921 Earthquake Educational Park / 921 地震教育园区

Not only do they have numerous photos and pictures, they also perfectly preserved some of the phenomena related to the earthquake, such as collapsed school structures and raised river beds. They were screening a 3D animated short clip presenting the happenings of the earthquake to help us truly understand the impact of the 921 earthquake in a victims point of view. The museum also had many attractive and fun hands-on displays like an earthquake simulator, however we feel the tour could have been made longer because we didn't get to try out the displays and only rushed through the place. I think if we had the time to slowly walk through the museum, it would have been a lot more educational; while we were there, we saw another class of students from a Taiwanese school in the museum as well, they had more time to appreciate the museum and I think they had gained a lot more insight to the earthquake. From this, I think this museum truly lived up to its name as being educational. Everything presented there was very appealing to the eye, with its neat and efficient organization  of displays and planning of routes and its technological hands-on displays, it really grabbed our attention and created a pleasing environment where we can and would like to learn more about the catastrophic event.

☆☆☆☆

Tai Shinu Hotel / 太信大饭店

The rooms were rather musty and dull and hence it seemed old and dirty. Some rooms were also much smaller and narrower than others thus some people did not feel comfortable in their rooms. The hotel really should change out their furnitures in the room since their cupboards and bedside tables were not in best condition and some of their kettles were spoilt too. Also there seemed to problems with the electricity in many rooms as the lights and air conditioning would just turn off by themselves until the hotel staffs, who were somewhat efficient, came to fix it. They had more varieties of food for breakfast but it was the same lot everyday. 

☆☆

Kaohsiung Hakka Cultural Museum

We learnt more in depth about the Hakka Culture as we were shown the different festivals there. The display was interesting, with a few hands activities  on to attract more people, especially the children. However, the topic was dry and the guide could have made more use of the disply items to make the delivery better.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kaohsiung Museum of History

The guide gave a good presentation that was informative and interesting. He managed to get our attention and engage us by telling the history of the event in different perspective. He also input his personal feelings about the 228 ,an important historical event that happened in Taiwan. However, he focused too much on the 228 incident and didn't elaborate on other history matters. Overall, the tour was enriching and it made us more interested in the topic.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Meinong Folk Village

Rich culture and folk lifestyle could be experienced where many traditional Hakka items and food are sold. It was a great new experience for all of us as we got to taste the traditional Hakka 擂茶. We get to understand more about the Hakka culture after the visit as we were exposed to a great variety of Hakka items like the oil paper umbrella.

 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

十鼓文化村 Tendrum Culture Village-Clatou

The room was very cozy and comfortable. It was well taken care of and had a nice atmosphere, as if we were living in a village, with a wooden interior having wooden floors, wooden furniture... wooden everything! The breakfast in the hotel had a wide variety of food such as chicken nuggets, bread, noodles and Taiwan's specialty, milk tea! The hotel also had the basic amenities we needed and clean facilities. It was definitely a unique experience staying in a village-like hotel. 

We also had a very interesting experience at the village. We learnt how to play the drums and learnt more about the history of the culture village. This culture village was built near an old railway near old factories. There was also a train carriage that the culture village preserved. It felt as if we were walking through the past, with old factories that were partially destroyed during the war when the Japanese invaded Taiwan. We also went to see the ten drums, with each drum symbolizing different things like good fortune, peace and much more. The tour guide was very informative, explaining to us the significance of every single object during the mini tour. 

We also got to see an extremely exciting performance. It consisted of the playing of drums and other musical instruments, bringing drumming to a whole new level with the use of a cudgel. It was not surprising that this group of performers have won a Grammy award and got to perform at the Summer Olympics in Sydney. It was most certainly an exciting experience, all in one village! 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

iicake

iicake sells cute and creative towel ornaments wrapped by hand. It is amazing how the ordinary towel, within 5 minutes, can turn into an animal, flower or even dumpling! This is especially popular among tourists as it serves as a special souvenir. iicake even organizes DIY towel wrapping session for enthusiastic customers like us. After a tough time, I finally managed to wrap my own towel dog! This really made me look up to the workers, who have to wrap about 2000 towel ornaments a day. The wrapping requires skills and most importantly, experience. I am really amazed at the workers' speed. I recommend tourists to visit iicake because of its good quality towels and interesting way of wrapping them. A box of three towel ornaments costs approximately NT$290 (S$12), which is a rather reasonable price. This peculiar store uses an innovative way of attracting tourists and it definitely got me!

☆☆☆