Mia's Taiwan Travelogue: He Huan Shan, Cing Jing Farm

And so, on our 5th day in Taiwan, we woke up slightly earlier than usual (or did we?) and brought Doraemon to see the sunrise

No, not sunrise again, snow! Yes, snow! We're really lucky to bump into "good" weather on the 1st day we're at Cingjing, which deemed our plan of a 2nd try at sunrise-catching on He Huan Shan to be a failure (it was actually cancelled because they're very sure we can't see anything) but gave us a chance to see snow instead!

And so instead of waking up at an unearthly 3am in the morning, we managed to get more sleep and set off from Vienna at 8-830am in the morning on a 1.5 hour car ride up the mountain. The snow tour was slightly more expensive than the sunrise-tour, but the different wasn't too much. 

3 cheers for my virgin snow experience!

And of course, news of the snow arriving at He Huan Shan attracted quite a large crowd, both locals and tourists. 

With scenery like this, it's more of a surprise if nobody rushes up the mountain to take loads of awesome pictures!

But of course, we not only had to battle the icy cold wind, but also the slippery frozen road! That's me and kx slipping around on the layer of ice that has formed over the floor. 

And when I say the icy cold wind, it's actually icy cold strong wind.

 So while you fantasize about you looking okay in all your shots of awesome-beautiful background...

Actually 4 out of 5 shots will end up having you looking like that.... Especially if you're wearing contact lens.

But of course, the freezing cold wind and slippery frozen road will not stops us from snapping more IG-worthy shots!

And of course, who says you can't eat ice-cream with a snowy weather of 2 degree Celsius? 

But I have to admit we were the only ones eating ice creams at the pit-stop area on our way down the mountain. 

And the reason why I wanna eat them is because they're pandas! 

And on our way back, to save the trouble of taking the public bus back up towards Cingjing Farm from Vienna, we got the snow-tour driver to drop us off directly at the farm instead as it was along the way.

After buying the ticket, do rememeber to get a stamp on the back of your hands after you've entered the 'park', as you'll need it for verification to re-enter the farm's premise (there's a break in between the park made up of street stalls).

I would say the main attraction of the farm-park are these sheeps!

You can get a packet of the sheep feed (hay pellets) from the vending machine located near the grass patches where many sheep roam. 

And just give the pellet box a few jiggles and these hungry sheep will come looking for you!

Do not be worried about getting your fingers bitten off by the greedy balls of cotton fluff, they're really gentle with picking up the pellets from your hands even though they're 'fiercely-snatching' with each other. In fact, I find it quite fun, almost therapeutic, to feel the carpet-like lips moving against my palm. Heh!

Saw a cute baby-pony... mini horse... extremely tiny horse... (??) that crapped buckets while being left 'photo-taking duty'. 

And of course, it's time for another set of "let's not look into the camera" kind of posey, music album cover-wannabe shots of the day. 

Other than the farm animals and some random buildings / pavilions here and there, the some parts of the farm-park is actually pretty 'barren'. But then again, perhaps because it's winter time?

At the end of our farm visit, it was the extremely long flight of stairs (was it 137 or 147 steps?) that we were rather thankful that it's descending for us and not ascending. But then again, the meaning of the name to the stairway can be loosely translated into step by step progression, so I wondered if by descending this flight of stairs, we're moving step by step into deterioration? 0.o

Anyway, I believe the main attraction point of this stairway should be the stretch of beautiful plum flowers/trees.

Following the trail downwards, you will come to yet another 'pit stop' area, littered with eateries and some souvenir/chocolate shops, before arriving at Misty Plaza (Swiss Garden). As we were seriously starving, we dropped the idea of lunching at Carton King cafe (at Misty Plaza) and settled down for some hotpot at one of the eatery instead.
As you know it, as long as there's something with the word 'kimchi' inside, I'll eat that! So yup, kimchi hotpot it was!
It wasn't exactly the best kimchi hotpot you can find, but given our level of starvation and the cold weather at that point of time, it was indeed heavenly.

And do stick around for part 2 of my day 5 travelogue, whereby we went to Swiss Garden & Carton King!

Till then,
Mia Foo