Took a long break before going back to my travel posts again!! :) 
For our fourth day in Taiwan, we headed straight for Taichung yet again, but we were more prepared since we already had a test run the day before from our Zhongshe Flower Market + Rainbow Village adventure. :) However, our trip to Taichung this time was for a tour we were going to take via KLOOK to explore the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village! ^_^

Like our first Taichung adventure, we had to take the train. But what changed is that, instead of taking the TRA that would have taken us 2 hours and less expensive (NT$ 375 - Php 660), we had to shift to HSR (the bullet train version), double the price (NT$ 700 - Php 1,299) cos it would only take us 1 hour to get to Taichung. We were at the station around 7AM, so we were so cautious about the time cos the meeting time was 8:40AM and the pickup place was limited to Taichung City. We live in Taipei, so it's impossible to get picked up there. Our pickup point of choice was Taichung Station.


This time we didn't get left behind by the train! >_< haha! 
Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village is said to be one of the most popular theme parks in Taiwan and if you're interested in taking a whole day tour here, you can easily avail of this via KLOOK for Php 2,987. My reminder would just be to take caution on which kind of tour you take cos there's an English, Chinese and Japanese tour guide and I think the particular one we got was Chinese. >_< This wasn't as difficult for us cos my Mom went on the tour too and she easily conversed with the tour guide in mandarin. But for Ana who doesn't speak the language and me, who isn't fluent, it would have been a tad misguided if we were alone cos he didn't speak any other language but Chinese. :( 


I thought this tour was the usual tour bus kind, but turns out it was a smaller scale with just this van and around 7 of us in total. :)
The tour itinerary:

• 8:00am-8:40am departure
• 10:00am Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village + Sun Moon Lake cable car
• Lunch (at own expense)
• 4:00pm Sun Moon Lake Wenwu Temple
• 4:40pm return

After we got picked up at the station, it actually took us quite some time to get to the place, so it's not your walking distance type. It's really best to go here on a tour to avoid getting lost. Finally when we arrived, I got so giddy and excited! I get to enjoy a theme park with Ana, who is always game for extreme rides! Haha!




They said during Cherry Blossom season that this place is filled with blooms! Unfortunately, we went summer season, so no Sakuras for us. :( During our stay here, the tour guide allowed us to explore the whole park on our own! :)
First order of business for us was to visit the Sun Moon Lake, so we rode the cable car!

A very excited candid photo of Ana and I in the cable car! haha!

We were lucky that the day we chose to go on this tour that there weren't much people in the park, so lining up for cable car or other rides didn't take forever. :)




The Sun Moon Lake is nature at its finest! The view is relaxing and the perfect place to just stroll around. :) We also saw some boats taking people around the lake, so I think you can avail of that if you had a lot of time on your hands. :) 
Next up, we decided to try another kind of Cable car that had a Crystal Cabin!



Feeling adventurous by sitting on the floor! >_< We definitely enjoyed the view on this ride!
After our cable car craze, we settled down to have lunch and the food was good! They also had a vegetarian option for Ana. :)



If you saw the map I posted above, you would notice that the park is really HUGE! So there were a lot of places to around. There's plenty of nature views, that is certain and we luckily got a tiny glimpse of the last cherry blossom at the park.♥ Pretty!
Of course, no theme park adventure would ever be complete without the rides! We rode this Formosan Gold Mine log and I was surprised that my mom went along! She's usually not into adrenaline-rushing rides! But yey! Avail!

The UFO ride!

Smile pa! Kunwari brave! haha!

The look of stress on my face! haha! " Ano ba tohng pinasok ko??" :))

For our finale, we rode on this 280 feet ride called UFO a.k.a. the tallest free fall ride in Taiwan! >_< My mom skipped this na! As you can see, super taas niya! Kita buong park haha! >_< You can witness my screaming via my IG Stories highlights! It was the scariest ride I ever risked my life on! haha! But glad Ana was beside me. =P

We also witnessed a cultural show and kind of gave us a glimpse of the Formosan Aboriginal Culture or the indigenous people of Taiwan. They also have several shows if you follow the map. :)
The last stop at this theme park for us was the European Palace Garden. 








Lakas maka- Sound of Music! ^_^ We wanted to take photos in every corner of this area, but unfortunately the rain was fickle during our stay. But we still made the most out of it. :)
The final destination of this tour was the Sun Moon Lake Wenwu Temple...








The history of the Wenwu Temple is that, before it actually used to be two temples sitting by The Sun Moon Lake and during those times people had to go via paddle boat to get to the other side of the lake and climb a long flight of steps to reach the temple. Today, there is no need to climb those steps anymore. There are 366 steps in total and each symbolizes birthdays of celebrities. People also started putting amulets by the steps to correspond to their birthdays as blessings. [Info from RTR]
Over all, I'm glad we did this tour with KLOOK! :) It was really fun and a different experience! Reliable and love how easy it is to go to places now cos of site and the many tour options!
For more details about this tour >>>CLICK HERE<<<
I'm down to blogging my last Taiwan entry for this April 2018 trip and it's how I celebrated my birthday and last day in Taiwan! ^_^
For other TRAVEL related posts, visit: https://www.artsyfartsyava.com/search/label/travel :)