Taiwan Winter 2013: 【台中】 One day trips from TaiChung + Fengjia Night Market 逢甲夜市 小吃美食

On my previous post, i expressed my regret that we were only staying in Taichung 

for a mere 2 nights which was not enough! In Taichung you can not only shop and eat like kings and Queens, if you want to see some interesting sights.. more of a nature fan etc, 

you can check out the below two option of One Day Trips that i initially planned, 

but didn't get to go because;

1 - time constrain

2 - wanted to shop more in Taichung

LOL Next time i get to go to Taichung, so gonna stay there for like 5 days or so, 

so i can shop and eat and travel and make 1-day trips to all these places i want to go! Sometimes when i go to Taiwan i wish i'm a cow and have like 4 stomach so i can eat as much as i want and fill myself with food that i can't eat in Singapore. Hahahah yes i've officially gone mad.

From Taichung you can travel to Xitou 溪頭 or XinShe 新社, 

both places are not far from taichung, maybe 1hour or so? 

For Xitou i really really really wanted to go to the 溪頭妖怪村 Monster Village )': 

if you're planning a trip there please take lots of pictures and lemme see wokay? Envious much boo boo.

★

【 台中》 溪頭 》 台中】

NT $420 per pax  http://www.ntbus.com.tw/0022.htm

Inclusive of: 台中-溪頭 
2-way ticket

溪頭自然教育園區入園券 (支付100元(購買半票)方能入園) +

溪頭妖怪村優惠商品兌換券 +  
杉林溪森林生態渡假園區門票優惠券(可享門票每張100元優惠)

Bus Schedule: http://www.ntbus.com.tw/033.htm

·          溪頭妖怪村 Monster Village [http://www.mingshan.com.tw/]

·          溪頭自然教育園 [http://www.exfo.ntu.edu.tw/sitou/cht/]

·          杉林溪森林生態渡假園區 [http://www.goto307.com.tw/]

【台中 》 新社 》 台中】 

Xinshe Castle 新社古堡花園歐式古堡  http://rtaiwanr.com/157/Taiwan/taichung/xinshe-castle

Moncoeur　http://www.moncoeur.com.tw/ 

Mushroom Street 蘑菇街 is recommended by leon's tw friend

If your trip happen to be in the cherry blossom season around feb-march, 

you can check out these places to go 賞梅:

梅林親水岸 - http://viablog.okmall.tw/blogview.php?blogid=967

中社觀光花市 - http://viablog.okmall.tw/blogview.php?blogid=976

新社沐心泉休閒農場 Spring Mountain - http://viablog.okmall.tw/blogview.php?blogid=413

桃李河畔景觀餐廳 - http://viablog.okmall.tw/blogview.php?blogid=416

★

Hehe hope this helps a little if you're planning for your trip, to find out your options of

what to do in Taichung or how you can travel from Taichung.

Oh hello, 逢甲夜市. 

Where you can shop, eat, shop, eat, shop, eat. No judgement, cos everyone's doin' it yo.

Both in our new kicks from Taichung hohoho. Love the loafers, so comfy i'm always wearing it to work or to anywhere really. So adorbs, if i see these again during my birthday Taipei trip next week i'm so gonna grab another one or two of these in other colors. 

Lol omg i'm turning into an auntie, find a favorite bra, BUY 5436423564 pieces of it in all the colors available, because WHY NOT RIGHT? FML I'm turning 23 years old. but but but.. it's like yesterday that i just celebrated my 21, in my awesome Mardi Gras 21st party! 

...I'm officially depressed because i'm so old. 

So i'm going to stare at my amazingly adorable gellish nails done by my genius manicurist, Chloe from Milly's to lift me out of this terrible mood. Is there such a thing as TOO much cuteness? 

 1 little bunnie, 2 little bunnie, 3 little bunnie. HOP! 1 fatty panda, 2 fatty panda, 2 fatty panda. WOOTS!

