Misty Villa, in CingJing Farm

Date of stay: 8th Jun 2013
Duration: 2 nights
Booking agent: Direct
Paid: NT5100 (about S$221.74)
Wifi: Free
Breakfast: Local

Going there:

We had the choice to either take E-go bus from Sun Moon Lake (SML) to Cingjing or "bao-che" (means charter a private car). E-go bus would cost about NT450 per person for sharing with others, "bao-che" cost about NT2200 door to door (NT1800 if we were to make our way to a designated pick-up point). I know, I sound stupid to chose the latter! I do not know why either, probably coz I didn't know E-go bus was equivalent comfortable. The only downside by taking E-go bus was only 2 timings, 12pm or 4.30pm. We chose to leave at 2.30pm.. but adjourned to 4pm due to the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village in SML. Journey was nearly 2 hours, the road up the mountain, was "challenging".

Husband had terrible car sick as he couldn't sleep in the car. The driver (we reckoned to be the brother/relative of the minsu owner) kept talking to husband. He was very friendly, but I guess husband is a bad traveler. He threw up just a few minutes before we reached the villa. Mr. Hung was very nice to drive us up to almost our room doorstep.

Almost our doorstep, our room is on 2nd floor from this picture, but our room was on the 3rd floor of the villa

Huge room, but we found the bed a bit too shaky to our liking, as if it was about to collapse, cannot imagine if our son jumps on it.. @-@

R&R

Big couch for us - red in contrast of green

Hot and cold water dispenser IN the room

The view from our balcony

We paid NT2100 deposit through Paypal, and due to pay the balance upon check-in. Enough of rest later, we went down to the reception to pay up. The reception was also the bar in the dining area. There was no proper reception area.

Outside our room at the common corridor

Heading downstairs

I really liked it when we opened the door to the dining area, we would be greeted by fresh lilies scent. Fresh lilies were everywhere in the set-up.

The reception aka dining area

The unique built-up

Alfresco dining too - we chose to have our breakfast out here everyday, overseeing moutains

Lilies everywhere

There was a parrat, but I didn't get a shot of it

"Fireplace"

Fresh lily scent in the room

Lady boss shot a mouthful of instructions as on where to go, how to go, etc. Husband thought she overfed us with information, upon ARRIVAL. I thought she was just helpful.

Stay there was pleasant, although we had to climb nearly 100 steps everyday, back to our room on the 3rd floor. Yes, I counted the steps!

A portion of the stairs we had to take

On the last evening there, we decided to dine-in. For NT300 per person, villa could provide us with a full meal, to our surprise, 5 dishes and 1 soup! How sumptuous! We had steamed fish, chicken, ground pork wrapped with lettuce, cabbage, steamed egg with angelica herbs and pumpkin+corn soup which was yummylicious and the portion was really generous!

My super favorite dish for the night! I am going to google for its recipe (I hope it's available!)

Even our son had his fair share, he liked Taiwanese food!

Atrractions Nearby:

Where Carton King and Small Swiss Garden are relative to hotel - walking distance, to 7-11(s), MOS Burger and Starbucks too!

Green Green Grassland too - there's a bus service :-)

Villa helped us to book E-go bus to Taichung HSR Station - NT450 each adult (we shared with 2 other people)

Personal Touch:

On the hindsight: I was quite disappointed by the Villa. Staying in homestay means get homely touch right? It was my husband's birthday when we checked-in, but there was not even a birthday greeting from the lady boss. I would be VERY disappointed if it was my birthday. @-@

To be fair, we did feel some personal touch during our stay though. Dear son was asleep in my arms when we climbed the hills up to the villa. Upon seeing us, lady boss offered to give us a buggy ride to our room. ;-)


For details:

Website: http://www.misting.com.tw/

Email: misty.villa@livemail.tw (they are very prompt in replying mails)

Address: No. 9, Rongguang Lane, Ren'ai Township, Nantou County, Taiwan, 54641

Tel: +886492801493


All about our Taiwan trip:
Part 1: Taiwan: Taichung (6~7 Jun'13)
Part 2: Taiwan: Sun Moon Lake (7~8 Jun'13)
Part 3: Taiwan: CingJing (8~10 Jun'13)
Part 4: Taiwan: Taipei (10~12 Jun'13)

