Day 10: 27 August 2016; Taroko National Park, Qi Xing Tan

I don't know if I should say that it was good that we 包车-ed (hired a driver) for 太魯閣國家公園 (Taroko National Park) or not.

Good because this meant less walking to explore the park, and that we could enjoy the air-conditioning in the car occasionally.

However, there are definite cons for this as well.

Firstly, our guide (not the driver) was nothing like a guide at all. Basically she sat in the car throughout the entire trip, and didn't even bother to explain to us about the National Park at various stopovers. I guess her job was literally just to 摆美 (look pretty?). Too bad we're not guys. Lol.

Next, because we had the 'privilege' to enjoy the air-con in the car, this made us rather reluctant to step out into the heat to explore the park. (Note: at that time we went, the weather was really really bad) But of course, we still went on various trails, to not miss out on what Taroko could possibly offer for us.

Moreover, as we had hired the driver for a limited period of time, we felt that we could not thoroughly wander around Taroko Park. We had to leave sufficient time to go to other attractions in the park, and we also had to return to the original place they dropped us off for the journey to continue.

Initially, we had hired the driver (sister of the owner of our apartment) for 1,600 NTD for 6 hours. But due to miscommunication, the 'tour' only lasted for 4 hours and we had to pay 1,500 NTD ??? Evidently our itinerary in the park was shorten, and we were overcharged from what was initially agreed on!! In the end, the owner pro-rated the price and refunded us 375 NTD, hence the cost of hiring a driver for 4 hours became 1,125 NTD. However, missing out on major parts of Taroko National Park was still a big loss to us, and we didn't have a good impression about this place.

With that, complaints aside, these are the places we visited in Taroko National Park, effortlessly:

清水斷崖 (Qingshui Cliff)

清水斷崖

清水斷崖 was entirely a touch-and-go place, where we just took pictures and left. Basically what you see is what you get. You can't get any closer to the cliff and everyone was just taking pictures from the viewing platform.

砂卡礑步道 (Shakadang Trail)

Entrance to 砂卡礑步道 (Shakadang Trail)

Good lighting & wind along the trail

We didn't walk the entire Shakadang Trail as we were afraid that we wouldn't have much time left for the other trails. However, it was a rather cooling walk and we would have continued to the end if not for the time constraint.


長春祠 (Eternal Spring Shrine)

長春祠

Entrance of the trail

Beside this entrance, there is a memorial for the people who lost their lives building bridges in Taroko National Park.

Somewhere along the trail with good lighting

Guess we were unlucky again since we were unable to reach the end of the trail as it was cordoned off due to falling rocks. (This happened to us before when we wanted to hike up to Wufengqi Waterfall.)


七星潭 (Qi Xing Tan)

七星潭

We went back to 七星潭 as it was already dark by the time we reached there yesterday evening. The second trip was definitely worth it though. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the strong waves crash onto the beach each time. XY and I wanted to touch the water (for the sake of it LOL), but we kept hesitating for fear of wetting our shoes hahaha. But in the end we still dipped our hands in it and kept our shoes dry!! (But it was full of stones)

That was all we did for that 4 hours. We went to the touristy places only as our guide claimed that there was nothing else to see in Taroko National Park. Pretty disappointing as I'm sure Taroko has so much more to offer us! If I'm ever going there again, I definitely opt to go by foot! Or maybe to take public buses (that takes forever to arrive).

We had dedicated our entire day for Taroko, and 4 hours was just not enough.

It was only about 2pm and we had no plans for the rest of the day already.

Yesterday, we had already spent most of our time walking along the same street in Hualien and we were already kind of sick of it. Yet, we wandered around Hualien city SO MUCH MORE today, we have no intentions of visiting Hualien anymore except for tomorrow's itinerary.

Ate the famous 包心粉圆 which was super good!! We wanted to eat it again another day, but it was closed and we settled for the sub-standard one, which was really sub-standard. -.-

This is the original one!! Not the next door's.

