Day 5 (18/6) : Taroko National Park

Woke up about 8.15am that morning as our pickup was supposed to come at 9am. After washing up, we got out of our hostel using the key they provided us (a hostel key was handed over to us to use it for entering the hostel very late at night or very early in the morning when no one was at the desk) and hurried on to the nearest convenience stores to get water and breakfast at a nearby food stall. We got hamburgers each, plus cheese, plus egg, the full deal, all at a resaonably cheap price, $70-75NT I think.

As we waited outside our hostel for our pickup... it... didn't come... 15 mins later and it... didn't come. I panicked a little, because the lady boss said 9am sharp the day before so was afraid that they might have left us out. At 9.30pm... wa laoz... *phew*, the minibus arrived. Half an hour late, and no apology... bottomline is, the ppl over there have no sense of punctuality.

Took us about an hour and a half bus ride to Taroko National Park because the driver cum tour guide had to pick 4 other groups up (our bus was totally packed) and had to make a trip down back to the visitor's centre to get some stuff. After passing us the itinerary, he finally made his way to the national park. We made our first pit stop at the main centre, which had... practically nothing much to see. Gave us half an hour break over there, while we checked out the area. All those time he would be doing a live commentary of the tour around the national park and would be nagging us to be punctual so that we don't overshoot the time... because even if there was such a threat of overshooting it, he will have to take out certain attraction. The tour was planned to be from 9am till 4pm when we would leave the national park and head back to our accomodations or the train station.

I for one, was super pissed off with the organisation of the tour. Which I shall further elaborate on later. Our first attraction stop was... The Yuan Zhu Ming's exhibition area. WOW. Ain't that exciting. He gave us half an hour over there... where we checked out this Ah Ma aboriginal lady quitting stuff in an enclosed mini hut, which also exhibited other souvenirs and equipment used by them. There was a small theatre there but both yq and I didn't bother sitting through the enrichment video, instead we explored the place a little more. Discovered there was a 2nd storey souvenir shop which also sold aboriginal stuff, which played songs sung by the little aboriginal children.

Not before long, we made our way to our next major destination. The swallow grotto. That was, personally, my first highlight of Taroko gorge. On one side we could hear the gentle gushing of the waters below us emitting from the gorge, and on the other, a small road leading to a series of caves. As we walked along the walkway, cool refreshing breeze beat upon our faces and the flying swallows simply ignored us. They flew into the caves to (I can only assume) spit their saliva into mini holes to build their nests or to feed their young, only to fly out again and hover around the cliffs of the gorge. That was one of the few times anyone could ever get that close to swallows which flew as near as 1metre away from you. We were given an hour to walk the entire stretch, unfortunately, that was less than enough time to really take a lesiure stroll and appreciate the beauty of the grandeur of the place.

As we hurried along to our next pickup stop, we passed by bridges and got to see more of the gorge in plain sight. It was indeed breathtaking. We even came across a green mini lake in the midst of the gorge and from a certain angle resembled a heart shape. Also came across this statue of this man... whom I didn't have the time to stop and read but assumed he must be some great man so I took a photo of him too.

Our next pit stop was Lyushui trail. Before alighting the minibus, our drive told us to look after one another. The first half of the trail was a boring uphill rocky path with mid-height cliffs on one side and dense vegetation on the other. After finally reaching the top, we followed a winding path through the forest and finally came upon a more interesting walkway... along the cliffs overseeing the gorge. The next exciting thing which we encountered was that we had to grope our way through this pitch dark cave, and it was seriously a blanket of blackness. Yq took the lead initially until we reach a point that visiblity became 0. I had to strech my hand in front of me to make sure I don't bang onto any rocks or "anyone" but the entire shebang didnt take more than 10 seconds.

After crossing a bridge on the "other" side of the cave, that was where we came across the highlight of the entire trail... as its name suggested, Lyushui, meaning green waters. It was... priceless. Definitely well worth it, as quoted from yq... but I had exclaimation marks floating above my head. tsk* tsk*

Our next stop was our lunch area, which I have no idea where it was or what it was called. There was a temple on top of a hill, 2 enomorous bridges and a gigantic statue of Guanyin on the mountains. Our group was seprarated for an hour because some of them had catered for lunch, but not us. We settled for 1 of the 3 food stalls lined together which had aggressive competition. Each spoke of how good their food was and we settled for the first stall we came across... much to our regret. We were lured in by this aunty who used gimicky speechcraft such as "shuai ge and mei nu". We went into the shop not because of that but because it looked more crowded and well received compared the other 2. There were indeed more people in that shop, but the food turned out to be below average tasting. We ordered some pork cutlet noodle and bamboo rice (rice cooked in this enclosed mini bamboo shoot). None was anything commendable... and they were pretty pricey as well.

After lunch, we headed towards the Wun Tian Siang Park, which was yet another upward climb. We were the only ones climbing the ulu-ated path, which was a little freaky yet exciting once again. Climbed up what seemd like a thousand steps up to a look out point (ok, I might have exaggerated a little) and the view up there was indeed one to remember. We saw a sign leading to a church and both of us decided to explore it. We were contemplating between the church or the far away temple as time was running short... but tried the church nonetheless since it was nearer to where we were. It was an old, yet well furnished church with a small front yard and we heard people around. Made our way down, and back to the bridges where we could witness the beauty of the gorge yet once again andthe furthest we went was across this yellow bridge to the front gate of the temple.

Unfortunately time didn't permit us to climb up to the temple. Also saw the pebble "artwork" below the bridge we were standing on, done up by some really free people. Does look like a fantastic place to propose though. ;p Our bus came to pick us up and dropped us at another highlight of the entire tour... Eternal Spring Shrine.

We had to cross a bridge, climb down 2 flights of stairs, pass by statues of Guanyin and Buddha, and through a cave to finally get there (it's not that far as it sounds), 2 interconnected shrines with cold, crystal clear waters running through the base of the shrine. We dipped our hands in and washed our faces with the "eternity waters" but couldn't dip our feet into them like most others as we were wearing shoes (we were prepared for long tedious hikes). The shrine was yet another place of beauty in the midst of beauty.

