Visiting a Friend at Chiayi in Taiwan

For tourists, it's a guarantee we would check out places of attractions but in our 2025 Taiwan trip, having a rental car at our disposal provided much flexibility; to the extent we drove over to the house of a friend who stayed in a rural town of Chiayi county! 

I was expecting a rundown house and in front of us was really more a modern 2-storey building! As it was a impromptu visit, I guess it would have been rude for us to barge into the house for a tour. 

Checking out the makeshift greenhouse built by our friend, who loves greenery and has both dedication and the green fingers to ensure the ferns and plants survive. 

We were more captivated by the farmland surrounding his house (technically, his parents'). This is definitely not a scene Singaporeans are accustomed to seeing given how land scarce we are. 

The plot for our friend's family is smaller but that's because they have farmland elsewhere! Nevertheless, they didn't leave it to waste, although not exactly to the land's full potential also. 

A mango tree stood out from the rest of crops. 

Not sure what these are; green pepper? 

Cabbage and cauliflower! From a business student perspective, I am looking at the ROI (return of investment); space taken is actually quite big and one head of cabbage and cauliflower doesn't sell very high. Once you count in fertilizer, water, manpower and transport; the farmer doesn't really earn much! 

Moral of the story; don't waste food! 

p.s. my favorite broccoli! 

Friend washing freshly picked cherry tomatoes he got from his sister's farm! Now, I am super selective when it comes to cherry tomatoes especially when they are rare.

Turned out to be much sweeter than expected.

Before we knew it, the whole pack was gone! 

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Click HERE for 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip: Summarised Itinerary for Chiayi Alishan (嘉义阿里山) - Kaohsiung (高雄) - Tainan (台南) - Taichung (臺中)

Ping Huang Coffee – Tourism Factory (品皇咖啡觀光工廠) @ Chiayi in Taiwan

The good thing about renting a car in Taiwan (or any country) is really the flexibility to travel to places that might not be so conveniently and regularly serviced by public transport. 

In our case, we met up with a Taiwanese friend who stayed in Chiayi but because he doesn't stay at the city; we decided to just drive to his town. To make it easier for us, he gave us a location of a famous coffee factory. Baffled we were as I have never heard of the brand Ping Huang (品皇). 

Turned out to be a tourism factory popular with local Taiwanese, and it's definitely not on the itinerary of those on tour groups, and I doubt you would even find mention of it in any travel guidebooks! 

I don't really know what to make do with the above two structures; it's like two mouldy balls stuck in coffee cups! What is the artist trying to express?! That it's happiness to sit in coffee cups?

Befitting its tourism label, there's also a small exhibition for visitors, to learn more about coffee! Do note that this would not be beneficial to those who don't really read Chinese, and in Taiwan, use of traditional Chinese characters is the norm.

Origins of coffee powder, the impact of different roasting, the top ten coffee producing countries, and the incredulous coffee taster's flavor wheel; latter of which was impressive as my level was absolutely at a comedic level. 

About Hung Ming-Pao, the founder of Ping Huang Coffee.

p.s. the company was founded in 1989. 

After the exhibition, it would of course be the area where travellers / tourists would spend, and spend, and spend! The souvenir shop that sells more than just coffee! 

While coffee was the main star, you get other stuff like biscuits etc. Problem is that there were hardly any sampling for the non-coffee items, and you know me; no sample, no sales! 

Some of the pre-packed coffee (in sachet form) allowed sampling and on our visit, there were three or four to choose from. My favorite was the above; strong golden avenue! I bought a huge pack, and I regretted not buying more. :( 

By the way, the coffee soap was really good! NT$150 a bar (buy 5, get 1 free) that weighs 200 grams; it was hardy, used premium coffee bean, with good enzymes added, including vitamin B3. Rest assured, you don't smell like a cup of coffee after using it. 

Those focused on coffee would love this section; with bags of premium coffee beans of various premiums, cups, coffee grinder, pots etc.

You can even get these Vienna Royal Coffeemakers, which looked more like they belonged to a laboratory, for a cost of between NT$4000 to NT$5000; not really that expensive, I feel. Might be wrong though as cheapo me loves 3-in-1 coffee, in sachet form.