综合圆 + 焦糖炼乳

Afterwards, we went to Shi Hui's favourite place, called a secondhand bookstore with cats in it. We took quite a while to walk there from the dessert store, but at least the bookstore looks vintage-y and nice! I was bored to death in there, but endured it for the sake of that girl. T.T

Ate an apple while they read their books~

One of the cats in the bookstore

Missed having some Jap food so we had Coco-ichibanya for dinner!

To end the night, we went to 東大門夜市 (Dongdamen Night Market) (变肥#5) to take a look at how it's like, but it is actually 福町夜市 (Fuding Night Market) ???

It was already drizzling when we made our way there, but half way through, it started to rain heavily!! T.T

In the end, we stopped by 福町夜市 to watch some on-going dance competition instead of buying any street snacks there.

Then, XY decided that we should save on the 100 NTD cab fare, so we walked back to our apartment in the heavy rain for 30+ minutes!! Our shoes were totally goners. -.-

Day 9: 26 August 2016; Hua Lien Jin San Jiao, Qi Xing Tan

Our day started with free breakfast provided by Lan Guei Hotel at a nearby breakfast shop.
The breakfast was rather filling, though not delicious.

As the hotel was a distance from 礁溪火车站 (Jiao Xi train station), we called for taxi.

We arrived at 花莲火车站 (Hua Lien train station) earlier than the check in time again.
The host kindly met us at the station to help bring our luggage to our Airbnb accommodation.
Afterwards, she even fetched us to 花蓮金三角商圈 (Hua Lien Jin San Jiao Shopping Area) for us to shop.

Mandatory shot at every train station

Dragging our mega-sized luggage

Our first stop is the famous 公正包子 (Gong Zheng Bao Zi)! They are famous for their steamed dumplings and 小籠包 (xiaolongbao). As we were not that hungry, we ordered a 小籠包 each. It was nothing that I imagined as it's not the 小籠包 that you will find at Din Tai Fung. It's a mini meat bun with much thicker skin. Though the filling was nice, we didn't really liked the buns.

The shopping area is honestly, only made up of a few shopping streets and it only took us 2 hours before we finished browsing the entire area. As we had too much time to spare, we decided to continue roaming the streets.

As XY wanted to trim her eyebrows, we went to hunt for a salon. While searching, JJ found her Thai green milk tea which was super nice!! She totally loves it.

The salon that we found had an enthusiastic owner who kept introducing nice attractions to us when she found out that we were tourists.

After walking for a good twenty minutes or so, we finally reached Hua Lien train station again! According to some friendly locals, there are some bicycle rental shops near the station. We could rent bikes from these shops and cycle our way to 七星潭 (Qi Xing Tan).

It was another scary ride for me. Before we reach Qi Xing Tan, we will have to cycle on the entire stretch of 中正路, a very long road with heavy traffic. I was so scared to cycle on the road that I pushed my bike for almost the entire journey.

It was a rather smooth ride from 中山路 onwards with some uphills. In the middle of the ride, I had another rather serious quarrel with XY which totally just spoiled my mood for the day. I wanted to detour and return my bike but JJ insisted that I cycle to the beach since that was our initial aim.

By the time we reached the beach, it was already very dark and we couldn't see any nice scenery. :(

We cycled with all our might back to the rental shop and luckily we made it before the shop closes. I even cycled amidst the heavy traffic of 中正路 as I was just too tired to push my bike. JJ and I ended our day with onigiri and 純粹喝伯爵奶茶口味 (Chun Cui He Earl Grey Milk Tea) from 7-11. The Earl Grey Milk Tea was FANTASTIC.

It was already past 9 when we arrived at our Airbnb accommodation which is located near the train station. It is a studio apartment with limited space for us to maneuver around. However, it is really really very affordable and was our cheapest accommodation for the entire trip.

「一小間」雙人、三人同行
Price: SGD 50.50 per night for a triple room (4 nights)

花蓮 accommodation

At a self-service laundry shop downstairs

Day 8: 25 August 2016; Wufengqi, Jimmy Park, Tangweigou Hot Spring Park

Had a really good sleep last night since we slept on Japanese futons rather than double beds. (Ironic us)

Woke up feeling refreshed and our Airbnb owner offered to send us to 頭城 (Toucheng train station). However, we wanted to try the famous 龍記牛肉麵 (Longji Beef Noodles) so he fetched us there instead.

