Taiwan 2011 – Nanzhuang, Miaoli, Taichung, Nantou (Day 5)

Date: Tues 29 Mar 2011
Stay: Songtao Garden, Nantou 松涛园，南投

A beautiful weather to start our Minsu tour! Our driver, Anson, picked us up in his gleaming Volkswagen van. He had driven all the way from Taichung to pick us up. After running through our 5 days’ itinerary, we discussed briefly on our expectations and planned routes. Made some adjustments and we were on our way.

Along the way, Anson shared with us interesting nuggets of historical, cultural and geographical information. He would also point out fruit trees that we saw along the way. The first stop we made was at Nanzhuang 南庄, a small old Hakka town. We wandered around the small town and tried out some local delicacies.

Osmanthus Old Street of Nanzhuang 南庄桂花巷

A Hakka lunch - the duck goes well with the piquant kumquat sauce

Next stop was Dahu strawberry farms 大湖草莓园 in Miaoli 苗栗. Dahu is one of Taiwan’s biggest strawberry producer. There are several strawberries farms and most allow pickings. This was already the third season hence the quality of strawberries may not be as good. Nevertheless, we were just as excited to try picking our own strawberries. The farm we found charged us only NT100 (about SG$4.40) for half a box as we did not fill up the box given, knowing that we will not be able to bring back the fragile fruits and will not be able to eat much in the next few days. We also shopped for some strawberry snacks and jams at the museum (yes, there is a strawberry museum in the middle of the town!).

Off to pick some strawberries

Cute little strawberries

As we were early, Anson took up my suggestion and made a slight detour to visit Taiwan’s biggest night market, Fengjia Night Market 逢甲夜市 in Taichung. It was about 4:30pm when we arrived at the area which was great as the crowd would descend later in the evening. We wandered about the area which was lined with food stalls and fashion shops (lots of shoes, bags and clothings for youths especially!). It is right next to the Fengjia University. One of my favourite finds was the bouncy sweet potato balls! So chewy and crispy and cheap!

Taiwan's largest night market - Fengjia in Taichung 逢甲夜市，台中

QQ Sweet potato balls

There is no MRT system in Taichung hence traffic is heavy with plenty of motorbikes zooming around. The highspeed railway station 高捷 (where you can take the train from Taipei) is a distance away from town. I was told that there are shuttle buses to bring commuters to town but the service is not as frequent.

We bought some food back to the minsu to eat as Anson informed that the place was quite isolated. Darkness fell fast even though it was about 7:30pm when we arrived. As the minsu was located up a hilltop, the roads were dark and hard to navigate. We couldn’t see much in the dark but it looked like a nice area to explore. The Liang brother and sister duo greeted us as we got off the vehicle. Their dogs were excited to meet the new guests too. We were ushered to a house next to theirs and I was bowled over by the cosy unit. It had a sofa set and a large window which I imagined would be a great view in daylight. Himalayan salt crystal lamps dotted the room.

A welcoming and spacious room

I had a blissful sleep this night.

Our living area - pix taken the next morning

Note: Songtao does not provide bath towels.