Diy Travelling Taiwan

Solo travelling can be a dilemma for me. I craved for the solo trip, the sense of freedom and adventure, yet I feel guilty about enjoying the moment without my family haha.

To be honest, the wanderlust in me tells me that the best holiday is the one without an itinerary. Backpack style, own-time-own-target OTOT.

 

鼻頭角 BiTouJiao

 

To travel on my own is a luxury. We parents tend to focus everything on our kids and family first, and sometimes we neglect our own aspirations :p

Our kids are now bigger and I am glad that they prefer an adventurous itinerary over a 3D2N shopping trip, this really allow us to stretch our travel options (checkout our Chiang Mai or Sabah adventures!)

 

Biking, hiking, snorkeling, hot spring (they call it 泡汤, literally dipping in soup!) Too many family friendly activities in Taiwan.

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While researching for Taiwan attractions, we came across Round Taiwan Round (RTR, 玩島玩旅行社).

Besides the family friendly attractions, your usual 西門町 Xi Men Ding, 清境 Cing Jing or 阿里山 Alishan, RTR has more unique tours on their menu.

-Plucking Strawberries and Grapes in Miaoli
-White water rafting in Hualian
-Hiking in He Huan Shan or Taroko
-Para-gliding near to Sun Moon Lake!

There are a few ways to enjoy Round Taiwan Round’s packages. Whichever method is your preference, the website and detail descriptions make itinerary planning easier. We can even select a Mandarin or English speaking driver.

1)Private Tours – which offers total freedom, comfort and flexibility

Sky Walking in Nantou sounds cool!

2) Shared and custom itinerary, carpool with other tourists. Tripool allows you to choose your favourite attractions. Sharing can be more affordable for solo travellers and families.

Round Taiwan Round will recommend the best route to optimise your travel time. Sample “shared” Taichung and Nantou tour.

 

Tripool (sharing) gives you more options to customise your itinerary, but  is only available for Jiufen and Taroko at the moment.

Sample Jiufen attractions which you can pick for your Tripool itinerary.
Just pick 5 or 6 attractions for a full-day itinerary (all looks interesting!)

 

Round Taiwan Round
Round Taiwan Round jiufen
3)Even if you are totally clueless, RTR has a “Smart Itinerary”.
In three easy steps, create your own itinerary!

 

RTR has an online agent to help with your queries too, itinerary planning cannot be easier.

Instagram #SengkangBabiesTaiwan

 

Photos above are from my recent Taiwan trip (Facebook album).  The other photos should credit Round Taiwan Round .

If you are in need of some travel ideas crowd sourcing, do pop by Round Taiwan Round (Facebook and Instagram) for more inspiring ideas.

RTR makes travelling in Taiwan so easy, I might be tempted to extend my Taiwan holidays 🙂

ps.. GPS for sights above, top to bottom:

-象山 Elephant Mountain trail head (GPS 25.027377, 121.570769)
-鼻頭角 BiTouJiao (GPS 25.128797, 121.923279)
-十分Shifen (GPS 25.042294, 121.776472)
-基隆山Keelung Mountain trail head (GPS 25.111730, 121.847446)

Hiking Broga Hill, Sunrise and Sunset with my boy

Hiking Broga Hill is on my wishlist (browse our Gunung hiking adventures here or Instagram #skbHiking), and to climb it with Boon Yee is a bonus. What Fun we had over 2D2N ! (photos link at end of this blog post).

Hiking Broga Hill
Hiking Broga Hill

The night before, I took no3 on a Father Son trip up North. Following tradition, one on one trip allowed me to bond and understand an individual “child” better, compared to a whole family outing.

The child cannot avoid me :p

(Read about Wei’s Taman Negara and Kang’s Koref Farm trip)

Our 爬山玩水 itinerary contains “Broga Hill, Blue Tears and Sky Mirror“, the last two items sound so Exotic! (Day 2 blog)

0530 – Hiking Broga Hill (GPS 2.939444, 101.903333). We took about 2 hours to scale the 400m Gunung, there are total of four summits.

I was panting, but Boon Yee kept dashing to the front haha. Broga Hill is only 400m but steep at certain sections. I would say the first “summit” is the toughest!

Caught the rays of Sunlight creeping over the ridges and illuminating the clouds. Amazing feeling to celebrate the Start of another day with my boy. Super proud of Yee’s adventurous spirit 🙂

The lalangs are taller than me, and we sometimes wonder whether we are on the right path. Take note the terrain is uneven and headlamp (not torchlight) is a must when hiking in the dark.

