Destination: Taiwan
Duration: 13 Days 13 Nights (Nov 18~Dec
01, 2015)
Day 8: Kenting -> Hualien
Today was basically a ‘transit day’ for us
as we would be leaving for Hualien. We engaged the Mountain line scenic bus
tour which cost around TWD1200 per pax. The concept was the bus would depart
from Kenting and stopped for some interesting places before reaching Hualien by
7pm. We were contemplating on whether to take the Sea-line or Mountain-line but
apparently the Mountain-line was more recommended by our Minsu.
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| Mountain Line Vs Sea Line |
We ate our leftover pizza before checking
out from Xing Ji. We were picked up by a van and were dropped at the tour
office to pay the balance to get on the designated bus. Apparently this was a
popular option as we could see 4 buses on the Mountain-line. Our driver was the
most fast & furious and he always reached the touristy spots at
the earliest! LOL!!!
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| Leftover Pizza! |
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| Our Bus! |
Anyway our bus started by following the shoreline with Pacific
Ocean at our right before stopping at 7-11. Since the next destination would take another 1.5 hours to reach, we bought some tea egg and drink as snack. Our 1st sightseeing destination was Duoling
Tourist Station (多良車站) at
Taitung (臺東). Duoliang
Station was recognized as the most beautiful train station in Taiwan due to its
Pacific Ocean’s view. Unfortunately the
station has seized its operations quite some time ago but thankfully still opened for
tourist visit. We had to walk up some steep uphill road before reaching the
station and the view was indeed gorgeous! Too bad there were no train crossing
at this time… *pout*
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| Tea Egg and Yoghurt Drink |
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| Pacific Ocean from the Bus.. Note the strong wave! |
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| Those at the bottom are wave stopper |
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| Getting up to Duo Liang Station! |
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| Here we are! |
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| The Most Beautiful Station in Taiwan! |
We finally reached our next destination - Chih Shan Fan Bao (池上飯包) Museum
which happened to be our lunch spot too. In Taiwan, bento was called Fan Bao (飯包) and
this place happened to be one of the most famous place for this kind of Bento.
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| Passing through! |
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| The Famous Bento! |
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| Nice Deco! |
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| Souvenir? |
We bought the Authentic Chih Shan Fan Bao (正宗池上飯包)
which cost TWD80 and found ourselves seats on the trains outside the shop
serving as dining area. Nice huh? The bento was totally covered by dishes and
each of them tasted delicious! YUMMY!!! On the way back to the bus, we also
bought 3 boxes of fresh fruits for TWD100 and the fruits were all really fresh
and juicy!
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| The Train outside! |
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| Our Dining Area! |
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| Look nice from the Outside! |
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| Yummy from the Inside too! |
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| Still Long Way to Hualien! |
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| Sammy was here! |
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| The Post Box! |
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| Toilet Sign for Woman! |
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| Toilet Sign for Man! |
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| Persimmon |
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| Water Guava & Pineapple! |
After a satisfying lunch, the bus stopped us at a junction
in the highway for a visit to Bo Lang Da Dao (伯朗大道)
which was made famous by a commercial by Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武). It
was also known as “the Green Heaven Road” as it was surrounded by greenery
without any lamp posts on the whole route. Kind of make you think how would
anyone commute here at night huh? =P Anyway, there was a tree named after
Takeshi Kaneshiro but it was 2km away from the main stop. There were bicycle
for rent but we ended up just walked along the road and took some pictures
around before getting back to our bus since it was FREEZING there and the time
given was not enough anyway.
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| At Bo Lang Da Dao! |
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| Let's take some pictures before we froze to death! |
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| Nice View! |
We continued on to Bei Hui Gui Xian (北回归线) which was also known as “Tropic of Cancer”. On some day at 12noon in summer when the sun
was directly on top, there would not be any shadow of the standing rod at all. However,
we cannot witness this phenomena since it was autumn! Thus we simply took some
pictures and left for our next destination.
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| Sammy was there! |
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| At the Park! |
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| No Shadow at a certain day! |
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| The Rod! |
We made quite a long stop at RuiSui Farm/Rare Seed Ranch (瑞穗牧場) but I
guess it was only for the food! There were nothing much there other than some
cows and ostrichs but most of us were engrossed by this Husky! LOL!!!
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| At the Ranch! |
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| Moo!!! |
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| Hello! |
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| Hello Husky! |
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| Handsome fella! |
We quickly went into their restaurant to order the Pasture Flavor meal which consisted of yoghurt, milk mantou, deep fried mantou, cheese cake and milks. The yoghurt was definitely the standout as the texture was more like pudding and it tasted just so tasty! 2 thumbs up!!!
