Friday 11 March 2016

Mia's Taiwan Travelogue: Swiss Garden & Carton King

First up, if you haven't read part 1 of my day 5 travelogue, please hop over to read about my virgin snow experience at He Huan Shan & sheep feeding at Cingjing Farm HERE


And so, after bidding the sheep at Cingjing Farm goodbye and filling in our tummies with some winter comfort food (hotpots!), we continued our walk down towards Little Swiss Garden located at Misty Plaza. 



Without the fogginess like the night before, we finally got to know how the garden really looks like, It's a pity that there's no beautiful lighting to further omph up the feel.

But since the ducks and geese are all awake, we had some fun feeding them!

This greedy goose got 'tricked' by the bf and had its beak caught for a few seconds. 




Despite the cold winter, there was a greenhouse located in the garden and hence you still get to enjoy lots of pretty, colourful flowers! 

And then, came the bf brilliant idea of a shot with fallen leaves in the foreground...




Which basically ended up as a major, hilarious flop.


If you follow me on IG you probably have seen this picture and I captioned it in Chinese. So let me loosely translate it into English for you here.
"Phototaking. Daydreaming. Auntie passing by while buying groceries."

And then we walked all the way to Old England, planning to have some atas (high class) high tea but because we didn't do our homework, we missed the time by 1 hour. 

And so, with our plans thrashed, we just hung around to snap some pictures of a cute, chillax cat.

And then some selfies as the sunlight gave me awesome looking hair, when in fact it's all dry and faded. 
We were quite lucky to be able share a ride with another couple leaving the hotel to Misty Plaza, hence saved our tired feet from more walking.

And so, as planned the day before, we returned to Carton King for an early dinner!



And we were awed to see that everything inside the cafe was made from cartons/cardboard, even our dining table and chairs! 

So were the menu and cup stands!

Needless to say, we were totally surprised when we realised that our drinks came in a cute carton box as well. And actually the beverage wasn't stored directly in the carton box, but in a normal plastic cup that was then placed into the carton box. 

As we weren't really that hungry, we decided to share 2 bento sets among the four of us - Prawn Bento & Pork Katsu Bento

Each set came with rice, salad, pumpkin soup and pudding for dessert. The pudding (top left) seemed kind of funky and we didn't really dare to try it (the server did her meal introduction to us, but she spoke so fast we couldn't catch most of it). But the lacking of physical appearance aside, it was really sweet and yummy!



Mains wise, I'll definitely prefer the katsu as compared to unshelled prawns. HAHAHA! Absolutely love the rice though. I'm not that much of a rice person normally, but when in Taiwan, I kept stuffing my mouth full with any cooked rice I can find. 

Coming up next - My travelogue day 6 to 8 in Taipei! 

Till then,
Mia Foo

23 comments:

  1. What a great adventure to have taken! The animals are so cute and the gardens so cheerful. The food looks like it was a highlight as well!

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  2. This is a beautiful place. We only went as far as New Taipei but never got to explore the rest of Taiwan. Maybe some other time, I can go back and visit this place.

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  3. Swiss Garden looks amazing!!! I love all the ducks over there, sooo cute. Will definitely add this to my itinerary the next time I'm in Taiwan.

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  4. The place is picturesque and you can't really deny how serene and relaxing going there would be! The meals look lovely, I would totally go for the Katsu!

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  5. The garden looks really refreshing with the flowers, the bond and the animals. It would be great to visit the place to relax.

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  6. wow! i wanna visit this place.. this looks so beautiful.. it'll be ideal for spending time with yourself or your loveones.

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  7. Taiwan has really been very active in promoting its tourism. I have been there for more than eight years! Should really visit that place again and see these new attractions.

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  8. Taiwan is a beautiful place and you look so refreshed in the photos. I think I should visit it soon.

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  9. I love these photos. The garden is so beautiful. I hope I can visit to this place. Thanks for posting.

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  10. The hotel looks quite unique and also the food in Taiwan is awesome. Nice photos.

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  11. The garden reminded me of a scene in Alice in Wonderland! Really beautiful to see so many colourful flowers

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  12. Looks like a fun experience. I'm sure you had a great time. That place sure looks like. I love your pictures. Thanks for sharing.

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  13. Swiss Garden looks stunning and oh so beautiful. We love nature and my girl enjoys being near the flora... I know she would love hanging around, snapping photos of the flowers and the cute ducks waddling around. Thanks for sharing. Something to consider should my family go to Taiwan next.

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  14. I'm glad there were flowers despite chilly temps! It looks like a nice visit. :)

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  15. Loving the travelogue. The floral bloom and fallen leaves - that's spring and autumn together!!! Wow..

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  16. The flowers look so beautiful and the prawns look sooo huge! Seemed like you didn't really like the prawns though :( Thanks for sharing!

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  17. This place looks really beautiful and a good one to relax while enjoying your delicious food.

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  18. Cool to have a trip in a group, because you will really have a good shot! Hehehehe...the duck and the cat..so cute..hehehehe...

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  19. This makes me miss Taiwan so so much! Would love to go back soon! :D

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  20. This place is so beautiful! Love it. I want to go to the Swiss Garden one day! Thanks for sharing ~

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  21. I'm planning to go to Taiwan next year. The Swiss garden looks nice esp. your photo with the fallen leaves. So autumn!! And the carton king is surely unique. Are these too in Taipei or outside?

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    Replies
    1. this is in cingjing, which is quite far away from taipei actually. it takes about an hour (to an hour & a half) on their HSR, if I didn't remember it wrongly.

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