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.
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| Mandatory shot at every train station |
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| 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)
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| 花蓮 accommodation |
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| At a self-service laundry shop downstairs |
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