At 10.30am, there was already one person in the queue. We joined the queue even though the shop only opens at 11am since we were already there. Within minutes, it became longer and longer, and at 11am the end was already out of our view.

We ordered 3 large bowls of 牛肉汤面 for 80 NTD each.

牛肉汤面

Sounds really cheap right?

But it actually does not include ANY beef!! ): The locals sitting at our table then told us that some people actually do not eat beef but likes to drink the soup, that's why there was such a dish. -.-

All of us hesitated to whether we should change our dish because there was a really long queue, with several people waiting outside for others to finish.

In the end, I daringly asked if we could add beef into our noodles (because we were there for the beef afterall right?) as we did not know our dish does not include any beef. So we changed 2 bowls to 葱烧牛肉面 for 150 NTD each and shared the beef. (Total 380 NTD)

The beef slices they gave were not only huge, but there were quite a few pieces as well! We were so full we only ate dinner late at night.

After brunch, we lugged our luggages to 頭城 (Toucheng train station) and boarded the train to 礁溪 (Jiaoxi).

It was already 2pm by the time we reached our hotel.

Lan Guei Hot Spring Hotel
Address: No.191, Deyang Rd. Jiaoxi 26248 TW
台灣 26248 礁溪鄉 德陽路 191 號
Price: SGD 98.39 per night for a quad room (1 night)

This hotel was much more expensive than others as they provided private hot spring baths for their guests, which is well-known in 礁溪.

After hearing about our plans for the day and afraid that we weren't able to finish our itinerary, the benevolent owner decided to fetch us to 五峰祺瀑布 (Wufengqi Waterfall) (谢谢#5) as the bus wait would be really long! (as usual) She even took time to explain to us how to read the shuttle bus timings and reminded us to plan our time at 五峰祺瀑布 properly so as to catch the bus back on time.

So we begin our mini hike to 五峰祺瀑布. It started out okay and we were pretty excited to reach the top part of the waterfall.

The first level past, and we continued walking since it didn't look magnificent at all and there were a lot of people.

The second level past and there were lesser people, but we continued up on our way to the third and last level. We weren't worn out at all and definitely still had a lot of energy left to continue. I would say that it was pretty easy to reach the second level.

Sadly, as we start to proceed to the third level, a notice was placed on the gate saying that the third level was closed due to falling rocks. ): We had no choice but to retreat and chill at the second level.

五峰祺瀑布

Hence, we decided to reduce our time spent at 五峰祺瀑布 and rushed back to the entrance to take the next earliest bus back to the train station.

From 礁溪 (Jiaoxi train station), we took the train to 宜兰 (Yilan train station) to visit 幾米公園 (Jimmy Park)! It is a park full of cartoon characters in the comics written by Jimmy which I've never read before, but Shi Hui wanted to visit it.

On the way there, we spotted a postcard vending machine, which was supposed to be unique there.

Due to the heat (again), we retreated from the park and spent quite a while shopping at Poya. We only left the department store when we decided that we were spending too much time there.

Then, we headed towards 東門夜市 (Dongmen Night Market) (变肥#4), which was located underneath a bridge. However, we were pretty early that day and many shops were not opened yet. ):

BUT BUT BUT,

SHI HUI ATE 鸭舌 (Duck's Tongue)!!!

Omg eew!! T.T

Due to the heavy brunch at 頭城 and that we reached 東門夜市 too early, we decided to takeaway some food for dinner. Moreover, our itinerary for the day had not ended.

We took the train back to 礁溪 and navigated our way to 湯圍溝溫泉公園 (Tangweigou Hot Spring Park) for the public hot spring foot bath.

Lousy quality cos no other photo. ):

Noob Shi Hui took about 15 minutes to put her feet in, while I daringly placed both feet in immediately as I wanted the numb feeling from the heat to occur as soon as possible.

