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Grad Trip: Mountains, Rain and Food!
posted : Thursday, August 09, 2012
Day 1: 清水断崖、太鲁阁、七星潭、自强夜市
First day proper in Taiwan! Booked a cab driver to drive us around for the day, courtesy of Val and 阿姐 from the minsu. Left early at 830, went over to buy our return train tickets first because apparently tickets are selling fast..many people wanting to get out of Hualien soon in anticipation of the approaching typhoon (which eventually changed direction and headed towards Japan). Cab driver smartly drove us to a nearby but more ulu train station to avoid the long queues at Hualien Train Station. After that, off to the mountains we go! Had some reservations about going there at first, but weather seemed nice and sunny so heck care lah. Driver was chatty, very tour guide-ish, knows his stuff and very enthusiastically shared with us. Which eventually got kind of boring because unfortunately not every story he told us appealed to our interests. But A for the effort la. Particularly remember one time we drove past a cemetery and he told us it's a night club (because it's most 'active' at night lol). "Warm-up" visits before hitting Taroko Gorge proper! 
Empty streets in the morning, apparently Hualien not a very happening place.
Stopped by the so-called entrance to Taroko area - Taroko bridge.
Our ride for the day.
Off to 清水断崖 next!
All red!
Went all the way down to the beach.
View from beach looks really good. Although its a rocky beach, not a sandy one. Click for a larger pic.
 
We were busy taking photos while driver was busy looking for stones with traces of gold.
Val's attempt at an artistic shot.
Not bad...but where is the gold?
Trying to look for the "correct" stone too.
Warm-up, rather surprisingly, expended a lot of our energy. No thanks to that super steep staircase which was a breeze going down but rather hellish going up. And we are not exactly very fit people. Stopped over at another stretch of old roads which have since closed after the opening of tunnels...then went straight to Taroko's visitor centre. Ended up staying there for almost an hour coz a bit unwilling to go out to face the heat :S Plus not many trails for us to visit anyway coz weather forecast for the day was rain (?!) and only half a trail is open for tourists.
At the visitor's centre.
 
The only partially opened trail - Shakadang.
 
Super clear water!
Pop by Swallow Grotto Trail after that..just for a look.
To Tianxiang for lunch.
Our very first 鲁肉饭.
Mirror shot after lunch!
Dun play play..got props de. Professional?
岳王亭, got suspension bridge too.
 
After rain, clear water became muddy water :(
 
慈母桥 and 青蛙石. Still takes me a while to visualize that rock as a frog wearing a crown.
Up a Genting-ish road to 布落湾.
Final stop...长春祠. Everybody pretty much knocked out alr by then.
 
The other more popular entrance of Taroko...freaking a lot of PRC tourists and we gave up taking picture with the stone.
Overall I think the weather is kind to us la to be honest. Started raining really heavily when we step into the restaurant of lunch, and the sun came back out as we were leaving? And throughout the afternoon it wasnt really raining except when we are about to leave Taroko..and when we returned to Hualien it wasnt raining there! To 七星潭 next.
  Note that all this while, when we are off exploring by ourselves the driver is patiently waiting for us in the car...either chatting with other drivers, and one time he was washing his car =.=. Oh and cleaning that stone thingy to make the gold bits shine. Went back to minsu after 七星潭 to freshen up and rest..then driver came back to fetch us..to our maiden Taiwanese night market experience! 
自强夜市! Snippets of what we ate to follow...
     
Woman on a "gain weight" mission.
 Finally ran out of luck at night...the rain came pouring down 5minutes after we enter the night market..parts of it is kind of sheltered but still restricts movement..but when we were leaving it stopped raining again! Pop by 7-11 for snacks. Heard a lot about 7-11 (or any other convenience store in Taiwan actually) and the awesome variety of snacks they sell before we left for our trip, and it definitely meets expectations haha. Trips to convenience stores/supermarkets turned into a nightly routine lol.   
Stuff from 7-11...lol
阿姐only booked our driver for one day...but I guess we like the convenience very much so we booked him for the next day as well. Settled the places to visit the next day, settled the price and that's the end of Day 1! Labels: taiwan |
