Day 5 - Road Trip from Kaohsiung - Tainan - Sun Moon Lake (Yuchi Township, Nantou County)

Travelling date: 13th December 2018. For information, Syahirah was on medical leave during the trip as she just got discharged from the hospital after an operation on her left foot. The operated area took times to heal. Before the trip, it was Dr Ng from Mediviron Clinic who did the treatment (open the bandage, cleanse the wound, applied the medicine and bandaged back) for her. Dr Ng provided sufficient medicine for her to do the treatment twice a day on her own, at night and in the morning.

Our morning routine was quite simple. I usually will woke up first for Fajr prayer and 28 minutes after the Syuruk prayer, prepared breakfast, arrange clothing for everyone and packing. Our breakfast were usually bread, noodles cup, cereal and coffee. Next I woke Syahirah up first since she needed some time to do the treatment. In any trip, hubby will be the last person who is ready to leave so, it’s very important to get him to follow our departure time. And of course, I'm the time keeper who adamantly will try to get everyone to stick to my long list itinerary :)

Day 5 road trip was quite interesting as we had so many places to visit. Therefore, we left Kaohsing before 10.00 am. We first headed to Tainan, which is the oldest city in Taiwan since we discovered about a Halal restaurant from the Trip Advisor. The place is called Ali’s Kitchen operated by a mixed marriage couple. The husband is a Pakistani and the wife is a local Taiwanese. They met when they studied in US. They converted the front house as a kitchen that sells authentic Pakistani food. They happened to open the shop while doing some preparation for their business for the next day when we arrived. We were lucky and thankful that he was willing to serve us lunch and cooked a little more for us to pack for our dinner.

The couple are God sent people. They shared their life story and vice versa. Their 2 children’s were studied abroad, in America, both of them. They usually took turn to visit and will close the kitchen one or 2 months every year for that trip. They also open their house for the tourist to rent, duly advertise in Air BNB. Both of them are no longer working 9 to 5 job but running their kitchen and renting business on a full time basis. The wife even took us to the Bank for hubby to exchange some of his US Dollar, very helpful and very friendly indeed. Before we departed, the wife gave us lots of gifts, mostly foods and tea. By the way, Taiwan is famous for their tea, herbal and bubble tea etc.

We left Tainan city at around 1pm heading towards Sun Moon Lake, a lake located in Yuchi Township, Nantou County. But for those who wishes to explore Tainan city, you may visit their must-sees attraction such as the Confucius Temple, Chimei Museum and the historical Anping District. Be sure to make a trip to Hua Yuan (Flower) Night Market, as it was the most popular night market in Tainan.

A three-hour drive away from Gueiren District (where Ali Kitchen in Tainan is located) lies the massive and marvellous Sun Moon Lake. We explored Yuchi Township which has many attractions built around the enormous lake area as to boast the tourism in Taiwan. Sun Moon Lake clear waters and picturesque mountains in the backdrop is a must-visit for all nature lovers. Among its variety of attractions to visit around the area include the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway, Ita Thao Village and Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village. Sun Moon Lake is a great choice for first time visitors like us as we’d get to witness the stunning beauty of both the lakes and the mountains of Taiwan. We took so many photos over the site area as the time we were there was before the sunset. It makes all photos beautifully captured and really worth the trip and the money that we spent.

We adjourned to look for our hotel after the sunset which is located in less than 15 minutes’ drive. As it was a week days, the entire area wasn’t as busy as it was on the weekend. Hence we found no difficulties at all to park our car, looking for a restaurant to eat. There’s no crowd that was occupied the areas at night. After we secured the key to our room and placed or belonging inside, we straightaway explored the area looking for dinner. Yes, there is no specific Halal Restaurant that we could find so, we opted for pork’s free menu.

Remarks: majority of the photos in this entry were snapped from Sun Moon Lake. I'm still not use to new blogging setting in Google. Its not as friendly as before where I can edit and type photos description and arrange the setting like I'm typing in words, to say the least.