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.

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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.  

L Table, 1Utama Shopping Centre

It was tea time when we were in 1Utama recently and was craving for afternoon tea set. We had tried the one in Delicious and was looking for something different. We have been buying breads from Lavender bakery whenever we stopped by 1Utama but had never tried their restaurant; L . Table. Looking through the menu, we're glad that there's a afternoon tea set which is priced at RM30 only!

 Since it's an afternoon tea, we don't need a heavy afternoon tea because few hours ago, it was lunch time and few hours later; you'll need stomach space for dinner. Thus, this afternoon set fits just right at an affordable price!

The afternoon tea set comes with a drink (coffee or tea) and we chose this Cafe Latte. It comes with a meringue on the plate. Not bad though the coffee.

 

Cafe Latte

Here comes the afternoon tea set; served on a L-shaped display counter style. This is a portion for 1 person but it's okie for sharing since we're going to have dinner 2 hours later. It comes with scone, 2pcs of sandwiches complete with herb butter, croissant with ham and 2pcs of cakes. At the end of the afternoon tea session, we were bloated due to the pastry and cakes. I love the chocolate cake! Scone and sandwich was alright.  

It's tea time

Yum!

Afternoon tea set at RM30!

Not bad though where you only pay RM15 per head for sharing. A good option if yo have limited budget to spend on afternoon tea ;)  Their main meals looks good too at an affordable price ;)


Note: 10% service charge and 6% gov. tax applies. 

L. Table
G213, Ground Floor
1Utama Shopping Centre
(Located inside Lavender Bakery)

Taiwan 2014 Day 2: Exploring Mount. Alishan

After our lovely breakfast at the Alishan House hotel, packed our bag and checked out. Really miss this beautiful and elegant hotel. The hotel shuttle van fetched us to the Alishan Forest Recreational Area; the area where all the major shops, food stall and tourist bus carpark. This is the same area where the Alishan Railway is located. 

After the sunrise viewing in the morning, it's time to explore the Alishan Forest ! Our driver + tour guide waited for us at the entrance of the railway station at sharp 9.30am and he guide us through the forest.

Let the pictures do the talking....

Bought our railway ticket and our next stop is ZhaoPing station.

Railway ticket

There's lots of other tourist around and we patiently waited for our turn to board the railway.

You'll see sculpture like this everywhere.

A few minutes later, we reached Zhou Ping station. For the adventure seeker, you can actually hike up the hill using the designated route. For me, I prefer taking the railway. If you come to Alishan Forest to admire Cherry blossom (sakura flowers), the correct place to view is at Zhao Ping station. There's tons of cherry blossoms trees that will welcome you at this station. Too bad that we were few days too early thus, they have not really bloom yet ;(

But no worries if you can't see the sakura, Alishan Forest is famous for their giant sacred trees. Well, you can check out the history of Alishan Forest here. Since it's a forest, don't worry about leeches which might suck your blood. Unlike the trekking route in our Malaysian forest, clear path of road and stairs as well as road signs are built everywhere to guide you. Basically, if there's no stairs or well-built road for walking on certain area, it means you can't enter that area. We were here in spring thus it's nice to enjoy the beauty of Alishan forest under the cold and windy weather. 

From Zhao Ping station, we walk our way to see the Sisters Pond. There's some legend about these two ponds where the two sisters jump into the lake over their love to a man. It's up to you whether you believe it or not. Well, it's a nice place to snap some photographs anyway.

Here's some unique giant trees while on our way to Sisters Pond. There's some label on the trees but didn't bother to read ;P

Giant scared tree with its roots. Pretty big huh the hole formed by its roots.

Here's another rabbit home hole. Entrance to Alice in wonderland? hehe

You'll see these amazing tree barks. It's sad to see some uneducated visitors who keep tearing them apart to be kept as souvenirs. Don't really know how to read sign boards huh these people. 

Tree bark destroyed by uneducated tourist.

Here's the Sisters Pond.There's 2 ponds; one is elder and another one is younger sister pond.

Pretty scenery!

Guess what, I met an uneducated tourist when I was trying to take pics with this sculpture. You see, when the tourist before you had finished her turn and walked away leaving no one standing near the sculpture; it means it's the opportunity to take a pic. However, this out-of-no-where rude tourist came screaming in typical-"you know which country"-style mandarin saying that we are blocking the sculpture. And that he was trying to take photographs of the sculpture without anyone in it. WTH! Imagine you're in a place full of people with everyone trying to take a nice pic of a particular landmark or object from all direction and suddenly this mad tourist shoo-ing people to move away because he does not want any human being inside his photograph. Well, he's not even queuing up! Just barged out of no where and behave like a barbarian.

The legendary sign.

From there, we walked further heading to ShenMu station where we will take the railway back to the main station. It's easier to walk downhill than uphill. Along the way, there's lots of beautiful cypress tress to enjoy. 

This one is said to look like a pig?

The heart shaped!

