First Stop: Rainbow village (台中彩虹眷村)
So as usual I look really dull in first stop photos because im really tired! But this time im particularly energized because of this colorful place. So the history of this village:
a community built in the late 1940s and the 1950s to serve as provisional housing for Nationalist soldiers, but ended up becoming permanent settlements. Over the years, many military dependents' villages have suffered from urban problems such as housing dereliction, abandonment, urban decay, and urban slum. This drab place has now been transformed into a beautiful and vibrant tourist hotspot, thanks to the colorful paintings of Huang Yung-fu, an -year-old veteran from Taichung City. (source)The paintings consists of famous TV personalities, plants, animals such as birds and buffaloes, and aborignal people. These houses were supposed to be demolished but Huang Yung fu decided to paint them in attempt to prevent that.
More camwhoring!
Really love this village! And some people still live in those houses... It became a tourist attraction tho. Love the vibrant colors. Makes me so happy!
Second stop: Nantou Sky Bridge
So.... I have height phobia. First thing when I saw this I was like "fuck" and I have to cross that bridge to get over to the other side to explore. T-T Barely took any photos of the scenery because I just held onto my aunt and looked down on the steps to walk LOL. Besides there were only trees and more trees...
So glad that I reached the end omg :')
I guess going to the other end was worth it because there were cute animals!! Like bunnies hahaha. The mature ones were freaking huge la wow. While the baby ones were really cute and tiny!
*adorbs*
Sleep all day errr day
Then there were shops having small business so we decided to try out games like archery and the rifle. I swear archery is so hard?! My arrows shoot until... Damn fail ah.. Like no energy. But yeah its really hard. Sudden admiration for those old warlords who ride on horses and shoot arrows wow man how do you even aim on a riding horse bro?
As you can see, we're supposed to shoot those white wood plates hanging in rows in the front in the sequence of rows using the rifle! Pretty simple ^^
Walked off from that area and went further up, totally countryside man.
Rows and rows of plantation surrounding me.
End up making our way to this temple. Its in the midst of renovation because it's really old! However they need more money for the renovation that's why they're still not done.
Drove down to this strawberry farm!
The owner was really kind so he sold us some freshly picked strawberries! Since all these will be packed and sold in the market.
Driving further down we found this small house.. Or restaurant/eatery. Pretty rundown lol and there were flies everywhere.. But oh well countryside life.
See what I meant by the Taiwan culture is a little bit diff from the Singapore chinese culture? The tze char is kinda diff. The way they cook the dish and garnish it is so much different!
Third stop: Xitou Monster Village (溪頭怪物村)
Really popular tourist attraction! So everything in this village is monster themed. Really love how they decorated the village with the statues and even the roofs like the pic below. This village is pretty much Japanese style to commemorate the friendship of 2 people when Japan took over Taiwan.
During the period of Taiwan under Japanese rule, Kubota (久保田) and Katsuichi Matsubayashi (松林勝一) were close friends and worked together in Xitou. Kubota was Japanese and Matsubayashi was Taiwanese (in that period, all locals were forced to use Japanese name). Their friendship lasted years even after Japan lost WWII and Kubota backed to Japan. Kubota run a bakery with his wife and tried to make their life better after WWII in Japan. Kubota named the bakery as Matsubayashi Kubota. However, thing didn’t go well. Years later, the bakery was destroyed by fire and his wife was died. Later, Matsubayashi knew about it by mail and sent some money to Kubota. In 1974, Matsubayashi received another mail from Kubota. Kubota mentioned in the mail that he had a wooden sculpture and wanted to give it to Matsubayashi as a present. In the end, they couldn’t meet each other in Japan for one last time. Before Matsubayashi died, he told his descendants to finish his last wish. In 2009, their descendants finally had a chance to make it happen. Now, the wooden sculpture is put in Ming Shan Resort. In order to commemorate their friendship, Ming Shan Resort built this village and named it after Matsubayashi.
That gate behind (torii) is a traditional Japanese gate marks the transition from the profane to the sacred.
Love all the exterior deco! There're shops lined all the way down in those cute houses! Bought really cute souvenirs here (:
Headed to the hotel finally! This hotel is pretty special for our Taiwan trip because it consists of a personal hotspring WOOOOO and the room is so big. Expensive though. It was really cold throughout the whole time I was in the monster village because it was around the mountain. And heading to this hotel was colder because its on a mountain hahaha. All I needed was some warmth.
Headed out to explore the area around the mountain because we had to get dinner! Another bridge sigh. Thank god it wasn't that high...
Best shrimp dish ever wooooo although sometimes its kinda annoying that the crispy parts poke your throat. -_-
Short update
Last day of work at Charles & Keith! Was so glad to end work but at the same time I was pretty sad to leave my nice colleagues. Only took a pic with my manager tho. Will go back to visit hahaha.
17/3/14
19/3/14
Met up with the XOXO group! Chem tuition group actually! Went back to the tuition centre to meet up with our tuition teacher to have dinner. Gave him a periodic table that can be hung on the wall from Typo (:
Photoshopped beatrice in because she couldn't make it LOLOL.
Okay that's all! Flying off to Taiwan again on tues night woohoo