Cherng Yuan Hotel, in Sun Moon Lake

Date of stay: 7th Jun 2013

Duration: 1 night

Booking Agent: Agoda

Paid: S$97.62

Wifi: Free (although there was a mini router in the room, the network was really bad)

Breakfast: Local

Going there:

We took direct bus to Sun Moon Lake (SML), from Taichung HSR station, cost us NT190 for adult. Our boy rode for free. Bus ride was an hour, it'll stop right in front of the Shuei She Visitor Centre where you can either take a shuttle bus or a boat ride to Cherng Yuan. I called the hotel up to ask for direction, he told me that taking boat is easier, as they are right in front of the Itathao (pronounced as I-ta-shao) pier.

  

The whole of Sun Moon Lake - the biggest lake in Taiwan

And so we took the 10 mins boat ride (NT100 per pax, children needs a ticket too). Surprised that the boatman actually introduced SML during the ride, telling us information. I'm not an audio person, so I didn't really pay attention to what he was saying, except the part, cable car was closed for maintenance on the day of our arrival! Boohoo!

The Place:
The hotel owner was right, the hotel was just right in front of the pier, merely a 50 metres away. It was my first homestay aka minsu stay. The hotel is relatively new, opened since 2007.

Itathao Pier - and the 3 streets

Could see our hotel signage from the pier

 

Hawker food just beside the hotel

It was kinda quiet in the day.. as well as the night.. as it was a Friday

Right outisde the hotel, I found the bench attracts people who needed a rest, and owner was not particular about passerby taking a break on his bench

The entrance

Bar turned reception

Cosy lobby

R&R corner, with a PC

Tea appreciation corner I presumed

Corridor to the lift and washroom

The staircase

Visitors from all over the world

The view at night

I wish they were more flexible in letting us go to the room to freshen up upon our arrival at 12+pm instead of telling us the room would be ready only at about 3pm. But we were free to use the lobby and the washroom, it's just different you see.

We went for lunch and reckee around. There were only as many as 3 streets in Itathao, and so we went back to the hotel and asked if there was anything else we could do. I didn't have a back-up plan, coz I planned to take cable car on the very same day. (So, please check the maintenance schedule if you have limited time to spend in SML)

We decided to go to Ci En pagoda by shuttle bus.But we missed the bus as we reached the bus stop. Another boohoo! Next bus was an hour away, ya, one bus an hour.

We finally get our room after lofting around in the lobby for some time, taking pictures and pictures and dear son drank his milk. The room was situated in the 5th floor, the second highest.

It was HUGE! Especially if we stayed in a Japanese size room the night before, this room was tremendously HUGE!

The super huge room

And spacious bathroom - no dumping of toilet paper into the toilet, the lady boss reminded

View from our room (not exactly facing, but we could see this from the corner of our window)

I was craving for coffee so badly, but we were told the coffee machine they had at the reception has not been used for some time, and they do not serve coffee. They suggested we go to Starbucks instead.

Breakfast was ordinary, I had my fair amount of coffee. They also served their signature milk tea, not bad. Breakfast was at the highest floor, the view was spectacular, facing the lake. Lady boss was there, doing some fresh flower decorations and manning the breakfast area.

Beautiful bonsai

Breakfast facing the lake, how cool!

We found Itathao a bit too quiet in the day, as well as the night (we were there on Friday). We felt somehow, strange. But crowd started pouring in on Saturday morning, making the place livelier and better place to be.

Personal Touch:

On the hindsight: I was rather disappointed with the minsu. It was my husband's birthday when we checked-out but there was not even a birthday wish. Completely shattered my opinion about minsu or homestay for homely touch.

A very personal touch when lady boss helped to put on mosquito repellant on dear son as she said mosquitoes are fierce in the trekking trail.

For details:

Website: http://www.cherngyuan.com.tw/

Address: No. 117, Wenhua St., Sun Moon Lake, Nantou, Taiwan

Tel: +886492850062


All about our Taiwan trip:
Part 1: Taiwan: Taichung (6~7 Jun'13)
Part 2: Taiwan: Sun Moon Lake (7~8 Jun'13)
Part 3: Taiwan: CingJing (8~10 Jun'13)
Part 4: Taiwan: Taipei (10~12 Jun'13)