Taiwan Day 5 - Hualien

HUALIEN DAY 1 ~Taroko Gorge, Hualien town~

27 August 2012 Monday

The 10am depart, 12:33 arrival tze-chiang limited express train seems like the most ideal one for us.

okay. for me actually haha..

I don't think i can wake up and get ready in time for any trains earlier than that. If we miss that, we could still ride the one that will reach 20minutes+ later (ingenious moi). Any train later that then we probably won't have time for a decent trip to Taroko Gorge though.

Took a cab to Taipei Main Station because previous experience have taught me this magic formula:

heavy luggages + old people + walking = no-no (exhaustion→frustration→resentment) 

heavy luggages + old people + taxi  = ok

So i arrived at the station only to find out that the online booking i made yesterday was canceled *shrieks*. Something about i was supposed to come and pay at least one day before the departure. But i still managed to purchase 3 tickets for the 10am train *phew*... 

I know that i have to go pay and collect the tickets within 2 days after i make the bookings if i don't pay by credit card online... but i've heard nothing about this kind of case (>________<)

http://twtraffic.tra.gov.tw/twrail/English/  ← the site to book train tickets 

For an official site you would think it would provide more proper intructions hmphh..

 Mum the glutton saw the man pushing food trolley and couldn't resist.

The 3 of us shared this taroko bentou which tasted very nice~ osusume^^

Read online that when riding the train to hualien from taipei, get the seats on the left side for a better view. I forgot to ask for it when purchasing the tickets (>__________<)
But was lucky enough that the officer assigned us to the left ones yayyy. Don't make my mistake! Just sitting on the left side makes the whole journey a lot more fascinating.

 oopss :P mum found out

The train stopped by taroko station before hualien station and we wondered for a second if we were supposed to get down there. Turns out if i had asked for Tiffany Chang(the taxi driver i booked for the day) to come fetch us from taroko station instead of hualien station, we could have saved an hour. ah well..

Cing Shui cliff ..

which i had to pay TWD500 extra just to come here

Not that is wasn't worth it. The view is beautiful. But for one stop only hmm..

Taroko Gorge

Free helmet rental service at the entrance. Only found out later that it wasn't compulsory to wear it. Tiffany "haih you know la. so troublesome if stones fell on you"

Taroko Gorge was a lot more gorgeous than i could have ever imagined. I've seen pictures of it before but they didn't really impressed me. Mum&dad probably aren't that interested in caves and mountains either so i was actually going to drop it out of our itinerary.

the right side - a man's side face

frog prince (hint: shelter = crown)

Tzu Mu Bridge

i googled to check out taroko gorge images again and didn't find a single impressive photo btw. Just to let you know that it's not that i'm bad at photography but the beauty of taroko gorge cannot be captured by mere photos :P 

JUST around the river bendddd~
water is supposed to be a beautiful blue but it was gray from the typhoons and landslides i think

no entrance fee to come in btw

At first, I was a bit worried we might be doing a lot of walking today and mum&dad won't be able to take it. When i heard Taroko Gorge i just somewhat have the impression that we have to do a lot of hiking around because Gua Niah over here is like that. Turns out it's more like touring around in a car and you just hop out at scenic spots to take photos. Views from the car are also breathtaking so no problem for old folks.

Holiu Suspension Bridge

can't tell from the photos but actually there's a lot of tourists from bus tours around. 

Okay i'm not sure which is which but i think we went to 4 out of the 7 spots(Shakadang Trail - Eternal Spring Shrine Trail - Swallow Grotto Trail - Tunnel of Nine Turns - Tzu Mu Bridge - Holiu Suspension Bridge - Tiansiang) Tiffany said she would bring us to. Tunnel of Nine Turns has been closed for a few years already, then some were closed because a typhoon warning was released that afternoon and others Tiffany Chang refused to go.  She just pointed the place to us from afar "That's xxxx btw. We won't go there cause got dangers of small stones falling. You know lah, hit you guys it would be troublesome so we won't go there ya." And although in the email she said this whole trip would take at least 6-8 hours, our tour was finished in less than 4 hours!! I suspect she skipped a lot of spots because she's rushing to go back home to prepare dinner ==

Anyway all i've got to say about this woman is that she is terrible, horrible and vegetable. She was pushy and talked non-stop which i wouldn't have minded as much if her ranting weren't all complains and money-related.

"sighh I don't really like this job. It's so dangerous. I'm scared"

"sighhh After my long day of driving i still have to go back and reply all those emails"

"It's so risky for a woman to drive into the mountains everyday." 

hellooo i didn't hire you to hear out your miserable boring life. 

Honestly, I can't understand why everyone in Tripadvisor raved so much about her. She might be better than those average taxi drivers you hail from the streets but definitely not a very good guide. Or maybe i caught her on a bad day. Other people who arrived early in Hualien seems to have gotten their 8 hours worth.

Anyhow she sensed my dissatisfaction and "offered" to wait for us while we check into the hotel before dropping us off at the town area. "Normally if you fetch taxi from the hotel it will cost TWD25 but i won't claim from you guys (because i'm oh so kind and generous). zzzzz I thought i hired her for the whole day but it seems like i have only hired her to go 1) taroko gorge 2) cing sui. Anywhere else need to add money be it on the way or not. 

All in all it was a very decent trip. As we left Taroko Gorge, we heard that it will be closed tomorrow (day typhoon affecting hualien most apparently), so don't you think i've made a correct decision to come here today (maybe?).  Next time can just rent a car and come here by ourselves since the roads were relatively easy to navigate around even by my driving standards. 

Conclusion: Taroko Gorge super osusume~ not those places you have to go just because everyone else goes too (i'm talking about taipei 101 and boring national museums)


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