铁路绕岛七日游 - Taiwan (Part 2)

Kaohsiung - Hualien
THSR is not available on the East side of Taiwan. To travel from Kaohsiung to Hualien, TRA is the only option and the shortest travelling time is 4 hours. We managed to catch the 8am Express train (NT$707). Journey that long is unbearable without food. We planned well ahead and doggie bagged some tepanyaki from SOGO last night.

The long waited SLOW train finally pulled into the platform. It sounds like KTMB looks like KTMB and feels like KTMB. This is probably the most crazy ride in the whole trip. Half way through it started to drizzle and the scenery started to transform from bustling city view to ulu kampung scene. The train travelled very slowly because the track is not electrified yet. The train is still powered by diesel. No wonder it feels like KTMB.

Hualien gave us a whole new feeling about Taiwan. It is much laid back and less accessible by public transport. To take a cab, we must call. The flag down rate is NT$100 instead of NT$85 in the other part of Taiwan. After checking into our second Chateau de Chine, we took a stroll towards the sea and it turned out to be a huge mistake. Moving away from city is unwise because Hualien is less touristy with less cab around. We were lucky to get one when the driver needed some KFC, just like us.

Quite empty

From KFC, we walked a long way to train station / tourist info centre to find out about Taroko day tour. Set our plan but the day is still early.

From the bus station, we learned that there are only a few bus routes. Unless you live in Hualien, there is no way to decipher the bus schedule or the bus route. Not a friendly place for ang moh. The locals chop carrot on them. Later that night, we wandered around the town centre and called it a night around 8pm. The good thing about Taiwan hotel is the great variety of free-to-air tv channels. Nothing to do just watch tv. Even you missed a funny episode, it repeats many times a day.

Taroko day tour
Early in the morning, we rushed to the pick up point to buy a day-pass (NT$250). It gives us unlimited ride on Taroko Bus but with a fixed schedule. The Taomikeng lesson taught us not to be greedy. Unable to cover ALL sites won't kill. So we carefully chose the drop off point for photos taking, trekking, sightseeing and rest.

First stop, Taroko National Park main entrance

Shakadang tunnel. Just a tunnel. Should have spent more time around the main entrance
 

The trail is closed

Trail is was constructed by cutting the side of the rock mountain 

We waited long for the next bus

Signature STAR jump

Buluowan

Due to typhoon early in the month, some trekking routes have been closed and caused some time wasted at the Shakadang. Even so, Taroko is still a fantastic place to be. Among others, Shakadang trekking trails were constructed by manual chiselling on the side of giant rock. From Shakadang, we hopped on the next bus to Buluowan. There is a jungle trail by the hill side and lead to the main road downhill.

  

Walking along the main road, we soon arrived at Yanzikou. Yanzikou is a vehicular road turned walking path for great photos taking. I was mesmerised by the magnificent work of God. According to our bus driver, Taroko gorge is "growing" by 0.5cm/year due to the tectonic plate movement and the continuous river flow. I'm not sure how it happened but the result is really awesome.

Suspension footbridge was closed for public

It is very high. I get jelly legs just by looking downward

But the view is perfect for photo taking

Don't look down...

Keep a distance... It is not so scary from here...

The weather was just nice for a romantic alfresco KFC lunch in the park at Tianxiang. We later recuperated at Silk Place Hotel and surf some net. In Taiwan, there is wifi almost everywhere. I really wonder how the invisible wave affect the Taiwanese brain.

A long bus ride finally brought us back to Hualien train station but much earlier than our plan. We had some Starbucks. Since our Shanghai trip early this year, we started to hang out at Starbucks. More so when we found Rochester Starbucks. We go there every other week, chilled out chilled out.

Pizza Hut for dinner coz our fund is running low. Back in hotel, lots of variety shows to fill up free time again.

Hualien to Taipei
The last leg of our trip will be ending in Taipei. We took a 2-hour Taroko Express to Taipei (NT$440). This time round the scenery transformation is even more breathtaking. The train moved northward along the east coast. While huge rock mountain laying on the west, beautiful coast line continues on the east.

All good things come to an end in Taipei. We thought we had a good Ximending hotel deal. To our horror we were told to check in only after 10pm!! 10pm??!! This is the worst promotional condition I ever experienced. We had no choice but lepak around. Strangely, Cashbox karaoke doesn't have wifi.
We had some shopping, some Ding Tai Fung, some MOS burger and long walk.

We didn't know how much we missed out until the very morning. There are many cinemas, many nice restaurant and many shopping around where we stayed. We could have easily killed our time in Ximending. Nothing could be more distressing than knowing the truth.

This trip is like riding roller coaster. We started low in Taichung. Slowly climb through Sun Moon Lake, reach the apex at Taroko and crash to the bottom in Xinmending. In the late morning, we took THSR back to Taoyuan. This concluded our 1-week trip in Taiwan. If I ever come back to Taiwan, Taoyuan airport will be very different.

So many new mall has spring up at Jurong East-Clementi-Bouna Vista area

When I first moved to Clementi, there was only 2 malls nearby; IMM and West Coast Plaza.

In a short span of 2 years, Clementi Mall/ City Vibe, JCube (only cinema nearby), Star vista, Rochester Mall opened the doors. In 2013, JEM (Cathay) and Westgate was opened. By 2014 Big box and Empress square will be opened.

In such a short time, can the west absorb the 10 malls. Human traffic seems ceaseless. Furthermore, there are places like Holland Village and The Grandstand that we can go to during the weekend. Is there any need to go Orchard?

Yes, because things in Orchard are cheaper, surprisingly. To attractive customer's eyeballs in a highly competitive Orchard area, restaurants also offer Executive Lunch promotion, things that we don't get in the suburb mall.