After boarding our minibus, "thanks" to all the rushing and reprimanding by the driver, he said we were before schedule.. had time so he stopped us at... brace yourself... which wonderful site would he have brought us? We heard of this other place called Shalangkang (had crystal clear green waters) which was a 4.8km return stroll that Tonny, the cab driver from the previous day had told us about which he mentioned tours won't bring us there due to time constrain but he would have (and claimed how much the Singporean couple he showed us on his phone liked it and how we would have too). There were many other places... there was this 9 hole tunnel which was out of bounds because there was a recent case of falling boulders (which we did witness along our tour ride.. looked pretty bad) and I can only imagine the other tourist spots located around the national park itself... But he.. that son of a gun.. he brought us to a... newly opened souvenir shop!!! Some Ah Mei crap shop.

I was utterly disappointed with the organisation of the tour... the trip around the national park itself was good, not because of the company but because of the gorge itself, and the beauty which surrounds it. Though we did buy 3 boxes of their famous Moji (which had free sampling and tasted awesome), I couldn't forgive the driver. He rushed us, gave us pet talks, came late to fetch us, dilly dallied at the first half of the tour and when we had time, brought us to a souvenir shop... He was just another working personnel who just does the bare minimum of what was required of him.

Then... he said he will stop us at the last stop, since we still had time, one of the beaches over there. It was already included in the itinerary but because he travelled away from the national park, we thought he decided to leave that out. Then after the visit at the souvenir shop, he convenientlyre-added it in as if he was "going the extra mile". If only I could give him 2 tight fists... Nuff said about him. When we did arrive at the beach, Cising Tan (literal translation, seven star lake), it was indeed one of the more beautiful beaches I've been.

Bought ice cream, but the wind was so strong, weather so humid that it melted and stained my blue t-shirt. We sat and chilled out at the shore, which was totally covered with small pebbles of all shapes and sizes instead of sand. It was.. gorgeous. The pebbles wouldn't stick to our butts and it was less "messy" than other beaches. A good "concept" indeed.

The tour ended and those in the minibus were dropped off one by one... a mid 30s couple who wore white that day, a family comprising of 3 ladies, 1 ah ma, 2 sons and 1 daughter ( I think), a mix couple (caucassian guy and asian lady), the 2 malaysian girls whom we met on the train to Hualien and coicindentally on the tour bus too and the mid 40s couple (the guy had a big dslr). The driver dropped all of them... and left us the last. Think he made a mistake and he asked us where we were going. Dropped us our hostel and despite the "advice" on the plain A5 size itinerary on tipping the driver... NO TIPS FOR THAT BUM.

We took a trip down to the train station to get our train tickets for the next day to Taipei because we assumed it would be easy to get a train down.. and eventually I didn't want to take that risk so decided to get them a day beforehand. On our way there, we got to witness the more intimate side of Hualien. Saw kids dismissing from school and how they had their own "traffic" system just outside of the school to direct vehicles (well... it makes safety comes first at school zones in singapore second in line.) They had more welfare and looked after the safety of the kids more in Hualien and we noticed each child wore the same uniforms and carried the same bags. In-ter-rest-ing. And cute. Passed by the local elementary school and high school, as well as the "student district", where the students hanged out at.

We finally made our way to a park, just a stone throw's away from the station and decided to buy some local and famous moji there to try out. They didn't allow free sampling so we settled to buying familiar flavors and bought only a few to try out first. Apparently the famous brand over there was a total rip off. Heard from the driver that they were doing very well because of their branding and publicity and I cannot help but second that. They were too sweet and tasted notches below what we taste at Ah Mei's.

Bought our train tickets and headed to the night market once more. Though the thought of the savoury and cheap xiao long baos at the town centre made us salivate, we gave it a miss as we didn't want to go through all the tedious waking again. So we made the choice of going to the night market over the town centre. We tried out some lousy noodle soup and the chui sian san chi "saliva drop 3 inches" guang chai ban (coffin bun). The coffin bun was well recieved by the both of us. They had a selection of meat which you could "bury" inside a thick slice of toasted butter bread and the combo came along with a cup of beverage (red tea or soy milk), all at a reasonably low price.

After filling our stomachs, and playing the basketball throw ins several times, we deicded to head back to our hostel as there wasn't much to do. Spoke to Penny at the counter and we arranged to have supper together, just that we needed to wait about 12am for her. We did and while waiting, we hanged around in the living room where Sunny the dog, would come up to me and tempt me to scratch his underside (now now, don't think twisted. not that area).

Both of us played wordplay, and after a while, we befriended this English guy who was also a backpacker who was watching the live telecast of one of the world cup matches. Think it was US vs. Slovenia? He joined us in the game and we further got to know that he was doing a project in Hualien about aborigines for his masters. The time finally came when Penny dropped off from work and she drove us and her friend, our newly acquainted friend by the name of Riva to this roadside stall selling sushi and california rolls (seems taiwanese love california rolls aaaa llottt!!). We had a very nice and heartfelt conversations with them and carried on our "destiny" and "love" conversations at the town centre were we had xiao long bao once again (its 24 hours so you can go there anytime of the day.

The girls were very cute, and yq was even more so when she sounded like a big sister giving them hope about love and finding that someone special eventually. Made me fell in love with her all over again and I felt extremely appreciated. As it was already very late, we didn't chat for long, but we did exchange emails and contacts because they had plans to make a trip down to Singapore for their grad trip and I promised them that we would be more than glad to bring them around.

Went back to the hostel, took a dreaded cold sprinkle bath before turning in and geared ourselves up for our last but stop, Taipei.

To sum it up:
Taroko National Park Ratings: 4/5 (a must-go for the scenic beauty and its interesting sites)

• Not advisable to go for the guided tour because it didn't feel that worth it and I didn't like the restrain on time
• Can try asking for a cab driver to bring you around, what was quoted for us was $2,000NT per car so don't get yourself ripped off over there
• Shalangkang looks well worth it to spend a good 2 hours there, swallow grotte is a must go, so is eternal spring shrine and the pebble beach (which is out of the national park)
• The lyshui trail is 50/50, you can give it a miss if you don't have much time but still worth a trip down if you do, same for the 2 bridges and the temple (our lunch area)
• Pack your own lunch and prepare lots of water because the food is expensive and sucks over there
• There's not much to do in Hualien, so if you want, you can do what the malaysian girls did - they took the package tour and in the evening, took a train to someone else, so you won't get to lose your time at night over there
• Hualien is indeed famous for their moji but you shouldn't buy them from the most accessible and available brand (can't remember their shop name); Ah mei's moji's tasted real good (not that cheap though)
• Toilets are fairly accessible, can be found at all major spots, but bins are on the rarity
• Receieved great hospitality over there and everywhere was very friendly

Day 4 (17/6): HuaLien

We checked out of the hotel before 11am that morning, as our train ride was scheduled at 12pm. Made our way to the train station and there wasn't much waiting before we hopped onto our railway train en route to Hualien. The entire trip took us 5.5hours but the ride was smooth, scenic, and spacious... unlike the crappy Jetstar plane we took (I shall leave all my complains about it later on).

Throughout the ride, we were facing, right in front of us was this advertisement of this female celebrity, jas (also a travel host some of you might be familiar with) who was promoting some soup or drink. Every train we took (from the mid range to higher end trains such as the high speed rail) were all publicizing that same advertisement... geeze... That company must be really rich and she must be pretty well off after doing that advert. If you're someone who believes in subliminal advertising, I'm sure its gonna have at least some effect on the passengers.

We passed through mountains and mountains on one side, occasional fields and small towns, while the other side was more of the coastal view... the oceans and the horizon. It was mouth gaping at first... but after 3 hours or so looking at the "same" thing over and over again, I kinda lost interest. Yq was probably still appreciating the scenery even at the very last few minutes of the ride. She tried writing her diary while I took a short nappy and every now and then I would wake up and both of us would play a card game I bought in Singapore, Word Play. Pretty fun game that didn't require us to use too much brain power and we changed the rules a little after a while to make it more challenging.

Well... that was how we spent our 5.5 hours on board the train. When we finally did reach Hualien, we dropped by the visitor's centre just a few metres away from the train station to get a local map and any other useful information. When we got out of it, and was on our way to our hostel, that was when... we met... Mr... Tonny. He was a cab driver who approached us and offered to send us to our hostel. We told him we would be walking as it wasn't too far away and he made another offer to bring us around Taroko Gorge the next day. $2,000NT for the both of us, bao from morning till night and no restrictions or additional costs attached. Even showed us photos of another Singaporean couple he brought around on his handphone and explained why it would be better to go with him because tour buses around Taroko Gorge would leave out some of the beautiful places (he particularly mentioned "Shalangkang" and we would have to be at the time mercy of their scheduling.

I was sceptical of course... I rejected and told him we would check with our hostel first and asked for his name card. He said he didn't have it on with him and asked us if we were ok to wait for him while he ran back to his cab to get it. I let him do so and while waiting for him, another cab driver came up to us and told us that he was a trustworthy man.... That, was Tonny's first positive testimonial. When he did finally come back, he offered to direct us to the direction of our hostel and brought us to the corner of the main road... and that was when we were once again... hounded by an agent, or the boss of another hotel.

Couldn't bother to remember the other guy's name and that was when I got highly defensive. The first thing I thought about was that they were probably in cahoots and were pickpockets. I paid extra attention to our belongings while they were talking to us. The other guy said that his hotel would offer a better rate and probed where our hostel would be. He said his hotel offered privacy (prolly had some hidden cams mounted around) and it was cleaner (the exterior of it sure as hell didn't look quite as clean) and that we didn't have to endure the stinky or noisy backpackers in the same room (that was a little too much and what he said turned me off even more). I tried to be nice and rejected him once again by asking for his namecard and told them we would consider their offer.

It was also then that another lady.. god knows who she was, either a bypasser (didn't quite look like one though) or another cab driver just poked in to listen to our conversation. I got so paranoid and checked my stuff before moving on. Then, they called us back and Tonny offered to give us a free ride to our hostel since his place of residence was on the way home and he was about to get home. The other guy also vouched for Tonny's honesty, his 2nd testimonial... which I had to include because it did convince yq that Tonny was an honest man. ;p

I succumbed to the offer hoping to get them off our backs and while in the cab, he spoke to us in English. I tried probing the exact place that he was staying but the impression I got was that it wasn't that on the way as he had claimed. He mentioned he would take a shortcut to our hostel and said that if we were walking, it would take much longer. Well, knowing me, I'm the sceptical kinda guy... well, I didn't buy it. I've got to be objective though, yq thought he was an honest man, well, I thought he was pretty decent and credible but I felt he wasn't totally trustworthy.

Paid him $50NT for his "free" ride nonetheless and before leaving, he mentioned that he really hoped to have the rong xing to bring us around the next day (which I thought sounded sincere enough for me). He dropped us at the hostel and when we checked in, we met 2 ladies at the counter, the female boss by the name of Yu Chen (I think) and Penny. We asked about the Taroko tour and found out it would cost us $750NT per pax. We took some time to weigh the pros and cons, and to analyse both alternatives before finally deciding on just going with the Taroko tour. Needless to say... that was the last time we saw Tonny.

When I first stepped into our hostel room (for 6 pax), it was pretty decent. Fairly clean, quiet (since there were no one around, just 2 beds were taken), a little humid cos the air-conditioning wasn't on (centralised air-con which turned on only at night) and the beds looked comfy. There was even a garden which we could check out... which we did, but opening the door was a huge mistake. It was as if we welcome the mosquitoes into our room with open arms. That was... the start of the mosquito nightmare. From that day onwards.. all the way to Taipei, we were bitten and stung by the vicious commando mosquitoes. They were big, and merciless... but was also their downfall because that made them easy targets.

However, we soon came to realise the hostel wasn't that good after all. The shared toilet was dirty and the water pressure from the shower head was pathetic. Yes, PATHETIC. reminded me of my days in army. Even the temperature of the water flactuated... with majority of the time being icy cold water. We slept on double decker beds and I slept on the lower bed... which squeaked like a mouse on ecstacy through the night... had to sleep so motionlessly so I won't wake our other 2 tenants and my dear... I side tracked a little... jumped too much to the end of the day but yeah, wasn't a good experience. Will come back to it again later.

So we kinda unpacked our stuff... or more precisely organised our stuff around our beds and headed to the town centre. Got a map from the front desk and they provided us with a hand drawn personalised map of the region around where we stayed. Was impressive at first, but later found out that it wasn't all too practical because the information was too clustered and wasn't that informative after all (thankfully we got a more detailed map from the visitor's centre).

