Taiwan Trip 16 - 23 May 2015 (Continued Hualien + Taipei Last Night)
Woweeeee!! People always say "Save the best for the last"
Our last day (+night) in Taipei is one of the most exciting day of the whole trip. Ok, City-Bumpkin mode again.... We are going to touch the water of Pacific Ocean! Hahaha! But... I seemed to be much fascinated with other things.... You shall find out later.. :X
Yea!! We booked our whale watching tickets with Whale World (鲸世界) through their website. and made payment through PayPal. Very easy process. They will also call you one day in advance, to confirm your attendance. They have a few promotional packages to choose from, such as whale watch + water rafting, whale watch + ocean park, whale watch + farm tour and whale watch + cycling tour. Well since we have other programmes in line, we only went for whale watching.
The yacht that brought us out to the open sea!
It will roughly take us 15 - 20 mins to travel to the open sea, on the yacht, they will show us some introductory videos on the whales and dolphins. So what is whale watch? Watch the whale lor~ Haha! Not easy, according to the guide, whales are very sensitive and shy mammals. They only come up to the surface every 20 - 30 minutes or so to change their breath. All you can is to observe for any air bubbling on the surface or water splashes. There were a quick sight of a whale ahead but we did not manage to catch it (we were at the back of the yacht). =/ So we continued to move on again, and it started to drizzle. The hopes of catching sight of whales like immediately dropped -.-
Whale oh whale where are you~~~~~
OMG! What did we spot?
No! It can't be!! It's coming our way!!!
Awwwww.. Dolphins!!!
It was an amazing wonderful sight of the school of dolphins swimming happily around us! From left to right, from front to back, all the people were chasing them, taking photos rather than the dolphins chasing after our yacht. Haha! They were around us for almost 15 - 20 mins! Until we drove away from them.
This is an expensive rock. Marble. Here we are at Qi Xing Tan (七星潭). Qi Xing Tan is not a lake like its name, but a shore, with its water connected to the Pacific Ocean, remember, Hualien lies in the East of the Pacific Ocean. This shoreline, resembles the shape of a eclipse (C), hence people also named it Yue Ya Wan (月牙湾) We were told that, Hualien is famous for its Marble rocks. They are all natural resources that exist in this area.
Finally took time off to take selfie
..... And continued with my stone picking..
Our guide took us to this secret stream. Where the local people usually chill and BBQ. We even saw someone learning diving and snorkeling at the deeper part of the stream!!
Boyfriend try skipping stones again! Pretty good, 4 skips!
My turn! ^.^"
Went to buy these fireworks for NTD30. Fireworks in broad daylight???
No Fear!! We got cave!
A surround shot of Qing Shui Duan Ya (清水断崖）
I really really love the shades of the ocean..... <3
Right along the way, we headed to Taroko Gorge (太鲁阁国家公园). We are quite amazed by the landscapes of Taiwan... While other parts of Taiwan you see mountains made up of greens and trees. Here in Hualien are all rock mountains! We passed by a suspension bridge, Ci Mu Qiao (慈母桥), and Swallow Grotto (燕子口). The rest, we chose to ride on the car and slack. It's almost the "you seen one, you've seen all mode". Taroko Gorge is a huge place to explore, requires quite alot of walking, you can engage a driver to drive you along the way, or take a walk along those trails. However, remember to put on helmets. They are available at entrance of the trails. One thing to note is, check the weather before coming. This whole area will be closed during typhoon seasons!
Rock mountains with a "face". 这叫“面壁思过”吗?
While the driver knows I really liked stone picking, he brought us to a place~ Tian Xiang. There was a small town here for stopover (his toilet break).
After picking all the stones I need, we asked the driver to bring us to somewhere that we can buy their local delicacies, Muah Chee. They are well known for their hand-made Muah Chee, and there are two brands to choose from - Zeng Ji (曾记) and Ah Mei (阿美). Unfortunately, the freshly made ones were sold out, so we bought the pre-packed ones. It tastes awesome, especially the peanuts flavour!
It's time to head back and we took a train back to Taipei (I will always remember the ignorance of us). Finally we checked into our last hotel stay of the trip!
Here we are at New Stay Inn. One of the cheaper hotels around Taipei Main Station. Honestly it looks pretty sleazy to me. Anyone can enter and exit the building easily, especially it was the same for their backdoor. But fortunately, the doors are installed with security locks. Hmm, but I won't be back here again, iTaipei set the standards. =P
Tada! That was not the end of our day! When you are at Taiwan, there are just one thing you cannot miss - Macdonald's Pork Burger! I'm not sure if you had one before, whether was it good or bad. I am very fortunate to be able to try their promotional Curry Pork Burger!!! it's quite nice!!! Well, remember to try their pork burgers in their MacDonalds!!!
___________________________________________________
I miss Taiwan. Again. It's a wonderful place that people will keep returning to. First of all, their language is what we are familiar with, that makes us felt so at home and comfortable. Secondly, you can never resist the awesome food, the unique taste. Thirdly, the people are so friendly and warm!
I will definitely be back again!
A few friends had been asking for my itinerary after reading my blog and I felt flattered that you all trusted my views. To thank you for your support, let me tidy up what should have been our actual flow of itinerary for your reference, and I hope you all will have a good trip!
*This is just a brief plan, you can research more and come up with your own! It's never more exciting than planning your own trip! Have fun!!
