[TW; 2013] Living in Taiwan Series | Miaoli 苗栗

This post will be on Miaoli苗栗's 南庄.

1. Taipei Main Station

Bought a 國光客運 bus ticket from Taipei Main Station to 頭份Toufen for NT$140 (alternatively you can bus to 竹南Jhunan, just that we went on a weekday and we are pretty sure hardly anyone will board the 台灣好行 from the first stop) 頭份Toufen is the second stop for the 台灣好行 bus!

1823台北轉運站─竹南 (經由頭份), http://www.kingbus.com.tw/down2.php?li_code=1A030384

2. 頭份Toufen

After alighting, had to walk a short distance to the 苗栗客運 station (it is a different location from the 國光客運 station), the walk was less than 10mins.

^^NT$100 for one day pass!

台灣好行 Nanzhuang Route, http://www.taiwantrip.com.tw/Besttour/Info/?id=5

^^How the 苗栗客運 station looks like

^^The signboard to queue for the bus

3. 南庄老街 Nanzhuang Old Street > 向天湖 Xiangtian Lake

Alighted at 南庄nanzhuang old street and transferred a bus to 向天湖!
台灣好行 Xiangtian Lake Route, http://www.taiwantrip.com.tw/Besttour/Info/?id=6

After a short ride.... TADA! The pretty lake!

Went to the cafe minsu for lunch!

^^nice view of the lake from the cafe

We ordered Waffles and... flash your 台灣好行 bus ticket to get 10% off!

^^Great view with delicious waffles... best moment in life!

After that we went to some aboriginal museum...

But no photography is allowed... so I cant take any photos of it.

4. 南庄老街 Nanzhuang Old Street

Took 台灣好行 back to Nanzhuang Old Street...

First Stop: 桂花巷

It was an alley with alots of stalls selling 桂花 Osmanthus products and tea bags. Pretty interesting alley but as it was so quiet on the weekday we became the "targeted customers" of every stall. Ended up pretty scary~

 At the end of the alley there is this famous 冰店 Ice stall.. But we are too full from the waffle so we did not try it.

Second stop: 南庄老郵局 Nanzhuang Old Post Office

It is a walkable distance from the alley.. just 2-3mins or so.

^^where we just went!

Third stop: Nanzhuang Old Street

One whole street of 小吃店 small shops selling local food. I suppose this is the best place to settle dinner.

Fourth Stop: 康濟吊橋 Kangji Bridge

Located somewhere near the old street, it is just a bridge and nothing much.

Others:

We did not attempted to climb the flight of stairs to this old tree right at the top.

And this is the bus stop to get back to 頭份station!