Our hostel's location wasn't good. We were in between in the town centre and the night market, and both required a good deal of walking to get there. We walked to both places... first the town centre, then the night market. We ate a plate of goose set meal which tasted pretty decent on our way to the town centre. At the town centre, it offered cheap and good dim sum especially xiao long bao (really baos and not those juice-filled crystal dumplings) and S'pore's interpretation of them, think they called them Shui Jing Bao? They were simply mouth-watering to the very last bite and its a must-go when you're in Hualien. And yes, kudos to our 2 kaohsiung "frens" whom we met at the eating place. Had a short conversation with them at the dining table and heard from them they took a 7-8h drive to Hualien!! Power spider!!

We walked around the area but there wasn't much cheap shopping or things to do around except to enjoy the "culture" and rusticness of Hualien town. Checked out an old railway track and after part 1 of our endless walking, we came back to the track... just that it was at the other end of it. We kinda got lost in Hualien, the roads were confusing due to the little streets that were mostly not included in the maps but after asking around, we did finally make our way to the night market. On our way there, we bought MSG powdered small-sized octopus balls from a roadside stall which was set up by a young lad and helped out by his gf and Fe21, a big shopping mall (in Hualien's context) where we took toilet relief.

We also came across an oxymoron... a spelling mistake in one of the signages. And ironically, it was supposed to be a centre to learn english. Spelt "Sesame English" as "Sesame Englise". Anaywaz, when we did reach the night market, it was already quite late. We ordered this bbq fried gigantic squid and the kebab-looking pork stick. We had to take a queue number and once again... we had to wait for about 30 mins for our food. Received lotsa publicity with all the posters of TV stations and local newspapers promoting them so we decided to give it a try.

While waiting for our food, we played the basketball hop game which Singapore is also very famous for in our arcades but it cost half the price to play them over there. We checked out the other food stalls, ate oyster mee sua (tasted decent, similar to Singapore... and the taste was overwhelmed with chong) and leisurely strolled around the small night market several times before our bbq food was finally ready.

After getting our food we headed back to our hostel. It was yet again another long long walk back to our hostel. The bbq stuff wasn't as savoury as one would expect. They tasted ordinary, coated with seemingly japanese sweet sauce. Definitely not worth the wait. We got lost once again and after consulting many passers-by, we finally returned to our hostel to take a nice warm bath. Or that we hoped or thought we could have... Like I mentioned above, the bath experience was anything but rejuvenating.

I felt uncleaned after bathing but had to make do with it... that day.. and the day after.. grrrrr* We turned in for the night and it was when our 2 new female caucassian roommates checked in as well. Slept as still as a dracula that night.....zzzzzzzz..........

To sum it up:

Hualien Ratings: 2.5/5 (nothing much to do, not many nice dishes around)

• if you're travelling to Hualien, be prepared to walk a great deal, be prepared to get lost and walk even more
• roads are hard to navigate and hard to walk because it has the same problem with Kaohsiung... narrow walkways that are already clustered with shop stuff or motorbikes
• hard to find a bin and toilets... will have to once again settle for big malls
• mosquito infested... bring lotsa repellent because their bites are viciously there to stay
• the xiao long baos at the town centre makes it worth it to make a trip down and the "guan chai ban" (coffin bun) makes it worth it to go down to the night market (we ate it only the next day, details can be found in the next post)
  

Formosa Backpackers Hostel: 6bed/room, $450NT/pax

Value for money: 2/5 (though cheaper than the rest, everything else was 2 notches down, no breakfast served, no free water, no.. nothing... just a bed for you to sleep on; just a hit and run place, didn't look forward to going back to our hostel every night)

Cleanliness: 2/5 (toilets lost lotsa points)

Location: 2.5/5 (would be a 3 if you just wanted to go to either the town centre or the night market... not advisable to choose both because it would turn out to be 2x the total distance)

Staff: 4/5 (made pretty good friends with Penny, which I will talk more about in my next post and the backpckers were also very friendly, cosy environment... especially if you have Sunny, the male dog going up to you and "hinting" to you it likes to be scratched "there", "there" and "there")

Day 3 (16/6): KaoHsiung

Woke up slightly later that morning and we headed towards Kaohsiung train station to take the "jie yun" or singapore's version of the MRT. Decided to collect our railway train tickets for the following day to Hualien just in case and that was when we met with that idiotic attendant I mentioned in my previous post. Story cut short, he kept insisting we didn't book the tickets after giving him my IC no. (he refused to accept the booking number so don't bother remembering it) and gave a very unfriendly tone towards us. When I tried to troubleshoot and realised it could be due to an additional "S", we finally managed to verify that we did make payment for it beforehand and his attitude changed slightly better... but that was all.

Anywaz, before moving onto our next destination, the famous Love River of Kaohsiung, yq saw a very cute stitch keychain wrapped around a larger stitch bubble. Costs $80NT but thinking we would have seen it somewhere else, with a chance that it would even be much cheaper, we decided to take that risk and carried on with our planned itinerary. The reason for me telling you this is that we did indeed see a similar toy that was much cheaper going at $60NT in a UFO catcher but we only managed to see the same toy only once and it was at the weirdest of places.... in Pingsi 6 days later. Bottomline for me telling you all this is that if you really like something very much, you should not take that risk of letting it go because contrary to what you might believe, you might not see it again.

The only stuff or items that you'll get to see time and time again are those sold at the "box" shops.. Singapore has a similar concept shop that rents out the box space for ppl to display their items. Those, you can rest assure that you'll be able to get them almost anywhere in Taiwan but I think the prices are more or less the same.

The nearest station to Love River was more than a stone throw's away from it. I can't remember the name of the station but like everywhere else we went, the customer service counters at the train stations will be your quickest, most convenient and safest bet to get the places you want to go. After exiting the station, we had to ask around again and during our walk there, several "twin" buildings caught our eyes. They were in duplicates designed similarly and were clustered around one area. That is the area you would want to walk towards. Treat it as a landmark and orientate yourself to Love River from there. We even stopped at a roadside selling cold red bean soup to cool ourselves down before proceeding on.

When we did finally reach Love River at around 11am, it was... overrrated. It was nothing more than what Singapore River was... just about twice the width larger. Food stalls line one side of the river while the other side was taken up mostly by the setup stages. The stalls were there and the stages were there because if you recall... that day was Duan Wu Jie (dragonboat festival). More and more people gathered around the riverside, waiting patiently for the dragonboat racing to start, despite the sorching sun. The sun that day was merciless, we didn't want to feel like dumbos standing around waiting for the time to strike 2.30pm just to witness the first wave of dragon boaters battle it out so we just jalan-ed the food stalls and walked around both sides of the river bank.

