Taiwan Goodbye

TAIWAN LAST DAY
30 August 2012 Thursday

I'm very happy to say there wasn't any incident today ^^
Had a rather hurried breakfast, hotel ppl sent us to hualien station (free), got into the express train safely, contemplated whether it's better to take the train till Taoyuan then take taxi to airport, some nice man came up to us and said that it's better to follow our ori plan to get off at Taipei Main Station then take taxi/bus (till today still unsure which is better actually), got off at TMS, contemplated whether to take bus or taxi (TWD1200 fixed price) to go airport, took taxi in the end, lots of spare time at airport as i expected, and........ 


safe and sound in KL again.



Felt like god was rolling me around in his palm during the whole trip -.-
Do you not know it is hard enough to please parents even when there's nothing wrong??
You had to go and give me 3 typhoons ==
Everyday was like a wager with the storms.
Bringing my hopes up for Mt Liushidan when i have finally resigned to not being able to go... then you go 'haha just joking kidding' at the very last minute.


But the typhoons turned out to be a blessing in disguise...for most of the part. 
The weather was cool and windy, perfect for sightseeing.
Whereas the popular tourist places are usually packed with people, it was pleasantly vacant. 


So i'll let it slip just this time. 
Please don't play with me anymore.


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

Taiwan Day 7 - Hualien

HUALIEN DAY 3 ~Mt. Shike, Bashiendong, Shi Ti Ping~

Today is the day i can finally feast my eyes on daylilies!! wee~~~

Dad woke up really early today and was very anxious to take a stroll at the beach. Initially mum wanted dad to wait for her but she was too slow at getting ready so i suggested dad to go ahead first. While i was putting my makeup on mum suddenly pointed to outside of the window "Look!! Is that your father talking with a woman?! tsk tsk.. Look!! Look!! Now he's picking stones with her!!"

"Really? I'll zoom in with my camera and take a picture XD!"

*door opens* and dad walks in innocently
LOL

Mum laughed so hard at her own mistake. 

At long last!! I can finally set foot on Qixingtan beach.

And I also finally understood what Mr Yu meant when he suggested that we go to the beach to pick some stones when we're at hualien. At first, I was like "huh?? go to the beach to pick stones?". Turns out Qixingtan beach is not your average sandy beach! Mum and dad managed to find a lot of pretty stones. 

No swimming allowed at the beaches along Hualien coast btw. The sea suddenly drops very deep which also explains why the waves sound different - like kind of well.. deep and weirdly loud.

Our driver for today was......Mr Lin... again.
Though i wasn't very satisfied with his service yesterday.
He was way too quiet (as in bordering creepy quiet) plus he wouldn't even on the aircon -.- We were dropping hints like "kinda hot huh?"  "my hair's messy from the wind" but he didn't even twitch. Now i wonder why none of us dared to directly ask him to just on the damn aircon. 

Anyway yesterday Mr Lin asked what was our schedule for today (trying to get more business) and called his friend to check if there's still a road block at Mt Liushidan. When i said i want to go back by the coast for a few more sightseeing spots Mr Lin keep saying there won't be enough time which i thought was weird. I understand that if the sky turns dark it won't be fun anymore because we won't be able to enjoy the scenery then. But one way takes 3 hours so if we depart at 8am and return at 7pm we should still have 5 hours in between. Turns out that TWD4500 (package to go Mt Liushidan TWD3500 + to go back along the coast TWD1000) is only for 8 hours. geez.. so.... calculative.

Mum tried to lessen my burden by helping to negotiate with Mr Lin and got an hour extra. I couldn't think of a good way to hint mum there and then that i want to go back and try find better drivers first and then only ask him if we don't have any other choices. o well.


Today he properly turned on the aircon for the whole trip though. 'Someone' must mentioned/complained to the hotel owner :P. The hotel owner was slightly shocked to hear it and tried to comfort us by saying that some costumers dislike aircon and prefer to breathe in Hualien's fresh air. 

Our route for today.

********Mt Shike(赤科山)********

So why is the subheading of this post ~Mt Shike~ instead of Mt Liushidan? 
Well, our genius taxi driver's information was wrong and we only found out that the road to Mt Liushidan was STILL blocked when we FINALLY reached the foot of the mountain orz. So no choice but to go to the 2nd popular place for daylilies: Mt Shike. To make matter worse, on the way to Mt Shike he fliped out his hp and called to ask the way....we were lost! It was his first time to Mt Shike as well O.O And he hid the information from us -.- How can you bring us to the scenic spots on Mt Shike if you have never been there yourself???? Okay.. won't mention him anymore. Don't need him to spoil my blog as well.