The giant scared trees forest

Misty forest.

Walked further and we saw these beautiful flowers. It's the Magnolia Garden and yes, it's Magnolia flowers and it's blooming season.

Thinking of Magnolia ice-cream in Malaysia.. hehe

Pretty flower.

Walked further and you'll reach the Shouzhen temple. Many tourist was there but we didn't went in though.

The Shouzhen temple in the middle of the forest.

You can also purchase the local Alishan specialty here; wasabi. They comes in the fresh plant where you can make fresh paste at home or buy the ready made paste.

Fresh wasabi plant.

And you can purchase the "ai yu" seeds to make your own "ai yu" jelly at home. Or maybe ai yu drinks too.

Near the temple, we saw some wild cherry blossom that had bloom ;) This is the wild mountain species of cherry blossom.

Standing proudly along the bridge.

Then, we pass by the bridge with a dry up river bank.

Further down, you'll see more giant scared trees with sign boards showing the tree's number.

Soon, we reached the ShenMu station and waited for the railway back to the main station. There's a ticket booth where you can purchase the one way ticket here.

at ShenMu station

Patiently waiting for the railway...

Railway track.

We didn't went for the Giant scared trees trail as it requires us to climb up hill from ShenMu station and we're already very tired at that time. Walking through the forest covered with mist and cold weather is a good experience. For some people, they might experience some difficulty in breathing due to the cold, it's like exercising (running) in a cold. 

The 1000 year old tree at ShenMu station which had fallen down.

Here comes the train!

After we reached the main station, we had about 1 hour to enjoy our lunch before we start our journey back to Chiayi High Speed Railway station. We went to the shop next to the one where we had our dinner last night. The "jiu jiu jiu" or 999 Restaurant. 

Order list and it's also the bill

 Since we're not that hungry, had some light meal due to the heavy buffet breakfast in the morning.

I love this fried rice! Taiwanese rice is fat and chewy!!!

Fried rice

Stir-fry paku pakis vegetable

 Not bad this noodle. Taste like fried ramen.

Fried noodles

 Price was cheap and it costs about RM20 for these three including drinks.

Lunch time.

From there, we bid goodbye to Alishan and continue our journey to Chiayi HSR station. It takes about 2 hours plus to reach the HSR station and slept all the way. There's some tea plantation along the way. WIll make time for it next trip! Will visit Alishan in future again to see the sea of clouds and sunrise too!!

Loong Foong Seafood, Taman Paramount PJ

Every time I'm on my way to the usual tai chow place in Taman Paramount PJ; there will be tons of people queuing up to buy roasted duck from this restaurant. Thus, instead of my usual dinner place; detour to try this restaurant instead. Long Foong restaurant is famous for their roasted duck and if you're late, it might be sold out or you might need to go home empty-handed ;P

Was there around 6pm and we found a parking nearby which was good!
Hmm... overall, food was ok and roasted duck was good. But this place will not be in my usual dinner place list. If you have the Foursquare app, do have a read on "tips" list added by others and you'll know why.

Quarter (bottom) roasted duck RM16

Well, since they are famous for their roasted duck; we got ourselves a quarter of roasted duck (a must order!). Juicy and easy to chew (a must. I hate duck or lam which is hard to chew. Bad for teeth ;P); I'm lovin it. Goes well with the chili sauce provided.

Their acar is famous too. The acar comes in a box and that's the minimum and the only portion available. Priced at RM8 per box; it's fresh and the vegetables are super crunchy. Unless you have many pax dining together with you; you might not be able to finish the whole portion. But you can have it take away if you can't finish it.

Acar, RM8 per box.

We wanted to try their fish dishes and since we already had the duck and acar on the list; we just need a small fish dish portion as there's only two of us dining there. Guess what, the smallest fish fillet portion that they can made for us is 700g. That would cost like RM70 or RM80? Fine, forget the fish and they recommend us to take the infamous whole pumpkin filled with seafood in it. I'm not blaming them for recommending their specialty. But do think from the customer point of view, when you already had a main meat and a box of vegetables, it's impossible for us to finish the fish and a whole pumpkin even though we don't eat rice. Felt like being put on a chopping board when they insist us to take these dishes. It's not like we have 8 or 10 pax on the dining table.


Fine, we got these dishes instead. Home-made tofu and green dragon beard vegetables. Love the homemade bean curd and the vegetable is normal.  

Bean curd/tofu at RM9

Green beard vegetable at RM12

Dinner for 2 pax with 4 dishes, 2 rice and 2 drinks

Dinner for 2 costs RM51 with 4 dishes, 2 rice and 2 drinks. Food was ok but the service is not really good. When we wanted to get our bill, no one actually came to us despite us telling the workers that we need a bill. It took 15 minutes for the bill to came that piss me off and to get our change, it's even longer! There it goes, off my dinner list. Should considering take away roasted duck instead if dining there.



Loong Foong Seafood
1, Jalan 20/13, Paramount Garden,
46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.