Category: Going Places

My travelogue.

Zhongshe Tourism Flower Market, Houli, Taichung

Posted on By sweet surrender No Comments on Zhongshe Tourism Flower Market, Houli, Taichung


Our third day, we headed to Taichung to visit Zhongshe Tourism Flower Market (No.469-13, Sanfeng Rd., Houli Dist., Taichung City). Again… Don’t be silly to do a day trip to Taichung from Taipei, it’s just too far and too tiring, you’ll be wasting all your time on the road. Stay a night or two in Taichung would be a better idea. Besides, there’s many places to discover in Taichung.


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If you like flowers and photography, why not visit Zhongshe Tourism Flower Market. It’s opened all year round. Every season has different flowers(can check out their website for flower updates). You can also BBQ at this place. There’s a little corner where you can learn about bees and buy its products such as soap, honey, bee pollen and etc.


By the way, entrance isn’t free. You have to pay, the fee changes based on season. Do be sure to check the website again.


The flower market is a fun place for the young and old. It can be really hot in the summer as shades are scarce. If you are allergic to pollen, be sure to take some measures to avoid or at least lessen the allergy reaction.


These are just some of the flowers, there’s so much to see.


You can easily spend the whole morning there, maybe about 1 to 2 hours. Then you can have BBQ lunch there if you want. Guests having BBQ there are exempted from entrance fee.


I’ll just let the photos do the talking.


Flowers…


Flowers…


And more flowers…

Till then… Toddles…

Going Places, The Heart of Asia - Taiwan

Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, Yuchi Township, Nantou County

Posted on By sweet surrender No Comments on Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, Yuchi Township, Nantou County

I’ve been to Taiwan twice, all for work, all in Taipei. This time around, the third time, finally it’s for holiday. Of course, we ventured out of Taipei, only spent 2 nights in Taipei. I’ll share the key places we’ve been for this trip. Will share where we stayed after all attractions posts.

Our first day was spent in the airport, the plane, the airport, the plane, then on the road to Nantou County from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

We visited Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village on our second day starting in the morning at 9.30am. Entrance ticket is NT$850/adult while children and senior citizen(65 years old and above) is NT$420/pax. There will be morning welcome show at the Culture Square near the entrance. You can have photo opportunity with the performers after that.


Before visiting the culture village, make sure you have your mosquito repellent ready! A lot of them to feast on you. I was their feast haha… While inside the village, there are many mosquito repellent available FOC on site, so be hardworking to apply it whenever you see it to reduce the possibility of being feast ;p You can check out my instagram on how yummy I was…



The cultural village is so huge. I can assure you that you need one whole day to discover the place. The entrance ticket is very reasonable which include cable car rides within the village and even go all the way to Sun Moon Lake, it also entitled you to play at the amusement park without additional charges. Food and beverage and merchandises are not included.


After the morning performance, be sure to take the cable car and go to the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway station first. You can choose to take the Crystal Cable Car, limited units available, you will just have to wait for it, there’s a special lane for it. The one we got on is the Crystal Cable Car, you can look all the way down.


View of Sun Moon Lake from the cable car.


The view of Sun Moon Lake. You can sit here and enjoy the breeze of the lake or have a stroll. Then ride the cable car to go back to Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village for lunch.


Back at the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, we went to get our lunch before exploring the cultural village. We had ours at Bunun BBQ. We ordered the Grilled Set Meal(NT$200) and some fancy pink fizzy drink(NT$50). Really don’t underestimate the portion, for small to average eater, you can share this one set. The set consists of corn, Taiwan sausage, yam, grilled pork, rice, and soup. The fizzy drink is quite refreshing with some jellies in it. Get one or two side orders to share for average eaters and you will be filled. By the way, it’s pork, pork, pork… Oh, make sure you clear your own plates after eating.




What you see here is just some of the things you can see. There are model houses of the native aborigines in Taiwan, a museum too. Along the way, there are many interactions with the staff. They are very professional. They took their job seriously, even when no body or people are still far from the site, they still continue with their “performances” like clockwork.



Demonstration of glass beads making at the Paiwan village (check out the video here). You can buy the handicraft here. We bought a few but just realized that we bought the more commercialized and fancy ones instead of the traditional glass bead as shown in the photo above.


Lots of sculptures around the cultural village. They have many owl sculptures and totems. The Thao believes that if a pregnant woman sees an owl on a tree nearby, it is the spirit sent to protect them. The spirit is said to be of an unmarried young lady who died after she was banished from her village because she became pregnant. Her body was found in the mountain, under a tree where an owl perched at the top of the tree.


The show at Pestle Music Theatre where you see traditional aboriginal instruments performance.


While at the Naruwan Theatre, this is where you can enjoy a series of aboriginal folk dances and they also interact with the visitors. If you are lucky, you might score yourself some souvenirs.



These are some activities you can do in the cultural village.


