It was lunch time and Driver Lin recommended this famous oven grilled chicken, which was similar to what we had in Taichung but nicer.
We were given gloves to attack the chicken. Its skin was so crispy! Even the breast meat was tender.
It didn't take us very long to clean it up.
Next stop was the 菓風糖果觀光工廠DIY. Based on the name of it, I had imagined kids getting to understand the sweet manufacturing process as well as DIY thereafter, like many of the blogs that I had read. It was actually the Sophisca sweet shop.
We had one of these in JP some time back. I cannot deny that the sweets and chocolates were really pretty and the kids were happily choosing their treats.
Even the toilet was so pretty.
We saw on the wall the mention of chocolate making DIY but it was not operating that week. Driver Lin excused herself and waited for us in the car while we shopped somemore. At that time, another Singaporean family and their guide came into the store. It is so easy to differentiate Singaporeans by our accent. Anyway, the point was how their driver realised that DIY was not happening and went to find out the reason and came back to suggest alternative to the family. Yes, I was eavesdropping and I couldn't help wondering why our driver wasn't doing the same. She didn't even know that there was DIY when she brought us to the store. So we were brought there to shop for sweets? By the way, we found the Sophisca sweet shop in Ximending too.
We didn't stay long bcos the store was really small and we weren't intending on much sweet shopping.
Next up was the 可達羊場, which the kids were looking forward to. The goat farm didn't look much like a goat farm at its entrance but we weren't disappointed by the activities.
The price was very reasonable. Lil Shauna opted to milk the goat and paid NT$200 while Zaky paid NT$100 to make candy floss. Both packages come with animal feeds. The 1st was to feed milk to baby goats that didn't look quite babyish to me.
Then, to the big goats. It was more like a tug of war with the big ones.
Next, carrots for the rabbits or for Lil Shauna.
Or the pigs. The owner told us that the pigs were adopted just 3 months back. Daddy Lim liked them very much. He couldn't stop taking pictures of them. He even said that they were very photogenic.
Lastly, bird feeds.
After that, it was finally time to milk the goat! Lil Shauna was shy about it and was given instructions on how it was to be done. She even had to practice using Daddy Lim's finger.
The suspect had arrived!
Lil Shauna given some practical lesson.
Before she hands-on herself. The owner said that the goat likes to be milked bcos she gets engorged too.
Lil Shauna said that it felt like 台湾香肠. Lol. The milk was for us to try thereafter. I stay far away.. milk is not my cup of tea. We ended with pictures with the lead.
It was followed by Zaky's turn - DIY candy floss.
We left the farm at about 4.15pm and there were quite a few items left on the day 1 itinerary. However, when we were back to the car, Lin Driver insisted that they were ALL out of the way and the only thing left was Jimmy Square. I had maintained since long time back that I didn't want to go Jimmy Square. It was an Instantgram worthy place but we aren't pictures crazy lot. I suggested a few other places on the itinerary and they were all turned down. The choices offered to us were - Jimmy Square or hotel. She even insisted that it was too early to go to the night market that was in our itinerary.
I was mad and told her to send us back to the hotel then. It must be obvious that I was fuming bcos she then tried to explain that we "changed our mind" constantly (what?! It was her who brought us to a different place when we agreed to stick to the crab farm), which resulted in the itinerary being messed up. Moreover, if we had wanted to cover all the itinerary, it would be touch and go and we hadn't watch time - BUT she didn't tell us that we had to watch time or how much time we should stay in each attraction!!! She kept rattling on about not having much to do in Yilan, which is a lazy old town.
Obviously the more she explained, the more irritated I was. I wasn't intending for her to stick strictly to the itinerary or insisted to cover all the itinerary. If there isn't much to do in Yilan, shouldn't these been mentioned when we were discussing our itinerary and not now? I just felt that it was too early to end the day for NT$5.5k at 4.15pm. I felt cheated. Eventually, we did hop over to Jimmy Square.
Actually, it was the playground beside Jimmy square and the kids ran wild. I couldn't help thinking why I was paying so much for kids to play in playground when they can do that in Singapore. It was seriously to burn time.
While the kids played, it gave us time to plan our next step. I was about to call off her services at the end of the day but we would be stranded in Yilan the next day having hotel booked for 2 nights. After googling on how to get back to Taipei, we decided that we would still engage her service for the next day and head back to Taipei on our own on the 3rd day in the morning instead of using her service to tour Yilan for 3 days and have her send us back to Taipei in the evening.
The kids left behind a dog.
We asked the driver to bring us to the hotel to drop our luggage and send us to Luodong night market without having to wait for us. We didn't want to be pressured by time.
Luodong night market reminded me of Hualien's night market that we visited many years back. We saw plenty of street food and the kids asked for this cone pizza, which is so not-Taiwan but they were craving for pizzas and pastas. We were all quite sick of Taiwan sausages by day 5.
Zaky dropped half of his and made us go back to buy him a 2nd one. Daddy Lim was lured by grilled squid. It was juicy and nice.
Of course night market must be completed by games.
It was easy to get a cab back to the 民宿. The pizza uncle told us where to get cab and it cost about NT$200. Taiwanese are all so helpful and warm.
The kids who hadn't seen much of the 民宿 when we stopped to drop the luggage were running around exploring. There was another Singaporean family staying in the same 民宿 but we didn't get to see them.
Did I tell you that our room come with a slide? The location of the 民宿 was a little out of the way according to Driver Lin, which contradicted what Mr Xie said when I 1st worked with him. In fact, he was the one who helped us booked and paid for the hotel. Never mind whatever Driver Lin said, the joy on the kids' face was worth it when they saw the room. They went up and down the slide so many times.
The place would have been perfect if we had figured out how to heat up the room. Lol. It was freezing cold the whole night. We meddled with the aircon, gave up and switched it off but cold air still seems to seep into the room from don't know where. We were constanrly in our jackets until shower and hopped straight into the bed. Maybe we should have climbed the slide like the kids to generate some heat. Haha.
Mummy Lim
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