20日：清静的清境农场

**Although I feel much comfortable expressing myself in Chinese, I decided to write in English today because this saves me time. I need to sleep early tonight as I will be waking up at 4am tomorrow to join the tour to watch sunrise and 云海 (sea of cloud). **

7:30am: 鹿港 – 彰化火车站 – 新乌日火车站 – 埔里 – 清境农场

11:30am: 清境农场

4:30pm: Check in hotel room

The journey from Lukang to Cingjing took me 4 hours. From Lukang, I took a cab to Changhua, then a train to Xinwuri, walk to Taichung High Speed Railway Station, then took Nantou bus to Puli where it made a quick stop and then straight to Cingjing.

I fell asleep on the bus, since I was riding all the way to Cingjing and won’t be dropping at Puli. At Puli, a granny tapped my shoulder on her way down and told me to wake up since the bus has reached its stop. Of course I won’t blame her! In contrast, I appreciate her kind gesture.

This is something that Singaporeans lack. I feel that we are always over concerned with ‘face’. Back at home, people usually see familiar faces every morning at the bus stop and after awhile one will know who takes the same bus. If I were to fall asleep at the bus stop, I doubt any familiar faces that take the same bus as me, would be kind enough to wake me up. In fact, I doubt I will do it too. We are just too afraid of rejection. What if the person says ‘today, I am not taking this bus’ and goes back to sleep?!

Anyway, back to Cingjing. It is a very nice place to relax. The Cingjing farm is green and huge, with horses, goats, sheeps and lots of flowers. Although it was very sunny, it was not very warm, so I enjoyed walking around.

I enjoyed 大自然剧场the most. When I reached there, the educational sharing was over. However, the in-charge李馆长gave me a private session. After talking about the butterflies and rabbits, he left me on my own to roam around. Suddenly, he ran over and said ‘我拿蛇给你看’/’Let me show you the snake’. Initially he asked if I want to drape the snake over my neck, I said ‘no’ immediately. Then he suggested that I touch the snake for experience. Well, touching is ok for me. It felt cold and smooth. Later, he asked ‘你真的不要挂看看吗？’/’You sure you don’t want to try draping?’ That was when I decided to give it a try. After me, a Hongkonger who initially said ‘no’ tried too.

I would recommend Cingjing to anyone who wants to get away from the bustling city. It was a good change for me; the weather here is cooling and comfortable, especially after the hot Hsinchu, Sanyi and Lukang. One basically doesn’t have much to do over here. The farm closes at 5pm. Apart from some convenient stalls, the rest are hotels.

For the rest of the time, you can just hang around while soaking in the magnificent view of this place, which by the way, reminds me of Sound of Music. In my hotel, there are pavilions which you can sit around to enjoy nature, not forgetting a viewing platform which you can have a cup of tea facing the green hills.

I chatted with the waitress 张淑惠at the hotel café over dinner. When I told her I was from Singapore, she got quite excited and told me she loves Singapore. Her sister-in-law married a Singaporean and is living in Singapore.

淑惠 visited Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia for her honeymoon. She told me she enjoyed eating our local food like prata, char kuay teow, laksa, bak kut teh and many more. She said all the food are nice in Singapore. I told her I love Taiwan food too, and how Taiwanese are very warm and hospitable. She then said Singapore is very safe and walking on the streets at 2am is fine. And the conversation goes on, we simply 互相嫉妒。

In the end, we concluded that when we are on holiday, we are happy, thus everything is enjoyable. She ran back to her staff hostel and brought me a packet of instant noodle which she said is very flavorful. I then 回礼with the bak kut teh pack which I brought.

今天拍的照片（photos of the day）：http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7512&id=100000910556320&l=9ec8e4db88