Thirteenth Stop: Taroko National Park
Embarked on a full-day journey to Hualian, to visit Taroko National Park. Bought the 6.42am train tickets, thus, had to wake up super early at 5am to start preparing. ZzzzzZZZZzz. This is how Ximending looks like in the wee hours of the morning.
Had our breakfast at JSP again, since it's the only shop that is opened at 6am. Bought the pork burger, yummy!
Rushed down to Taipei Train Station to take the train to Hualian, but we reached at 6.43am. Missed the train by 1 min. Luckily, the train officer told us that we can take the 7.08am train, if not, the tickets would have been wasted.
Took pictures with the train tickets while waiting for the train to come.
Finally, the train arrived punctually at 7.08am. The train is super clean and comfortable. 3 hrs ride to Hualian. Took the chance to nap instead, haha.
Finally reached Hualian, it's bright and sunny!
Engaged in the service of the cabby to drive us up to the park, costs NT$2000 for the whole journey, to and fro. He is quite nice. Even drove us to eat sweet potatoes by the roadside.
It's a 40 mins ride to Taroko National Park. The Taroko Gorge spans across the countries of Hualian, Taichung and Nantou on the island of Taiwan.
Here is our first stop of the day - the Main Gate of Taroko National Park. It's beautiful, pictures don't do justice to the place, plus, it's super windy and cold as well.
Next, we went to the Eternal Spring Shrine.
Had to cross this bridge to go to the walkway to reach the small pavilion at the top.
This is the entrance of the walkway + cravings on the stone.
Nice view ... breathtaking scenery. The water at the bottom is supposed to be clear, but it was raining in the morning, thus, its greyish. But the water at the top is still very clear.
This is the pavilion at the top of the walkway.
We went to Tunnel of 9 turns too. Had to get out of the cab to walk the distance, since cars are not allowed to go there.
It's kind of a long walk, thus, photo-time.
Look at the design on the rocks. It's beautiful, once again, the wonders of nature.
Once again, must take picture with the cravings on the rock. See, I managed to capture such a cute picture of Leecher, super impressed by my photography skills =P
Finally, reached the end of the tunnel, it's a tiring walk.
After the long walk, we went to Ci Mu Bridge (The Bridge of the Kind Mother) for more pictures.
The most famous stone in Ci Mu Bridge is this stone that is shaped like a frog. The pavilion at the top looks like the crown on top of the frog.
Climbed up the pavilion and photo-whore. It's freaking cold, even though I am wearing 2 layers of jacket plus a scarf, I am still cold...Brrrr....
The cabby brought us to this restaurant for lunch. Lunch is quite simple with soup, noodles, wild boar meat and bamboo rice.
Another bridge. This bridge is opened on the same day as Leecher's bdae.
We had to cross another bridge to get to the temple. Afterwhich, had to climb dunno-how-many stairs to see the Guan Yin at the top of the mountain. I almost fainted when I saw the steps
Entrance to the temple. (look at the stairs and you will know what I meant)
The Guan Yin statue + Buddha statue
The wind is super strong high up in the mountains, I almost got blown away, haha... running to this tree for shelter.
It's time to proceed to our next stop: Yue Fei Pavilion.
Had to cross this dangling bridge, which the Leecher said it's quite fun, since it will swing (abit) when we were in the middle due to the strong wind. I almost cried out in fear.
After a super-scary bridge crossing experience, it's time for our final stop: Swallow Grotto.
Once again, we had to walk as cars are forbidden from entering the place.
We walked for quite some time, but still never come across any swallows. Thus, we had to pose with this:
Finally, we saw the swallow grotto. It's actually the holes in the rocks, eh...
So, that concluded our tour of Taroko National Park. It's time to go and buy some local Hualian products -- Mua Chee!Bought almost NT$1000 worth of stuff from this shop. It's yummy, better than the other brand that I bought @ Danshui.
Took the earlier train back to Taipei. The return train to Taipei is more posh than the one that we took to Hualian.
Utterly famished after a 3hr train ride back. Ah Zhong Mian Xian, Mister Donut, Cong You Bing and Mango+Kiwi+ Strawberry+Pearls Ice for dinner! (all my faves, i heart!)
YUMMY =P