Promotion a year ago....

p.s. this visit was a year ago.

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Address

No 155, Shuishang Township,

Chiayi County, Taiwan 

Map

As above.

Click HERE for 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip: Summarised Itinerary for Chiayi Alishan (嘉义阿里山) - Kaohsiung (高雄) - Tainan (台南) - Taichung (臺中)

Tea Way Hotel - Also Known As Green Hotel (葉綠宿.茶覺旅): Standard Double Room (City View, With Window) in Taichung [Taiwan]

Coming to the last of our hotels at Taiwan for this trip made more than a year ago; Tea Way Hotel - Also Known As Green Hotel (葉綠宿.茶覺旅)!

As we were driving the rental car, I had intentionally searched for a hotel with parking facilities and there was an underground carpark at Tea Way! Sadly, the lots were full despite me indicating in my reservation I required a lot.

No matter what, the checking in would be important as we needed to unload the luggage first into the hotel room. The car shall wait while I single-handedly man-handled the luggage. Service from the front desk wasn't helpful and friendly, at least for this very first day. 

Anyway, at least my request for high floor was acceded to. The 12th floor it was, from this hotel that was opened in 2022, with a total of 93 floors. 

Water dispenser on every floor, I presume.

With hot, cold and warm options. 

Room 1205

Our 23 square-meter standard double room with window facing the city. Given its name, there was a good use of green and wood to "soothe" the hotel guests.

More photographs for reference; the bed and pillows were comfortable and that's sometimes quite hard to find as we grow in age, and get super accustomed to the bed and pillows we have at home. There's also a 3-pin plug near the TV.

Included in the room were mini-fridge, in-room safe, and hairdryer. In the past, I used to discount the need for hairdryer but now that I am much older with use of hair essence; it's important to have one!

Now, the important window view.

Well, not exactly Taichung city skyline view (unlike the ones we were blessed with at Freshfields Hotel) but the alternative of no window was not something I find acceptable. 

I was more curious about the hive of activity under and surrounding the above sheltered space that didn't have walls and reminded me of multi-purpose court near Khatib MRT station in the notorious Singaporean town of Yishun.

Back to the room, and to the washroom.

No big surprises until I turned to my right. Oh my gosh, a Japanese electronic bidet! That to me, might be one of the biggest reasons for returning back to Tea Way Hotel in the hotel! Nothing beats having water washing my ass after a great shit. 

Evacuation map for reference! 

Parking

Circling back to parking, I understand there was no lot available at the basement carpark of the hotel and were at least comforted that there were carparks that we can still park our rental car. 

Problem was, there were two and the 100-meter one was available only from Sundays to Thursdays. For Fridays to Saturdays (and public holidays I think), it would be a 300-meter walk away! I love walking but the thing that irked me was the wait for an available parking lot! 

We spent more than 20 minutes just to wait for an empty lot for our very first night, and that's such a bloody waste of time! I begged the frontline staff for a lot at the basement carpark and thankfully, my request was approved! 

So here's me, waiting at the basement for our rental car to arrive from the car lift. Alex was the designated driver and I am basically the vehicle commander, given my " bad track records".

Thankfully, we got a small car.

Any bigger, and we would sweat. 

Carpark wasn't that small though.

Capacity for maybe 10 vehicles.

Miscellaneous

Supposed to have a self-serviced laundry room but it was closed for maintenance when we were there. Other amenities (combs, toothbrushes, shower caps etc) and services were also available via the front service counter, as above. 

You could even rent other kinds of pillows, if the ones in the rooms are not up to your expectations. Day tours could also be purchased via the reception counter.  

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Address

No. 173, Jianguo Rd, 

Central District, Taichung City, 

Taiwan

Map

As above.

Pricing

Standard Double Room (City View, Window) - S$91.08 a night

(Booked via Klook.com)

Click HERE for 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip: Summarised Itinerary for Chiayi Alishan (嘉义阿里山) - Kaohsiung (高雄) - Tainan (台南) - Taichung (臺中)