LiFe As It Is...: Taipei Day 1

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Taipei Day 1 - Flying Cow Ranch

It was finally the day. Luckily it was a late night flight and mummy could rush whatever last minute work before the trip. We took a cab to the airport and met Auntie S' family at 10.45pm. After we cleared immigration, the kids went to the playground while the adults whacked last minute supper. We must be getting warmed up for all the eating at Taipei. I had wanted to buy MAC loose powder but the counter was closed for renovation. Zzzzz.

We boarded the plane and plane took off on time. The strange counter checked in staff gave us seats about 5 rows away from auntie s' family despite us checking in at the same time. Even stranger, she gave us seats such that Popo had to sit alone, luckily just one row in front of us. Lil Shauna fell asleep before the plane took off. She had a long day and had ice skating class in the morning. Lil Isaac fussed quite a bit bcos he couldn't find a comfy spot but eventually drifted off to lala land just when the plane was taking off.

The flight hit turbulence a couple of times and I was upset with myself that I was still awake to experience those bcos Daddy Lim and the kids didn't realised anything at all cos they were in lala land. I didn't sleep well, especially when I had a little boy using my lap as his personal pillow. After a while, my butt ache like hell.

We finally arrived at Taiwan at 5.15am and we had to wake the kids up. As usual, Lil Isaac needed to be carried out of the plane and only woke up when clearing immigration. The guide - Tony was already waiting for us when we got out of the immigration.

The 1st stop was for authentic Taiwan bfast of 油條, 豆浆, 蛋饼, etc before we started our day. This was about 10 mins drive away from the airport and the kids monkeyed at the kiddy rides after bfast.

Then, it was a long car ride to Flying Cow Ranch and we stopped by 2 places of interest - 向天湖 and 南庄老街. We have never been to the former and as expected, the whole village fell asleep in the over an hour car ride.

向天湖 is on top of a mountain and a hometown to one of the tribes.

Stalls were set up by the locals to sell their delicacies. One of them was honey and they actually reared bees for honey.

This auntie who sold us honey also showered us how she whacked hornets and stuffed them into bottle to make medicated spirit. This is supposed to be good for men. Ahem.

We also took this walk around the lake. There was this long romantic path littered with flower petals.

Then head down to the 老街 and that was when the popos went crazy. The 老街 was actually very short but it took us a long time to walk that street. Auntie S had to try EVERYTHING and the Popos had to buy EVERYTHING! We almost didn't need lunch. The 2 Popos hit it off and were happily chatting and enjoying each other's companion, making each other try and try the food sample and buy and buy.

We also went to a hanging bridge at 南庄 and took plenty of pictures.

Including jump shots.

Then, we continued our way. The 老街 to Flying Cow Ranch took a other hour and it was again no surprise that we all slept our way there, including the hardy Lil Shauna who usually doesn't take nap. We woke up just nice to the Ranch.

We visited the Ranch on a Saturday last year and it was much more crowded then. We came on a Friday this year and arrived at 1ish. The room was ready by then. We had a nice room. We put down our luggage and went to the farm.

We went for the famous malt flavored milk.

Auntie S Popo enjoyed taking pictures and soon our Popo joined in the fun. The kids were happily feeding the animals. They fed the goats and calves.

Unfortunately, it started raining and we had to cut short the animal feeding. Poor Daddy Lim's tiny shirt.

We went back to room to rest until dinner time but fed the kids some food 1st before heading back.

We had a super nice and hot steamboat dinner. Lil Isaac was kept busy by helping to put the food into the pot and was well entertained until end of dinner. Lol.