Railway Trip plus Organic Farm

The Tanjong Pager Railway Station is going to close for travel in the next few months. I heard it may be earmarked for conservation after that. We took the opportunity to take a train ride from there for the last time (first time too for many people).

Thus the day outing is Train Ride to Johor -- Zhenxin Organic Farm -- KSL City Mall Shopping -- Singapore.

The train ride was at 7.15am. Ticketing only opened half hour before as it was a unreserved train unlike the 8am train. Reached around 6.20am but the queue was already quite long. Looks like many people have the same idea to take the trains from the station before it closed. Finally got the ticket after 45 mins in queue. SGD 3 for adults and SGD 2 for children. Seats were oversold, so a number of us had to stand throughout the journey.

The train was supposed to reach at 8.11 am at Johore Sentral but ended we reached at 9.40am.

Went to lunch at Three O restaurant that ex-TCS actor Xie Shao Guang helped out. Friend is quite a big Xie Shao Guang's fan. Seeing him made her day! :)

Then we went to Zhenxin Organic Farm, about a 1.5 hour ride to Kluang. A 100 acres organic farm with dragon fruit, vegetables, mushrooms etc. It also have a small mini-zoo with fishes, rabbits, ducks and chickens. The rabbits are sick though. Hope they will get medical help for the rabbits soon.

Todai @ Marina Bay Sands

Went to Todai at MBS for a farewell lunch. It is a newly opened restaurant that served only buffet.

Called them a few times to check as we had a budget to keep and their weekend price was too expensive. They confirmed that they treat friday as a weekday lunch contrary to what we had read in other reviews. Thus it was $42 instead of $58 per person. And plus there was still a 10% discount currently for opening specials.

When we arrived, I was quite surprised and impressed by the wide spread. There were italian food, japanese sushi, korea food, western & chinese food. The choice of sushi available was dazzling indeed.

As for a vegetarian, my choice was quite limited as their strength was in seafood and not vegetables. However I still got to enjoy the dessert. There were many cakes that were cut quite small so that you could take a variety. The cakes were delicious.

The korea influence was quite notable throughout the restaurant. Many of the staff were koreans and photos of Korea stars were used as decorations in the restaurant. The TVs were also playing Korean MTVs.

Overall the Todai Buffet experience was enjoyable.

Tea Bone Zen Mind Cafe

Heard about this place but never gets a chance to go until recently. It only opens till 7pm and does not open on sunday, thus it is a bit hard to arrange for working people.

From the address, I know it is the at seah street besides Raffles Hotel. The thing is I often walk pass the street but have never see a tea cafe there before. Where exactly is it?

Oh it is nicely tucked on the 2nd floor of a shop house, which is why I have missed it so many times.

The place gives a laidback & cosy feeling. The setting is simple yet elegant. There is not many seats, I guess the maximum capacity is around 20 people.

I ordered the Melon Tea ($12) and my sister ordered Lemongrass Tea ($12) & Grilled Fishstrip ($6).

When we first sat down, the waitress brought towels to clean our hands, a small cup of refreshing drink plus some chips. This was really a nice start.

The teas come in a set, with a small snacks each. I am a fan (not a crazy one, just ordinary fan) of lemongrass and found most lemongrass drinks rather ordinary. I must say this lemongrass tea is one of the better ones I tried before. I can smell and taste the lemongrass distinctly! Nice!

For my melon tea, the taste is great! I was not sure what to expected since I have never drank a melon tea before. I was glad to find my melon tea refreshing. Is much better than I expect. Also like the snack that comes with it. The snack tastes like hawthorn.

The total bill comes up to $31.90. The tea is on the costly side I have to say. The menu has tea eggs that cost $3 each (i think so, cannot remember exactly) and other items that I find expensive. However the tea tastes better than most other tea cafes I have been. And these days quite a number of tea cafes charge prices like this or even more expensive even though they have teas that taste rather normal.

I am already looking forward to going there again to try out the other teas in their menu. Just that it may be a headache for planning with their limited opening hours.