*Lights Off!*
Our last day (+night) in Taipei is one of the most exciting day of the whole trip. Ok, City-Bumpkin mode again.... We are going to touch the water of Pacific Ocean! Hahaha! But... I seemed to be much fascinated with other things.... You shall find out later.. :X
Yea!! We booked our whale watching tickets with Whale World (鲸世界) through their website. and made payment through PayPal. Very easy process. They will also call you one day in advance, to confirm your attendance. They have a few promotional packages to choose from, such as whale watch + water rafting, whale watch + ocean park, whale watch + farm tour and whale watch + cycling tour. Well since we have other programmes in line, we only went for whale watching.
The yacht that brought us out to the open sea!
It will roughly take us 15 - 20 mins to travel to the open sea, on the yacht, they will show us some introductory videos on the whales and dolphins. So what is whale watch? Watch the whale lor~ Haha! Not easy, according to the guide, whales are very sensitive and shy mammals. They only come up to the surface every 20 - 30 minutes or so to change their breath. All you can is to observe for any air bubbling on the surface or water splashes. There were a quick sight of a whale ahead but we did not manage to catch it (we were at the back of the yacht). =/ So we continued to move on again, and it started to drizzle. The hopes of catching sight of whales like immediately dropped -.-
Whale oh whale where are you~~~~~
OMG! What did we spot?
No! It can't be!! It's coming our way!!!
So many of them???!!
Awwwww.. Dolphins!!!
And so which species are these lovely dolphins? According to the guide, they are the Spinner Dolphins (飞旋海豚)
Let me teach you how to flip!
1: Leap!
2: Lift!
3: *Splash!*
This is an expensive rock. Marble. Here we are at Qi Xing Tan (七星潭). Qi Xing Tan is not a lake like its name, but a shore, with its water connected to the Pacific Ocean, remember, Hualien lies in the East of the Pacific Ocean. This shoreline, resembles the shape of a eclipse (C), hence people also named it Yue Ya Wan (月牙湾) We were told that, Hualien is famous for its Marble rocks. They are all natural resources that exist in this area.
I was very fascinated.... by the little marble stones. O.O That was my first time, sitting so comfortably by the shore and it don't feel dirty at all. Because all these are polished stone pebbles, not those dirty sands that we usually see! I was so into the stones that Boyfriend were playing with water, running away from waves, skipping stones (but fail), while I was picking pebbles. I could dig deep into the stones, and my hands don't feel dirty at all. Haha! "^.^ I guess the number of stones that I took back almost weigh 2kg, and they were all right in my Boyfriend's bag.. *Oops*!
Finally took time off to take selfie
..... And continued with my stone picking..
Our guide took us to this secret stream. Where the local people usually chill and BBQ. We even saw someone learning diving and snorkeling at the deeper part of the stream!!
Boyfriend try skipping stones again! Pretty good, 4 skips!
My turn! ^.^"
Went to buy these fireworks for NTD30. Fireworks in broad daylight???
No Fear!! We got cave!
A surround shot of Qing Shui Duan Ya (清水断崖）
I really really love the shades of the ocean..... <3
Right along the way, we headed to Taroko Gorge (太鲁阁国家公园). We are quite amazed by the landscapes of Taiwan... While other parts of Taiwan you see mountains made up of greens and trees. Here in Hualien are all rock mountains! We passed by a suspension bridge, Ci Mu Qiao (慈母桥), and Swallow Grotto (燕子口). The rest, we chose to ride on the car and slack. It's almost the "you seen one, you've seen all mode". Taroko Gorge is a huge place to explore, requires quite alot of walking, you can engage a driver to drive you along the way, or take a walk along those trails. However, remember to put on helmets. They are available at entrance of the trails. One thing to note is, check the weather before coming. This whole area will be closed during typhoon seasons!
Rock mountains with a "face". 这叫“面壁思过”吗?
While the driver knows I really liked stone picking, he brought us to a place~ Tian Xiang. There was a small town here for stopover (his toilet break).
After picking all the stones I need, we asked the driver to bring us to somewhere that we can buy their local delicacies, Muah Chee. They are well known for their hand-made Muah Chee, and there are two brands to choose from - Zeng Ji (曾记) and Ah Mei (阿美). Unfortunately, the freshly made ones were sold out, so we bought the pre-packed ones. It tastes awesome, especially the peanuts flavour!
It's time to head back and we took a train back to Taipei (I will always remember the ignorance of us). Finally we checked into our last hotel stay of the trip!
Here we are at New Stay Inn. One of the cheaper hotels around Taipei Main Station. Honestly it looks pretty sleazy to me. Anyone can enter and exit the building easily, especially it was the same for their backdoor. But fortunately, the doors are installed with security locks. Hmm, but I won't be back here again, iTaipei set the standards. =P
Tada! That was not the end of our day! When you are at Taiwan, there are just one thing you cannot miss - Macdonald's Pork Burger! I'm not sure if you had one before, whether was it good or bad. I am very fortunate to be able to try their promotional Curry Pork Burger!!! it's quite nice!!! Well, remember to try their pork burgers in their MacDonalds!!!
I will definitely be back again!
A few friends had been asking for my itinerary after reading my blog and I felt flattered that you all trusted my views. To thank you for your support, let me tidy up what should have been our actual flow of itinerary for your reference, and I hope you all will have a good trip!
*This is just a brief plan, you can research more and come up with your own! It's never more exciting than planning your own trip! Have fun!!
*Lights Off!*
No comments: