Taiwan Day 1

TAIWAN DAY 1 ~Yeliu, Jiu Fen, Ping Shi~

23/08/2012 Thursday

Woke up. The skies were dark but it wasn't raining..yet. We decided to go ahead with the one day trip with Mr Yu. On our way to Ye Liu it rained on and off, a few minutes each time from (stupid) typhoon effects and i still wasn't sure whether i made a correct decision or not.  

It seems like someone up there loves me though ♡＾▽＾♡ 

 As we headed north towards Ye Liu it rained less and less and by the time we reached the area it has stopped raining completely! muakss to you, my secret admirer from above *teehee*

Our 2nd group photo~ Never knew that the journey itself can be so enjoyable ^^. It was along the coast where sceneries were gorgeous and mum totally loved it. 

It's kind of different from the beaches i've seen so far. There's lots of rocks and cliffs and no sand. okay so maybe they weren't beaches. i have no idea what word i should be using. Anyway, Mr Yu made several stops along the way for us to go down and enjoy the view

 Final mini stop before Yeliu Geopark.  The view is just b.r.e.a.t.h.t.a.k.i.n.g *gasp*

i wonder how Mr Yu found out about this place? It's actually behind a sign pointing to Yeliu Geopark and you have to walk through some bushes to get here.

cute mum dunno what to do when i ask them to make new poses haha

idiotic me ╥﹏╥. look at all the square photos. i didn't realize the camera setting wasn't 4:3. waste of the beautiful view. 

it's so nice to see mum & dad climb around the place excitedly :)
dad was extremely helpful and gentleman in helping me and mum up and down the place (*^^*)

dad & mr yu

the photos really cannot justify the beauty of the place. pity i only knew how to use the automatic setting on my camera nia *shame on me*

Smoothies bought before going in Yeliu Geopark. It was hot and sunny which felt sooo.. 不思議 for me considering there's a typhoon around.

zipai with mum. regret that i didn't bother to wear nicer clothes. i expected rain and no photo taking chance 

Finally... our first destination: Yeliu Geopark... which we spent no more than 15 minutes haha.. there's a lot of odd-shaped rocks that look like beehives, queen's head, taufu if you use your imagination. But it was a bit crowded and hot, with guards blowing their whistle if you go over a red tape on the ground ==.  It got bothersome and the entrance fee was only TWD50 so what the heck 

another stop on the way to lunch.. the rock looks like a fish. if u cannot see it, u really have no imagination. period.

Whenever mr yu stops somewhere, he would explain when needed and insist on helping us take photos (which i'm really grateful for because i'm not really good at "come ppl let's take photos!") before quietly going over to a side to let us enjoy ourselves. i got so used to him taking photos of me that i didn't have to think twice about making more daring poses haha.

 The pointy rock on the right side is supposedly colorful on fine sunny days because of some...rock... components...thingy which i don't really understand haha. 

 FOOOOOD! I've heard from my juniors that mr yu brought them to buy fresh seafood and then took them to another restaurant to cook so that it'll be cheaper. What's slightly different from what i imagined is that the restaurant was just a few stalls away from the seafood stalls and wasn't exactly a proper restaurant. The "room" only had one round table if i remember correctly haha. But it had aircon so i won't complain. Plus they cooked each dish for only TWD100 (around rm10). The total meals costed us TWD 1800 something which i considered ok for so much fresh seafood. 

Here i'd like to give praise to Mr Yu for being very professional again. He ordered a dish of fried rice to share with us and only ate two prawns when mum insisted he eats something (this is a great feat considering how my mum persuades ppl to eat food) before leaving the room. I really like how he tries not to make us feel guilty. But in the end we couldn't finish the enormous amount of food so mum dragged mr yu back to help haha. 

The second destination was Jiufen, a small town uphill with quaint streets selling mostly food and a bit of clothes. The streets were soo empty compared to the time i came last time when we had to rub shoulders with strangers for every single step we took. Mum n dad would gone crazy in that situation. Apparently there were a lot less tourists because of the typhoon (good job for once, typhoon!)

Lots of 'xiao chi' here and mum deeply regretted her decision for the heavy lunch. Poor mum felt dizzy halfway from thalassemia and we hurried back to the car. She would still lit up and go "ooo what's this?" when we passed by new food though... and she still keep saying dad is a glutton.

The journey to Ping Shi took nearly another hour which i was very grateful for. By the time we reached the Sky Lantern Square, mum's almost alright again!

We were the only ones sitting and drawing inside the shop because mum still felt unwell. Another customer then comes in, thinking my mum is some pro calligrapher or something and actually stood beside to look at her work for while hahahaha. 

mr yu came over and drew the 3 flying birds and swimming ducks that symbolise the mum, dad and me when he saw the many empty spaces left. Mum keep going "wahh so geng. were you an artist??" Your youngest daughter a lot more talented lah!

dad was originally at the front but was asked to switch places with mum because his belly would block the picture XD.  poor thing 

it's hard to tell from this picture but there's actually a tail of firecrackers at the bottom of the lantern sponsored by mr yu. i didn't think the crackers would make much difference but the lantern looks a lot more magical with the sparks as it soars across the sky. fyi TWD150+TWD50(additional fee for crackers)

Just as the lantern disappears off into nothing but a speckle, i began to feel raindrops on my face. Guess our prayers were at its limit from keeping the rain away (*^^*)

We went to Shilin Night Market again right as soon as we got back and had a quite decent walk before the rain got heavier.

NOT yummy steamboat at shilin market.

In conclusion, today felt like a miracle. Especially after i've been convinced that we will be cooped inside the hostel for the entire trip. It felt like a bonus day that wasn't supposed to happen and made us appreciate everything a lot more. This must be what they mean by appreciate all the little small things. We were like "Wow its not raining! yayyy" "We made it to Ping Shi! Praise the lord!!" the entire day lol. 

ps noticed some people are interested in Yu Da Ge's contact. Here it is:
Tel: 0919-666332
Email: taxi_28828@yahoo.com.tw
Fyi better if you email him in chinese.

Taiwan Day 0
Taiwan Day 1 : Yeliu, Jiufen, PingShi, Yu Da Ge taxi driver
Taiwan Day 2 : Yongkang Jie, Taipei 101, Wufenpu
Taiwan Day 3 : Yongkang Jie, Ximending, Dan Shui
Taiwan Day 4 : Longshan Temple
Hualien Day 1 : CingShui, Taroko Gorge, Hotel Bayview, express train, Tifanny taxi driver
Hualien Day 2 : rubbish place
Hualien Day 3 : Mt Shike, Eight Fairy Caves, Shi Ti Ping
Taiwan Goodbye