On way up Mt Shike. Again, never knew mountains and valleys can be so gorgeous.

 dad so creative lol

The natives are given a sum of money by the government to not harvest the daylilies so that the flowers can remain as a tourist attraction.

SO wanted to have someone take a picture of me leaning on the tree >w<

On our way down we saw this mountain. That bare area is caused by landslide O.O

Daylilies being dried on the roof before they are packed and sold.

mom very happy to see this fruit tree

******** Bashiendong(八仙洞) ********

Bashiendong has 8 caves with a fairy/god at each cave.. i think. Have to climb a lot of stairs so we only went to 2 caves which turned out to be very interesting! The first cave we went to was having an event for the Hungry Ghost Festival so there was a monk praying and singing with his entourage. Then he started throwing blessed paus, sweets, mochi and coins all over and everyone rushed to get them haha. According to the people there, it's lucky to get them. Dad was super enthusiastic and got us a lot of food and coins haha.

Then we proceeded to another cave and a man in charge there gave me these pretty stones! The white one because "It looks like you" said the man. Not really sure what to make of that remark but i'll take it as a compliment d（・∀＜）

Anddd the coolest thing happened! That man offered to help dad do some qi gong. Dad was totally at awe by the time the man was done and he immediately called mum over to try as well. Mum's reaction was much more funnier... should have taken her video lol. When the man touched her head mum actually screamed a little. She said it hurt a lot and felt like exploding?? Both of them said they felt 'something' in them moving and electric pulses like thing. Mum and dad were like super excited and wanted me to try too but i was having period so cannot in the end.  

First time came across this kind of supernatural stuff ﾟ+.(･∀･).+ﾟ Feels...surreal. Sooooooooo wanted to try it myself and see how it feels like. My period actually came this morning so i guess i really don't have yuan fen with it haha. 

******** Shi Ti Ping (石梯坪) ********

Our last stop! Would have love to spend more time doing nothing here.

Facilities for camping.

♥

♥♥

Some guys swimming and snorkeling in that small gulf-like-place. Next time i definitely want to try that too!

In the end the whole trip was 10 hours and Mr Lin had the nerve to ask money for the extra hour. I was like "Excuse me?? You wasted our time pointlessly to go Mt Liushidan and then got lost on the way to Mt Shike... REMEMBER??"




Last night in Hualien T__________________T
Hotel owner was waiting for us with a box of souvenir food - as an apology for recklessly assuring us that the sightseeing spots are definitely opened yesterday XD


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

Taiwan Day 6 - Hualien

HUALIEN DAY 2 ~Liyu Lake, Mataian Wetland etc etc many other boring places~

28 August 2012 Tuesday

I LOVE the hotel! 

It's called Hotel Bayview.

Ocean view deluxe room for 4 with balcony.

TWD3700(RM370) per night which is a tad bit on the expensive side.

But still very happy i got this room because originally only left deluxe double room meaning only ONE double bed (summer is peak season for hualien) when i tried to book. But thanks to the typhoon, many people must have canceled their reservations so i was able to change my rooms. Only TWD300 difference so deluxe room for 4 is definitely more worth it.

Bathroom very nice and clean, complete with all basic toiletries. I especially like their toothbrush. So soft and proper like those sold in supermarkets.

I was like "wahhh(oﾟ▽ﾟ)o" when i first saw our water tap.

fyi the hotel is not those super large luxurious type

But the owners and most of the workers are very very friendly and helpful. It's especially such a huge difference for me because me and my friends just went to hongkong and macau and got totally ignored by the hotel receptionists when we tried to ask stuff orz. The owner here would greet us and ask how's our day when we come back to the hotel at the end of the day. Normally i would find those fake little talks annoying but he would actually hear out our complaints and do something about it. Shall elaborate in next post.

Just a 3-minute walk to another scenic spot : Qixingtan beach. Which was unfortunately sealed off with yellow tapes and guarded by patrols that blow their whistles if you go near (>__<). stupid typhoon warning. The hotel provides bicycle rental service for free which i thought mum would like. I imagined the 3 of us cycling around Qixingtan's bike trail during the evenings orz. Something to be done next time maybe.

