Day 4 - 清境

*back dated entry*

woke up pretty early today since we need to take the van up to 清境.... was really excited as from the picture i saw online & my friend description, the place really seem very nice... & what make me even more excited is that these few days the temperature will dropped & it snowed at 合欢山!!! I am like OMG!!! i can see snow!!!!....

so anyway... we booked a van up to 清境 which cost 450NT per pax... actually there are quite a number of companies that provide transport up the hill so can always take a look online... the reason why we chose this company was just that it was recommended by one of the 民宿site that i saw.... so we waited outside 達欣商旅 (the hotel next to 台中火车站） at 9am but the driver was late... like wth.... but fine, at least he called to inform us that he will be late...

waiting for the bus, in front of you will be the bus interchange

the ride was approximately 90min, not really bumpy so dont need to eat any motion sickness pill unless really necessary.... we then checked into 摘星花園山莊...

hotel interior... quite cozy

just outside the hotel

outside area

apparently there are 2 starvilla but the chinese names are different for the 2 hotels... 摘星is somewhere in the middle of the hill, i would say is at the lower end of the hotels but is still very cold!!!! if i didnt remember wrongly, the temperature was only like 4degree.... although i always go inside cold room, which is also 4degree, it is nothing like 4degree in winter somemore up the mountain.... since we arrived early, we just deposited our luggage then the owner drove us to the tourist attractions...

the main tourist area

some cute sign

one of the important 7-11 cause no other convenient stores in the area

so for our lunch, we went to try 纸箱王... the place is really unique... everything is made of carton....

carton post office

train made of carton

even effiel towel

of cause not forgetting tables and chair... so cute....

the menu... kind of limited but hey... you are going for the environment, not the food

carton deco

even baby chair also made of carton... really cool

my bf lunch... utensil also paper

my lunch... steamboat set... the hokkaido milk broth was really nice and sweet

i would say the food there was slightly pricey... average about 400NT per pax + 10% service charge for a set meal but i think is ok to try once... the food was also not bad either so why not.... then if each person spent more than 300NT then you will have a complementary entrance ticket to little swiss garden....

neko...

the swiss garden

some deco at the green house

we saw rainbow!!! yeah!!!

the lake

i would say there was not much for the swiss garden but i think is nice to have a walk just after a meal... due to time constrain, we had to go for high tea despite just finished lunch about 2hr ago.... so we walked down the very steep hill cause the next bus would be like 40min later... like so wth... so we walked and also exercise some of the food away...so we arrived at the 老英格蘭莊園 for their famous high tea

really have the english manor feel

the carpark outside the manor

scenery outside

inside the restaurant

the display fireplace

the food!!!

not really a high tea person but the ambience there was really nice.... can act high class... haha... food wise was not bad either but on the pricey side... 450NT per pax + 10% service charge... but again... for the ambience... as we were still pretty full... we actually tabao most of the food back for dinner/supper... due to the cold weather, we were lazy to explore the place any further so we bought cup noodles + some snacks from 7-11 back to the hotel for our dinner & also get more rest to prepare ourselves for the sunrise....

our room

spacious toilet

view outside the room

another view

the room was pretty neat... very spacious.... but the bad thing was that, there was no heater service so the room was very cold.... so most of the time, we were hiding beneath the blanket... but still very cold... so we put in heat pad to heat up the blanket.... 

loot for the day

tabao high tea

 so after dinner, we went to sleep about 10pm cause we had to wake up about 3am to catch sunrise!!! which will be in the next post =)