After the foot bath, our legs felt so tight and relaxed, we were ready to start another day physically!

By the time we returned to our hotel, it was already quite late. Hence, we gave our hotel's private hot spring bath a miss, even though we already paid for it. ):

Day 7: 24 August 2016; Toucheng, Mr Brown Cafe Castle, Wu Shi Gang Harbour

I was super excited about going to Toucheng and looked forward to the 蘭陽博物館 (Lan Yang Museum) as it had plenty of good reviews!! 伯朗頭城城堡咖啡一館 (Mr Brown Cafe Castle) also look awesome. Most importantly, there is NO HIKING INVOLVED hahaha.

We checked out from Gold Mine Hotel at around 10am and took bus 1062 down from 金瓜石 to 瑞芳火車站 (Rui Fang Station) then boarded the train to 頭城火車站 (Toucheng Station). The Toucheng Station was very deserted as we were one of the few passengers who alighted at that station.

At Toucheng train station

The Airbnb accommodation that we booked was rather far from the train station. Around after 15 minutes of walking under the scorching sun with our luggage, we finally reached!! As we were on a tight budget, we booked a private room from an Airbnb host with excellent reviews at a very low price. The room totally exceeded my expectations. Though the bathroom is outside our room, we didn't have to share it with other guests. We also had full access to the kitchen, washing machine and dining area. The host was even nice enough to ask us to help ourselves to the coffee, tea and bread in the fridge.

Tou Cheng Home Stay 4人和室

Tou Cheng Home Stay 4人和室
Host: Allen & 美琴
Price: SGD 60 per night for max 4 guests (1 night)

As the room was just toooo comfortable, we couldn't get ourselves to leave for our next attraction. As I was scrolling my phone for directions to Lan Yang Museum (which was rather far from our accommodation ), I realized that the Lan Yang Museum is closed on every Wednesday, the only day we were at Toucheng!!! :(((((

Lazing in our room

The only attraction that we have left is Mr Brown Cafe Castle. From google maps, it is almost impossible to reach there with public transport as all options required us to walk for at least an hour uphill. This is because the Cafe is situated on the top of a hill. Luckily, our kind host offered to drive us there!! (謝謝#4) He even offered to come back for us 2 hours later to fetch us back to our accommodation. :)

Mr Brown Cafe Castle is really beautiful but slightly overrated considering the effort needed to reach there. It's rather crowded for a weekday and we took some time before we found seats. The food there is also rather pricey.

We ordered 奶油鮭魚意大利面 (Spaghetti with Salmon in Light Cream Sauce) for NTD 230, Swiss Chocolate Cake, Hokkaido Milk Cake and 伯爵培果與蔓越梅奶油乳酪 (Citron Earl Grey Bagel with Cranberry Cream Cheese). The Hokkaido Milk Cake and Bagel was DELICIOUS but the Swiss Chocolate Cake is just meh. After a satisfying lunch, we went out of the cafe to take some nice pictures while waiting for our host to arrive.

Tiny island at the back is Guishan!

As it was too early, JJ suggested to cycle to 烏石港 (Wu Shi Gang Harbour) since our host had 3 bicycles for us. However, the bicycles were unfortunately not very suitable for us. 2 of the bike seats were too high and the other one was too low. They kindly gave me the bike with the lowest seat as I'm still not skilled enough for the other 2. (XY's legs can't touch the ground when she was riding that bike with the high seat kekeke)

Cycled past Lanyang Museum

To be honest, it was a horrible cycling experience for me. (Almost ALL cycling experience was bad) It was only the third time that I am cycling and I had to cycle on the road. T^T Totally terrifying experience as I couldn't even cycle in a straight line and I was constantly afraid of colliding with the motorcyclists as we were sharing the same lane.

 To be honest, it was a horrible cycling experience for me. (Almost ALL cycling experience was bad.) It was only the third time that I am cycling and I had to cycle on the road. T^T Totally terrifying experience as I couldn't even cycle in a straight line and I was constantly afraid of colliding with the motorcyclists as we were sharing the same lane.

