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Sunday, July 29, 2007

Taiwan - Part 1 (Hualien, Gaohsiung)

Taiwan is on the top of my list of must visit asia destination!
I went with gillian(been overseas with her for the 4th time! She's seen on my quirks,slping,bathing habits and temper. =P)and huijun.

An overview of where I went in 2 weeks:

Hualien - Gao Hsiung - Alishan - Sunmoonlake - Taipei

Let's start from the very beginning. We reached the airport and quickly rushed for the bus to Taipei to catch the train to Hualien.

HUALIEN

(famous for scenery)

By the time we reached Hualien, it's already 12+ midnight. The kindhearted 民宿(minsu) lady owner's husband came and fetched us.

She is a very friendly lady! Hospitable! Think we overpaid, but well, she's nice~We had 2 rooms for different nights and it was a very cosy place =)

The people we met at the guesthouse

Friendly couple host

~First day~

We went to the Taroke gorge. Quite a nice place with nice scenery.

Beach where the locals do bbq

~First Night~

Night market with the traditional fun fair games Reflection of moon..

~2nd Day~

We woke up super early to go water-rafting! The lady arranged for us to be in the same raft as the taiwan college graduates that stayed in the same guesthouse. So, we ended up water-rafting with a group of taiwan guys! The water-rafting is so smooth-sailing with only a couple of small rapids. But the guys made the whole trip very fun! Instead of water rafting, it's a case of water fighting with the other rafts. Luckily we were in the same boat as them, otherwise the trip would not have been so fun! Anyway, they are just like typical engineering guys. Well, college students around the world are similar. =P The rafting experience reminds me of the time i canoe back in uni days at the kallang river. The only difference was that the scenery in Taiwan was so much nicer than that along Kallang river in Singapore. While rafting, we were surrounded by mountains and occassionally spotted some animals!

BURNT after the water rafting

~2nd night~

Cultural performance

~3rd Day~
Animal farm
~In General~

Our main mode of transportation in Hualien

Food we had in Hualien

GAOHSIUNG

(famous for love river and night market)

Wanted to go green island for the next 2 days. But according to the guys, its very tiring to rush to green island or to even travel in one day to alishan. So we changed our plans and decided to stopover at gaohsiung that particular night. Went to the night market. Nothing fantastic. It's even kind of disappointing.

Labels: Gaohsiung, Hualien, Taiwan

|| 8:38 PM ||

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Taiwan - Part 2 (Alishan, Sun moon lake)

So on to my next two stops - stops of SUNRISE!

Hualien - Gao Hsiung - Alishan - Sunmoonlake - Taipei

After Gaohsiung, we made our way and took the train up to Alishan. The train makes me a bit bored and gorgy.We woke up at 3am when we only sleep at 11+,12!

ALISHAN
(famous for sunrise)

After Gaohsiung, we make our way and took the train up to Alishan. Really had the feel of going up the mountain, although the train makes me a bit bored and gorgy.

Our accomodation

We woke up at 5am to catch the beautiful sunrise!

After the sunrise, we trek around and found this famous branch that is in the shape of a heart!

SUN MOON LAKE
(Famous for sun lake, moon lake，basically lakes)

Nice guesthouse plus lovely couple host

It's really sun and moon..

Ferry around the lake

Wake up early morning to watch sunrise again!! Well, i was tempted by the minsu auntie of the possibility of 云海, sea of clouds! Glad i wasnt disappointed. But the walk up is tiring. We brisk walked up to catch the sunrise. After the sun is up, i decided to venture further up the hill while the other girls went to templessss. Nice exercise and view!

We went to this Leefoo village where it is an amusement park..not really that interesting.

We also went to this amusement park - 9 zhu, where they introduced the 9 tribes of taiwan in an interesting way.

Labels: Alishan, Sun moon lake, Taiwan

|| 8:44 PM ||

Friday, July 27, 2007

Taiwan - Part 3 (Taipei)

Hualien - Gao Hsiung - Alishan - Sunmoonlake - Taipei

In Taipei:
We went to Ximending - Ferris Wheel (Miramar) - Taipei 101 - SunYatSen's Memorial Hall - Chiang Chiak Si - Fisherman's Wharf - Jiufen - XinBeiTou (Hot Spring)

"Hotel": Royale Castle