One major setback we made was that we underestimated the weather and didn't bring with us a brolly that day. We tried out the local foods such as fried seafood balls, eggs cooked in salt, and bought ourselves a winter melon drink with 3 scoops of banana soda in it. Nothing all too fantastic, but the good thing about the drinks in Taiwan is that most of the beverages come in supreme sizes, all at a reasonably low price.

As anticipated heightened, and it was finally time for the first 2 dragonboat competitors to take off, the crowd roared and cheered as if an earthquake was eminent. Even the buildings shoke with terror.... ok... I'm joking. Nothing of that sort, not even close. When the starting whistle blew, the entire place was almost void of cheers. There was such a din with all the chattering that I didn't even recall hearing the blow of the whistle. Hell, I didn't even know it started until I saw the dragonboaters row their boats midway in the river. Got me thinking to myself... why are the onlookers or "supporters" even gathered around the river? For a free suntan? Or an accelerated trip to the underworld via death by skin cancer? Seriii.. oouusss... ly..... Geeze. All that hype for nothing.

Needless to say, we didn't stay any longer for the 2nd wave to push off and decided to explore the other "side" of the river. There was a professional basker along the streets and he managed to gather a crowd with his still poses and robotic movements. Also tried some Chong You Bing on the other side of Love River.

I remembered glancing through a good handful of tourist attractions but we ended up only visiting the Municipal Film Archives (MFA) and Yancheng district (which wasn't even a defined area). There were cute figurines dressed in different superhero outfits such as Spiderman and Batman surrounding MFA. The place mostly featured old films and there was a higher "restricted" room on the 2nd floor which didn't allow visitors carrying bags the size of Times magazine in. You'll have to deposit them at the counter in the basement. When asked what was in the room, they were mostly films for rent... We didn't see the worth to go through all the hustle (since our important belongings like passports and stuff were in our bags) and gave it a miss.

We then walked along Yancheng district. Asked around (feel free to anyone working in convenience stores.. they seem to be the experts in navigation) and realised that we were already standing in Yancheng district. Didn't see much "old" stalls nor any cultural differences but we did pass by a beef noodle shop which had the guts to debunk another's famous beef noodle shop claim just a couple of streets away. We thought to ourselves, "for them to do so, they must be the real deal." Curiosity killed the cat I guess, we took a go at it and WOW, true to its word, it was good. Sorry I couldn't give any more details because I can't remember the street name of how to get there, merely the image of the shop front lingers in my mind but I believe it would fade with time. Another regret we had was that we didn't take many photos of the food we ate during the first few days of our trip.

We soon came to accept the fact that there was really nothing much to do in Kaohsiung "main centre" so we decided to head towards our next destination... Dreammall. On ur way there, we caught our first pink panther soft toy which cost us $60NT (was $80NT bao get but a little girl gave 2 tries and gave up)! Also, I had left a couple of details out, such as us buying the Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel tickets at Dreammall via our hotel's counter lady at a discounted rate and that we dropped by the visitors centre which was lined along Love River and were advised to forego 85 Sky Tower and go for the Ferris Wheel instead since they were pretty much the same thing... and costs around the same as well. The visitors centre was located under the gargantuan dragon statue overseeing the Love River in the middle of one side of it.

We took the jie yun over to the nearest station from Dreammall and there was a shuttle bus there. We were greeted with a cute bus and even the interior was adorably furnished. With their mascots mounted at the driver's seats as well as those decorated head rests. Dreammall was surprisingly quite impressive on the outside... and we would soon have discovered, on the inside as well. The mall itself was big, reminded me of Times Square in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore's very own Vivocity. And of course, the stuff they sold there was of a higher range than your average (in Taiwan's context) roadside stalls. We just window shopped a little, got a couple of souvenirs and headed to the rooftop, where the Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel stood tall. On the roof there were carnival games and mini theme park rides. We played a couple before finally queueing up for the 15 minute ride to view Kaohsiung's night scene.

There were 2 kinds of carriages you could choose from, the normal cutey carriage or the transparent carriage (only had 2 of them... out of I think about 15 carriages or so?). We chose the rational option because the queue for the transparent carriage would have taken too long. But we were not disappointed for the normal carriages were lined with cute Hello Kitty and Friends wallpaper and the seats were sweet looking and even had fluffy pillows on them. The carriages were air-conditioned and towards the last few moments of it, they would take a camera shot of your entire carriage... of course you'll have to buy the photos at the counter if you want (which we didn't cos we were misaligned).

We then headed to the basement to get some food to munch on. Came across this Japanese imported food product... no idea what the name is but its like those triangular sushi rolls, just 3 times bigger and the rice was wrapped around barbequed pork. Decided to give it a try and alas... we had to take a queue number and was told we had to wait 30 mins for it. Christ. Still, we gave it a go since we were convinced there must be a reason for the wait and went around looking for other food. I went into a bakery and bought what looked like a giant sized croissant-shaped plain yellow bread. It was slightly oily but everyone else was buying it so I thought to give it a try as well.

And man I must say, I was so thankful for trying both foods out. They were awesomely delicious. I will come to the top 10 food list at the end of my entire trip and these 2 foods are in it. Savory and highly memorable. We checked out the exterior of dreammall, took several photo shots of the front and centre of the mall before moving off to Xing Juejiang Shopping District.

After taking the train a nearer station, we began our "marathon" walking along the streets of Kaohsiung and headed to one of the talked about place - Xing Juejiang shopping district. It was quite like the bugis where all the hip and cool stuff were at, which was bustling with shoppers. That was where yq bought a stripped sling bag which she carried around for the rest of our trip. I asked around for where I could get the famous Kaohsiung papaya milk drink and a stall directed me to the nearest one around the corner. It was as its reputation preceeded, perfect on every level. Wasn't too sweet, and had a good balance of papaya and milk in it. Left a pleasant, faint and lingering aftertaste. Think that was pretty much all that we tried over there.

