Day 9: 大坑纸箱王创意园区、东东芋圆、新社庄园、熏衣草森林
Debated the night before on whether we should go 九族 this day or the next day...then considering that there might be a lot of people in the theme park on a Sunday, we decided to put that on Monday. Stel has already engaged a cab driver for this day before our trip, but it somewhat feels a bit dodgy coz the only way we can contact the guy is via Facebook :S Then went to sleep the night before without any confirmation of today's plan...coz the guy didnt respond on FB =.=

But in the end, it was confirmed that he will pick us up at 1pm...so after breakfast think we were supposed to explore the streets nearby de but we went back to our room and ended up napping and lazing around haha. Low energy levels seriously haha. Ended up getting Subway for lunch (inside the cab some more). Can driver was a lot different from the one we had in Hualien, very quiet and left us alone. And wasnt very clear on where we wanted to go either, i think he was a replacement for the guy Stel contacted. Anyway, set off to our first destination - Carton King!

One common feature of all the attractions we visited this day - none of them were free admission. So we had to purchase entrance tickets, and it will include a certain amount of voucher that you are supposed to spend in the souvenir shops/other shops within the attraction. So guaranteed to earn something one. Carton King reminds me of Float...because everything they display/sell is made of CCB. Corrugated Cardboard. To be honest nothing too interesting over here, though the restaurant did impress me a bit because of their consistency....like everything from chairs to plates to drinks container is made of cardboard. There is also a bee story museum which didnt feature real bees but lots of stories about bees and honey.







Think we spent a bit too much time here..which resulted in a mad rush later. Anyway, asked to go to this famous taro ball shop and the cab driver didnt know where it was. =.= He called a colleague and finally managed to get us there..where we tapao-ed and eat in the car again heheh. Not bad though, at least it is shaved ice. Perfect for the weather too (which was kind of warm and stuffy).





Went into the mountains (kind of) for our next destination, Sinshe (新社)! A pretty relaxing place I feel, rather scenic too, there is even a hint of European architecture and culture which feels a bit out of place. Can read more about it here. Anyway, we headed straight to 新社庄园. Main thing here is the European castles and gardens..walked around see see look look nia. Haha doesnt sound very exciting does it. But the main idea is to relax mah...so yep.






Spent around an hour ++ there only...coz rushing to the Lavender Cottage which closes at 6pm. Original itinerary includes visiting Mushroom Farm but we skipped that. Long and windy road to to the Lavender Cottage. And we were not in luck - wrong season! So didnt manage to catch the purple fields. Oh well. But I like the detailing and the 心思 the two girls put into this place...following the theme of the day - relax and enjoy the scenery.









Everybody K.Oed on the ride back to Taichung city....grabbed a quick dinner at a Japanese Ramen shop near our hotel and retired for the day.."must rest and have lots of energy for 九族 tomorrow!" Lol super looking forward to our finale attraction haha.

Labels: taiwan