The Carton King's Christmas Tree and Windmill

Merry Merry Christmas!!

Really Really like this feeling when comes to December.. Every where is fill with festive feelings, shops fills with gifts ideas, discounts and great bundle deals...

Remember my earlier blog about my trip to Taiwan in October. At that time, I bought these at the Carton King in Ching Jing:

And it is time for them to brighten up our house in this festive season...

The lights do change its colour:

Looking at them, I start to miss my Taiwan trip.. Will go next year again!

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL TOTEM 2015

This is my first time watch live of this show.. I won't have went to this show if my friend did not brought this up..

This is a very famous show perform by a team of people from over 13 countries, well trained and risk their lives to perform to the audience all over the world.

The skills and performing style may be very similar to those that we may see in other variety show, especially China's variety show. The difference may be is the stage design, sound effect and the technology used.

The performers does not have their lifeline hook on, they are free-hanging in the air using their strength holding on to the ring or ropes.I really want to salute to their passion in putting all these together and perform in many countries!

The show last for weeks at the Under the Big Top Tent next to Marina Bay Sands till 13 De 2015. We went on 4 Dec 2015. This is the view I got from my seat:

The entrance:

Obsessed with Craftholic

Christmas is round the corner, may be this is the reason that I tend to be obsessed with cute and adorable stuff.. And I just acquired another craftholic member!

Tada...

The pink and the blue ones are the new members.. The pink named "Present", while the blue named "Good Night". I gave my brother the blue one for his upcoming birthday..

The floral printed one is the very first own craftholic, which I bought is like one year ago... Really love the softness and the touch of these fellows..

These are all the current collection is the store:

They are pretty expensive... How I wish I can have them all in my bedroom...

Love walking into the store every time.. makes me feel happy...

Taipei - Ching Jing Trip 台北 - 清境, 2015 October : 野柳，九份，猴桐，平溪 : Yeliu, JiuFen, Houtong Cat Village, Pingxi

野柳，九份，猴桐，平溪 : Yeliu, JiuFen, Houtong Cat Village, Pingxi

This is our 2nd day with the taxi. (You can see our first day tour with taxi here) We booked the taxi for the one-day tour through Dingtaxi.com. The taxi company we engaged is David Fleet. The driver of the day is with surname Lee.

After the first day tour with taxi, I was kind of weary, will we meet another cold manner driver.

I was standing infront of the hotel entrance looking out for the car plate number sent to me, and it was 2 minutes before 9am, the car arrived. It was another young man in his red t-shirt, very casually dressed. He walked out of the car, we greeted each other. The first impression is much better than the Lin, at least this one looks cuter and wear a cute smile on his face.

I passed him the itinerary of the day, and asked him if it is too rush. The answer he gave was, let see how it goes, he will control the timing as far as possible.

The planned route was: 野柳地質公園 > 十三層遺址 > 黃金瀑布 > 陰陽海 > 九份老街 > 十分放天燈 > 十分瀑布

The actual: 野柳地質公園 > 十三層遺址 (view from the car while on the move)> 黃金瀑布 > 陰陽海 (view from car and from the黃金瀑布)  > 九份老街 > 平溪 > 猴桐

It was approximate one hour plus drive from the Sweetme Hotspring Resort to  野柳地質公園. Lee does not speak much, but surprising we felt more comfortable with him. He told us to take a nap while he drove us to Yeliu, telling us the estimated driving time.

What to see at Yeliu?

When gonig to Yeliu, the most iconic element to see is the Queen's Head:

It was much smaller than what I expected. There was a long que to take photo with this natural formed "Queen's Head". We did not join the que, instead, we took the photo from the pathway directly opposite.

Taiwanese named these natural formed stone very interesting, other names include 俏皮公主, 烛台石， 仙女鞋。

If you are unable to have a closer look at the Queen's Head, you may wish to see the Queen's Head II, which is a imitation, situated on the other side.

At the park, there is guard situated at different location to control the human movement. It is quite dangerous if one get near to the edge of those rock, as it is at the sea side.

Next, we headed to the 十三層遺址 > 黃金瀑布 > 陰陽海. These three places are very near to each other. We did not get down the car for the  十三層遺址, as there is really not need to, we can see it through the car window. It is actually a place left over during the war time.

As the car passed by the  陰陽海, Lee asked if we wants to get down the car, and I told him I want to look from the top. He mentioned it can be viewed from the黃金瀑布, but ultimately, we only have limited view.

Lee gave me a doubt smile through the back view mirror, with a hidden message (Did I recommend the wrong place to view the sea? Should I bring them to another location to view the sea). Nevertheless, I did not insist to go somewhere else to view the sea.

Next, we headed to 九份. This is our second time to this place, and I love this place!

Along the way, Lee asked if we would like to go to 平溪 thereafter, since we have been to 十分 before. And I told him ok. He also took this time to ask if we don't mind overtime, and I said fine. I told him if the sky gets darker, we will not go to 十分瀑布.

I like the way he communicate with us, it feels like we are at the same frequency.

We idled at  九份 for two hours, sitting at one of the cafe for tea break and view the scenery through the window. Very relaxing.

