Zhongshe Flower Market (中社觀光花市) - Flower Field Zone @ Taichung [Taiwan]

It's a flower filled day for our second day in Taiwan; 30 minutes after leaving Hua Lu Flower Home, we had arrived at our next destination! Zhongshe Flower Market - it has a few zones and we shall be concentrating on the flower field zone.

Following our trusted tour guide, KK.

Two routes to start; most people will go towards the right, since it's "right". I am unconventional and decided to start from the left instead. 

Please be prepared for a lot of photographs. This would be more a photo post, rather than one laden with text, especially when I don't know much about flower species. 

Some flower beds might have a placard detailing the species, the origin, their special characteristics and what the specific flower is generally used for etc. In Chinese though but not harm for those on tour packages as there was hardly any time to be "educated" given the vast fields ahead of us!

Aside from the flower fields, the number of photo props on the fields would definitely take up a lot of your time! Rule of thumb - if queue is too long, just go for the next photo prop as there were so many and it's impossible to take everything with just one-hour allocated for us to roam about. 

Do be mindful that taking photographs can be a chore, given that the pathways could be extremely muddy! During my short visit, I saw two persons getting their hands, feet and clothing dirty! The mud was actually quite dry but can be slippery! 

I was a pianist for once! My family isn't musically inclined although I would love to take some lessons to learn to play the piano! My only piece at this moment, was the two tigers nursery rhyme! Embarrassing it sure is.

Giving you a rough idea on how big this place was! Zhongshe is famous for their tulips but the season starts from January and we were a month too early! From January to March, there would be about 150,000 tulips, of different varieties! 

No doubt you would find yourself drawn to this uniquely stunning mountain that serves as a beautiful backdrop to some of the photographs taken at Zhongshe.

Known as Fire Mountain, it's about 600 meters in height and its Chinese terminology is the same as the Flaming Mountains in China, although latter would be much larger at 100 kilometers long!

Photographs of strangers! 

From far, I thought these were sunflowers. However, once I am nearer, it appeared to be more like a chrysanthemum! And unlike sunflowers, the plants were also shorter in height.  

I used to like roses and even though I still like them, I prefer the sunshine look from sunflowers. Life is sometimes quite stressful and sunflowers do portray a bright, positive cheerfulness.  

African Chrysanthemums; don't they look like daisies? 

Birds of Paradise! 

The two types of gourds hanging from overhead pipes. I am more acquainted with the silk gourds as my mom makes a really good stir fried sliced gourd dish; which goes so well with rice! 

There's a humongous gourd species!

How did the stem manage to hold the weight?! 

My thought in my mind when I saw the above; "are they what I think they are"?! Somewhat hidden at the back of Zhongshe Flower Market, it's so easy to overlook them! 

Yes, they are my favorite sunflowers! Do you remember the game, Plants vs. Zombies? The sunflowers in the game can fire sun beams and with the ability to heal; should I redownload? I used to play so often! 

Sunflowers and us! 

Isn't this a beautiful picture?! 

p.s the purple flowers are not lavender.

A few ponds at the perimeter for a different perspective on photo-taking; it's not just flower, flower and more flowers! The ponds were also the nearest to the fire mountain and in my opinion, the best spot to capture the mountain as a backdrop. 

There were some flowers in the ponds; likely lotus or water lilies! Do you know how to segregate between the two!? Click here for the answer! 

This was a fish feed dispenser! 

10 Taiwan Dollars per serving. 

Remember I started with the left side earlier? Now going to the right side where there were more photo props and they seemed to center on romance and love! p.s. the one with the carriage was a bit strange though; why was there a pink faced cheshire cat!? 

Flower landscapes. I had to admit that while Zhongshe Flower Market won in terms of the number of photo props, the views at Shikisai-No-Oka (四季彩の丘) and Farm Tomita were just too hard to match. 

The seven dwarves! 

I didn't see snow white. 

Statue was at the verge of breaking into pieces! 

p.s. already missing a wrist. 

Coming to the end of my visit. The above flower signage would be the first thing greeting you should you start with the "right" route. I bet you have noticed there were not that many photographs of my dad. Please be assured that it's impossible I didn't get him as a model.

Fifteen photographs as above! 

There were more which I would include for the Day Two post.

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Address

No. 333號, Section 5, Sanfeng Rd, 

Houli District, Taichung City, Taiwan 

Map

As above.

