the DAY of the expensive coffee
We will look back upon and think of this day, the day that will be forever etched in our memories, the day 2 of our trip, the one that made it great.Having to wake up at 6+ to check out and catch our early train to Hualien, we were all very much zombified still and breakfast was settled at 7-Eleven (our first of many stops), before we went to grab the train, which was rather comfy and though we didn't look out much, there was quite a nice view outside. We managed to contact our tour guide who was very friendly and he picked us up at the train station for our Taroko Gorge Day Tour. He's like a mini celebrity on the TripAdvisor / Hardwarezone forums with many people raving about his services and all that was said was indeed true! But before that, a dabao lunch stop first "清淡又好吃". Well its good advice cos the food / COFFEE price up at the gorge was really not economical.
And off we go up the mountain! Hmm, sat in front, which meant, with a talkative Tour Guide, I had to keep replying him all the way! AH. Whole Day / Night! But haha, it was quite fun anyway,but my chinese cannot make it, so it was hard to both understand and be understood.
... at the entrance ...
Our first tour stop was the 砂卡礑 trail, where we had to walk in for 20 min, could see the valley and the water formation underneath. It was quite beautiful and the fun started when we climbed down towards the rocky area.
.. big rock (one of the smaller ones still) ...
Other than some oppurtune photo moments along the way, the next place should be the Swallow Grotto or 燕子口.
Alot of places for one to stop and look for the swallows, but they fly so fast, anyway, they aren't really very pretty haha.
...swallow in flight...
...the view from on top...
...the view from on top...
... there's a red indian (stone) in the background ...
Oh well, after that we made a stop. Mr Taxi Guide asked us whether any of us drink coffee and said the coffee here was their own brew or something, ahh, the stupid normal iced coffee cost us S$7.50. It did tasted a bit different, but ahem, expensive! Haha.. well, tourists are always meant to be chopped. We then had our lunch, which was the bento, soup with funny looking meatballs, and yakult!
... lunching in the great outdoors ...
... next stop after lunch ...
Its suppose to be some 9 turn tunnel cave, where in times of darkness, goofiness reigns. And no, the entire 9 turn isn't like such, there's alot of breaks in between for you to look up and admire and realise just how bloody big the whole place is!
One of the attractions there was this rock formation. Its some fish jumping over the gates of hell / heaven to retrieve eggs or something. Haha. Gosh, the story they tell sometimes. But yup, initially I couldn't recognise how it was a fish, but it gets easier after staring at it for awhile. Guess that goes with most of things in life!
Yes.. more weird things to spot!
... king kong in the background ...
Oh there's a weird Planetary Museum somewhere along the way, its free anyway, and we stopped there for our toilet break, ermm.. well, just not something you would expect to find in the middle of like a mountain reserve haha. Imagine the person working there so sad, although slack, no transport, and so very very boring. Boring-ness in work is really a bad thing, I can vouch for it!
... temple here too! ...
And finally, we arrive to the highlight of Taroko! The cave. Pitch Black. Cold. Damp. Equipped with raincoats and umbrellas. We started to move towards an unknown destination with only the trust of our Tour Guide.
... us scared ...
This was really just a teaser for later, but having emerged from the dark tunnel, well, more rest and pictures ensued, as what followed was a long walk to the next point, which wasn't all that bad actually as we get to have a closer look at the mountains from here.
The next point was quite nice. As we walked closer and closer, the gushing noise of water grew louder and so did our anticipation as well, but it was still quite beautiful. Its erm, a vertically challenged waterfall! A suspension bridge connected it to another area where we could see more waterfalls in the background, but those were rather far away, and anywhere with a suspension bridge always adds some fun!
There was another tunnel and this time, there really was not a single light source as it was twisting inside also, so we were not able to see the light coming from the exit until we were nearer. Wah, haha, there wasn't a difference between opening and closing your eyes and really had to trust the person in front as well as the railing to hold. It was really quite fun! And then... finally we arrive at the 水濂洞 or Water Curtain Cave.
It was a wet wet wet place. The water level was around calf height and we finally get to don our raincoats. Shoes off, pants rolled up, raincoats on, which also means dangerous place for cameras. Ahh...
