Taiwan Holiday [Day 7]

Started the day with breakfast with Chai Mama. We had porridge, you tiao with some seasoning, egg crepes and vegs and it was just like having breakfast with your grandma! It felt like we were staying over with relatives! Then she drove us to the bus station while dropping off her granddaughters off at kindergarten. She had a CD of Chen Wei Lian playing in her car and the familiar tune of Tong Hua was playing and her 6-year old granddaughter could sing along! It seems Singaporean singers are quite popular in Taiwan!

We had intended to go a cab tour, ie a cabby will drive us around the sights of Hualien, which includes the famed Taroko Gorge, and double-up as a tour-guide. But Chai Mama felt that it could be costly for us and since we are young and strong, we should do some exploring on our own. She told us to take a public bus up to Tienhsiang and then walk down and explore Taroko Gorge. So it was a long 2-hour bus trip up from Hualien and on the way up to Tienhsiang, we passed the Gorge and it was beautiful. It's like a canyon made of marble and granite and the stone formations were very artistic! Nature is artistic, must learn to appreciate its beauty!

Up at Tienhsiang, we had a simple lunch which wasn't spectacular. I read in Lonely Planet that the food stores up here should come with a warning! Heee! So we walked around and explored the area. There's a hotel up at Tienhsiang called Grand Formosa Hotel and it looks classy. We took pictures at its garden.








To really appreciate the area, you should then take a trek down from Tienhsiang where you will pass various sights and highlights of the Gorge. But we aren't very adventurous so we decided to take the bus down to the Gorge entrance and explore the area. Sadly though once on the bus trip down, it started raining and we decided to just sit out the rest of the journey all the way back to Hualien! The weather hasn't been friendly!

We then walked around Hualien City and discovered a very yummy bian dan. It must be pretty authentic cos there were many locals buying it too. Tasty!


Then it was a long train ride back to Taipei and checked-in to Wonstar Hotel at Ximending. Wonstar Hotel is not bad, newer and more modern than Keyman's, and definitely more classy. But I think it isn't so convenient staying there. We go to a lot of places along the Danshui line of the metro and we gotta transfer at Taipei Main Station to get there. Furthermore, the stores at Ximending dun really close tat late, so you dun stay out late around that area either, unless you go KTV. Btw, there's a really huge PartyWorld building at Ximending!


You can read more about the rest of my holiday here~