Some time after we woke up, our doorbell rang...woo! it's the delivery of our breakfast ~ sandwiches & packet drinks nicely placed in a basket. We packed the breakfast into our backpacks to save for later, while we went to try out the local breakfast stall nearby. I love the taiwanese beef noodles & enjoyed a piping hot bowl. Afterwhich, we strolled to Taichung Station to purchase train tickets to Houli (后里). In Taichung, the best way to explore the rural places would be via train. I learnt that we still need to chk the screen for the next train timing and which platform to wait. This part is still rather confusing. While waiting for our train, we took some casual shots of the artpieces as Taichung Station itself is also a point of interest!
20mins later, we reached our destination and we hopped onto one of the waiting cabs outside Houli Station. The cab driver chatted wif us and drove us to the Chung-She Flower Market (中社觀光花社). As many as 12 species of flora were in blossom for the month of feb! The admission was NT100 for adults.
Upon stepping in, we immediately fell in love wif this garden! In Sg, there's no chance for us to enjoy such a sight... Today's weather was cloudy and breezy, which made a wonderful stroll in the gardens. Not only were there different types of flora, such as tulips & lilies... the garden was also creatively decorated. The very first plot that greeted us were cute dwarfs! There's also a windmill that resembles 'little dutch' which was a hotspot for portraits!
I decided to utilise my 50mm for some close-up shots of the colourful flowers... Juz as I was shooting, I saw a couple in wedding gown accompanied by their photographer posing at the windmill! I took a quick shot of them! This place is popular for wedding shots too :)
Besides the popular windmill, another hotspot was the white grand piano situated among the red floral bed. There were also benches and swings strategically placed among the different plots of flora. Never had I experience winter in a place filled wif so many lovely flowers! This was certainly the perfect place to practice nature photography. As we navigated among the plots, we saw fluttering bees and butterflies harvesting nectar from flower to flower....it's a marvellous sight! Before we realised, we had spent 4hours shooting here!
Our next destination was the Tai-An Old Railway Station (泰安舊火車站) which i found from my research. However, we had a problem returning to Houli as there were no cabs in sight! Most of the locals drove here... Hence, we chk the directions wif someone and was told how we could cut thru' the fields to reach the place. Both of us walked right into the rural fields and along the way, they were nobody else! Finally, we saw a vehicle driving out & stopped him to confirm we were on the right path. It's an aurdous walk as we had no idea how long it would take us to reach! Luckily, the area was scenic and we managed to do some photoshoots along the way... 
After an hour or so, we saw signages finally... ok, we gotta continue walking... Finally, we saw the old metal rail-bridge but there's no path for us to climb up! Then, one of the villagers told us that ppl usually climbed the steep slope & the view up there is really great... but alas! The slope was almost 90 degrees and we dared not take the risk. Hence, we walked down to the old railway station... Due to the current season, the sun set really early...hence, we gotta quicken our pace. We managed some sunset shoots at the railway and our feets were sore & tired as we walked out. I was so tempted to hitch a ride! We saw a magnificient sunset thou... Suddenly, out of nowhere, a black dog started to follow us & it liked to walk in-between our paths... We were scared! After some time, we finally reached the new train station and the dog seems to know and stopped following us! We wondered if the dog juz wana escort us since it probably sniffed that we were visitors! After this encounter, we were wary of any loud barking sounds! 
At night, we headed to Fengjia Night Market (逢甲夜市) via bus. It's an hour ride away from Taichung Station, costing NT25. Upon alighting, we were greeted wif the bustle of the local night market... We tried various local snacks such as dumplings, japanese okonomiyaki wif different flavours... we opted for cheese! We bought a packet of guava too, which was really sweet! Then, we tried the sweet potatoes balls... After filling our tummies, it's shopping time! After checking a few shops, i found a nice winter cap for tomorrow's use! We were dead-beat when we reached our hotel...
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