Every year my friends and I would go on a holiday.... DURING MONSOON SEASON. Hahaha!! Last year we went to Phuket. That's because the tickets are much cheaper and because we booked our Taiwan flight tickets one year in advance, it came up to only about SGD200+ per person! Usually a Taiwan round trip would cost at least SGD500+. And I'm talking about budget airlines.
Our itinerary:
- From Taoyuan Airport to Miaoli
- From Miaoli to Taichung
- From Taichung to Taipei
橄榄树 民宿 - Olive Tree Min Su
The 民宿 (min su - homestay inn) in Miaoli was the most beautiful place I've ever stayed in. I stayed in a minsu before, some years ago, but it was just an okie minsu, like nothing special.
But for this one, it was love at first sight the moment we arrived. I was so awestruck my vocab suddenly shrunk to only "SO NICE!! SO NICE!!" Hahaha!
橄榄树 民宿 - Olive Tree Min Su
I love the little potted plants that were everywhere. Greatly inspired by Olive Tree Minsu. In my own home I shall have many little potted plants. And random little decorations that will take me forever to clean and I will give up and one day throw all of them away.
The guys' room.
The girls' room.
See the colorful bottles of liquid? I was working on a post for SilkBath shower gels. So hardworking! *pats self. LOL.
Went out to explore the place further and these photos can hardly justify everything I loved about this place.
Every corner tells a different story... I want my house to be like that too! So homely, with unique individual pieces of decoration all over the place. The different corners are like chapters of a book that when put together, make a complete storybook. <3 You can tell just how much love and effort the owners of this minsu have put into the place.
Everything was perfect, from the weather to flora and fauna to paintings to deco... oh, except for the fact that I had 9 mosquito bites in less than an hour of walking around. But that's just me - I'm a mosquito magnet. My friends didn't get bitten much, or not at all. TSK!
It was beautiful even at night.
I felt like I was on the set of a Korean or Taiwanese drama. Everything's so perfect. It must be hardwork to clean and maintain though!
橄榄树民宿 is actually pretty far in, kinda up a mountain so we had to hire a van to bring us downhill, back into civilization. Lol. It's always more economic to travel in large groups coz we took a van from Taoyuan Airport and paid much less per person than my girl friend who came on a later flight and had to travel on her own by taxi from the airport.
I'm usually not a big fan of crepes, but the crepes from a stall we chanced upon was OUT OF DA WORLD.
This was the 香酥起士可丽饼 - garlic butter crepe. MY SUPER FAVORITE, we all shared one and then later I bought 1 for myself, ALL FOR MYSELF.
I wish we had more than the 5 flavors we tried!! But we were on the way to dinner and wanted to reserve space. BAH! Dinner wasn't even good, the 板条 (something like 板面 - ban mian) we had wasn't good at all! I'd rather eat 10 crepes than that.
Rise and shine!! Imagine waking up to a view like this. Blissful! 😀
I'm glad I brought a plaid shirt! Certainly felt very country-style here!
Breakfast was simple - toast, eggs, juice - but it was the gorgeous room in which we ate and company of friends that made the experience so unforgettable.
I brought only one foundation for this trip. No wait, it's not even a foundation-foundation, more like a primer cum foundation cum sunscreen - my super favorite Lioele Dollish Veil Vita BB (get it here!)that I bring with me everywhere.
Shall do a review on it soon! ^_^*
Then it was time to leave Miaoli for Taichung. I was sad to leave, but honestly, more than one or two night's stay would have become boring. There's really nothing much to do after you're done exploring the place.
It started to drizzle and the lens got stained with rain droplets and the cameraman + inn owner used his shirt to wipe the lens. I was like "NOOOOO!!!!!!!" ='(
向天湖 民宿 - Xiang Tian Hu Min Su
向天湖民宿 (xiang tian hu min su) was the alternative min su to our 橄榄树民宿. We came round just to take a look. See the white house across the river? That's the min su. It was quite a walk from where we were.
I think my photos make the place look better than what we actually saw. HAHA! There was absolutely nothing to do or look at. So glad we stayed at Olive Tree!
If you ever visit Taiwan, do opt to stay in a minsu. It's really quite a different experience from putting up at a normal hotel. 😀
Have you ever stayed in a minsu before? Care to share? =D
Read the rest of my Taiwan trip here!