My manicurist is AWESOME, I was about done when her next client sat down beside me and she basically went cooing and ahhing and half-shouted "OMG THAT PANDA IS SO CUTEEEEE!!!"

http://millys.org/

For appointment call Far East Plaza: 67376723, Bugis 63384137 or sms 83835395.

Oh yes back to Fengjia Night Market, oh oh oh this little bee honey eggie thing IS delicious!!!

Oh the oysters! Oysters, just slightly grilled but still raw-ish, leon insisted to grill it cos he is a chicken and because i have an extremely strong stomach i can eat everything and i still can't poop. HAHAHAHA others might call it a problem but it's an extremely awesome problem to have on a holiday where you won't want to be hopping around OMG OMG OMG I NEED TO SHIT AND I CAN'T FIND THE POOPERS!!!

So chicken leon ate 1 and i ate 3, it is SO GOOD can? I wanted more but he very promptly dragged me away, humpf! 

PS: When we were back in Taipei and i was craving this taichung one sooooo much, we saw a oyster stall at the night market too and i was super happy so we ordered like a dozen or so but after i ate my first oysters i was like BLAH?! OMG THIS SUCKS? I want to be back in Taichung naaaaaao! 

Never imagine a day i would prefer the food somewhere else other than in Taipei!!! 0.0

OH THIS IS GOOD! Adorable packing ttm!! We had like 2-3 servings of this, we had one.. walked away for about 100m and we were like OMG WE TOTALLY SHOULD GO BACK AND HAVE MORE RIGHT?! Yay great choice we went back for like 2-3 servings more.

The sea salt original flavor is DA BOMB. EAT. PLEASE.

The stall owner said the lala is VERY fresh and stuff cos they farm them themselves *leon private joke.. my preeeeeecious* lol ok nobody would get that except for us really so don't kick yourself for not understanding what the heck i just said.

OH OH OH THIS IS ANOTHER EPIC ONE! 
Same story, awesome in taichung, ate in taipei.. Eeeeeew disappointing much!

So this is called 懒人虾 erm translates to lazy people prawns? 

Lol basically you don't have to peel the prawns at all before eating, perfect for me seriously. 

I think we had the original and bbq or sth, SOOO EFFING GOOD. 

The epic thing is just beside the bbq area, there is like this tank with all the prawns swimming around, then you turn your head 10 degrees to the right you see all the prawns ZZAAA ZAAA kena bbq already. 

Erm hahah i know you wanna tell us your prawns is crazy fresh and yummy,

 but seriously, i can never get that visual out of my head - EVER.

Oh yes and there's the stall with the freakishly adorable thing... 

if you can't remember / cannot tell what it is.. read this! 

http://theluckiestchick-.blogspot.sg/2013/01/taiwan-winter-2013-taichung-fengjia.html

To read all my other travelogues, hit the Travelogues button on the top navigation bar! (:

Hehehe, gonna go continue couch-potatoing and watching FRIENDS, 

i've just completed all 7 seasons of Sex in the city and i'm into 3rd season of FRIENDS. 

4 days more to my taiwan birthday long weekend yay!

♡ Loves, TheLuckiestChick.

Snippets of my life

My colleague bought me this awesome makeup tools detergent from daiso that works really well! 

All you have to do is just wet your dirty sponge/ make up brush, squirt some of the detergent all over and rub rub/squeeze squeeze! Almost instantly going from eeeky #Beauty Blender to squeaky clean as new! (:

★

 

Went dinner+shopping after the Guerlian Beauty event with Nadnut and we ended up with Twinnie #panda boy shorts from #topshop super Chio glitter clutch from H&M and colorful reflective shades! 

Hehe girly time out with nadnut- So much fuuuun! 

Hahaha I think the panda rocks my new sunnies no? Perfect fit.

Oh and I freaking looooove my new bikini too! It's been awhile since I shopped for swimwear I was really looking for a more retro-ish cute one piece but this one caught my eye!

