Its Day 2 in Taiwan!!! We woke up super early as we bought the 6.30am train tickets to Hualien. Totally horrible as we only had a few hours of sleep.

We decided to take a cab down to Taipei Main Station as our hotel is pretty near and also we wanted more snoozing time.

We arrived at the Station at about 6.10am and hurried to buy food at the nearest 7-11 that we found.




We took turns to buy food, coz Jasmine/Michelle said that there must be someone to look after the luggages. I didn't realise about it and just went ahead to buy food. Maybe its because I went to Japan to much and felt that it was safe to leave my luggage one side. ^^"

After I bought my own brekkie, the rest of them went to buy while I stayed to look after the luggages and camwhored!

5 luggages!!!


Camwhoring time!! I like this picture alot!! *hehe*

My brekkie was super japanese. xD 2 pieces of onigiri and one small carton of ovaltine!


When we reached the platform, the train was actually beside us, but we didnt realised and thought that the train was arriving at 6.30am. The train system in Taiwan is abit weird to me. On the train ticket, it states 6.30am, but it actually means that its departing at 6.30am!!! o_O;
Total shocked when we saw the train departing. We didn't know until we asked the train station master. Someone realised about it but didn't tell us. LIKE THANKS!! I will never forget that he could actually tell me about it a few days later, wasting my precious time on a SUPER SUPER SLOW ride to Hualien.

We took the 7.30am train instead and slacked around the train station till 7.30am. Thankfully time passed pretty fast. We also got to know a family who acutally told us to take the Taroko train to Hualien as its faster, but hard to get tickets especially when its near the weekends and holidays. Need to book in advance to secure seats.




A picture of the Taroko train!!

We waited patiently till our train arrive and quickly take any random seat we could find. Then the journey to Hualien took nearly 3 hours plus. I also informed Tiffany to let her know that we will be arriving later than expected. On the train ride, took a few photos and played MD[Monopoly Deal].It was really fun. Only 4 people participated while someone had decided to sleep through out the whole train ride.


One of the scenery pictures that I've chosen!


Playing MD onboard the train!!


Another camwhoring picture!

After 3 hours plus of train ride, we finally arrived in Hualien!!!

Hualien Station!!!

We took some pictures before heading out of the station to meet up with Mr Lee, who is our driver for the day! [He is also Tiffany's husband]


The girls!!


The guys.

We met Mr Lee once we came out of the Station.We spilt into 2 groups with one group heading to the hotel to do a quick check-in of the luggages to the hotel, while the other group walk to the hotel to meet up with the other group. I was one of those who went to do the quick check-in. The hotel was really great! Interior is really good! After the quick check-in, we met up with the rest in the cab and then head off to our first destination in Hualien, which is 七星潭风景区



Really love that place alot coz the sea view is super awesome! More like you will be willing to stand for hours at there just to look at the waves. At that time when we were there, there were planes from the air force flying around due to a drill for the incoming typhoon that is expected to come within the next few days. It was noisy though, but it didn't spoil my mood to see the beautiful sea that day!!
We took many shots there including some funny shots!


The beautiful sea that caught my attention!




A group picture with the beautiful sea!


The waves are coming through!!!


I still like my self picturetaking skills! Rocks totally that everyone tried the same! xD




We tried to do the 'jumping' shot, but fail badly! LOL!!!



After taking photos, it was pretty near to lunch time and we took a quick bite around the vicinity!


This auntie sells nice food! I like the smelly tofu that she sells! Super smelly!!

She also sells other stuff like grilled squid and 大肠包小肠, a must eat in Taiwan!! Super famous! You can find that in any night market!


大肠包小肠




Smelly tofu~~


Me being the glutton!!



We had our quick lunch on the taxi as we're heading for our next destination, which is the Taroko National Park.

That place is seriously BIG!!! I'll explain why it is really big later.:D


Driving towards Taroko National Park!



We also stopped by this place to take some photos! The scenery was really nice. It would even be better if there was little or no fog.




We also went to this spot which is pretty scary coz its like a hidden spot to take photos. No bars at all!


An avid fisherman!!

Fishing lovers usually go here to fish! Sometimes, they may even risk their lives just to fish! Quite scary to me. Somehow I hope Ohno doesn't do that .

After that, we headed off to Taroko National Park.
I'm not going to say much about the Park itself. Not that its very boring or what, but I think most people who are going there would have a guide, so I doubt I would need to say anything here. Hahaha!!




A rock that totally looks like a person's side view! More like a skeleton to me now.

Once we were almost done with our trip at Taroko National Park, we headed off for a very late lunch within the vicinity. The food there was pretty nice and cheap!!
We ordered 竹筒饭, 萝卜糕, 山猪肉 and a plate of vegetables that can't be found in Singapore. Super delicious!


The place we had our late lunch at.


Our yummylicious lunch!

After lunch,we headed off to the nearby temple to walk and also pray at the temple.
It was very tiring to climb up! Felt super tired that I really want to give up. No pictures to show, coz I don't really take pictures of temples, especially Buddhist temples. ^^"

Once we were done climbing, it was almost the end of our day trip in Hualien.

Mr Lee brought us to another area where we get to cross those dangerous bridge! Pretty fun!!



We ended off the trip with a picture outside one of the gates of Taroko National Park.



I have no more pictures from here onwards as my camera battery decides to die on me.

We headed off to TzeQiang Night Market for dinner. Tried a few food such as oyster mee sua, fried oyster and kuso pizza. Pretty nice!

We had a quick dinner as most of us are tired. We took a cab back to the hotel as it was far away from the hotel.

Once we were back in hotel, we went to unpack our luggage.The girls room is super good! Got steaming room and jacuzzi. Only managed to try the jacuzzi. Hahaha!
Whats interesting is the see-through window!!

We took a few random shots too!!

The hotel room! Super big!!


The see-through window!


Some random shot!

After that, we met up with the guys to the lounge to drink some red wine. I don't really like red wine, but still had a few sips. While drinking, we also played MD. The red wine is complimentary from the hotel, which is really good! I like their service alot! :D Btw, the hotel name is Charming City Hotel. Very near the Hualien Train Station.

Here are some group pictures to end this post off!

Red wine!


Relieving childhood memories


Outside the temple in Taroko National Park!










Our group picture with Mr Lee!

Much thanks for Mr Lee for bringing on this really interesting trip!

If you're also interested to go for such trips, you can look for Tiffany.
This is her email address: tiffany_935lk@yahoo.com.tw
A really friendly lady. And her tours are highly recommended by others on the net. Thats how I found it. Do give her service a try. I'msure you'll really be happy with it, just like me :D

P.S. I won't be updating on the TW trip for the time being because my hard disk decided to crash on me, and I'm currently using a hand-down laptop from my 2nd brother, which I've bought from his last week. So the rest of the TW trip travelogue will be done in rear future. Or maybe I can do up to day 4, which I have uploaded the pictures to my FB.

In the mean time, I'll be doing some face mask review which I have gotten quite alot in TW. Be sure to keep a look out for it!

On one more note, which I have said earlier on as to why Taroko National Park is big. It is because,it is in between Hualien and Taichung. So it is possible to go from Hualien to Taichung directly and vice versa,but just that the travel time is longer. If you're interested to go directly this way, you can also consult Tiffany about it. :D Enjoy!!!