There you go… Be sure that you stay nearby and don’t be silly to try to visit this place if you are based in Taipei, it takes hours to drive here! You will be left with very little time and tired from the road trip. You need to spend a night in Yuchi Township in Nantou County to maximize your visit. Check out the official website for more information.


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Food Porn, Going Places, The Heart of Asia - Taiwan

Wonderfood Museum, Penang

Posted on By sweet surrender 2 Comments on Wonderfood Museum, Penang

Food! Who doesn’t love food? I personally really like things related to food. When I found out there’s a food museum in Penang, I decided to pay a visit to it.

Located at 49, Lebuh Pantai, George Town, 10200 George Town, Pulau Pinang. Entrance ticket is RM15/adult. You can get the ticket by clicking on this link.


Did you know that the food replicas found in The Borneo House Museum is also handcrafted by the same person who is from this museum?



The miniatures are so real! Very meticulously created! The actual size is smaller than what you see in the photo. I used macro mode for this.


The food replicas are amazing! Looked so real that many thought that the photo on the right, showcasing the Chinese New Year reunion dinner food are real when I posted it on my Instagram. People thought that I’m having these for my reunion dinner hahaha!! It’s such a grand affair but too bad it’s not my dinner.


If our food is colourful VS if our food is black & white. Mind you, the latter is not edited or using any camera filter, it is really black & white.


Spoilt food VS flying food.


This is where you can see giant replica of local food. Man… I just couldn’t take my eyes of all the food on display in this museum. While writing this, my stomach is grumbling…




These are just some of the giant replicas on display, you have to come here to see for yourself…


Aside from that, there are so much more to see. Can you see what is the photo on the left trying to portray? It’s using various food and cutlery to replicate the famous Mona Lisa drawing. Giant durian, mangosteen, and roti canai can also be found there.


There are many photo opportunities in the museum. Just have fun! It’s very educational as well because you can learn about various nutritional values and some facts about the food we eat.


Not only that, they also try to create awareness and educate the visitors of issues surrounding our lives related to food.

What you see here is just a tip of the iceberg. I highly recommend this place if you are to visit Penang. I could easily spend two hours in this museum admiring the replicas. Have a yummilicious visit!

Food Porn, Going Places, Penang

Hot Bowl White Curry Mee

Posted on By sweet surrender 1 Comment on Hot Bowl White Curry Mee

Been to Penang so many times and guess what… It’s my first time having their white curry mee. We went to Hot Bowl White Curry Mee located at 58-C, Jalan Rangoon, 10400 Penang. Their off day is on Monday.


White curry mee is indeed white. Main ingredient of the broth is sweet and savoury coconut milk.


I forgot to take photo of the chili paste. There’s a container of chili paste for you to add into the broth. You can adjust the spiciness based on how spicy you can tolerate. Don’t be too generous, start little and build it up. I added very little(just few drops) and it was so spicy, if you cannot take the heat, I guess you’ll have to forego the chili paste. However, the ommph will not be there because the chili paste really level up the taste of the broth. If I did not have a cough that time, I would have added more.

The special thing about this curry mee is that you can find coagulated duck blood as one of the ingredients. Tofu puffs, prawns, cuttlefish, cockles, a mix of vermicelli and yellow noodles made up the rest of this dish. Small bowl is priced at RM5.90 while the big bowl is RM6.90.

Truth to be told, I prefer this than Penang Laksa and Har Mee.


Aside from white curry mee, we also ordered other dishes, Meatball Soup and Ipoh Hor Fun with Boneless Steamed Chicken.

Do try this dish out when you are in Penang. This is just one of the places that served this dish. I believe you can find it easily around Penang.

Food Porn, Going Places, Penang

Thai Pak Koong, Tanjong Tokong, Penang

Posted on By sweet surrender 2 Comments on Thai Pak Koong, Tanjong Tokong, Penang


Let’s visit another new tourist spot in Penang located at Tanjong Tokong. The temple is the oldest and most important temple in Penang. It’s been around for decades.


Many domestic and foreign tourists like to have their photos taken here. It’s popular among the lovebirds. All these sculptures are located at the beach area.



When night falls, the Avatar Secret Garden will light up with lights of many colours. You’ll need to do a little bit of stair climbing to view the beauty of the lights.

Aside from that, you can enjoy seafood at Pearl Garden Cafe located just next to the temple. The place was so packed when we were there over the weekend, best to make reservation. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for a table. You must order the prawn and crab when you dine there, you have no choice to say no. The prawn and crab are cooked with the most simplest method, grilled over charcoal and seasoned with salt. There are stalls around the area which you can order from but the prerequisite to dine-in is to order from the Pearl Garden Cafe. Was too hungry and forgot to take photo of the food.

Just a heads up, the road leading to this temple is quite narrow. Oh ya… Need to pay for parking your car at the compound.

Going Places, Penang