Wearing the latest #Guerlain Gloss D'ENFER in shade 468 and its so my color! 

I so wanna try the lip rouge too.

 ★

Aww the fiancé found this adorable little cafe #Choipinette and brought me there for brunch!

Delicious French toast & berry compote their brunch sets [avg $20] comes with a pot of tea/coffee + a juice! Pretty worth the $ if you ask me  

Choipinette

607 Bukit Timah Rd, 269708  

Contact no: 6466 0613

 ★

Thank you #p&g for sending me the latest perfume by Escada, #EspeciallyEscada. 

I love how this scent is so sweet + but not too much so it still smells very elegant! 

I think it's perfect for both play + work! Isn't the perfume bottle soooo pretty? 

Love the Pink X Gold combi! Glam & sweet! 

The fragrance opens with an intense and sparkling top note of pear that combines with the sweet, exotic and musky notes of Ambrette seeds. Fronted by globally renowned supermodel, #BarRefaeli!

♡ Loves, TheLuckiestChick.

Sponsored Review: Liese, Japanese No. 1 - Daily Enhance Styling Series

Since I've started having my ombre hair my hair ends that has been bleached repeatedly has been extremely dry until recently when my stylist Isabel at Bugis Essensuals dyed my hair deep violet and did the Japanese hair treatment for me and it's been looking much healthier!

Just because I've gone dark doesn't mean I wanna have boring hair so recently I bought myself a Philips 25mm ceramic curling thong [have been curling with a straightener last time] and I've been looking out for styling products to use prior to curling/blow drying to protect my newly healthier looking hair!

Liese, being the Japanese No. 1 stylist brand have recently release their latest - Daily Enhance Styling Series, which really caught my eye. This latest series of 4 hair styling products promises to give natural and manageable hairstyles easily that can last all day.

Whether you're into the straight, frizz-free flawless-please! hair, kawaii airy bob, or wavy hair, these products

 does not stiffen your hair, keeping your hair style light and airy and holding that natural look throughout the day.

Straight or curly, you can enhance your daily appearance easily.

Liese Daily Enhance Styling Series gives you the confidence to look just the way you want!

★

I normally wear my hair straight during weekdays 
unless i have more time to prepare in the morning then i might curl it!

But you know, how often do you you wake up with perfect frizz free hair?! 
Well let's get real, most morning we'll wake up with pieces of hair sticking in weird directly, 
people with short fringes like me will have our fringe sticking in weird direction. 
It definitely takes styling products and a couple minutes with the hair dryer to get presentable hair like this.

How to use:

6-8 spritz with the Airy Style Blow-Dry Water all over my head and 
I'll usually spray more on my fringe since it's usually the most horrible looking thing 
on my head in the morning lol.

Blow dry for a couple minutes and there you're good to go! 
From messy horribly all over the place bed hair to tidy and straight but yet lightly voluminous.

Not perfect but good enough for me! 
I love the straight but airy playful slightly tousled look this styling product is able to help me achieve 
 especially with the killer awesome layers my stylist from Bugis Essensuals gave me!

Smooth straight frizz free hair that doesn't just fall flat is only made possible by Liese's innovative polymer technology which keeps the weightless yet style maintaining power. 

 ★ 

I actually really love experimenting with curls but since it's not something i have time to do during the weekdays, i usually reserve my curling thong fun to weekends! 

As i mentioned i just recently bought my first curling thong and I haven't really caught on the skill of perfectly curling my hair, but i sure as hell know that i better apply some products to protect my hair from all the nasty heat prior to curling!

Did i mention i really really really love my awesome dark violet hair Isabel from Bugis Essensuals dyed for me? If you're thinking of heading there to get your hair done, do it! Last week my boss went and did a total change of hair color and it was GORGEOUS.