We carried on walking and came across this beautifully constructed train station, Formosa Boulevard. It felt like a very arty farty and abstract train station. Do check it out if you get the chance too. If I'm not wrong, it's also the nearest station to Liouhe night market. Boy oh boy, Liouhe night market was a food paradise. Everything came in miniature sizes, cheaper costs and they were highly catered to Singaporeans (because we weren't there for full meals but to try out as many different dishes as we could). We bought tiny muahchee like balls on sticks, Rou Zhao Fan (like the 3 layer pork on rice), prawn noodles and even... guess what... the famous Kaohsiung Papaya Milk!! Gave another go at it but despite its credentials, all the posters it put up about TV stations visiting and promoting them and stuff, they were anything but close to what I tried before at Xing Juejiang. The only other Papaya milk shop I saw was at the top level of Dreammall but I gave it a miss because it looked a little too gimicky.

Well, though Liouhe night market offered a wide selection of food snacks, only one dish won our heart. It won my heart so much I tried it at the start of my walk along the night market and had another bowl at the end of my walk - the Rou Zhao Fan. It was the best (though it was the first at that time, I did try it 3 other times but I still think none can beat that stall's), cooked by these two 30+ guys who took turns to cook them and smoked whenever they got the chance. The cigaratte smoke was quite a turnoff but we strategically chose our seats well.

After the night market, it was already getting late so we made our way back to our hotel. Like what I've mentioned in my previous post, Happy Hotel has a pretty good location and its walking distance to the night market... just that you'll have to reach this split road up a highway and a narrow and seemingly darker straight road ahead. Do still beware of your own safety but you don't have to be too paranoid about it for as long as you have the feet of a shopahoilic, you can get to those places of interest in Kaohsiung.

To sum it up:

Kaohsiung Ratings: 3.5/5 (nothing much to do, but the food was superb)

• don't have to buy a day train ticket to get around as you won't be using it too much since everywhere is within walking distance
• bins are tougher to find in Kaohsiung than in Kenting but cleanliness wasn't that affected
• Love River is overrated as well as both sides of it, Dreammall is definitely worth a trip down to try out the Bread and Japanese Sushi? and Liouhe night market is a must-go for its Ruo Chuo Fan. Try to wack whatever papaya milk stalls you see 'cos true to its repuatation, Kaohsiung's papaya milks were indeed commendable

• toilets are tough to find and your best bet of relief would be the bigger malls such as Dreammall or the train stations which surprisingly has one of the most clean toilets around (probably because they are all in the station itself (after the control gantry)
• not that safe walking along the streets because the walkways were narrow and were clustered either with parking motorbikes or the shops stuff (we could literally closeline a motorcyclist if we were to stretch out our hands)
• traffic lights were not pedestrian friendly for most of them didn't have the "green" man, had to do lotsa checking and "jaywalking" to get to places (simply put, the traffic light system bo license)

Day 2 (15/6): Kenting National Park

Initially we had intended to stay in Kaohsiung since we arrived at the hotel so early in the morning. Thought that we would get some rest in the city since it takes several hours of travelling time to get to Kenting. However, after checking with the lady at the front counter, who collected more money from us realising that the bespectacled guy during the night shift made a mistake in the payment of our room, we realised that the following day was dumpling festival and they would be organising a dragon boat racing along love river. Therefore, we decided to stick to our original plan and headed out to Kenting that morning.

Even before walking out of our street, we were already approached by a female "taxi" liaison. We heard from the counter lady that the average cost to take us to Kenting was $300NT per pax but it was already too late as most of them would have left in the morning. Initially, we had planned to take a train over, or a bus, but after the quotation from the female liaison of $700NT for the both of us, we took the offer. It would have saved us a good amount of time to get to our destination.

Bought water to stock up at the nearby 7-11 and left with the mpv transport. We sat in the front seats with the driver while the back was packed with Hong Kongers and the lady liasion herself. We later came to know that her name was Chen Tai Tai and the driver was actually her husband. On the way there, we stopped by a convenience store for a 15 mins break but I believed it was just an excuse for the driver uncle to take a smoke break. One thing I realised about the toilets over there was the "open" and innovative concepts. Had to sneak a shot at the ladies but was "caught" by the cleaner who must have been wondering what a pervert I was... tsk* tsk*

Newaz, we bought ice cream and cut up jhambul fruits at the convenience store. The ice cream was literally lemon flavored ice and vanilla cold cream. The jhambul slices was well receieved by my gf who sang praises for its juciness, texture and sweetness of it. Even for someone like her who doesn't like Singapore's jhambuls, it tells a lot how nice they tasted over there.

Took us about 1hour 40 mins to get there and before we parted, they left us their contacts and told us to contact them should we need a ride back... of course with terms and conditions. Anytime after 8pm would cost us an additional $50NT.

We were advised to get an electronic scooter which didn't require us to have a license because it was capped at a maximum speed of 40km/hour and was approved by the government to be safe for riding w/o one. However, it was quite costly, a double seater cost us $950NT while a single seater would cost you $750NT. Pros and cons for each. If you were to go for 2 single scooters it would definitely cost much more but there was a function that allowed you to "lock" the speed of the scooter. Also, it would supposedly use up less power than the double scooter. Still, we were entitled to 2 battery changes and was claimed by the shopowner that a single battery pack was tested to last close to an entire day (enough to bring us to both ends of Kenting).

We were allowed to keep the scooter from 11am till 10am the next day but of course, we didn't use it till the next day. Returned that very night. So if you're staying over in Kenting for the night, be sure to rent an electronic scooter if you haven't gotten a license. Trust me, it was one of the best things that happened to us during the trip... Before renting it to us, they allowed us to have a go at it in their "backyard" carpark. Was a little cramped and we had trouble trying to familiarize ourselves with manoeuring the scooter. The turnings were exceptionally tough, but after much thought, we decided to have a go at it. It wouldn't have been that much fun if we were confined within a single beach the entire.

So we took a couple of maps from them and despite a lack of confidence, I told yq (my gf) to hop on and before we knew it, we were already on the roads enjoying the sea breeze. Though taiwan practises the left hand drive, its not too dangerous to go onto the roads, especially that of Kenting since they are very wide and had very few vehicles on it. It was fairly easy to operate the scooter, just the acceleration, the brakes (similar to bicycles) and the mode (either "economical" or "power" for up-slopes).

