Hualien 花蓮, Taiwan (March 2014)

20 March 2014

Woke up at like 4am on Thursday morning and checked out of the hotel before taking a taxi to the railway station to catch the 5:50am train to Hualien. The streets were all so dark and quiet at that hour and it was so peaceful. The train took about 5 hours so we only reached Hualien at about 11am. The train ride was so long but the scenery was so breathtaking! The moment when the scenery changes from mountain to the pacific ocean. Oh my god. Yeah you can only see it if you sit on the left side of the train.

Upon arrival, someone from the hotel came to pick us up. Their services there are really top rated. Headed to the hotel and we had to have lunch first but the only restaurant at the area didn't open. So we ate cup noodles and I tried the taiwan beer at the family mart. The cup noodle there is really good!? My sister bought me a cup noodle when she went to taiwan last year and that cup noodle really suck. But this cup noodle I tried changed my whole impression of taiwan's cup noodle. HAHA.

Taroko Gorge

So we booked a taxi and at 12:30pm we headed to Taroko Gorge. The taxi driver was really friendly. Learnt so many new things along the way too. So he brought us around the gorge and the whole place's really extremely beautiful. But the weather was bad that day so the mountain's filled with clouds, and cannot be fully seen. But I preferred it that way, than to see a patch of green.
Really love my hair colour against the sunlight. I wish it's that visible without sunlight.

Wasn't supposed to climb up here.

Headed all the way down to the hotspring area. The original hot spring was under a cave, just a small area. But our driver said we could just climb in to the dangerous zone 'cause the view and water there is better and yeah there's only an woman down there. So I went down and wow, I can't believe I'm at the bottom of the gorge. It's so beautiful and awesome when I look up. Can't believe nature is so beautiful. And other than the round area that the rocks surround, the water down the whole stream is freezing cold. It's so miraculous that a natural hot spring can exist there.

Ended our trip at about 4:30 or something and headed to 自强夜市 for dinner! It rained when we reached there at about 5plus so there weren't any crowd yet cause the tour groups only come at about 7 and plus it was raining so yay.
So much love for my hotel room :-) & yes this show is playing every night which has 唐禹哲 in it heheh. But he looks so old right now. We stayed at Bay View Hotel for the 2 days at Hualien!

21 March 2014

Woke up at 5am so that I won't miss the sun rise but at 6am I couldn't see the sunrise because the weather was bad and the clouds covered it. The weather dropped to 14 degree celsius on that day too and the wind was so strong. I heard it was like 30 degree 2 days ago. But I experienced 30 degrees in Taipei and it was colder than in Singapore!? Singapore is really humid and the air is so bad unlike other countries. Here's my morning face at like 6.30am.

Anyway yeah, so went down for breakfast at about 8am. After breakfast we decided to walk to the ocean but the wind was so strong that I cannot breathe and it was so difficult walking against the strong wind and the waves on the ocean was quite strong. Gave up and went back to the hotel to breathe for awhile. Forced my mum to follow me again hahah and this time I just ran against the wind and took some pictures and the pavement near the ocean. I felt like I was going to be blown away from the wind into the ocean and then drown or something.

Went back up to the hotel and an hour later I decided that I cannot just leave this beautiful place without walking all the way till the ocean. So this time we forced my sister to go with us. Succeeded walking to the ocean and it's so refreshing standing next to it though it felt crazy. This time we stayed there for about half an hour.

The pacific ocean is infinite I swear. I don't even know where's the end, or what lies after.

Headed back and went to the hotel cafe to have some coffee and biscuits. There's this rooftop that opens at 9am so we went there. The view there is so good too. Ohmygod. There's a good view everywhere you go :-)

Went back to the hotel room and I headed to the balcony and stand there for like 30 minutes or more I don't know. Enjoying the scenery with the wind blowing against me. There's this tower near the ocean and there's a guard up there and at one point while standing at the balcony, the guard asked this couple to get away from the ocean cause they were standing too close to the wave. Hahah.

Can't believe I spent the night with the Pacific Ocean by my side. I can hear the sound made by the wind at night and the waves. Had to leave the place by 11:30 cause we are taking the train at noon to Taipei. Went to the train station and bought a 便当 to eat in the train. The journey was only like 2 hours this time.

I really have no idea when was the last time I smiled genuinely in pictures. But I swear my smiles were all genuine in this post.