Pu li Brewery, Taichung

We were 45 minutes from Taichung and already felt lethargic and hungry. Luckily the Taiwan HSR allows food and drinks to be consumed on board. Juliana was quick to finish her breakfast and the next moment, she dozed off. As I had some rest in the flight, I wasn't as tired. The feeling being away from work and sipping coffee while traveling on the train with beautiful scenery was so relaxing. No phone calls, no stress and no need to see bosses' faces.

45 minutes was like a breeze as we reached Taichung station and met up with Elmo and Mich in Starbucks. Elmo as usual, could generate some laughter even though we were all tired. As we were on our way to take the bus to Cing Jing (supposedly we were taking Nantou bus service), a local approached us to offer us a ride which costed about NT1800. It costed about NT300 more to take his taxi. Well, with the amount of time saved, we decided to go for it. 

What else will you do while traveling for about 90 minutes in a MPV? Of course, we dozed off after 15 minutes. While we were enjoying replenish the energy lost, the driver woke us up and introduced a place called Pu li Brewery, see below. We were a little frustrated at first on why this man drove us to another location. With negative thoughts, we were half-hearted while shopping around the brewery. I tried a traditional Chinese wine called Nu Er Hong. I only heard of it in the movies but had tried none. My feedback on the wine was it tasted like fermented herbs. Lots of herbs and and it is very strong. I hope this is healthy.After a short walk and some food tasting, we decided to return to our original itinerary, Sunnydale House, Cing Jing.  As introduced by the driver, this place is very popular for tourists and it is also the birth place of Taiwan Beer, Shao Xin beer. This place deserves a second look.