... in preparation ...
... geared up ...
... inside ...
... + our taiwan friends ...
... pitch black actually ...
We really couldnt see much when inside the cave, but the water kept falling from the top and there was really alot, and very cold water too! We made friends with a Taiwan couple there who was also at the cave same time as us, they didn't know that it was possible to go in and well, comparatively more ill-equipped as opposed to us. They were very nice people and they gave us alot of suggestions on things to do later on at both Kaohsiung and Taipei.
We had plans to play with fireworks later on at night and our tour guide graciously invited them along also, so the 5 of us continued on for the rest of the trip. The return trip down Taroko was definitely not as exciting having just completed the highlight so we only stopped a couple of places, the 岳飞亭 and somewhere else with a place unknown, before we made a departure.
It was getting dark and wanted to see the sunset I think at 七星潭, but it was too dark by the time we reached so we couldn't really see much here. Its just a very normal beach, although one that is next to a cemetery, makes it a tad weird and discomforting.
Ahh.. Finally dinner, which was some wanton thingy, no noodles, just wanton, erm, I didn't really liked it, but its supposed to be quite famous in Hualien so oh well, haha, which was actually quite filling so wasn't too bad.
... our ubiquitous 泡泡茶 stop ...
Our taiwan friend bought for us some weird cereal oat thingy, which also had pearls inside, or didn't, ermm quite weird ah, like drinking oatmeal, very filling and thick! Our taxi driver then picked us up again after dinner and off we went to 鲤鱼潭. Once again, cannot see anything at night, but that was not what we were here for and the main purpose is to play with fireworks! Our taxi driver had kindly sponsored us some to play and he had drove all the way home earlier while we were having dinner to take them.
... master at work ...
... the first shot ...
... takeoff! ...
... my turn! ...
... booomm ...
... lh's salvo! ...
... nice arc ...
Fun!!! Never had the chance to play with fireworks before and this was quite exciting. Scary, ahem, no thanks to Andy who couldn't plant the stick properly leaving it stuck in the ground. Ended up, it stayed there and exploded! LH and me were left staring at it in shock and ears still ringing as we were closest to the blast. Haha, but it was still fun nonetheless!
With that, we moved off to another area where there were fireflies! One more not available in Singapore moment!
... view on the other side of the pond ...
... the firefly catching squad ...
Haha, quite cute! Didn't know fireflies keep switching on / off their lights and there were quite a number of them, managed to catch a couple too but they are equally good at escaping as well, haha. Firefly actually looks like a giant ant, hmm, abit more friendly looking though, make up your own imagination! If you wanna see, then go catch your own!
Last stop. Ali Ba Ba 民宿. We had booked this room based on the pictures we saw and seriously, for one of the rare times, the pictures did no justice with the rooms looking better in real life! The owner's mum offered us a quad room as we had 3 people but we had initially booked for the normal double room which was 500-700 NT cheaper, and so we asked if we could stick to our original plan of the double room. She said she would check for us but wah, when she came back, it was with her son (the owner) who wasn't in too good a mood. He was FURIOUS. Haha.. somehow, the message that got across was that we wanted the quad room at the double room rate, and he was extremely crappy, haha, said he was worried that we could be some criminals, murderers and the like, and was about to chase us out, then since we are students, etc, then ok. Haha, his mum was like constantly hitting him lightly, asking him to tone down etc. Anyway, after that unpleasant moment, the mum came back and offered us the room at 1300NT, cheap! We were more than happy to pay 1500NT for it already, but hey, more discounts = good!
We had full access to the house and this was the downstairs which was well equipped, and that's us after shower and off to find our supper!
There wasn't much food left by that timing, so we trooped off to 7-Eleven and Andy and I being less adventurous, stuck to classics like cup noodles, which wasn't cheap, around 2 dollars, but it had meat, and large chunks, not the crappy dehydrated sort. LH was definitely more brave, she tried some food on a stick, abit like yong tau foo.
Taroko had so many things to see, its all just so serene and beautiful that many of the pictures here, each can tell its own story. Then the multiple experiences at night, many of them being the first time, also made for good fun. Well, and to conclude it, we all had a nice room to get much needed rest!
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