Travellogue Taiwan: Hualien and Yilan

From Hualien, we made our way to Yilan, the state just northwards. We visited Taroko National Park, famous for its marble.

Upon alighting the bus, I noticed swifts up in the clouds yonder.

The river had crystal clear water flowing towards the sea beyond. Having tried the coffee (supposedly brewed using water from the river itself), we climbed up to Eternal Spring Shrine atop the hill.

We continued our journey towards Taipei along super narrow roads. It was just wide enough for a bus. The linzi centre we stopped at was very expensive and despite their enthusiastic marketing and persistent persuasion, we all came out of the place empty-handed.

The next stop was yet another money-spending place - the marble factory. After having our lunch at their restaurant, we were brought on a tour of the factory, introduced to the different kinds of stones in production.

I have to admit that the stones they sold were cheap but I did not buy any as they were set in stainless steel, not in sterling silver or white gold.

Suhua National Highway was like a roller-coaster ride but the view was superb. While everyone else was taking a nap, I was busy shutter-bugging.

The batteries to my camera were drained due to my enthusiasm in getting good shots. Along the way, we stopped to buy steamed sweet potatoes from the local roadside vendors.

Despite feeling slightly dizzy, I found Nanfangau and Nantien Temple interesting. No, this temple isn't like the one in Wollongong, silly. This one worships Ma Zhu for the peace and safety of the fisherfolk.

Dusk fell and it was time for as to arrive at our final destination for the day: Shangrila Leisure Farm. At first, we were thinking: wow, Reliance actually arranged for us to spend a night at Shangrila? Cool! How wrong were we! It was of a different concept altogether but we were not let down. It turned out to be the BEST of all the places we've stayed at so far! We had no complains for the food and rooms. The view was breath-taking. Here are some shots taken the morning after:

After dinner, the hotel had activities lined up for us. We made glutinous rice ball and wrote wishes on a wish lantern.

There was also a top-spinning competition. After all the hype, Shek Mei, Xue Er, Alicia, Miss Lee and I sat outside and had a long chat about their babies, their husbands, and the economy.

Travellogue Taiwan: Kaohsiung

Brekkie was porridge and veg. It was like being vegetarian for breakfast. Pretty helpful in keeping myself awake on the bus actually. First stop for the day was Foguang Shan.

Our local guide made it sound like it was a tough climb up the hill when it really was not at all. When we arrived at the Main Shrine, I was totally taken aback at its grandeur. I thought they have made the place feel majestic and utterly impressive, with the walls lined with small timber Buddha statues right up to the ceiling.

We walked around the gardens and even in the museum, which was partly underground. We only realised that the museum ran under most parts of the monastery upon exit! We did not have sufficient time to climb up to the golden statue:

Xue Er showed us some photographs she took of the place, as she managed to climb to the top while we were underground.

Lunch was early but we were not complaining. There was all sorts served - mushroom, ostrich, fish, abalone, crab, prawn, lobster and even shark. We were saying that it was the best meal so far during the trip. After lunch, we stopped along the roadside to buy some fat, juicy and sweet rose apples.

And then it was the dreaded journey towards the north again. This time, instead of comfortable freeways, we travelled the South Swerve National Road. Gosh, it was not only narrow, it was high up as well! It was a cliffhanger, literally! It was comparable to the Great Ocean Road, just minus the sun and apostles. Oh, and the sand here was black...

The bus was going fast on a very windy road so imagine how insecure most of us felt! Luckily, most of us slept throughout most of the journey.

Just when I thought I've seen most of the paddy fields, I saw even MORE along this route. We were more than relieved when we arrived at Hualien. However, the excitement quickly disappeared as we entered the restaurant where dinner was served. The place was unsightly and crowded. The service was slow and rude. The food was not presentable and not to mention tasteless. Even Alicia could not hide her dissatisfaction!

Redemption: Ami Aboriginal Cultural Show.

Enjoyed it heaps especially the part where Alicia and I joined in the last dance.

We checked into room 6009 of Gold Coast Union Hotel. This time, I shared the room with her. The room I initially had gave me the creeps and yikes, shivers.......

As dinner was bad, all of us (including the local guide) ended up walking to 7-11 to buy supper.

Travellogue Taiwan: Taichung

Breakfast service was getting worse by the day. Or at least it felt so to me. Or maybe I was just grumpy from the lack of sleep.

On this day, we headed towards Freeway 1, then onwards to Freeway 3 and then Freeway 6, which was officially opened 2 days before. From the bus, I noticed that most of their rivers were stone rivers. I guess it is natural as they have many marble cliffs in the region. Paddy fields lined the freeways as the green boxes stretch from one side to the other of the freeway.

Interspersing the paddy would be other crops such as yam. I rubbed my eyes when I saw a patch of oil palm trees! It was easy to tell that the locals livelihood came from their fields and orchards - there was an abundance of sugarcane, maize, starfruit, dragonfruit, mango and penang, as well as the occasional grape.

Weaving through tall penang trees brought us to Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village.

We arrived just in the nick of time to catch a cultural performance whereby the performers danced, sang and used bamboo as percussion instruments.

Instead of riding the cable car up to the top of the hill, we took the train. We were glad we chose not to walk up as we realised how steep it was while walking down.

In my opinion, I thought they did a pretty good job with educating the public about the traditional lifestyle of the aborigines of Taiwan. They had houses with real people doing real stuff in them, not just fake puppets.

As there was an amusement park situated within Formosan, Alicia and I decided to have a go at the rides. Uncle and Aunty Ding were great sports as well, as we managed to persuade them to join us on the roller-coaster. We thought Aunty Ding would scream loudly but who knew it was us who were screaming at the top of our lungs! When we've had enough of thrills, we walked back out towards the front. Aunty Ding was telling us that we should visit the garden across the road. I was not really attracted but walked in there with Alicia anyway and lo and behold, it was the place where Romantic Princess (Taiwanese idol drama starring Angela Zhang and Wu Chun) was filmed! Imagine how ecstatic I was...

From a hill, we moved on to a lake. Sun Moon Lake, to me, was nothing special. Perhaps I did not feel it's natural beauty due to my perception that it was being overdeveloped. Or maybe it was because I was feeling nauseous from the windy ride. Even after climbing up to the highest part of Wenwu Temple, I was thinking: Hm, ok la.

I did, however, take plenty of snapshots of the temple...

We made a short stopover at a peacock park. Apparently, the peacocks we saw came from just a pair of peacocks that were presented to the Taiwanese government by our Malaysian government. I'd have to say that they totally put our peacocks to shame! Just look at them!

Lunch was had at a small restaurant nearby, after which we were brought to Mao Wang Yeh's house. I had no idea that this 'house' was where Royal Jelly was sold. I was not paying much attention as the giddiness was really kicking in at that moment. Nicholas and Shirley was so kind - they offered me motion-sickness pills, which had me sleeping on the bus all the way to Kaohsiung.

As we arrived Kaohsiung ahead of schedule, we visited the Spring and Autumn Pavilions.

According to superstition, you are to walk into the dragon's mouth before exiting from the tiger's.

We then headed to Dream for dinner.

If you ask me, Dream looked like the shopping complex where Why Why Love was filmed. Regret not taking more photos of the place. But I did go to the top to ride on the ferris wheel...

On this night, I checked into room 3018 of Citizen Hotel with yet another full stomach.