生，which I booked with him for the next 9 days in an island round trip.

He was waiting for us at the arrival gate.

Rocky our driver

Before we leave the airport, we had also bought a SIM Unite Traveller card which I previously bought it from Klook (cheapest option) here using this link.

And it was an easy find.

After you exit on the arrival, turn right all the way at the end and you will find the small stall which will exchange you the card.

Our first stop is to eat the famous Hsinchu beehoon and beefball which our driver had personally recommend them.

The weather was chilling cold at this point and we've not got used to it so eating hot soup in this weather is a big plus point.

After our late lunch, we proceed to our Olive Tree Minsu which was a rather difficult find at Nanzhuang, a small town area.

We booked the place after hearing rave reviews from many travellers and it is obvious to see why.

The place is incredibly beautiful and it has the romance of a song background music of Jay chow and JJ Lin song while you can sit down and glare at the stars outside. Really worth the stay for at least 2 nights, else you can cut my honesty. Even my parents were very impressed with the stay.

Never had such a good moment like this, really missing this place already.

Taiwan 2018 Travelogue - Day 8 Toucheng Leisure Farm + Jimmy Park Yilan Station + Luodong Night Market

Today, our main attraction to visit is the Toucheng Leisure farm, which is the primary reason I have allocated two days at Yilan.

I've heard many good rave reviews about it, so we decided to venture to the farm, also mainly for the kids educational purpose.

We woke up early in the morning in our beautiful Pokara resort which we stayed for 2 nights.

This is the bright early morning view which we get in return as a reward.

Beautiful Wood hut house

Premise overlooking the paddy rice fields

Breakfast at the resort

It took about 30 minutes drive from the resort to the Toucheng Leisure Farm, which is our main itinerary for the day.

We took the cheapest NT600/person package, which includes the tours around the farm as well as a lunch. There are also some accommodation for those who are looking to stay for the night.

We were greeted by an amazing scenery overlooking the greenery of the trees and the sensuary of the lake.

Swans by the lake

There were a group of school kids that were on the day tour to the farm and it is obvious to see why this is a favorite amongst the locals too.

A Group of Primary school kids

Kids activities

Playing with the bubbles

Enjoying himself immensely. Simple things like this.

We were toured around by an ex-principal whom himself worked closely with Hong Wen primary school (MOE) in the past. He introduced us to the farm, some of the animals and how they maintained the farm organically. Unfortunately, since the tour is by foot, it was quite difficult for the grandparents and my kids to follow for a period of time since they were tired and KO-ed soon after.

Toucheng Leisure Farm Map

First stop - The frog and insects

Second stop - The Buffalo

Posing with the bull

The swans in the lake

Feeding the hungry goats

Feeding it again...

100 pounds mountain pig

We headed next to the Jimmy Park Yilan station and by this time it was already in the evening.

It was a small stroll and nothing out of the extraordinary. I guess we just did what the tourists are supposed to be doing.

The famous train station

Don't take my luggage!!!

My Red Bag

Yilan Train Station

Is this Jimmy or Tin-Tin?

As the sky is turning dark soon, we decide to head to the Luodong night market before we headed home to our resort.

The night market is so-so and there isn't the vibe of the night market I was expecting.

We also paid NT30 to let Oscar play catching the fish, which we released at the end of the day.

He loves playing all these catching games.

Ready, get set, go...

He caught about 20 fishes, and getting the hang of it