★ Mention "TheLuckiestChick" to enjoy 10% off your total bill at Bugis Essensuals.★ 

The above darker violet straight hair was taken maybe 2 weeks ago, because I had bleached hair from my previous color so it faded to this GORGEOUS violet. 

I absolutely love it and i think i'll be doing this color for awhile! (:

How to use: 

Basically I pump 2-3 pumps of  the Frizz-Free Styling Milk on my palms, and like I'm combing my hair with my finger, i apply the styling milk all over the ends of my hair. I only apply to the ends because i generally have pretty straight and flat hair so i don't want to overweight the top part of my hair which might make it look really flat and totally eeek!

After apply i would go on and curl my hair and because this styling milk contains smoothing polymer that coats every strand of my hair so buh-bye to frizzy, damaged looking hair! Makes it much easier and faster to curl my hair because it makes my hair so smooth.

Experimenting my everyday hair styling from weekday-weekend with Liese styling products!

Do check out their facebook page for updates and promotion and tips on how to style your gorgeous hair even better with Liese! https://www.facebook.com/LieseSG

♡ Loves, TheLuckiestChick.

Taiwan Winter 2013: 【台中】 miyahara 宮原眼科 has the best Pineapple Tarts!

I've been baaaaaaaaad. Haha I'm blogging about my Taiwan trip like 5 months after the trip.

The fiance is going to be in Taiwan for 2-3 weeks in July for JJ Lin concert tour and my birthday is 5th July so he's flying me over for a short/long weekend trip for 4 days! heh I'll be flying there alone and back thou, but it's not my first time flying alone much less flying to Taiwan where I've been a couple of times and I'm pretty much as familiar as a frequent tourist can be! 
Absolutely confident i will not get lost. hahaha like duh it's Taipei how do you get lost there?!

He'll be having the concert rehearsals during the afternoon so he'll spend time with me until lunch then i can go shop and havoc or whatever on my own [hehe] and he will meet me in the evening to go gai gai!

✞

Oh so I've had many emails asking me about INO Home, B&B in Taichung that I blogged about here: http://theluckiestchick-.blogspot.sg/2013/02/taiwan-winter-2013-ino-home-cafe.html

It's best to call them to enquire about availability then they can hold the room for you immediately on the line and you don't have to go thru the hassle of paying the deposit. I realize with many TW Hotels/Minsu/B&B if you email them directly they will ask you to put a deposit but if you call. no need! Just pay on the spot when you're there. 

But i always follow up with an email confirmation stating i was Ms. ___ who just called earlier and you confirmed date: _____ of stay for TWD____ in total and ask for a confirmation.

INO Home's contact no + website is at the end of the post.

Yes it's an amazing stay, food is more than awesome, great quaint little B&B. 

✞

If you're researching on planning your Taiwan trip, and how to get to Taichung, I blogged about getting there directly from Tao Yuan airport here: http://theluckiestchick-.blogspot.sg/2013/02/taiwan-winter-2013-day-1-getting-from.html

which is nearer and faster than getting to Taichung from Taipei, so maybe you can consider starting your trip from Taichung and travel down to Taipei.

I actually really regretted only staying in Taichung for 2 days, If they say the food in Taipei is good, the food in Taichung is 10X better! And i had a whole list of cute cafes i wanted to visit, so bummed that i won't be able to go to Taichung on my coming birthday trip to Taiwan too since leon has to be in Taipei. Bah!

The shopping is actually cheaper, ok not like ALOT ALOT ALOT cheaper, but if you bought something in Taichung at lets say TWD400 and you see the exact same thing in Taipei for TWD550, although not a hell-lot-of difference, but CHEAP THRILL man cheap thrill!

But anyway, we went to miyahara 宮原眼科 when we were in Taichung:

uh-uh no I'm not there to get a new pair of glasses.

miyahara 宮原眼科

It has this cool old school library retro-vibe that i absolutely adore.

They sell the BEST pineapple tarts. I like this even more than what i usually bring home from Taipei!

