Taiwan 11 Days Trip (9) - Taichung & Changhua Part 4

21st November 2014

When me and CY were on the way back to Taichung City, we passed by yet another park with many teddy bears, so we stopped at the place. It's near the CMP Block Museum of Arts. Since CY already bought a bento, we decided to have our lunch in the park separately and gathered after that. I bought a bento from a convenience shop nearby and just found a spot and ate my lunch there. Well, for few days straight, I was finally alone for almost an hour in a foreign land. It was quite refreshing. Hahaha, After finished up my bento, I walked around the park, snapping photos of the teddy bears. The park is called Calligraphy Greenway 草悟道廣場. The Chinese name is more zen than the English name.  

CMP Block Museum of Arts 勤美術館

The day view and night view of the teddy bears were different, more on the feeling though. The teddy bears during the day were more sunny and happy looking, more approachable. Sounds silly, right? Anyway, this Calligraphy Greenway was very green, it was lined with trees, so it was quite shady, good for walking around.

Teddy Bears in Calligraphy Greenway

Taiwan 11 Days Trip (8) - Taichung & Changhua Part 3 (Rainbow Village)

21st November 2014

On that day morning, me and CY took a very long bus ride to Rainbow Village 彩虹眷村. Not many public buses from Taichung pass the area. So, timing is very important if one wants to take public transport. We followed the Taichung Travel website's instructions, we got off the 干城六村 stop, then we were lost, we couldn't find a sign to this Rainbow Village, there was a bus nearby, so I went to ask for directions, too bad the bus driver was not a local too. Then we slowly walked towards the Ling Tung University. Luckily, we saw a place at other side where there's a crowd there, it's the Rainbow Village. Hahaha!

Rainbow Village is a residential village for the retired army officers and their families. The name came after a resident there started to paint the wall there with vivid and colourful things. I am not someone who can appreciate fine arts, I never understand the abstract drawings, if it's a scenery, portrait, animals, etc, then I know what I am looking at. If it's just a few strokes of random colours, then I don't know what I am supposed to feel.

Rainbow Village 彩虹眷村

Taiwan 11 Days Trip (7) - Taichung & Changhua Part 2 (Maple Garden Teddy Bear)

20th November 2014

After we came back from Changhua to Taichung, it's almost 7pm, and we didn't have any plan for the night, but it would be a waste if we just went back to the hotel. So, we decided to go to the Maple Garden 秋紅谷廣場 for the Teddy Bear Show. Initially, we wanted to take the normal bus to the Maple Garden, however, the bus driver told us to take the BRT (bus rapid transit) instead, he told us there's a Maple Garden Stop for BRT and it's free. We thanked the driver and went to the BRT Stop, there were many people waiting there, I guessed one of the reasons was it's free.

Anyway, we reached Maple Garden and there were many teddy bears. I am not sure whether the show is still on going or finished already, but if it's still on, it's worth a visit at night. All the teddy bears were sponsored, one could see the name of the sponsor on the base of the teddy bear. It's not so big, one could simply enjoy the walk here. Or one could snapped photos here, even without the teddy bears, the night view was not bad too.as the Maple Garden was surrounded by many buildings. The light from the buildings illuminated the sky.

Teddy Bear in Maple Garden

Taiwan 11 Days Trip (6) - Taichung & Changhua Part 1

19th November 2014

Reached Taichung from Cingjing. Me and CY directly checked into our hotel (Zaw Jung Business Hotel) for the next two nights, and chit-chatted with the front desk clerk about where and how to go around Taichung area, to my surprise, she was not really knowledgeable in tourism in Taichung, she told us she didn't go to all the tourist attractions, and she went to everywhere in her scooter, so she couldn't tell us how or where to to take the public transport. Well, if someone ask me how to tour Selangor in public transport, I will give the person a blank stare too. Hahaha!

We knew that there's a card called Youyou Card 悠遊卡 or Easy Card that could be used to pay the bus rides, train rides, buy stuffs in convenience store, etc. However, we didn't know where to buy it, so we didn't use the Easy Card for the first few days, we finally got it in the convenience store in Taichung Station. As it turns out, the Easy Card can be bought at any convenience store. We scrambled our pockets, purses for coins earlier few days for coins when we took the bus. It was no fun at all.

Since we couldn't get any information from the front desk clerk, we went to the Tourist Information Centre in Taichung Station, it was not fruitful also. Almost all the tourist attractions in Taichung were not near to each other, and there's no best route to visit using public transport, to visit all the places using public transport would be time consuming and we didn't budget many days in Taichung, easiest way was to rent a car or motorcycle. We couldn't because we didn't apply for the international driving licence, so we just skipped many of the attractions.

Anyway, since the famous Fengjia Night Market was not near to the place we stayed, we rushed to take the bus to the night market. We didn't want to stay in the night market until we missed the last bus. To me, the night market was very big, crowded, and I am not the fan of most of the market's famous snacks or food. However, me and CY still bought and ate some of the famous snacks, like the 大肠包小肠 (literal translate as small intestine wrapped inside large intestine, actual was sausage wrapped with something made of glutinous rice, the name etched an impression in my brain although didn't like it), 碳烤鸡排 (charcoaled grilled chicken), a kind of fried kuih, and yam milk (yam blended with milk, it's ok, but after eating so many greasy food, I should buy iced carbonated drink instead). After all the exercises for the pass few days, we decided to go for foot massage at a shop near the Fengjia Market, most of the masseur and masseuse were visually challenged, I forgot the price, but it's not expensive, initially we opted for half an hour package, and after that, add half an hour more, it's really relaxing, but I had to ask the masseuse to avoid the bruises on my leg (I had an bicycle accident two days before). Then, back to the hotel. 

Fengjia Night Market 逢甲夜市