Miyahara, Taichung Day Tour- Taiwan Travel blog 2019

After a sumptuous lunch from a live cooking Taiwan style restaurant (the name we don't know, hahaha!!). Kuya driver told us we will go to Famous Ice Cream Shop. And you know what, we all replied to him we don't want dessert. And then we told Ms. Itinerary aka Cielo to clarify the destination. Kuya Driver was not actually fluent in English however he was pleasant so in the end, we just follow him.

When we stopped, he said to cross the street  (pointing to an old building) and then he said "good for photos and buy ice cream", at the end of the hall, we just follow him. No harm and we saw from afar that people are lining up and there was a queue.

Even though we have no idea what this place was, as soon as we enter we were awed and amazed. It's kinda ice cream shop, chocolate shop, pastries shop, library, hospital all in one theme.

It is actually an old brick house and during the Japanese occupation, it is an ophthalmology clinic owned by the man named Miyahara. So I guess that's were the named of the shop derived from. The chocolates, pastries, mochi or whatever on display has a good presentation and packaging are so rich of the culture of Taiwan (that's what I felt when looking at them). We didn't try to buy as it looks expensive and we are on a challenge budget trip. As we are challenging ourselves for how much we can stretch our money (for a change this time).

This place sells pastries like pineapple cake and sun cake. They have chocolates, cookies and more. The second floor there was a restaurant, Moon Pavilion served Taiwanese food.

The interior looks like from the Harry Potter Movie "Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry" In the movie, it is a British School of Magic. So this whole shop looks magical too for me.

And the last part of the building was the Ice Cream Parlour, which is outside the building and the end of the hallway. Where we saw the long queue.

The theme is classy and so appealing to the sight, whatever generation you belong to. For more information on this Ice Cream Shop, click HERE.

Joanna with one of their staff as he looks like that he  just
steps out from an old Japanese movie.

Actually, this uniform is just one of the many uniforms their staff wear.

Staircase

Selfie

Look at the packaging behind me so beautiful

And here, off we go to the buy Miyahara Ice Cream there are so many flavours to choose from and you can taste a sample until you finally decide what to buy. They will give a paper with all the flavours of tea, fruits, yoghurt, and chocolates. For us, we just return and continue tasting which we found appealing to our sight.  For one scoop  NT$ 90, 2 scoops for 150 plus free toppings.

Click HERE  for my raw Video at Miyahara Ice Cream Shop.

YUMMY

I will leave you with this yummy photo. In this place, you will get to see this old building with its magical architecture and taste a different kind of Ice Cream. It is one of the Icon of the city. It is their famous Ice Cream after all. And yet again, we loved it.

Budget time checked we spent Lunch worth NT$715 and Dessert at NT$150 divided 5, each person spends NT$173 only.

For full Vlog on this Day please click  HERE.

Still more on my Taiwan Budget Vlog Series. Stay tuned for it. 

Taiwan Blog 2019/ Day Tour Guide :Houli Flower Farm, Taichung Taiwan

Houli Flower Farm

This photo looks like Holland however this is in Asia.

This is one of the reasons why we wanted to visit Taipei, Taiwan.

We wanted to go here first on our itinerary to see this scene because it's famous on Instagram. And yes, it didn't disappoint us. This flower farm is called Houli Flower Farm also known as Chung - She is in North Taichung District, Taiwan. 

It has different flower beds and colours. it really depends on what season your visit.

We went there last October 24, 2019, these are the flowers we saw. The entrance fee is NTD 120 it may vary again on the season. 
For details of the flowers that bloom here as per month.
You can check it out  HERE.

This place is gaining popularity because of the photos of the tourist who posted on their social media who has been here. So now it becomes a tourist attraction in Taiwan. I say a must to see whenever your shoes will take you to this side of the world.

The lovely colours of the flowers are so alive that you will feel great and happy inside.

Smiling Sunflower brightens up your day

Beautiful Flowers among the Flower beds

Queen on the Carousel this is just one example for a couple perfect photo background. The flower farm was good for photoshoots like a pre-nuptial, debut, birthday or simply just artistic photography. 

Some more flowers on the pots here.

Lavender flower bed is one of the instagrammable scenery here.

They have musical instruments too.

Pretending to play the Cello here

Meet my travel Buddies all full bloom just like the beautiful flowers here.

We came and we achieved the right pose (hopefully!!!)

Trying for a sun-kissed pose ended up wacky.

Newly planted flower beds

Thanks, to Mhaivel for the following Photos. You are the best. Next travel will try to learn how to take a photo from DSLR Camera too. So you will have a picture-perfect shot as well. Yes, Houli flower is for those people who love picture-perfect scene.

Photo Credit to Mhaivel

Photo Credit to Mhaivel

Photo by Mhaivel

Credit to Mhaivel

Credit to Mhaivel

Oops! Myra, I had to include this because it's so beautiful.

Photo by Mhaivel

Photo by Mhaivel

To see this beautiful Flower Farm we have booked through the FB Page Mga Pasyalan sa Taiwan click HERE 

There are different tour packages to choose from and different coordinators. For us we coordinated with Joven, just click  FB link up. We are a group of 5 ladies with limited time to explore Taiwan that's the reason we chose a hassle-free tour, pick and drop off from the doorstep of our hotel. We were treated like VIP's (hahaha) it's a private car  (mini-van type) with a capacity of 7 persons. So aside from us, there are two other couple which is fine. Shout out to Kuya Driver for a wonderful start. This tour package includes stopping over at Famous Ice Cream shop Miyahara (also beautiful place to take a photo), National Theater, and Rainbow Village. Of course, lunch or meals and entrance are excluded.

