Entree Kibbles: Day Nine of the 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip 2025

Sunday, May 24, 2026

Day Nine of the 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip 2025

<<< Day Eight

Detailed Postings for the Day

It's disturbing to wake up to itchiness and to find the reddish bumps still existing without any signs of recovery! Irritating to the max but since I am up; I guess I might as well go out for a jog!

View from our level at Tea Way Hotel.

p.s. Jogging alone since Alex was still sleeping.

Juxtaposition of the old and new, with the old Taichung railway station (built in 1917) against the 178-meter tall Le Méridien Taichung; latter of which was built in 1999 under a different hotel management. p.s. there was a fire in 2005 within the building that killed four persons.

Captivating art-piece facing the new, elevated taichung train station. Named Anticipation, the colorful sculpture was supposed to represent a child with a toy train behind him, gazing at the new station. Likely looking forward to the future when he will likely take the train to work, every working day. Like many workers, including me.

From this angle, I thought there was an abandoned circular building. Google Maps show a different story instead; the circular section was an extension to the dilapidated building right underneath! Do you think it's accessible to thrill seekers?

National Taiwan Museum of Comics (國家漫畫博物館); like a open-concept cultural village based on Japan architecture; what I could show would only be the facade as the place has yet open to business at 8.00am! Even though I do read comic books, they were mainly from Japan, albeit with translation coming from Taiwanese publishers. Hence, I don't think I would know characters from local Taiwanese comics.

Good thing about jogging when you are overseas; bumping into places that didn't seem to appear on Google Maps (which I rely very heavily). In this case, I chanced upon Taiwan Connection 1908, where old railway tracks / paths were preserved, similar to the Rail Corridor in Singapore!

Back to Taichung railway station. In Singapore, we have AnyWheel and HelloRide. In Taiwan, the ubiquitous company offering shared bike services, across the country, would be YouBike!

Given that the railway station was new, there were more options for retail and dining outlets, including rental car companies, convenience stalls etc.

Display of old train, and I suspected this should be the start / tail-end of Taiwan Connection 1908, which was still undergoing renovation when I visited. It should be completed now, since it's been more than a year since my visit.

Wooden planks on the train tracks are so long?!

I guess I am not any taller than the uncle sleeping there.

Anticipation again; with Le Méridien Taichung behind him. From this facing, it's quite obvious the sculpture would be a boy or did I misgender him?

Beautiful old Taichung railway station. Back in 2014, when I first visited the city, the station was still in use and I recall there was a road right in front, which was crowded with vehicles.

Staircase of the new elevated railway station.

Dragonfly very big hor.

Even though Tea Way Hotel was less than a hundred meters away, I am ashamed to say I didn't take any train since we had rented a car! On second thought, I should stay further away from the city, where hotel rooms are bigger and likely cheaper.

With a rental car, it also meant we would be more willing to travel to the outskirts where public transportation would be a pain! Hence, let's start our hour-long journey to the border of Taichung City and Nantou County!

Having an amazing brunch at Tou Ke Shan 新社頭嵙山香菇; an eatery with its own mushroom farm! Food was delicious, and we bought quite a lot of mushrooms and yummy mushroom snacks!

Marveling at the blossoming trees as the car trekked along. Luckily, I am not the driver. Not that I didn't want to but Alex felt that both our lives would be in danger if I were to take over the steering wheel. =_=".

Continuing up the mountain. Seriously, I was expecting the destination to be accessible and didn't expect the roads to be so narrow! Comfy scenery though for the vehicle commander, since the driver has to concentrate on the road.

Stopped the car for a while to take the above photograph!

We parked next to a ravine along zhongxing street where there was a space so that we wouldn't block traffic. There's a house with dogs that kept barking at us! Having living in urban apartments for a long time, I don't think I would ever see myself staying at a place so isolated from other humans.

Reached our destination; Lavender Forest (薰衣草森林台中新社店) Overall, a chillax place that all stressed employees should just visit for mental wellness.

On our way back to the city!

But before then, let's take a soak at Kylin Peak Hot Spring (麒麟峰溫泉)! Remember to bring along your swimwear; if not, you can only access the naked bath!

Back to the noisy bustle of city life.

In replacement of greenery, it's now a concrete jungle.

Instead of going back to Tea Way Hotel, Alex said he had some cravings, and we detoured to Yizhong Street Night Market, paying expensive car park rate as we were too lazy to walk!

So what was our dear Alex craving for? Chicken cutlet from 胖子雞丁雞排 and Mini Bite Stinky Tofu! I am actually glad he was craving for them since I were too, and it's always nice to share the fats!

I wonder what this large patch of construction would become.

While Alex decided to take a snooze back in the hotel room, I decided that I am not going to waste my precious leave sleeping; not to mention that I have insomnia, and wouldn't have a restful sleep anymore. So, I continued to papazao!

Located at the end of the alley, this temple (幸天宮) stood out for its tall, slender structure that's not as wide, big and grand as many other Taoist temples.

Shin Sei Green Waterway (新盛綠川水岸廊道); an oasis of nature that seemed to avoid the fact that it's right smack in the center of the busiest district in the city.

After a hiatus of more than ten years, I am back to Miyahara Eye Clinic (宮原眼科)! Unfortunately, I still didn't manage to secure a taste of their signature ice cream. I could but I didn't like to queue.

Do you know that this area has a lot of eateries offering Southeast Asian cuisines? Above was a shop that offers filipino cuisine and there were plenty of others in the same area; around ASEAN Square.

Another reason why I didn't have any ice cream at Miyahara Eye Clinic (宮原眼科) was because I heard they have a sister branch! So introducing to you the Fourth Credit Union (台中市第四信用合作社)!

On our stroll back, in the cool night.

I wasn't prepared to buy anything but this shop seemed quite popular, and curiosity drew us in! With samples that tasted pretty good, Alex, a non-shopaholic (unlike me), bought quite a bit from Chen Yun Pao Chuan (陳允寶泉). Don't play play; their review score on Google Maps is 4.6 from over 1,400 reviewers!

A bit hungry; we had a bowl of milkfish soup from Ye House Milkfish (葉家虱目魚); not too much as our intention was to fill our tummies somewhere else.