Next, we headed to 猴桐, which is also known as cat village. From my search through the internet, those cats are been abandoned and happens to have all gathered around this area, thus, cat village formed.

As we walked around the village, we saw some cats are injured or disabled. There are some Taiwanese staying in the area taking care of these cats.

 The last stop was 平溪, before we head back to our hotel.

As compare to 十分, 平溪 is much more quieter, with lesser shops. Personally I prefer 十分.

We forgo 十分瀑布 and add in the 猴桐, as we believe it would be nicer to see cats than the waterfall.. And also the sky gets dark.

Ultimately, we reached our hotel at 7.05pm. I was wondering at first if Lee going to charge us till 8pm. To my relieve, he only charge till 7pm.

See my post on our stay at the Star Villa here.
See my post on our visit to the Small Swiss Garden here.
See my post on our visit to Green Green Land here.
See my post on our one-day taxi tour to Yang Ming Shan, Beitou, Tamsui here.

Taipei - Ching Jing Trip 台北 - 清境, 2015 October : 阳明山 - 北投 - 淡水 : Yang Ming Shan, Beitou, Tamsui

阳明山 - 北投 - 淡水 : Yang Ming Shan, Beitou, Tamsui

We booked the taxi for the one-day tour through Dingtaxi.com. The taxi company we engaged is David Fleet. The driver of the day is with surname Lin. He called us up at 9am, saying that he is infront of 7-11 and mentioned he was on-time. We looked at the opposite street at the 7-11, we saw no car. Then, Lin reconfirmed our hotel address, and found out that he was at the wrong street. Within 5 minutes, his car arrived infront of us.

He looks like in his thirties, pretty fair, wearing spectacle, dressed tidy with white collar shirt.

Before seeing him, I thought our driver would be someone in his forties, who will talked alot, introduced us the places in Taipei, etc. However, it turn out to be the other side. Lin was quiet, seems not very sure of the route, very cold manner.

The planned route was: 陽明山：冷水坑、小油坑、擎天崗、竹子湖 > 北投硫磺谷 > 北投地熱谷 > 淡水老街 > 漁人碼頭

The actual become: 陽明山：冷水坑、牛奶湖， 擎天崗 > 北投硫磺谷 > 北投地熱谷 > 淡水老街 > 漁人碼頭

Lin mentioned that 小油坑 required us to walk at least an hour, the car cannot drive up. He also skipped the 竹子湖 , where we planned to have lunch. He mentioned that the food stall I stated, will only opens in late afternoon.

Lin intended to bring us to the 阳明公园， however, it as under renovation. Thus, we wasted the time driving to the park.

  擎天崗 have a very good atmosphere, with cow idling around, good view of mist and mountain and nice fresh air.

牛奶湖 have nothing much to see, just climbed up the stairs and see the little white coloured pond of water.

冷水坑 is a place you can sit around and have your leg soaked in the warm spring water.

We only get to see the smoke from the 小油坑 in the middle of the mountains from the car.

Overall, I was abit disappointed with the trip to Yang Ming Shan. May be I have expected too much.

北投硫磺谷 is also nothing much, just to see this:

And, 北投地熱谷 looks like this:

According to the information stated, the water is at temperature of 90 degree c. It would be a nice place to go during winter, because of the hot steam coming from the hotspring water.

We are only at 3pm plus when we reached 漁人碼頭, and Lin told us to idle until around 4.30pm before heading to 淡水老街. Actually the purpose of us going to 淡水老街 is to buy iron egg. We should not have waited so long. But I was uncertain about the opening time of the stall, thus, time wasted.

The taxi we booked is 8-hour usage at NTD3500, additional hour at NTD400/hour. It was 5.30pm when we reached our hotel. We were 30 minutes overtime, but Lin charged us 1-hour OT. I was pretty annoyed. If we knew that it is the outcome, we would stay at 淡水老街 longer.

I find that Lin does not know how to recommend the time for us to shop , the route to go and so on (Or he purposely not to advice us?). Personally feel that he is kind of depressed, not keen in his job. Nonetheless, his driving skill is not bad.

Hotel of the day: Sweetme Hotspring Resort

The room we have is the Japanese Style, where we sleep with mattress on Tatami. A very spacious room with a very spacious bath room. We can enjoy hotsrping bath inside our room without the need to go to the public pool. Alternatively, one can choose to go to the public naked hotsrping bath. Each room booked includes a complimentary buffet breakfast.

The breakfast was ok. The room was clean, but the taps inside the toilet is abit rusty. Overall I would rate it a 8/10. Will visit again next time.

We headed to the nearby vegetarian restaurant for dinner,  Su 蔬食料理 ， a nice atmosphere restaurant. The food they served are in western / italian style. A nice place to sit down relax and enjoy the food.

We ordered three main dishes, but out of which only this taste the best:

I forgot the full name, but is something like 松露炒饭。 The other dishes taste so-so.

This is our starter and soup (carrot cream soup), taste abit weird. But not bad la..

The salad: 

  Cake of the day - Coffee Cake:

See my post on our stay at the Star Villa here.
See my post on our visit to the Small Swiss Garden here.
See my post on our visit to Green Green Land here.
See my post on our one-day taxi tour to Yeliu, Jiufen, Houtong Cat Village, Pingxi here.