Taiwan 2014: Day 3 - Breakfast at Misty Villa

We woke up quite early on our day 3 in Taiwan. (View previous post here.) The night was extremely cold but thanks to the heated bed; I slept early and woke up early too. Breakfast (included in the room package) was served at the same area where we had our dinner.

The dining area was beautifully decorated with many soft toys, collectibles and also decorative display.  Just like what we have at our home; displays of photo frames filled with memorable photographs, collections of teddy bears, Doremon and other animal figures filled the entrance of the dining area.

Doremon and brown teddy spotted sitting comfortably on a shelf.

How I wish to have plenty of space to display my collectible treasure.

Some of the collectibles.

In Malaysia, we always see the "prosperous" porcelain cat on display. Here, the cats comes in various designs and sizes. And different facial expressions :0

Misty Villa has an open dining area surrounded by various plants and trees and fresh air!. It looks like your balcony but this is bigger in size and filled with tables and chairs. Having an afternoon tea here will be wonderful :)

The air was cold and the surrounding is misty that morning. Misty morning in Misty Villa!

Since it's spring, half of the balcony was surrounded by half-bloomed cherry blossoms. We came to Misty just at the right time. Unlike the cherry blossoms in Japan; those in Taiwan are smaller in size and they grew in smaller patches/groups on the trees. Thus, it doesn't look like a pink tree from far.

Cherry blossom plant

Happy pig with pink flowers.

This is how the flowers look like.

This is what it looks like from far. Looks more like a tree blown by strong wind with its leaves dropped and flowers halfway hanging. I did not know this is cherry blossom until I examined the flowers nearer. Do checkout the background of the tree, shows the thick mist that cover the surrounding that morning.

Back into the dining area, we had simple breakfast prepared by the owner. It might be a simple breakfast with limited choice compared to the common hotel breakfast; but it's enough to fill our stomach. It's a mini buffet style with food choices such as bread, cereals, porridge, eggs, hams, salads, juices, coffee & tea,  local vegetables, dips and pickles.

Porridge for breakfast anyone?

Bread on toast

.

Food. More food.

Breakfast time.

Taiwan 2014 Day 2: Exploring Cingjing at night

Since we were there in Spring, the sunsets at around 6 something in the evening and the sky turned completely dark at about 7pm. The weather was very cold at night due to the wind.

Dinner at Misty Villa was great at it was only about 8pm when we finished our dinner. Since the night is still young; we walked out of our minsu in the dark for some adventure. The road leading to our minsu was very dark and there's no street lights along this road; we used the light from our handphone to guide us. After a few minutes walking downhill, you'll reach the entrance of the road where there's lots of signboards indicating some of the minsu that are located along the road which we walked and they are all located further in from Misty Villa. Thus, Misty Villa minsu is the first minsu located along the road leading uphill and you will see other minsu if you walked uphill from Misty Villa. We're glad that we chose Misty Villa as it's nearer to the attractions in Cingjing. But probably if you staying in the minsu located uphill; the scenery will be even better :)

The signboards at the entrance of the road leading to our minsu.

From this signboards, we walked across the road towards the 7-11 store where the Carton King and Small Swiss Garden are located. Be careful while crossing the road because many cars were "racing" uphill and downhill along this road. Our first stop is the Small Swiss Garden because there's a musical fountain at night. It was drizzling but that did not stop us from our adventure :)

As we entered the Small Swiss Garden in the late evening, our entrance tickets entitled us for another free admission for the next day :) Thus, we can see the beauty of Small Swiss Garden at night and in the morning too. There are few sessions of musical fountain at Small Swiss Garden; do look our for the showtime at the entrance. 

The musical fountain was a simple one but it's enough to entertain us. The music consist a peaceful and calming tone compared to those loud and fast music which you can get from the typical musical fountain in Sentosa Island or the one used to be in The Mines, KL. A unique experience watching musical fountain under a cold and windy weather.

Entrance to Small Swiss Garden

The end of the musical fountain

Then, we explored the park before the drizzling starts again.

The windmill on the lake. It looks more beautiful at night due to the lights.

Still Christmas in March?

A beautiful garden surrounded by Christmas inspired statue.

There's a cafe located at the end of this park but it was closed.

One last pic of the night view before we left due to rain.

Since it was drizzling, we went to explore the Carton King located beside the Small Swiss Garden. This outlet of Carton King is quite small compared to the one in Dakeng.

Made from paper too!

It's made of paper!

 

Animals figurines made from cardboard.

Besides Small Swiss garden and Carton King, there's a 7-ll there where you can grab a whole bag of snacks as supper. I love Taiwan's 7-11 where there's a variety of fast food available. 

There's also an outlet of the infamous Mina Chocolate store outside Carton King and several store selling souvenirs and ice-cream.

Mina Chocolate stall.

Yum!

Opposite the area where the Carton King, Small Swiss Garden and 7-11 is located, we saw some buildings with bright lights. Without further delay, walked across the road to explore that area. This area is a huge area complete with food stalls, cafes, a MOS Burger outlet, Lavender Cottage shops as well as bus station hub.

cute panda!

There's an outlet of Lavender Cottage to buy your souvenirs!

Colourful bath salts at Lavender Cottage

There's a giant teddy outside the shop for photo taking.

The Old England is a famous place for high tea in Cingjing. If you would like to book for a high tea in the Old England hotel or minsu, you can do so here in the Old English kiosk or cafe. Dining in Old England hotel/minsu is very expensive; but you can try their food here in this Old English cafe.

Old England cafe !

They sells dried tea leaves, coffee, pastry and sandwiches here.

Explored the Starbucks outlet to grab a coffee.

