Day 3 in Kaoshiung was all about traveling! We woke up late because we were so exhausted from the day before and we were supposed to catch the HSR to Taichung at 11.30 am but we were late so we caught the 12.10 pm ride instead. While still in Kaoshiung, my sister-in-law took Hugo and I to 7-Eleven to grab a quick breakfast and that’s where I had my usual combo of the sandwich and fruit juice.

Other than that, I bought myself a 7-Eleven iCash card/EasyGo card that can be used for bus rides, MRT rides and 7-Eleven’s. And they have the cutest designs ever for the card that changes frequently, they had Spongebob Squarepants, Shrek 3 characters and this Rilakkuma character from Hello Kitty’s family. No points for guessing which card I bought.

I actually didn’t need to buy the Rilakkuma card because I got a free EasyGo card whereby a friend of mine applied for it online from the Youth Travel Card site and they will deliver it to your doorstep. The card even comes with a  free pre-loaded 50TWD, so why not apply for this card before you go to Taiwan.

By the way, the card only applies to those who are of 15-30 years of age.

So I didn’t put my free Youth Travel Card to use because my iCash card can be used as a 7-Eleven prepaid card and also as an EasyGo card. Bear in mind that the Youth Travel Card can’t be used in 7-Eleven’s.

Before we left for Zuoying’s HSR Terminal, we did some shopping at Poya, a drugstore that’s like Watson’s and Guardian and it was like heaven. So much of stuffs to buy there! I bought a Carmex Strawberry LipBalm, tons of leggings and stockings in all sorts of designs, mainly lace. Also, I bought tons of the Donut Scotchtape dispenser that I’m crazy about. Looking forward to shop there again! It sucks to shop in a rush.

My sister-in-law bought us some snacks for our ride to Taichung, this is the famous Taiwanese sausage served with pickled ginger, sliced young cucumbers and glutinous rice sausage. This serving costs RM8 which is not very cheap but it was really good. Very filling so it’s best to be shared among a few.

From Kaoshiung, we are to take the HSR to Taichung which is about 40 minutes ride and from Taichung, we were to take the bus up to Sun Moon Lake which is located in Yuchih, Nantou but the timing wasn’t adequate because we had to wait for 40 minutes for the next bus so we took the taxi up instead, and ending up the taxi ride is cheaper than taking the bus.

And I hadn’t mention this, taxi drivers in Taiwan are really friendly! In fact sometimes too overtly friendly because they are so talkative. But it’s a good thing if you are clueless about Taiwan like me. Plus the cars for taxis are pretty cool, ranging from Toyota Corolla Altis, Toyota Wish, Toyota Camry, Mazda 6 and many more cool cars.

The taxi ride from Taichung to Sun Moon Lake took about an hour and it was a drive uphill. When we reached Sun Moon Lake, the first thing I noticed was how similar it is to Batu Feringghi in Penang, it was like a tourist village, full of hotels, resorts and souvenir shops everywhere.

And the weather was definitely way cooler than my previous days in Taiwan. Thank God for that. We stayed at Apollo Resort Hotel and our view was the lake itself.

By the time we checked in, it was already 2.30 pm and we were in dire need for a shower from all the traveling. We received a blue pass complimentary from the hotel which is worth 299TWD. The blue pass includes a gondola ticket, a one-way boat ticket from Shuishe to Yidashao, a one-day ticket for the round-Sun-Moon Lake bus, a voucher for a free one hour Giant bicycle test ride, and a 20% discount on hiring an electric car. There were also 3 slots for you to accumulate stamps from the places you visit in Sun Moon Lake and when you have 3 stamps, you can redeem a souvenir from the bus terminal in Sun Moon Lake.

We wasted no time after our shower, we took our blue pass out and head out for the helio scooter ride! It’s basically an electrical scooter that carries two people and it costs 150TWD per hour and our voucher in the pass entitles us for a 20% off.

As the weather was getting dark and windy, we headed to two places nearby our homebase which was the Peacock Garden and the Wenwu Temple.

We had a great time riding on the scooter though I didn’t when I had to be the rider.

Kids, don’t try this at home.

By the way, there’s nothing much to see at the Peacock Garden, just a bunch of peacocks running around and annoying kids screaming and running around.

But I saw this bird in capture that reminded me of Bret Michaels, minus the bandana. But sorry, no picture of it because it was about to rain heavily when I wanted to snap a picture.

We continued to the next destination, the Wenwu Temple. Which was also nothing much to see. I’m more of a shopping and eating person, not much of temple and bird park person. It was kinda boring for me.

Blah

We were soaking wet on our ride home because it was raining pretty heavily so we went back to shower and have our complimentary dinner at the hotel which was nothing to sing praise about. I had my 7-Eleven fix after dinner to complete my meal.

We then went for a stroll around the area and it was nice because it was so cooling after the rain. This picture was taken at the area from our room’s view. Our hotel is just behind us. What a view right.

Random picture.

Nightview of Sun Moon Lake. They even have this synchronized fountain which was so cool, I stood there watching it for a good 15 minutes.

We continued to venture further and we stopped by at a souvenir shop which sells the cutest stuffs!

I found this really cute cloth postcard whereby it’s a piece of cloth with a character plastered onto a piece of postcard that you can send it to your friend and you will have to peel the cloth off from the card and cut it up, sew it and finally stuff it with cotton to make it into a figurine like the picture above. I bought a black cat cloth post card and I made it in 2 days.

It costs 40TWD each by the way, and buy 10 free 1.

And that was day 3 in Taiwan, it was an extensive day of traveling and I ended the night with a run to 7-Eleven for hotdogs and junk food to binge on.

I wish 7-Eleven’s in Malaysia could be like Taiwan’s.

♥ Wendy