Sunday, November 23, 2008

Countryside of Hualien, Taipei

The driver tricked us!

Initially for our countryside trip, he told us he would charge us NT$6,000 = SGD$400est. I kept asking him if its the "zhong su" aka full price, for 2D1N including the accomodation. He said yes, 4 times! But in the end, he wanted us to pay him NT$12,000! Knn. I was sibe tulan, but becos i heard taiwanese drivers alot of them are ex-convicts, i decided it was best that i just bargained with him for a lower price.. tamade.


It wasnt a bad deal afterall if you think about it.. we had a black S320 benz driving us around Hualien while other people had to follow the schedule of a coach(they paid the same price as us). I was pissed cos its the principle of the issue lah. How can anyhow say one?


Everything went really well though at Hualien, some pictures to show:


On our way to Taroko Gorge



The water is milky grey.. so funny one

After having lunch over here at this small cafe facing the mountains and waterfall, we head off to the Swallow Caves... which pretty much looks the same to the above.. =/



Bird nest here i come!! =DDD


The holes are actually the nests of the birds and because we dont have a tour guide with us and just a fucking driver.. we have to imagine these holes have been here for godzillion years and the bird nest hunters will come here during some spitting season to acquire these goodies. Quite a number of these holes spits out waters.. i am totally fascinated! But not sure about what! =D


My cute cute one!



Cant remember where this place is.. some 9 turns road lah, after a while all these gorges look the same. ^_^ Hualien is about 4 hours drive from Taipei City itself, very sleepy sia during the drive. So after almost half a day of drive and scenic views.. the weather was getting really bad, so we call it a day and return to our "Min Su" - run by local families.







We had the whole place to ourselves, with a kitchen and bathroom. Like a big studio ! The downside is, we're around mountains areas.. so there's lots of insects.. black ants, baby roaches and also CENTIPEDES! Sebby caught one and didnt dare to tell me! Luckily the night went well and nothing bit us.

The next morning, we set off for whale-watching! Waaaaaa!


Hualien Port


The waves were very calm, lucky us!


We went searching for whales for about 45mins, no whales came... but soon we saw something just as cool.....

A whole colonial of dolphins!



By the hundreds! Waaaaaaah!!!



The dolphins were really cool, they seems to like boats and human activities alot.. i was clapping and whistling like crazy at them. In return, they swam really near the boat, flying out of the ocean with a twist, almost showing off. So cute one!

I later found out that the best time for whale watching at Hualien is between June-August, we were too late for it, but well, this is really nice too. Dolphins by the hundreds leh! So there goes our morning, we decided to head back to Taipei after.

Some of the views we passed by while driving back...






The weather was freaking hot, even for early november.
Thats my round up for Taipei, both city and country.
5D4N.. more then enough. ^_^

2 comments:

Alison said...

OMG. So beautiful!

m y r u n w a y said...

Yes it was.. but the weather was too hot! Dolphins watching was the best!

Btw, you called me last nite?