Travel time is about one hour and forty minutes enough to have a nap and to energise. This is just the first stop of our Taichung Tour and for us achieved travel itinerary already. Total money we spent here is only the entrance fee. 

This is our Flower Farm experience, indeed we felt great. A good way to start our day. While we are going out a person was singing live, sounded good and especially when he sang the Meteor Garden Theme song " Qing Fei De Yi" or "Can't Help Falling for You" by Harlem Yu, actually I go crazy as I am a fan of the drama series. That's it guys and see you all on my next blog post. Remember to always be a blessing to others.

If you want to see the video of this travel Vlog Series click HERE

TAIWAN Budget Travel Blog Guide 2019

OFFLINE

Me being offline means I'm travelling. This time around I'm going with my colleagues/friends to Asia. Yes, off we go to Taiwan. it is a last-minute trip

that started with only a joke and it turns out to be a reality later on. 

How did we Plan? Did we set up an estimated Budget for it? Decide and research on the places we love to visit. So here it goes.

It was a joined head of four and become 5 persons who planned and agrees for this trip.

Credit to Cielo for planning our itinerary. Mhaivel for the high-grade photos. Joanna for the human selfie stick. Myra for joining the squad so we can save more. And Meeh just simple recording and vlogging this trip. As the saying says no man is an Island. It really takes a group to have fun, explore and save.

Requirements for Filipino Citizen to visit Taiwan:

Good news to all Filipinos going to Taiwan is easy as we are a visa-free entry( for tourism, business, visiting relatives) for 14 days until July 31, 2020.

With the following conditions

1. Passport must have at least remaining 6 months validity from the date of entry.

2. A return ticket or onward ticket to the final destination (travellers visa for the next destination if transiting only to Taiwan).

3. Must have no criminal record in Taiwan.

4. Proof of accommodation such as hotel bookings or tour packages with contact and address information.

Best time to visit Taiwan or Taipei is not on the rainy season. Taipei is located at the northern part of Taiwan so it has subtropical weather. The best time to visit Taipei is during fall around November to early Spring In April. When going to a certain place always checked the weather so you can plan accordingly. And also if there is a festival or holidays so the prices will not be at the peak.

So we visited Taipei last October 23-27, 2019 and the weather was cooperative and we can explore.

Where to stay in Taipei? I recommend accommodations next to MRT stations or Night market that you would like to visits for easy access. For us, we booked our accommodations through booking.com and look for the best price ever. When browsing through booking. com or Agoda always checked the ratings and feedbacks. As for us, we got a good deal at

Beauty Star Hotel in Taipei. It is only 8 minutes walk from Jiantan MRT station and Shilin Night Market. The price depends on the season and room availability.

Address: No. 38-1號, Qiangang Street, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111

Taipei Currency and Money Exchange

Taiwan or Taipei uses New Taipei dollar (NTD/TWD) with the exchange rate of TWD 1 = 0.1210  UAE Dirhams/1.6641 Philippine Pesos/ 0.0330 USD. We are coming from Dubai UAE so TWD is not available in the money exchange so we change our dirhams to USD in Dubai International Airport. And once we reached Taipei we exchange the USD to TWD at the airport. You can exchange money at your hotel however it will be really low.

Next thing that we did is buy a Pocket 4G WIFI at the Taoyuan Airport at the arrival area. You can purchase it advance through Klook to be a lot cheaper. However, in our case, we couldn't decide whether sim or wifi. This 4G wifi can connect to 10 devices. For 5 -6 days. We paid around TWD 285 which we divided into 5, each of us paid only TWD 57./ 6.89 UAE Dirhams/ 95 Philippine Pesos.

Transportation from The Airport to hotel Accommodation

There are three ways to get to Taipei City or your accommodations from Taoyuan Aiport is through Train /MTR (this the purple colour train and coin), by bus or renting a car. Since we are five and we are all so tired we just rented a car.

For fares and distance, you may refer HERE.

TAIWAN has 4 rechargeables IC CARDS: Easy Cards, Happy Cards, ICash and IPass. We are planning to buy the easy card however we decided not to since we are travelling in a group it is easy to navigate through a taxi or a cab.

Before Immigration at the arrival Area

Transportation

We rented a car to go to our accommodation

Through WWW. shanyu.okgo.tw /contact number +09101871799. The downfall is the only speak Mandarin or Taiwanese. So for us, we asked our hotel to speak when we are leaving. At the airport, fortunately, we understand each other(wink*). 

We paid around TWD 1200 divided by 5, 240 TWD each.

Our Accommodation at Star Beauty Hotel  

2 Double bed (fits 5 persons)

 Mini-Bar / free coffee/ teas/ Water /Soda everyday
 
 Bath Tub, unfortunately, we are unable to use due time restriction

with toiletries replenished every day.

Automatic Toilet bowl

EXPLORE THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Next to our accommodation was a Family Mart, 7-eleven, park and nearby restaurants. Shilin Night Market. Quite and good neighbourhood for family and tourist.

Family Mart

 

 7-Eleven

 Meet Special ladies travel Squad

                                            Spicy Wonton Soup

                                                    Korean style Spring Roll

                                                                    Wonton Soup

 From Dubai 

                                            To Taipei/ Taiwan

This is our first day in Taipei. We survived and went through our itinerary just like how we planned it. We just had a total of 700 UAE Dirhams/9,625 Philippine Pesos equivalent to 5,779 TWD.

Will, we survived so stay tuned for the upcoming vlog series Team Special ladies travel to Taiwan. The secret for a budgeted trip is to plan, booked in advance for tickets, accommodation, and tour packages.

Will be back tomorrow for you guys to see the places we've been. Goodnight from Taipei.