台北游记12 Day2 －春大地民宿

Frankly speaking, I like to stay at higher ground and enjoy the scenery of mountains and clouds. Though I have spent time at Alishan, but I have not really tried a "home stay" before. This was the first time.  We surfed the web and I booked 春大地民宿 "accidentally". 

It was only recently that I have heard of the story of country and town mouse from my wife and nephew. So, it seemed that I was going to live a "country mouse" life for the next few days. The air and view were good from our balcony. We chose 精致二人房 and it also has a balcony with door "protected" by wire mesh. By the time we checked in, it was around evening time. We were greeted by a "5-cm" big moth and I started to appreciate the life of a country mouse. The room was generally clean except the presence of small insects like beetle, moth etc. They were harmless though. The LCD TV seemed to be a bit out of place with the wooden column and wooden decor like a tree house.  I read that the "tree house" concept is quite popular for yunnan people. 

I like to see stars and wanted to count the number of stars with my wife at the balcony. But it was a bit "challenging" as the lamps outsides the balcony were a source of attraction for moths at night. However, we did go out and take a quick look at the sky and it seemed to be starry night as well. This made us recall Vincent's starry night painting in Avignon. 

There was no need for air con as cool breeze flew into the room, just like the rooms in Genting. We could hear different birds' tunes in the morning and I was not "allowed" to watch the TV as my wife said we should listen to nature instead of disrupting the peace. This made me try to imitate different birds' songs that we heard。

It is easy to find this home stay as it is located besides a grand England home stay 老英格兰. The home stay owner told us that a night would cost nearly 10,000TWD. My dear said there was no need to stay in such England castle and it was better to go London for the actual stay instead.Nonetheless, it was a "iconic" building even when we were traveling up to the home stay.

We did not sign up for the sunrise tour as both of us have seen the sunrise at Alishan. Though the home stay staff said the sunrise was different at 合欢山. I actually like to catch red sunrise but I think we could not catch the red one unless we were at the peak e.g. my Kinabaru climb.  

I secretly decided to wake up to see the sunrise from our balcony - sun wakes up very early in taiwan especially in mountainous area. So, I woke up at 4 plus to check the direction and wait. Managed to see the sun rose over the mountain (Dear said that this was not really sunrise but merely sun appeared after being shielded by the mountain).  Bingo, it looked the same as the one in Alishan.  But, I still liked it. After viewing the sunrise, I went back to bed and realized that I was quite "cold" as compared to my dear dear. She woke up and commented that she was so cozy warm in bed under the blanket until I slipped back to sleep besides her. This was funny to me.

Feedback: The owner and staff were helpful and we got free lift from the owner to certain points. I think it is still a good stay as I am also certain insects do appear in other home stay since it is actually mountainous area. To me and my wife, it was a nice and "adventurous" experience as country mice.  Frankly speaking, my wife adapted better as a country mouse than me. 

http://springground.cingjing.tw/