Yq was my navigator while I was focusing all my energy on the roads and on riding the scooter because I'm the "safety first" kinda guy. Did manage to relax a little after getting the hang of it afterwards and throughout the entire day, yq have us stop by the roadside to visit the different beaches and take scenic shots of them. The hostels lining the streets of Kenting were also an eye-opener, so I would definitely advise at least a night stay in Kenting if you're going to visit it.

We went to places like Banana beach, and this extremely rocky beach which had mini gorges in them. They were all along the way to our first destination, Erluanpi. Erluanpi is the southern most region of Kenting, and of Taiwan and that was the extreme end of Taiwan itself. There was like a mini town when we finally reached Erluanpi which was about 20 minutes ride away from the town centre and it was very "tourisy" because they charged us for everything... parking... entrance fee etc. But all at a fairly reasonable cost. We entered into this vast open field with a supposingly japanese concept and in the distance was a lighthouse. We headed towards the tower like everyone else, stole many shots of it before deciding to further explore the place.

We went on a trail which few attempted... which led us to another attraction, wooden walkways along the coast. They kinda reminded me of Southern Ridges but the biggest difference was that along the walkway was about 5m high, there were no barricades. It wasn't that dangerous, instead it felt like we had more "freedom" than in Singapore. The coastal walk was well worth it, though you might have to walk along forest paths similar to that of Bukit Timah just to get there and to get out of there. We followed the path which further led us to the "Kissing Rocks", called thus because they were 2 huge cliffs leaning on each other, as if they were kissing each other. There was a stairway leading up to a lookout pavilion but the view up there wasn't that fantastic.

The breeze however, was well worth it and after chilling out to recover our energies, we carried on walking. It was really like a national park, and it almost felt as it Kenting National Park was mainly referring to Erluanpi. We were stalked by a white butterfly through the majority of our romantic stroll along the paths of Erluanpi and after walking for about 2hrs or so, we finally walked out of the seemingly endless forest trail. Don't get me wrong, I didn't fret a single moment of it, just the fact that most of the time we were the only ones on the trail and the jarring "crickety" sound which resonated the entire forest creeped me out every once in a while... but of course... I kept my cool.

Before heading to the other end of Kenting where the famous Baishawan (white sandy beach) was, we filled our stomachs with a hot bowl of beef noodles and some ice cold grass jelly. Tasted pretty decent... and the clothing stalls lining along the entrance of Erluanpi sold stuff at a relatively expensive price.

After our lunch, at 3+pm, we got on our scooter again and headed to Baishawan. It was a long long ride... took us about 45mins to get there and when we finally got there... we were in awe. I was in awe... because... they had the most expensive toilets in taiwan over there. Would have costs us $20NT to use them. And they were nothing close to clean. But not wanting to let them earn my money, I decided to hold it in... rather torture myself a little than to let those buggers rip me off. There were so many bushes around which I could have relived myself in.

The sand at Baishawan was anything was impressive. They weren't white, or sandy. When you hold them in your hands they wouldn't just slip right through them like the sand in an hourglass. Personally, I thought that they were similar to the sands in Sentosa. But but... it wasn't all too bad either. The waves there was the main attraction. Many visitors didn't mind getting themselves into the icey cold waters in their full attire and coming head on with the waves. Despite being close to the shores, the waves were strong and was quite a comforting sight for us... having travelled so far across Kenting just for that...

We walked the entire beach from one end to another and came across another toilet. I decided to let them earn my $20NT because the thought of torturing myself any further was too huge a price to pay for my ego. But thankfully, they didn't charge me... would only cost us if we did "big business", took showers or washed our feet. And for that, I was extremely grateful for them. It's like a stand-alone wash up place looked after by a lady and her husband. Don't go to the one at the cafe (which was on the other side of the beach), which was also where we had parked our scooter.

We took a slow stroll back to our scooter and proceeded to our next destination... Chu Huo (Nature Fire). That was a place where fire would be burning out from the grounds and it was all a natural phenomenon. Yq's brother did mention to me about it before but I didn't know it was located in Kenting only until the shop assistant who rented us the scooter told us about it. It was only about 15 minutes ride away from Baishawan. After some research, its due to the gases which are emitted from the ground. During the rainy season, the fire wouldn't show... one would have to reignite the natural gases again. Source: http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/3800259

When we finally got there, the skies were already dark and there were no lamps litted along the way. We had to grope in the darkness down a flight of steps, walk a small path to the place itself... Luckily, it was fairly litted by the fireworks the visitors were setting at the actual location. Took a couple of photos, which was quite a feat because of the muddy grounds and the waving sparklers all around. Many visitors were trying to slow shutter speed shots of writing words with the litted sparklers.... You better watch out when you're over there. And if you haven't come up-close to fireworks before, that's the place you wanna be at... Because the fireworks were so close that it sounded as if you were in a warzone. They just shoot right up into the skies, explodes and the ashes just fall right back down. But it seemed that not all the fireworks worked... There were many failed attempts with the ignition but those successful ones were really more than an eye-opener.

We were immersing ourselves in the beauty of the surroundings, saw 2 light flares in the distance which we later came to know that they were set off by our Singapore soldiers under training, when it started to have a heavy downpour. There was totally no shelter around the area and we rushed back to our scooters and decided to brave the storm back to the town centre. If there was ever a time that I could produce my own television series like Bear Grylls does.. it would be then... Man vs. Storm. It was raining so heavily that visibility was hardly anywhere more than 5% for me. My specs were all covered with raindrops, the rain slapped against my face, I could hardly open my eyes and the oncoming headlights amplified through the droplets.

Yq was so worried at the back that she kept offering me her cap. But I declined because at that point of time all I really wanted was to get out of that area...keeping my fingers crossed that it was just a passing cloud. It was quite hilarious though, because after that entire incident, we realised that we were worried about different things... yq was worried about our safety whereas I was worried about our money and passports getting wet. Foruntately, it was indeed a passing cloud, for on the way back, we "entered" the dry regions.... roads that didn't witness the bullying rain like we did. I was shivering pretty badly because my drenched t-shirt was stuck to my body and the wind was blowing towards our direction while we were riding.

