Lavender Cottage: Lavender Festival 2014

This is the first part of Lavender Cottage’s Lavender festival in Xinshe, Taichung, in 2014. (Click here for the second part)

Located somewhere in the hills of Taichung, where no one will go to in the past, lies a beautiful garden that is filled with so much warm, love and hope. Driving up those spiraling hills and bumpy roads would sure deter many people, but there will come a purple notice board hanging on one of the street lights, which states “Never give up on your dreams”. If you see that notice board, that means you are less than 1km away to this popular attraction today, called Lavender Cottage, or 薰衣草森林.

The story of this lovely garden is started by two young ladies, who quit their jobs in Taipei and Kaohsiung to pursue their dreams, which was to plant a beautiful lavender garden. Against all odds, they focused on their dreams and after many years, they succeeded in making their lavender garden come true. Now in Taiwan, they have outlets that sell products such as food, aromatherapy, beauty and fashion accessories.

During my family visit to this cosy garden, it was the Lavender Festival. This festival falls between the months of November to April, while the Salvia Festival falls between the months of June to August. Lucky for us, we were able to see these deep purple coloured flowers bloomed. With the entrance fee of NT $200 ($8.50 SGD) for each adult, pencils are given as souvenirs to their visitors.

Right in front of the ticketing counter is the Lavender Cottage’s very own shop. There are two life-size purple cartoon characters in front of the shop, which are the images of the two founders of the Lavender Cottage. I believe their stores will attract many ladies because their product packagings are both feminine and pretty, especially with the touch of purple colours.

After spending 15 minutes in the store to check out what we could buy later, we decided to search for the restrooms to get Kayden’s baby diaper changed. We thought we would be using a larger sized handicapped toilet for the diaper changing session, but the nursery room of Lavender Cottage really took us by surprise. It is a very clean room with fresh lavender scent and well-equipped with Combi baby products. Their Family Room even have a small toilet bowl for our young ones. I have got to give the owners a round of applause for their thoughtfulness.

In Lavender Cottage, there are many simple and lovely wooden structures and decorations in the garden that will sure captivate their visitors’ sight. A little wooden blue car was one of the structures that captured Kayden’s curiosity. On his hand, it is his favorite Optimus Prime truck by Tomi, which he calls it Red Truck.

As we walked further up a little more, we saw the purplish lavender flowers planted on a gentle slope. They were beautiful when the morning sun cast on them. Due to the early morning rain before our visit to Lavender Cottage, our day trip to this garden leads us to have muddy shoes as the soil were quite soft. Fortunately, the rain has stopped during our visit.

The scent of the lavender was mild and it was our first time seeing so many lavenders. Seeing such a sight does makes us happy and got Kayden really excited. There are thick ropes surrounding the lavender plantation, which prevent visitors from stepping into the area. Small steps on the slope were built that will make climbing up easier, but the walkway is quite narrow for two persons to walk.

Putting a carousel together with the lavender flowers forms an enchanting painting to my eyes.

The Lavender Cottage in Xinshe is a beautiful garden if you like to get close to the green nature. Some people will find this place a little boring, while some people will find this place exquisite. Children will love this place because of those beautiful colours of flowers and cute decorations, therefore it is a great place for family trips. I personally feel that this is a romantic place for couples too. Getting to this place ain’t easy, so I would recommend travelers to hire a taxi to drive up and back down the hill, or back to the hotel.