Since it's spring season, there's lots of cherry blossoms inspired tumblers and mugs for sale.

Looks presentable and yummy!

 There's also a tourist bus station here where they can take you to Hehuanshan to see sunrise. Since it's Spring, the peak is still covered in snow. But we had a packed itinerary the next day, thus need to save this for our next trip. Really wish to see sunrise at Hehuanshan!

That's our adventure for the night.

Taiwan 2014 Day 2: Misty Villa CingJing

From Alishan (previous post), we headed to Chiayi HSR station. It took more than 2 hours through the winding road downhill. Tired from trekking through the Alishan Forest in the morning, we slept throughout the journey downhill. If we had more time, we would stop by Fenchihu for a bento or Chiayi town for turkey rice :) Well, save this for next trip.
We had fun time exploring Alishan with our driver+tour guide and it was time to bid farewell to him ;(  Well, we brought some of our local bak kut teh packets for him as a souvenir. If you would like to engage a safe and reliable driver to bring you uphill to Alishan, do inquire one from RoundTaiwanRound.

*    *    *    *    * 

From Chiayi High Speed Railway (HSR) station, we took the the HSR to Taichung HSR station. Taichung HSR station is just the next station after Chiayi HSR station and it took approximately 25 minutes to reach Taichung HSR at NT410 per head. Along the  journey, we saw different shades of green representing different types of plantation or crops which they plant outside their house. Or you can say that their house is surrounded by squares of crops. A great view.

From Taichung HSR station, we took a cab to our accommodation in Cingjing. The journey takes 1 hour 40 minutes and it costs about NT1600 to NT2000. Do haggle your price with the cab driver. Alternatively, you can catch a bus too but we arrived at Taichung HSR late in the evening and it will be lots of hassle to catch a bus there. The journey uphill to Cingjing is not easy too, the driver needs to goes through lots of sharp turning on a hill and it's amazing that they can drive up the hill so fast. Going through all the sharp turning on a hill without any safety barrier surrounding them and even without breaking or pause halfway is amazing. I give the driver a round of applause!

The minsu that we are staying for the night was Misty Villa CingJing. The cab driver even knew the owner of the minsu and he described her as cheerful and chirpy ;)  Thus, we were looking forward to our minsu ;) Our minsu is located on the hill and the driver took us right to the door step. Brought our luggage to the reception which also served as the main area and dining venue. It's lovely where the whole area is decorated with various homey feel decorations. Oh, and the owner is very pretty and cheerful ;)

Our room is located at the most top floor of the villa. From the entrance, you take about 10 steps up to the main area (reception + dining) and from there; there's about 100 steps up leading to various types of room on each level. And for us; the most far top above for the best view. It's not easy to climb those steps and thus they helped us to bring our luggage up to the room :) yay!

Ours is the standard room at NT2400 and there are a few designs of standard room. Guess what, we got the pink theme! Double yay!! At NT2400 it was worth it, the room is big enough and there's a balcony. The weather was cold and chilly thus we can't see the beautiful mountain view due to the thick mist.

View from the balcony

Very thick huh the mist ;(

Here's some snapshot of the pink theme room:

LED screen television to watch the local Taiwan channels. Beside the television on the right is the fridge and there's some complimentary coffee and tea sheets for you to enjoy.

Cute wall stickers

More cute stickers!

There's a huge comfortable round chair and above it is the place to hang your clothes.

You can drink your way down with the warm and cold water dispenser in the room. Looks antique huh.

Water dispenser

I'm impressed with the amount of wall stickers in the room.

Another cute wall stickers

One part of the room overlooking the balcony. So pink! Love it.

Don't worry if you feel cold at night because the bed is installed with a heater thus it's really warm and comfortable. With the balcony being kept open, fresh mountain air makes us feeling fresh all the time.

The bathroom is huge and equipped with water heater too!

We booked our dinner with Misty Villa after we read so many good reviews about it. You need to make a call to Misty Villa on the day of your dinner before 4pm. The dinner package was at NT550 per 2 pax and the food was GOOD! It's Yunnan style dishes. Yum. We felt like home here in Misty Villa and were a bit shocked by the amount of food they served here. We were served 7 dishes (including fruits) for dinner!!! Wow, that's like a meal that can feed one big family. Probably it was too cold and the dishes was delicious that we chop down all the food ;)

Steamed fish with plum. Yum. I can eat lots of rice with the gravy.

Steamed fish

Just like you're at home; steamed egg for dinner!

Steamed egg with mushrooms and angelica.

The chicken is good too. Top with herb and sesame seeds.

Grilled herb chicken drumsticks and with a flower beside it!

This is one of their specialty. Wrap the pork with the locally grown lettuce and voila!

Minced pork with Yunnan spices and served together with raw lettuce

The vegetables planted on the hill was crunchy and sweet.

Stir fry locally planted vegetables.

A bowl of soup keeps us warm and there's lots of ingredients in the soup such as meatballs, white radish, carrots, etc. It taste like a clear soup on the sweet side due to the corn.

Corn soup

Normally, you only can have this feast in a restaurant back home here but imagine you are served this in a minsu. It's a great hospitality here at Misty Villa.

Dinner is served.

Was surprised that there's fruits served too! It was sweet and juicy.

Local mandarin oranges

Dinner at Misty Villa.

I personally love the food in Misty Villa. Amazing. You can't taste any MSG and you don't feel thirsty after eating. Yet, it's tasty! Recommended to book a lunch or dinner with them even though you're not staying here. We had extra rice at no cost too. They do make you feel comfortable staying here. Oh, if you would like to know more about the food served in Misty Villa, do visit their site yeah.