 And...and they have a 24 hours free coffee and biscuits corner ヾ( ﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾉﾞ! A very nice place to chill out after an exhausting day. Mum made a new friend with an ah po here yesterday. Chatted for over 3 hours. Why so good at striking conversations with strangers de? The ah po was here with her daughter and grandchildren. The daughter so geng. Not only bring her old mother and 2 young children by herself, still dare to rent car and drive around by herself. 

Today actually i wanted to go to Mt Liushidan to see the daylilies. But the road was blocked off from typhoon warning. Whale-watching also goodbye. Jade stone picking also impossible. Decided to just stay at the hotel.

  

 Went out for a walk. We could only watch the beach from afar T_________T. Really nothing else to do around the hotel if can't go to Qixingtan. Found some smelly boring fish museum.

After returning to the hotel, i keep pacing around until the hotel owner also beh tahan me hahaha. He said he'll call a cab and ask him to bring us around (Also another main reason why i chose Hotel Bayview. They can help prepare sightseeing bus tours and cabs so i don't have to plan ahead. They've even quoted all the prices nicely on their website.)

our first stop: japanese monastery

some historical place related with japanese

liyu lake

ok-pretty but nothing impressive *yawns*

Okay. So you've seen a few photos of my mum posing. Here's the thing: my mum dislike having her photo taken. But she saw how down i was so she actually approached random statues herself and asked me to help take photos of her lol. How pathetic of me (>_<)



some charcoal place

As you can see from the caption above, we also went to a charcoal factory-like place (with a shop beside it so you feel obligated to buy something after they explain the charcoal stuff ==)

Mr Lin (le taxi driver) brought us to a restaurant famous for pork. The food wasn't too too bad but the whole place smells of pork once you step in which wasn't very appetizing.

mataian wetlands

dad: it must be a mountain chicken
mum: haiya how can that be mountain chicken. look at its beak, it's a duck lah!

After several close-up photos revealing that the duck/chicken has no webbed feet yet swims in the water with a duck-like beak...
taxi driver: it's a water chicken
dad: there.. a chicken. my answer is closer.

mum: wow! what type of flower is that?

the harsh reality: eggs of some icky insects 

The natives catch fish with the holey bamboo! So cool. It's like you just put the bamboo in the river then the fish will go rest in there when they get tired of swimming and then you just have to pull it up~!

If creativity is something tangible this is what it would look like!



The next place we were brought to was this. Some minsu on top on a hill.

Why bring us to a see minsu that we're not even staying at? Mr Lin suggested us to take a walk around the lake but there's nothing special to see so we politely refused.

Anyway it was still early and there was no other interesting places to go so Mr Lin asked if we want to see some nameless university in hualien which we, of course, rejected. 

The orange line is the route we used. You can see my precious mt liushidan all the way down there. We went to about about 8 places today, some not marked in the map because i'm not sure where they are. Besides the aforementioned dull places, we also 'attempted' to go to 

1) a lily pond (the pond looks very small from outside) 

2) a timber museum (supposedly beautiful but i have my doubts)

3) guangfu sugar factory (not actually a factory at all but just a place selling ice desserts) which were all surprise, surprise closed from typhoon warning which was released in the afternoon. I specifically asked if we should call the places ahead first to confirm whether they are open or not but the hotel owner assured me it's ok. But i'm not missing those places at all cause they are probably not awfully interesting.

Got the taxi driver to drop us off at the town area and he'll come send us to the hotel  when we're done. The taxi driver wanted to fetch other customers during that time so we had to carry all of our stuff down (which luckily, isn't much).

herbs shop 

 Line characters quite popular in taiwan. A lot of t-shirts with them, too.

Finally Mr Lin drove us by the train station upon our request so i can buy that the tickets to go back taipei. Though we're going back on a weekday, the plane back to Malaysia is also on the same day so we really cannot afford the risk of having the train being fully booked at last minute.

When we got back to the hotel, the warning had gone off and the beach was open again!! But it was already dark (>□<). Today was such a pity. Would have rather stayed at the hotel if i'd known the places were so boring. Fortunately, taxi only cost TWD2200 so still not too xin tong.


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