A Cold Spring in Summer: Taipei via Jetstar, Kavalan Whisky in Yilan

[yflyer]

This resort had no sandy beach to speak of, but exploring the rocky coastline was thrilling for the kids, as if they were exploring a rocky lunar moonscape or an alien planet teaming with strange life forms…



…such as tiny crabs…



…or mudskippers, stranded and walking on the rocks after being deposited there by the roaring waves.





There was a small museum showcasing a private collection of stone lions integrated into the resort. The stone lions could be seen around the resort as well.







The main dining area in the resort had a huge Banyan tree in the atrium.





We stayed in two different rooms in the resort. The first was a family suite, decorated in traditional style, with good views of the coastline.

[yflyer]

This was a large and very comfortable room.





Swivelling flatscreen TV shared across the sitting area and bedroom area.



Bathroom…



The Lion theme was everywhere…

[yflyer]

Apart from the main dining area for breakfast and lunch/dinner buffet selections, there was a fine dining restaurant which showcased “creative” local cuisine using local ingredients.



They served a multi-course tasting menu, which we found tasty, but a little too gimmicky.

There was a shot glass filled with a clear liquid on the table as we began our set dinner. I was hoping it would be a shot of liquor or some other strong drink, but it turned out to be a glass of sweetened vinegar beverage, which is apparently a popular drink in Taiwan. This was supposed to aid digestion, and probably clear the palate in-between courses.



There was a pitcher of this drink on the table, which we used to top up our glasses throughout dinner. An acquired taste, no doubt!

The courses included sashimi…



Strips of fatty beef…



Batter-fried prawn…



Abalone, cooked on a hot stone at the table…



Meatball…



Steamed whole fish…



And a delicious rice and chicken dish, with clear soup, to conclude…



Dessert was cake…

[yflyer]

The breakfast spread in the atrium was very large, with the focus on Asian, rather than Western dishes.



There was a good selection for vegetarians, as well as for…carnivores…





Delicious fried sanma fish…



Vegetarian mock shrimp…



DIY noodles…





Special mention must go to the superb short grained rice, eaten with a variety of condiments, including minced pork with gravy.



Eggs over-easy, served with the yolks still runny…



Don't forget to floss...



A yflyer TR feels incomplete without a peanut shot...

[yflyer]

When we made the booking, the staff suggested we moved to another room mid-way during our stay, just to sample the different types of rooms available.

The second room we stayed in on our stay, in Block C of the resort, was a pleasant surprise. This was a stunning, new room, in modern décor, with a private hot spring tub overlooking the coastline.

I fell in love with this room the moment I stepped into it. If I were to recommend a vacation in Yilan, this would be the room to stay in.









Hot spring water piped directly into the tub through a large bore tap.





As mentioned, the hot spring water is clear from the tap, but quickly oxidizes to brown. On your lips, the spring water tastes salty and coppery (Don’t swallow!).



A separate, smaller tub for a cold soak in regular cold water afterwards…



The shock and pleasure of a dip in icy cold water, after soaking in a tub of hot mineral spring water has to be experienced to be believed.





…the perfect way to destress.

[yflyer]

Elsewhere in the room, two sinks and a separate shower stall.





Panoramic views of the coastline from the hotel room…







Robes to wear during your stay…


Slippers, with printed notice stating that these were not to be taken home…



There was also an in-house spa with traditional Taiwanese health massages and reflexology available. The spa treatments were pricier than street outlets in Taipei, but the décor and skill of the therapists were top notch.

Between the four of us, we spent a lot of time taking turns to soak in the hot spring tub in this hotel room!

[yflyer]

The scenic coastline made for a wonderful running/jogging route in the evenings as well…



The lack of a proper pavement along long stretches of coastal road meant that I had to run in the small bike/breakdown/pedestrian lane by the side of the road, constantly keeping a lookout for motorcycles or overtaking vehicles as I ran. I never did figure out what that small lane was really for, as both motorcycles and cars seemed to stray into that lane as well.



Fishing on the rocks was popular…



There was a small fishing port by the coastline, with large concrete breakwaters, which were wide enough to run on, and for locals to fish from. I incorporated several of the breakwaters into my running route…



During our stay, we also hired a local taxi (At very reasonable rates for half or full day outings) to bring us around to visit the sights in Yilan.