Can't hurt that the packaging is gorgeous! Huge hit with my family and colleagues.

I want my 喜饼[wedding cakes] to be so pretty + yummy + cool too! 

Wonder if they ship to Singapore, lol BTW our wedding date is out! 18 Oct 2015 :D

I'm excited but right now I'm still sitting on it and procrastinating because now i gotta do my side of the wedding guest list because leon could re-use his sister's wedding guest list and just + or - people off the list, not fair!

After we're done getting all the Pineapple Tarts + Sun cakes.

Time to sit down for a sweet little drink! Isn't the packing of the 太阳饼[sun cakes] so pretty?! 

I'm a total sucker for packaging.

★ Visit: miyahara . 宮原眼科 
Must buy: Pineapple Tarts
http://www.miyahara.com.tw/en/index.html

台中市中山路20號

(04)2227-1927

After that we went to 一中街 Yi Zhong Street to continue shopping!

It's a very large shopping area so i don't think i even covered it although we shopped there for 2 days.

Oh this delicious fried squid wasabi thing.

♡ Loves, TheLuckiestChick.

Estetica's Brillage Radiance Facial - BEST facial experience till date.

I always believe that to achieve flawless, perfect skin you have to combine a set of good home skin care and also go for monthly "maintenance" facials to really get all the gunk out professionally to prevent pimple scars etc especially like myself I have oily and congested skin partly because I'm always constipated boo boo so the "toxins" go right to my face of course.

The fact that i have to apply makeup everyday for work doesn't help either, my pores only have that few precious hours to breathe at night so i definitely have to go back for my monthly facials to "maintain" boo boo not young already better maintain now haha

So Sunday, I went to Estetica in Plaza Singapura right after church because i really wanted to try out their signature treatment -Estetica's Brillage Radiance Facial!

Walked into Estetica that was located right by the escalator on level 6 and was greeted by the friendly branch manager, Alice who was my super attentive therapist for the day!

Went to the consultation room and was served a cup of yummy hot tea.

Filled in a short form then Alice did a skin analysis via the skin scanner,

Alice said that i have oily skin and it's pretty congested and sensitive and not to mention my skin is looking pretty dull, lots of redness around my lower cheek/chin area and some pimple scars cos i have itchy hands and i cannot stand having pimples and not squeezing them, plus my crazy boyfriend love to squeeze my pimples!! [yes i know right major no no LOL]

SEE!!! ☹ ☹ ☹ 

With my terribly congested skin + redness even with makeup also cannot cover the bumps and have a flawless base. So the best is to go for monthly facials and maintain to have a flawless base then eventually don't even have to make up already!

 

So we proceed to the treatment room and i was left to change into a comfy wrap dress and Alice explained to me that Estetica understands that sometimes facial treatments go from 1 hours to 2.5hours and sometimes customers gets really achy from lying on uncomfy treatment beds 

So they worked with a chiropractor who advised them to specially design and customized their ergonomic-friendly  treatment bed so every customer can adjust the bed around the back and knee area to their preferred most comfy height to be in an absolute comfortable position throughout the treatment! 

So thoughtful right! All that for the ultimate comfort of the customer. Really good for me because I really cannot lie flat for long if not my back would start to ache!

So after removing my makeup, Alice did a double cleanse & scrub and my skin was good to go to start remove all the gunk through extraction and a series of pampering massages!

Boo boo look at how terrible my skin is!! 
Lately it's like this redness and breaking out thing is a "permanent resident" 
and not only a pre-period thing ): So depressing. 

I just realized that time where I had perfect skin is when my grandma bought me facial packages and die die make me go like once every 3 weeks and i had really good skin then. I really need to be good and go for my monthly facials from now on!

Did a quick face steam to open the pores so extraction would be less painful, my skin was really congested cos it's been a couple months since i last did a facial so as Alice extracted she also applied a cool compress to calm down the areas that have been extracted, after the extraction 
[YAY TO CLEAN SQUEAKY SKIN!]