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| Let's EAT!!! |
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| What to Order? |
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| The Menu |
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| Our Set! |
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| Tea time in the Ranch! |
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| Goodbye! |
It was getting dark when we continued our journey as the sun
was setting very early during this time of the year. There were actually two more
sights to visit but it was simply too dark and there would be no street light
there as well. Thus all of us voted to continue our journey to Hualien (花蓮).
We were dropped off at the sightseeing bus company and were sent to our Minsu by van. We would be staying at Maple Bed & Breakfast (枫之宿) for 2 nights in Hualien for TWD1500 per night (through Booking.com).
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| Our Room! |
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| TV! |
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| Bathroom! Photobombed! |
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| Nice Wallpaper! |
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| The Common Area |
We made a brief rest there before getting on a taxi to Zhi
Qiang Night Market (自强夜市). There
was a special taxi phone number to call in Hualien with a fixed rate of TWD100 –
the Minsu owner told us about the number so this had been our lifesaver in Hualien. Perhaps you may refer to your Minsu/Hotel receptionist to provide
you the phone# during your stay in Taiwan too.
Once we arrived at Zhi Qiang Night Market, we went straight to the famous BBQ Meat Stall (第一家烤肉串) since we read that it normally took long time to wait for it to be barbequed. We had no idea what to choose and ended up choosing firm bean curd (豆干) and mushroom. We got our number and off we went to hunt for other foods.
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| BBQ Stall |
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| Lots of Choices! |
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| These furkids are not for BBQ though! |
We ended up buying the famous French toast bread (官材板) from
both famous stalls – the black pepper beef from “蒋家花连创意官材板” and mayo
pineapple prawn from “法式官材板”. If you
were to eat in those stalls, free flows drink would be provided. Since we were
buying from 2 competitors, we ended up takeaway the toast with a sealed cup of
milk tea or red tea. Well, the drinks from both stalls were quite watery but I must
admitted the one from ”法式官材板”
tasted better. As for the toast, we thought both were tasty and we could hardly
compare them as we ordered different flavours anyway. I did gotten pleasantly surprised at the amount and freshness of the prawns from “法式官材板”. =P
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| One of the less popular Stall selling 官材板 |
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| Look at the Prawns! |
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| The FOC Milktea! |
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| The more popular Stall.. |
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| Black Pepper Beef |
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| The Watery Milk Tea |
We bought taro milk and avocado milk from the famous fruit
juice stall called “妙不可言果汁店” and I
must say the avocado milk was sinfully heavenly (Is this even grammatically correct?)!!! I guess I must’ve thrown my
calories count to hell when I drank this! *facepalm* I was not a fan of the
taro milk though as its texture was too thick.
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| Fruit Juice Stall! |
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| Taro Milk & Avocado Milk |
We then went to another famous grilled corn shop (林記燒番麥) to
get ourselves some grilled corn! The price was calculated based on the size of
your selected corn and they would grilled it on the spot. Thus this would
normally take some time to get the finished product. The thing was – it was
definitely worth the wait! We didn’t know what sauce they used but it was
scrumptious! In fact, it was so nice until we got a second one after eating the
1st one. *blush* Thankfully the queue was not that long that night.
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| Care for some Grilled Corn? Here is our number in Mahjung! |
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| YUM YUM!!! |
We were walking around and stumbled upon the recommended Bei
Gang Spring Roll (北港春捲) and bought
one too! The beef together with bean sprout and other vegetables topped with
some kind of peanut powder made an astoundingly perfect match in taste and
munch factor! DA YUM!!! Now my brain just couldn't get that 1-D song "Perfect" from playing as it accurately describe this! *facepalm*
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| What else to buy?! |
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| Spot this stall! |
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| *Perfect*!!! |
We were beyond stuffed but we still had our BBQ firm bean
curd and mushroom. We loved the mushroom and it was really juicy and blended
well with the BBQ sauce they used. Overall, we loved all the food from Zhi
Qiang Night Market! Btw, we heard from our Minsu Owner that this night market would be closed soon to combine with another night market. What a BUMMER! I think one thing i loved about this unassuming Night Market was the size - it was not ridiculously over-scale thus it was easier to find the stalls there. At the end of the night, we simply called the TWD100 cab
and went back to our minsu for a much needed rest. =)
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| Our BBQ Mushroom & Firm Bean Curd |
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| Our Foods of the day from Zhi Qiang Night Market!!! |
Next Day (Hualien)
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