After having our breakfast at the In One City Inn, we enjoyed a 5-minute leisure walk to our stationery bus, which was parked by the main roadside. In the bus, we did some laughing yoga exercise led by Kak Liza, who is a certified instructor for laughing yoga. I had heard about laughing yoga, but I never knew it was quite a trend in Malaysia.
Masjid Taichung
Our first destination is Masjid Taichung, which took us approximately 15 minutes to reach from our hotel. The need for a Muslim praying house can be traced back to the times of Chinese Civil War in 1949 where the Chinese Muslims fled to Taiwan for safety. From the Qi Yulao houses, the praying house moved to its first Japanese-style building. The current mosque was completed in 1990 and is currently maintained by Ikatan Muslim Indonesia Taiwan.
Address: No. 457, Da-duen S. Road, Taichung City, 408.
TIPS: There are many name cards for halal restaurants in Taichung.
Bubble Tea at Tptea
A visit to Taiwan will not be complete if you don’t try the famous Taiwanese bubble tea. At first, we wanted to visit the original tea shop of one of the leading tea shop known as Tptea. However, we had to leave early to Alishan Mountain to beat the weekend traffic. We tried the Tptea branch at Chiayi town. Taichung is the hometown of TP Tea which was founded in July 2005 to honour the tea-drinking culture from the Tang Dynasty.
I tried the pearl milk tea TP Tea is famous for. It suited my taste bud in that the level of sweet is not high. Instead of using ice, the milk tea drink is chilled to keep cool. A cup of milk tea costs TWD40/TWD45. You can add topping at a price of TWD10/each topping. One recommended topping is green bean topping.
Long Yun Leisure Farm
From Chiayi town, the bus took us uphill through sharp hairpins for almost 1 hour before arriving at Long Yun Leisure Farm. The mountaineous terrain was covered in thick mist even at 12pm making it very dangerous to drive. The one-way road was narrow. I nearly had car sickness and I quickly took a nap to kill the nauseous sensation.
The Long Yun Leisure Farm is located mid way to the summit of Alishan Mountain. You should expect cold weather at 1,500m elevation. Long Yun Leisure Farm is top ten leisure farms in the whole of Taiwan.
Entrance at Long Yun Leisure Farm
We were greeted by the owner, Jaden and his family members. It is amazing to see how the family of 4 run the resort which has 45 rooms with less than 5 helpers. Imagine running the resort at full capacity of 150 guests at one time and the family have to lead the DIY activities themselves. Long Yun Leisure Farm has 5 buildings of accommodation; each with different standard.
The newest one is the building that we stayed for the trip facing the tea plantation.
I stayed at Room 511 which was more spacious than the rest in same building. The downside is that you need to walk up a small hill to go to the room.
The room is Muslim friendly as the kiblat and 2 sejadah are provided in the room.
Other room facilities are TV, hair dryer, bath tub and lounge chair. There are plenty of slippers you can slip on because the floor is too cold especially at night.
Another thing worth mentioning here is how comfy the mattresses and pillows were. As a frequent traveller, there will be very few hotels and resorts that will stick to mind for having the fluffy mattress and pillow. For me, Long Yun Leisure Farm will surely be one to remember.
I went to check out the other participants’ room and they had different room style.
The food served at Long Yun Leisure Farm was one of the best I have had during the trip. For lunch, we had sumptuous food prepared by the lady boss herself.
Home-cooked halal luncheon at Long Yun Leisure Farm
Deep fried sun and moon leaf
Prawn in sour sauce
Seafood omelette
Spicy chicken
Tofu Soup
Post meal happiness