The last summit will have some HUGE boulders!

Nevertheless, Gunung Broga Hill is suitable for first timers and families, and you need not climb all the way to the 4th submit to enjoy Sunrise view 🙂

Celebrating another milestone with Yee.

 

Yee’s Bruce Lee” attire, Keep Calm and Climb On :p
He told me turn every corner also can see hills and town, Broga Hill does offer spectacular landscape views.

 

Quenched our thirst with coconut juice, the Auntie quite enterprising and business is good.

Refer to GPS above, there is a makeshift carpark (in the middle of palm oil plantation) and toilet at the trail head.

Quoting our Village Head Simon Chan: “We transit from Hikers to Tourists”. It roughly means time to EAT all the WAY!

Lunch at Garden Seafood (GPS 3.698333, 101.513333). Food is decent and we love the bun. This restaurant must be famous as I saw a photo of Malaysia PM’s wife.

We are all super hungry, so everything would be tasty :p

Finally, reach our chalet at Bagan Datoh (also known as Bagan Datuk). This area is a Chinese Fishing village, quaint old neighbourhood and coconut trees sway along the coastal road.

Relieved to stretch our legs, after the hike and long bus ride.

 

9 Island Agency (环岛)’s chalet GPS (3.976111, 100.707292). Their Facebook group highlighted below.

Family-run travel agency, the whole village chipped in to support the tourism industry. Our stay, meals and boat rides are all managed by them.

Simple accommodation with hot shower and aircon. Yes WIFI available!

 

10 minutes walk to the “restaurant” at the end of the walkway. As this is a fishing village, expect strong fishy smell 🙂

After a sumptuous steamboat dinner, we headed to the “jetty” to see a beautiful Sunset and take more wefies.

Tourists can do Karaoke at the dinner venue, spot a few fireflies (concentrated on one or two trees only), or simply enjoy the star-lit sky.

Ok, tram ride is also a hit with the kids 🙂

Image credit Adventures Village

 

We ended the evening with a boat tour to catch the Blue Tears (蓝眼泪). Magical experience to “sail” towards the Sunset and blue hour.

The usual island to spot blue Tears is Pulau Sembilan. But Perak Tourism has banned tourist from visiting the island, in the name of conservation.

Although we could only scoop out the blue tears (actual micro organisms, “bioluminescent phytoplankton”) from our boat, it was still a spectacular activity.

If we can go on the shore, and watch the waves turn blue, this is what you can expect! WOW!

Google Images for 蓝眼泪

From Broga Hill’s Sunrise to Bagan Datoh’s Sunset, I was Happy to spend a day of Fun with my boy. Together, we explored the rustic side of Malaysia.

Sunset at Bagan Datoh

That’s it for Day 1 of our Fun itinerary. Stay tune for Day 2’s highlight, LALA harvesting and 天空之镜 ! (Blog link here ). More tips listed:

*(Must See!) Do visit SengkangBabies Instagram Day 1 Video (link) and Adventure Village’s SUPER nice drone footage! (video link)

(Instagram Video Day 1)

-Broga is at Semenyih, Selangor, and no permit required for Hiking Broga hill

**Check out Broga hill and Bagan Datoh Day One and Two photos on our Facebook album. FUN is guaranteed!

-Our “2D2N Malaysia Unlimited” trip was booked with Meetup Group “Adventures Unlimited”, itinerary here . Join the Village (Facebook group) to link up with like-minded kakis

-Our Boat, chalet on Bagan Datoh is under 9 Islands Agency (9 Island Agency Sdn Bhd 环岛旅游有限公司)

-Why Pulau Sembilan is closed to visitor (The Star article)? We heard the islands will be transformed into a Marine Park

-Due to the sudden closure of Pulau Sembilan, travel agency is left with a lot of almost-new camping tents. All 50% sale, 2-men tent (or is it 4-men) only 80Rm

-Boat trip to Blue Tears is about 20 minutes, there are life jackets for kids

-Read our Hiking adventures on our blog (Gunungs, Panti, Belumut, and Instagram hashtag #skbHiking), not all are family friendly :p

-Check out some other bonding activities with my kids.
Boon Kang 3D2N (Farm at Koref), Taman Negara with Boon Wee, 2D2N Broga Hill and Sky Mirror with Boon Yee. 2019 Oct Taiwan cycling with Wei and Yee.

ps.. We would like to recommend Sekinchan 适耕庄 too, Malaysia’s rice bowl. From Google Map, it is only 1.5 hour south of Bagan Datoh 🙂

(Sekinchan Blog post)