Central Asia

Decided to chronicle my journey to Central Asia in this blog http://windvallacentralasia.blogspot.com/

So others may live

Have been following closely the situation in Japan. There is a saying, "it does not just rain, it pours". This is indeed so true. There are so many unfortunate events going on and everyday, you still hear about strong aftershocks. The survivors are left still fearing for their safety due to the strong aftershocks in the wintry weather that provide no warmth.

Despite the difficult conditions where they receive little water and food, we still hear the stories that survivors in the shelters are sorting out their waste for recycling! I am totally in awe of these people! Amazing resilience folks who still think about saving mother nature despite the tough time they are experiencing.

I also immensely respect those firemen, policemen, technicans and workers working against the clock and radiation to prevent a worse disaster in the troubled nuclear plant. These are usually the ordinary folks, those not in the highest positions and those who do not earn the most/highest bucks that are risking their lives.

I remembered reading a book very long ago about a elite rescue force. Their motto is "So others may live". Putting others lives before your own, this seems to be what these people are doing now, choosing to risk their lives and stand by your responsibilities so that others can live. I have only admiration for these people. In such trying times, human nature are really put into test and the good and bad side can prevail. Despite our seemingly insignificance in the face of mother nature, the spirits of these people shine brilliantly through the difficult time! I sincerely wish them success in protecting the land and people they care about!

Day 4 Lavender Forest ( 薰衣草森林)

Lavender Forest (http://www.lavendercottage.com.tw/), I heard about this place online. The story of its founders (2 gals) was pretty inspiring, and I thought I wanted to visit it. They wanted to spread the message of love. It seems though sadly at the moment one of the gals is suffering from stage 4 cancer.

The place is indeed a popular place. I heard its place for lodging is fully booked months if not a year in advance. Packed mostly with local tourists. The marketing of the place was quite well done, they have a very consistent theme there. Similar to the whole town concept, Lavender Forest also seems to protrary "Wishing you happiness" message. There is a place for you to write your wish and hang on the hut; post boxes with names like "Happy Me", "Family", "Buddies" etc; wishing tree; board that mentioned "Dreams come True" .... The air is injected with a feel good factor. I think it is actually infectious to a certain extent!

And of course there is also Lavender. It was grown on a hill but the patch of land used to grow lavender is really not that big. Still it is lovely to watch the lavender growing there.

After visiting Lavender Forest, Mr Xu brought us to another beautiful place with lots of flowers before we needed to rush for the 3 hour bus to Taipei. It was a pity that we were in Shin She for such a short time. It has so much to offer. I think many people only come to this place for the Lavender Forest and then leave. But really from the looks of it if you are someone who like nature, you can budget 1-2 days instead of a few hours there.

Day 4: Shin She 新社

This was really a busy day for us. Too many places to cover and too little time.

We woke up to a clear brillant sky at Cingjing and set off at 9.30am. Reached Sun Moon Lake and took an hour ferry ride touring the lake. Then rushed to catch the 1-hour bus to Taitung. Upon reaching, took another 1 hour bus to Shin She. Everything was packed according to bus schedule so that we would not miss any.

This would be one of the highlights of our trip. I had called the local town government tourism office at Shin She the previous day to enquire about the way to reach the town as well as the transport in the area. I learnt that there was a Guo Guang bus (NT 250) that we could take though we needed to indicate our interest early (normally 3 days in advance). Upon hearing that we were coming the next day, they said they will make the necessary arrangement for us.

I was surprised when I received a call from them to confirm with us the time of our connecting bus. On the connecting bus they called again to check we were on the bus. Wow amazing service. It was also the best deal that we had.

After alighting from the connecting bus, we were picked up by the Guo Guang Bus.

Shin She (新社 http://www.shinshe.org.tw) is a place where the tourism board has themed it as a happiness town with a purple heritage (紫色古乡，幸福小镇). Indeed everywhere you go, you could distinctly feel the sincerity and effort they put in to bring the message across to visitors. According to the tourism board, they wanted visitor to feel at home, romantic and happy.

Being a rural area with lots of farms etc, it gives a rustic idyllic feeling. The driver of the Guo Guang bus, Mr Xu was extremely helpful and informative. He dished out many information about the plants and farms we see along the way to Lavender Forest.