Alice applied a high concentration of hyaluronic acid and did a "cold" machine to really calm down my super sensitive, post-extracted skin and it was really really soothing.

After that it was followed by a really really good face, neck and shoulder massage! Feeling so pampered the massage really hits to spot man. i can't even remember when was the last time i went for a massage but i remember thinking while enjoying the massage that the fiance would enjoy himself SO much if he was here! 

After the massage, Alice did a Vitalift A+ Brillage Mask which i really love! 

The texture of the mask is really unique as it's made of organic nano-fiber and
 with 3D Skin Tech, it allows the mask to sit firmly on the skin as compared to normal facial mask, which allows the extremely potent brightening treatment essence to really sink into the deepest layers of your skin to ensure 100% absorption of all the goodness!

❆ ❆ ❆

After the treatment my skin felt SO AWESOME! 
Like it's finally breathing for the first time in months hahaha terrible i know, but I'll definitely go back to Estetica for my monthly maintenance facial! 

This was taken right after the facial treatment:

I was really SHOCKED! I was like thinking wah sian confirm have to walk out of here looking like a bloody tomato with all the redness from the extraction.

I think it's all thanks to the magic of the Vitalift A+ Brillage Mask that really lighten all the red spots and soothe my sensitive redden skin so quickly and my fears of looking like a walking tomato 

was just "POOF", instantly gone!

A good skin care range at home alone is really not enough, with only ONE SESSION my skin that gone from been looking terribly dull, congested and lots of redness actually became glowy! You can compare from the above and see that the redness and pimple scars faded and subsided by SO MUCH!

To be honest usually elsewhere I really don't see that much lasting results from one facial, at most it feels really clean or that i really enjoy the shiok and pamping experience.

But after just 1 session of Brillage Radiance Facial - it's been 4 days since and my skin still looks really glowy!! Best of all my breakouts have finally subsided!

- This is definitely what i would call time + money well spent. 
One of the best facials I have had for a long time. ☺

❤ ❤ ❤

Can't wait for my next pampering session at Estetica!

I also brought back 2 items from Estetica which i have started to use since sunday and i'll be reviewing them very soon :D

Exclusive promotion for The Luckiest Chick's readers:

To try out the Estetica's Brillage Radiance Facial that i did, 

there's a promo trial price of only $33 [usual price is a whooping $168] 

All you have to do is fill in your contact details in the form below and Estetica will call you ASAP to arrange your pampering Brillage Radiance Facial: 

http://tinyurl.com/ogm7ur2


★


Estetica’s 8 outlets are conveniently located throughout Singapore in 
Punggol, Serangoon, Tampines, Yishun, Marine Parade, 
Dhoby Ghaut, Choa Chu kang & Bukit Panjang.

You can check out their website at www.esteticabeauty.com to find out more 
or "LIKE" their fb page: www.facebook.com/esteticabeautysg for regular updates and promotions!

This facial is suitable for almost all skin type:
☹ Dehydrated Skin 
☹ Wrinkles & Fine lines
☹ Enlarged pores
☹ Dull and Tired skin

I think i hit bull's eye on all 4 man. hahaha but it's really amazing to see such awesome results from ONE session. Trust me, you will love how your skin simply GLOWS after this treatment! 
Really $$$ well-spent! (:

UPDATE: 
 It's been 2 weeks since I did the facial at Estetica, some of my friends commented my skin looks better & clearer + more glowy unlike before it was very dull and i had lots of redness due to sensitive skin + pimples around my chin area that is very visible even after applying foundation/BB cream. 

I think from ONE session of facial + I've been using 2 products from Estetica, having noticable results not only by yourself but even your friends is really impressive!




GLOW with Estetica.  
Book your next pampering facial now at http://tinyurl.com/ogm7ur2

♡ Loves, TheLuckiestChick