[yflyer]

Yilan county is very scenic, with rural, farming areas dotted with beautiful temples, as well as small towns and several industrial zones.





Yes, even here, McDonalds can be found. But in general, the whole area seemed to have been largely untouched by the scourge of global fast food, with most dining outlets and restaurants being local affairs.



Weather during our stay was warm, and humid, with rain on many days in the late afternoon.

On one hot day, we made a trip to Su’ao, to a cold spring, which is a much rarer natural phenomenon than the many hot springs in Taiwan.



For a nominal fee, we would get to use the public cold spring facilities for a uniquely satisfying cold soak…



This type of cold spring, with mineral-rich, carbonated, water at around 22 degrees Celsius, is apparently very rare compared to hot springs, and made for a very refreshing dip on a hot day.

[yflyer]

Watermelons were in season. These were huge…

[yflyer]

Not far away, in another small town, we headed to a public hot spring, which was piped straight into the town centre.



There, locals and visitors alike literally stripped off their shoes along the street and dipped their feet into the public hot spring along the street.



Alongside, there were also fish spa’s, available for a fee. While these are also available in Singapore, here they were on a much larger scale, and the fish seemed hungrier as well.

I didn’t try this. But Mrs yflyer and the kids, all apparently game to offer themselves up as fish food, paid the fees and stuck their feet in for a ticklish, and apparently very pleasurable session…





“I feel loved”, my older daughter declared, as many tiny fish converged on her petite feet, tickling her toes as they nibbled…

They tried to persuade me to step in too, but I didn’t feel like being on the menu that day.

[yflyer]

As another example of the vibrancy of the F&B scene (And the creativity and entrepreneural nature of the Taiwanese in general), this town also had a snack and ice cream outlet that specialized in chilli ice cream.



How does one build a business case for starting an F&B business, selling ice cream described as “Suicide Hot” or bottles of sauce described as “F*cking Spicy”? These folks did, which is probably one reason why Taiwan is such an economic powerhouse…







They rate the ice cream’s hotness in SHU’s (Scoville Heat Units), which is a standardized measure for grading spiciness, as if descriptions such as “Suicide Hot” or “F*cking Spicy” were not warning enough. I suspect there is at least one engineer or scientist behind this business venture.

Mrs yflyer, who, despite being married to Mr yflyer for two decades, has not yet developed suicidal tendencies, decided on one of the milder chilli ice cream flavours…



She somehow persuaded me to take a bite too. Surprisingly, like the sesame oil chicken ice cream we tried in Taipei, this worked. Chilli and ice cream – weird that cold heat tastes so good.

[yflyer]

As we drove around Yilan country, one of our stops was the Kavalan Whisky Distillery, set amid scenic rolling hills in Yilan.



Kavalan is part of the King Car Group, a large corporation which also makes Mr Brown Coffee and many other food and consumer goods.



The Distillery is within a large manufacturing complex that also produces Mr Brown coffee…





Anyone who goes to this Distillery expecting a showcase of history and tradition like a Speyside Scottish Distillery is in for a rude shock.

This is a huge industrial operation set amid a modern factory facility, with a massive visitor’s centre and open distillery complete with tour and viewing facilities.

There were tour buses loaded full of tourists, many of which were probably just as interested in Mr Brown Coffee as the whisky…



At least the facilities were built to the scale required to handle the crowds. There was a separate distillery entrance for visitors, with information displays and all the actual hardware and equipment kept well away, behind glass.



The process of manufacturing whisky was explained through exhibits as if in a Science Museum…







A look into the the storage area for the finished product…

[yflyer]

The Visitor Centre / Tasting Room / Shop was setup as a large food hall.



There was a large tasting area on the ground floor, with the entire 2nd level setup as a café offering tea-time snacks, beverages and of course Mr Brown Coffee, along with free wifi, which was great in that it kept the kids busy while I browsed through the store, and queued for the tasting.

The “tasting session” itself was conduct in batches, and I was at the head of a long queue, filled with tourists by the bus load.



The massive tasting area.