By the time we reach 烏石港, it was already getting dark. Thus we only cycled for around 15 minutes before we made a detour. As most shops were closed at that time only at 7pm+, we went to 7-11 for dinner.

2016-08-05 13:42:25 +000

Day 6: 23 August 2016; Keelung Mountain, Golden Waterfall, Yin Yang Sea

So excited for today cos' we are going to climb Keelung Mountain!!!

That was the first thing I spotted when we took the bus up to our hotel yesterday. Not that it is famous or anything, but the steps up the mountain can be seen from afar and it looks so amazing!

We were supposed to take Bus 825 from our hotel at 金瓜石 (黄金博物馆) to 隔顶 to begin our hike, but Shi Hui just likes to ask around so we took Bus 1062 there instead, even though the bus does not stop there usually. That's good though! Since we saved some time from waiting for Bus 825 to arrive.

Keelung Mountain

The hike up only took about 45 minutes, which was so much easier than climbing up to 七星公园 at 陽明山. However, there was literally no foliage around so we had to carry our umbrella for the entire time to protect ourselves from the scorching hot sun. But this also means that you can stop at any point of time to enjoy the scenery during the climb up.

Double thumbs up for us?

For me, the worst part about Keelung Mountain was actually when we were at the top of it.

Stairway to heaven

On the way up, we spotted several brightly coloured lizard-like reptiles. At the top, there were many bright blue butterflies, and XY even accidentally stepped and killed a caterpillar! :O BUT, there was also a lot of bees buzzing around!!! I was so afraid of them I couldn't wait to get away from the top of the mountain. T.T

But of course, I had to take pictures first right? Hahaha.

We ended up on that winding road afterwards!!

To be honest, the climb was not very worth it since it is almost the same view as from 九份.

Since Keelung Mountain was right next to 九份, we went there for lunch again. Each of us had a bowl of 赖阿婆芋圆 cos it was so good. We traced our steps from yesterday to experience 九份 without the horrible crowd since it was only in the early afternoon.

Afterwards, we headed for 黄金瀑布 (Golden Waterfall)!

As we had waited for the bus for eons, we decided to just try our luck and asked the next bus if it goes to 黄金瀑布.

Nope it doesn't. ):

BUT, the kind driver of Bus 1062 decided to take some time off his break time and went out of his way to give us a mini private tour! (谢谢#3) He brought us to a place he claimed to be a secret scenic spot, before dropping us off at 黄金瀑布.

Overlooking 阴阳海

黄金瀑布

Spent only a few minutes at 黄金瀑布 for photo taking cos it was so sunny. The bus wait was really long again and we almost wanted to walk to 阴阳海 (Yin Yang Sea). Thank god the bus came when we were about to walk there!

Yet, 阴阳海 was nothing like what we expected.

We thought we could chill and rest at the beach after the hike in the morning, but it was situated right next to the highway protected by breakwaters, and we could only take pictures of it by the narrow road shoulder.

阴阳海

Yes, that's all. ):

Abandoned Refinery near 阴阳海

At least it was the last stop so the bus driver took a short nap, and we could quickly board the bus back up.

Having nothing else to do, we went back to our hotel even though it was only about 4pm. Locals had warned us against staying out late since we were living on top of a mountain. It is dangerous as the area becomes deserted at night.

Shops closes at 5pm, so we had to takeaway our dinner. Given the limited choices of food, we tried the Miner's Bento from Gold Mine Museum Cafe.

200 NTD Miner's Bento

It's tasted just like any other bento, but the Miner's concept made it that overpriced. The cloth to wrap the bento was actually a map of 金瓜石 though!

The rest of the evening/night was spent in our room re-watching Spirited Away since we were at 九份, the inspiration setting for the movie.

On the bright side, our hotel layout was super comfortable! 3 single mattresses of which each was almost the size of a double bed.

We all hate sleeping on double beds and had to oya-peya-som to get the single bed if the hotels did not provide 3 singles. But here I am, lying on a double bed with Shi Hui, for at least the next 4 months. ):