We did dry off a little before reaching the scooter place (actually its not a scooter place, just a hostel which also rents our scooters.. mimimo or something like that I think). The guys who rented us the scooter was stunned to see us so wet... he even thought we took a dip in the sea because over at the town centre, it was all dry. We borrowed his i-phone to make a call to the uncle who sent us over that morning and told him to pick us up at 1030pm. Asked for a couple of food recommendations and jalan-ed along the streets, checking out the street foods and stuffs. We bought this super delicious fried chicken and mushrooms just nearby and it really opened our appetites. The mushroom tasted much better than the "popcorn" chicken but after eating both of them for quite a bit, they tended to be a bit "ni". Yq didn't have the same sentiments though. She simply loved them.

The bustling streets along the town centre was our debut experience to the "night markets" in taiwan and it was a fantastic night, and day to start with. They sold many street snacks along the way, had many carnival games which tempted with huge and cuddly soft toys, and had many innovative stuff and souvenirs along the streets. When time was up to meet up with our return transport.... alas... yet another... headache. That stupid uncle who promised us that he would come to fetch us took back his word and even lied about ever agreeing to it. Luckily, we were saved by a helpful hotel lady owner who managed to arrange a transport back to our hotel in Kaohsiung at no additional cost.

I guess like what I always preach, "Whenever 1 bad thing comes your way, 3 good things will come after. Problem is, are you too blind to see it?" While we met with a "devil", an "angel" will come to save us. I was so grateful to her because it was yet another close shave after the previous day's events. All was good as we met with this cute uncle who called himself "xiao pang ge", and who couldn't stop talking on the way back and shared with us a lot of his ideas and philosophies. We got to understand him a little better and likewise for him and that was when he first introduced me to one of the Taiwaneses' favourite life motto, "Kai Xin Jiu Hao" (Happy, can already (good)).

To sum it up:

Kenting Ratings: 5/5 (a must go)

• get a scooter for the experience even though it might seem a little pricey, get to cover more ground as well (get a raincoat just in case of bad weather)
• advisable to stay for the night, can spend at least 2 days over there
• Erluanpi, Baishawan and Chu Huo was well worth travelling to
• try the jhambuls and fried mushrooms
• its easy to navigate your way around, just need a map and keep a lookout for prominent landmarks such as windmills or large convenience stores (trusty road signages as well)
• safe on the roads since the busier and wider roads have a designated motorcyclist lane
• toilets are fairly accessible at the different stop points but generally quite rare along the town centre (you'll have to thicken your skin by 2 inches and use the toilets at the fast food restuarants, KFC or MacDonald's over there)

Day 1 (14/6) : KaoHsiung

Our flight was scheduled to leave Changi airport at 1.50pm, we had booked a high speed rail at about 9+pm already factoring in massive buffer time since we would only take 4.5hours to get to Taoyuan airport in Taipei. Everything, the contingency plans have all been carefully analysed and catered for.... or so we thought. For Jetstar dropped the bomb on us when they delayed our flight by a groundbreaking 4+hours!!

We panicked and tried calling the high speed rail hotline to inform them of our flight delay and to hopefully change our train tickets... but I supposed everyone else was doing that because I was on hold for a good 15mins before I gave up... twice. Based on good faith, we decided to just let "nature takes its course". We weren't sure if we were going to make it for the last high speed rail, nor were we certain that we could change the timings of our tickets, but we had prepared for the worst case scenario... to spend the night at the airport and to fork out another S$60+ per pax for the tickets.

Don't be deceived by the happy looks on our faces, we were smiling because of each other's company and not because of the inconvenience Jetstar gave us...

And we did get travel insurance too... just that Jetstar was "cunning" enough to delay it by 4 hours knowing that one of the clause to claim our insurance was a consecutive flight delay of 6 hours straight. So, to sum it up... we didn't get any compensation, had to spend an additional 4 hours breathing the air in Changi airport, was forced to buy water and food on board the cramped up plane because no drinks were allowed on board and the water cooler provided shot out murky waters. Spent a good S$20+ on board, lost a few strands of hair, flactuating blood pressure and a loud, noisy and shaky plane ride greeted us before us even setting foot onto Taiwan.

All was not lost for thankfully, all the rushing and running in Taoyuan airport, we did manage to flag a Daytona cab seemingly recklessly yet skilfully got us to the high speed rail station in 1 piece just in time for the last train. Brought a bottle at a convenience store (7-11 I think) in the train station and tried some tea eggs to fill our stomachs.

When we finally reached Kaohsiung train station in the wee hours of the night, we dragged our luggage around, exposing ourselves to the prying cab drivers. We were greeted by one such cab driver who asked us if we need a ride. We rejected and said our hotel was nearby (which was indeed so thanks to the pre-planning) and he asked where we were going... said he could help direct us towards the correct direction. We rejected politely, said it was alright and he tried asking again. We told him where we were headed and he pointed us to that direction... without asking for anything in return... and that was... our first encounter with the amicability of the locals.

Throughout our trip in Taiwan, we were indeed hounded by loads of cab drivers hoping to make that extra buck out of us but there were a couple who were sincerely there to help us. So don't be too paranoid about aggressive cab drivers approaching you because some, not all, are really just there to make that difference in your life.

When we did check into our hotel, it was already 2am in the morning and we took a bath and slept not too long after. The hotel looked fine, was a little gloomy though, but the toilet was extremely spacious. It was almost half the size of the actual room itself and they provided new toiletries everyday. Had a big LCD tv mounted to the wall... and a hairdryer which we used to blow our hair dry before turning in. It wasn't perfect though, the toilet had a faint pungent smell (similar to that of the sewers) whenever we came back in the nights to come and that is the only complain I have about that hotel.

It was probably a sleezy hotel because they were broadcasting porn channels, and they provided condoms everyday. The hotel was situated near the train station, about 10 mins walk away and its located along a pretty dark and narrow street. The location of our room was pretty good because it was directly opposite the water cooler, was on the 2nd level (didn't have elevators there) along the corridor. And so, we took our beauty's rest to recharge for the next day...

Happy Hotel Ratings: Commerce Room, $980NT/night

Value for money: 3.5/5 (provided 2 bottles of water everyday, very much self contained but lacked hangars in the room)

Cleanliness: 3.5/5 (pretty clean decor apart from the mild stinky toilet)

• Location: 4/5 (near train station, walking distance to Liouhe night market)

Staff: 3.5/5 (willing to help but didn't appear too friendly, spoke relatively limited english)

Breakfast: 2/5 (good that they provide but the food was below average)

Overall, we were satisfied with the accommodation and like the name suggests, yup, you'll be pretty happy staying there during your stay in Kaohsiung.