As soon as the door to the tasting room opened, it was clear that this was not a “serious” tasting…more a novelty affair catering to the lowest common denominator (Not that I was much better…I am a total newbie when it comes to whisky…)



Rather than a proper tasting of a series of different varieties, each visitor for this free tasting was given a glass with the tiniest sip of one of the Kavalan whiskies (A fairly low-end variety at that) and invited to sit at the benches.



As the tables filled up, our host described the whisky (In Mandarin – No English commentary)…



…and invited us to take sniffs of the aroma of the different whiskies in little bottles on the table, as she described each one.



A relaxed, informative and fun activity (Even for the children sitting at the tasting tables with their parents), and the kind of thing that tour groups would enjoy. A good PR exercise for King Car for sure, but any serious whisky enthusiast would want more than that.



Our memories were still fresh from our visit last year to Sullivan’s Cove Distillery in Tasmania (More on our visit here), which was the 2014 WWA winner for best single malt whisky. At Sullivan’s Cove, we had an intimate tasting room, and several pours of their top single malts (At a very reasonable A$25 per person for the tasting), including the WWA winner, the French Oak Single Cask, with the one-on-one tasting hosted by one of the whisky producers and still-men himself. The contrast between our experience at Sullivan’s Cove and Kavalan could not have been more stark.

Considering how good Kavalan whisky is, there is probably scope for Kavalan to add to their visitor offerings a more in-depth and intimate whisky tasting, perhaps as a paid tasting. Maybe they already do this by prior appointment for serious whisky lovers, but I did not see this available for walk-ins.

The retail store within the visitor centre stocked the full range of Kavalan and King Car whiskies...



This included their WWA 2015 winner, the Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique Single Malt Whisky, with their distinctive blue labels and blue leather gift cases…



These were retailing at TWD3000 (S$140) a bottle. Singapore retail prices for this bottle, if you can get hold of them, are up to S$600 a bottle. It’s not just cars and COE’s that are overpriced in Singapore…

And to add to the incongruity, on the other side of the room, across from the single malt whisky, were freezers of Mr Brown coffee…



…and assorted household products…



When I went to pay for my whisky purchases, I was handed a free gift: a large cardboard carton filled with plastic bottles of Yogurt Drink…each bottle of whisky entitled you to half a carton…

”Thanks, but no, I can’t take these, they won’t fit in my luggage”. They give me vouchers for free Mr Brown coffee in the café upstairs instead.

Back in Singapore, I opened one of my bottles a few days after getting back and took a sip of this magical, liquid gold…mmmm…amazing. I could get used to drinking this. It crossed my mind that given the price difference between the whisky here and in Taiwan, the cost of airfare to Taipei plus the cost of buying the whisky there is about the same as what it costs to buy it retail here…

[yflyer]

On our final evening in Yilan, we stopped by Wengyao Roast Chicken in Jiaoxi for their famous kiln roasted chicken.



They serve whole chickens roasted in kilns, marinated in a delicious marinade made out of cumin and other spices.







Our order was for takeaway – for that we did not even have to leave our taxi. We just handed TWD350 (S$16) to one of the staff at the entrance, and a few moments later, he brought over a whole chicken, packed to go…



…with the whole process taking less than 5 minutes. Just enough time for me to hop out of the taxi to take a few pictures…

We brought it back to the hotel room and devoured it over the course of the evening. Tender, fresh, with a unique and addictive flavour…

[yflyer]

The next day, we left the EHR resort at 11am for the 2 hour drive to TPE in Taoyuan. This included a long stretch driving through a 13km tunnel through the mountains…



…before arriving at the refurbished TPE Terminal 1. This has been completely renovated, both inside and outside, although the original structure is still identifiable under the new exterior.





Check-in and baggage acceptance were done conventionally, at a check-in counter, however I would advise doing an online check-in prior to getting to the airport, as the online desk had no queue, whereas the regular check-in line had a fairly lengthy queue when we got there.



There is a lot of shopping and F&B at the airport…so we had a lot to do while waiting for our 4.10pm flight home.

Self Service Cafeteria with local favourites such as beef noodles…





Not the only airport I’ve seen where they try to sell you automated toilet seats / washlets prior to departure…



Mainly Chinese language books and magazines at the airside bookstore. Only a very limited selection of English magazines available.