Our family has always like going to Taiwan. This is our 3rd trip to Taiwan. For this trip, we travel together with my brother-in-law family (Goh Family) & my sister-in-law (Tham).

Why we love Taiwan so much? Looking through the expenses, we spend an average of $1600 per person(including Airfare, land transport and accommodation) for a 9 days wonderful holiday in Taiwan. We arrive in Taiwan on the 17th December (Jaydon’s birthday) and came back to Singapore on the 25th December (Mary’s birthday).

Following is our re-collection of our trip…

Day 1

Our flight from Singapore to Taipei on China Airline Departs at 1:35pm and arrived at Taoyuan Airport at 6.10pm. People has always the impression that China Airline is not safe. However, for both the return trip we have a present in-flight experience and the plane is new & well maintained.

On arrival at Taoyuan, We arranged a 9-seater from Ms. Liu (+886-9-10919264) to fetch us from the airport to Dandy Hotel. Ms Liu also help me to arrange driver to bring us around Taipei in Day 3 and airport transfer on the last day. Ms Liu has 4 drivers, which I think her star driver is Mr Zhang.

Upon checking in Dandy hotel, we had our dinner at a nearby restaurant that serve really yummy Unagi Bento Rice set. We wanted to visit師大夜市 tonight, but we were too exhausted.

I also have plans to buy a cake to celebrate Jaydon’s birthday, but he was too cranky and need to have an early rest for the night.

Day 2

Had our breakfast in the hotel. A small but good selection of breakfast in the boutique hotel.

After breakfast we took a train and sat on bus R30 to National Palace Museum ( 國立故宮博物院). To our disappointment, the place is swamp by tour groups. Previously in our last trip, National Palace Museum was much peaceful then it was that day. I brought my stroller along, thinking that Jaydon can sleep in the Museum while we are there. We left the place early, while Goh & Tham family continue enjoying exploring the Museum.

We brought Jaydon back to hotel for a nap, while Mary did some shopping at中山 in the afternoon. At the same time, Goh & Tham made a trip to Danshui.

When Jaydon woke up in the evening, the family met together at Jiantan station for Shilin Night Market.

Day 3

After our breakfast, our van arrives at 9am. We are suppose to visit野柳,平溪放天燈,十分瀑布,九份老街,黃金瀑布,陰陽海 & 南雅奇岩. However, because of the heavy rain, we only manage to cover 野柳, 金瓜石, 黃金瀑布 & 陰陽海.

In the evening, since we have missed most of the outdoor sites, we spend the evening at Miramar Entertainment Centre. I guess Jaydon must have enjoyed the most in Miramar Entertainment Centre, since he manage to find a toy shop with a wooden train set, which in the end, we bought him one too.

Day 4

We will took a high speed train from台北to 台中. We pre-purchased the ticket while we were back in Singaporeas previously when we were there, we have hard time securing our train ticket. We have engaged our former guide廖先生 to be our driver for our trip. We had a pleasant experience with him previously and we were not disappointed in this trip.

Our itinerary today: 台中 QiQi 日月潭puli 前往廬山住廬山溫泉

We make a quick stop over at Puli Winery before heading to 廬山溫泉 for the night.

This is the day I remember, that I dropped Jaydon twice carrying him bumping his head twice. Once at Qi Qi another time at Sun Moon Lake.. 😦

Day 5

After our breakfast we made our way up to 合歡山 which was 3275 Metres above Sea level. It was freezing cold up there…

We made our way down to清境農場, which was much warmer, and the kids was happily feeding the sheep in the green pasture.

After Lunch, we head back to台中 and stayed in a minsu recommendation by廖先生. It was convenient located at逢甲夜市, which we spend the rest our night walking the street.

Day 6

We left for Maoli Flying Cow Ranch where the kids spend the morning in the animal farm.

After lunch, 廖先生 brought us to大湖 to pick strawberry. We were surprise that the strawberry taste much better then the strawberries we picked at Adelaide and it definitely taste better then the Koreans strawberries. Though the strawberries were not as sweet as those in Japan, we were surprise why Taiwan strawberries were never sold in our supermarket back in Singapore. They were really sweet and big.

After our harvest, we made our way to新社. Visited a Mushroom farm in新社 before we spend the night at our minsu (劦陶宛).

Day 7

After breakfast, the kids fed the goat and did some pottery in the minsu.

In the late morning, we spend the remaining time traveling around 新社, before heading back to the台中高鐵站 taking a train back to 台北.

After checking into Howard Hotel in Taipei, we took a cab to 西門町.

Day 8

Last official day in Taipei.

After breakfast in the hotel, The father and kids laze around in the rooms, while mum & aunt went to do buy some foodstuff to bring back to Singapore.

In the afternoon, we took a train to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國立國父紀念館) and from there we walked toward Taipei 101 where we spend the rest of Christmas Eve in the area, before heading back to the hotel for an early night before our early departure back to Singapore the next morning..