Website

http://www.flowerjs.com.tw/

Entry Fees (April to December)

Senior (above 65) - 60 Taiwan Dollars

Child (3-12 years old) - 60 Taiwan Dollars

Adult - 120 Taiwan Dollars

Click HERE for the Summarized Itinerary for Our 8 Days 7 Nights See Iconic Taiwan Anew Tour Package via Chan Brot

Morning Glory Original @ Hoi An in Vietnam

I first heard of Morning Glory restaurant from a friend who went Hoi An and didn't manage to find time to dine there. After which, I did realize from my mini-research that it's almost like a must-dine for foreigners! 

Hence, it shall be the destination of my first meal in this UNESCO World Heritage site! Located on one of the busier streets of the ancient city, it's not difficult to find the restaurant which appeared to be relatively high end. 

With a customer based that was almost exclusively foreigners when I stepped in, I was less worried about the authenticity (taste is of priority) than the pricing! Thankfully, still within my budget upon going through the menu.

Well, you can't blame me as the setup, the service etc, was almost fine-dining standard. p.s. those flowers on the tables were real! In Singapore, high chance they are fake unless you paying top dollars for your meal.

Whatever the case, food is here!

Hoi An Tea - your typical Vietnamese tra da although I found this to have a more intense tea taste; albeit with a woody aftertaste. Do note that it is unsweetened; the kind of beverage I am used to nowadays.

Green Mango Salad with Pork and Prawns - this was requested by Alex which was strange as he is not exactly a salad person and I wondered if he likes green mango salad, more renowned for their sourness. Accompanying the salad was a basket of rice crackers.

Turned out he didn't like it! I do enjoy it somewhat but I don't fancy salads when I am overseas! The shredded mango wasn't entirely sour and had a tinge of sweetness complemented by the onions and herbs. The rice crackers added texture although if I am going for salad, I wouldn't have gone for rice; an oxymoron in my opinion. 

White Rose Dumplings - said to be found only in Hoi An, there were six dumplings of two different varieties. One was normal like those boiled dumplings with vegetables and black fungus. 

It's the other one, folded, apparently like a rose, that appealed better to me. It had a small amount of meat filling that was prawn based yet tastier than your typical prawn! Loving it with the vinegarish sweet sauce and the fried shallots! p.s. this isn't the best white rose dumpling I had in Hoi An. 

Stuffed Squid with Caramelized Onions - the combination so appealed to me; the squid was stuffed with pork, shrimp, black fungus mushroom and glass noodles. But the deal breaker was the sauce it was soaked in! 

Made of lemongrass and onions, it was similar to braised sauce, and it went perfectly with plain white rice! It also helped that the squid was cooked till soft! One word; satsifying!

Vietnamese Banana Ice Cream - I can't resist bananas and since there's a separate tummy for desserts; I chose this over pudding and caramel flan. Actual item differed from the photo on the menu.

How best to describe it? Hmmm.. it's like frozen banana topped with coconut ice cream, coconut meat, coconut biscuits, peanuts and cherries. If you ask me, the banana was negligible compared to the coconut. 

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For my first meal in Hoi An, it was pretty satisfactory and I was most impressed with the stuffed squid and the white rose dumplings. Servers spoke good English and with its nice interior design; I can  totally understand why Morning Glory was popular with foreigners.

You can even sign up for cooking programmes to make signature Vietnamese dishes. For me, I am not keen to sign up for culinary classes. I wouldn't mind in Singapore given the access to local ingredients but not when I am overseas.

I only realized these bottles of sauces on our table after I was done with my meal; there's chilli sauce, chilli satay sauce and green chilli salt sauce. Doesn't quite matter to me as I am not big on sauce, unless with burgers and fried chicken.  

Address

106 Nguyễn Thái Học, Phường Minh An, 

Hội An, Quảng Nam, Vietnam

Map

As above.

Pricing

Hoi An Tea - 40,000 dong

Green Mango Salad with Pork & Prawns - 95,000 dong

White Rose Dumplings - 95,000 dong

Stuffed Squid with Caramelized Onions - 215,000 dong

Vietnamese Banana Ice Cream - 65,000 dong

Click here for my 8 Days' Itinerary to Danang (The City of Bridges) & Hoi An (The City of Lanterns) in Vietnam