铁路绕岛七日游 - Taiwan (Part 1)

For the second time, we stepped foot on Taiwan island. Our last trip to Taiwan was only a year ago. Diversified geography is the most fascinating part about Taiwan. And the good thing is, most of the tourism spots are well connected by an extensive public transport network.

We did a 900km journey round the island trip by rail fom Taoyuan-Taichung-Kaoshiung-Hualien-Taipei-Taoyuan. The feel of the trip makes it as though Taiwan is a very big country. By the rail distance its almost like travelling from Singapore to Padang Besar by rail and hence the feeling its the same size like Malaysia. However, Taiwan is much smaller than Malaysia in reality. How much does it cost to travel 900km? In general per person we spend RM 220 to round the whole island using high speed train, electric train and diesel train. Fastest 350 km/h, slowest 100 km/h.

Our friend Yee Siang joined the first leg of our trip in the West, the more developed side of Taiwan.

Taoyuan - Taichung
Basically we were literally travelling for the first half of the day. Flight (S$240) > Bus (NT$30) > THSR (NT$540) > Taxi (NT$200+). By the time we reached Taichung hotel (S$100/night) , it's almost time for dinner. We had great time experiencing the public transport in Taiwan. The fare is relatively cheap the overcrowding situation is not too bad. Taxi is affordable when travelling in pair or more. Flag down rate is NT$85 for the first 1.5km and NT$5 for subsequent every 200m.

As we reached hotel we quickly orientated ourselves and planned for dinner. Just like any other tourists, Night Market came right to our mind. We headed towards the largest night market in Taichung, 逢甲夜市, located right next to Fengjia University. To our disappointment, we only had some fried rice, chicken cutlet and some soy bean curd dessert. The whole place is full of stinky toufu smell. Even the passerby smelt like one.
Fried rice store was the only aircon place without the stinky toufu smell. The long waited chicken cutlet was supposedly the BEST according to some TV show. But the taste is also overwhelmed by the stinky toufu smell from surrounding and salt & pepper taste which reminded me of Wang Run Xing in Hangzhou.

Sulky photo taken in Hangzhou, Mar 2012

The soy bean curd was very different from the SEA type. The texture is more solid and the soy taste is much stronger. I had a feeling of eating raw 豆腐 instead of 豆腐花. As we concluded the night activities, somehow I don't foresee myself visiting a Taiwanese night market in near future.

mural inside the hotel room

(I think it means Mr. Felix from the Wonderland)

 

Second day was the highlight of our Taichung stay. We visited Sun Moon Lake (日月潭)
The day started off with lots of walking again. From the Nantou Bus pick up point, we purchased a day package (套票) for NT$660. The pass included return trip to Sun Moon Lake, cable car ride, round-the-lake bus ride, unlimited boat ride and a coupon to exchange with souvenir. What a fantastic deal.

Along the journey, we spotted many dried stream/ river under the highway. Not sure it is due to draught or what. Maybe the rivers are usually dried to prepared for rainy days. The 1.5 hours bus ride stopped by a small town, Puli and later terminated near Sun Moon Lake jetty. Without wasting much time, we rushed to redeem our boat ticket. The boat ride basically brought us from one end of the lake to the other end passing by a tiny Lalu Island in the middle of nowhere.

The cable car ride (or Ropeway) not only gave us a breathtaking bird's eye view of the lake, there is also absolute peace & quiet. No noise up in the air. It's totally cool. We spent the rest of the day hanging around.

Even a noisy person shut up to enjoy the view

The highest point is about 58m above the station

same same but different

 

On our way back to Taichung, we stopped by a stupid place called Taomikeng to see "paper dome" in great anticipation. But we end up wasted 1 hour waiting for bus. Finally we returned to Taichung in the evening at about dinner time. Having had enough of the street food, we took a proper meal this time. At Gen Teishoku Far East 21 (大远百).

Taichung - Kaohsiung
The next day, we parted our way from Taichung Train Station. Yee Siang took THSR to Taipei while we chose to take TRA electric train to Kaohsiung. The trip from Taichung  to Kaohsiung was 2 hours (NT$469). THSR ride could have been faster but definitely more expensive. After all, taking slow train is a fun experience, too.

Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan after Taipei, with 2.9 mil population. Metro/ MRT system was introduced in 2008 to ease congestion. Moving around in Kaohsiung city is easy because the main attractions are connected by MRT.

After a long day, it started to rained in the evening. We had TGIF (Dream Mall) for dinner. Watching a Chinese illiterate ordering food from a Chinese menu was totally amusing.

On day 2, our initial plan was to see the whole Kaohsiung in MRT. My heart burst with excitement & made me jumped out of bed early. Buffet breakfast energized me to march out from Chateau de Chine. While contemplating between MRT or bus, bus 99 came by. The driver recommended a day-pass which offers unlimited ride on bus 99 (NT$20). The slow bus ride brought us to Gushan Pier. Conveniently, we took a 5 minute ferry (NT$15) to Cijin Island.

It feels like 10 suns in the sky

 

Cijin Island makes a pleasant half day tour. The main attraction includes a light house & fort built by the British 100 years ago up on a hill. Walking up the hill is not leisure on a HOT day. although the view is not bad, it doesn't compensate the torment exercising under the HOT sun. I felt like rolling down the hill on the way down. 

The winding road leads up to the hill. There found a light house and fort.

 

Seriously need a wide angle lens camera

Another interesting place is the Seafood Street selling seafood, crackers and cold drinks. We had our lunch and some rest here. Before taking the ferry back to mainland, I noticed a few tanks by the shore. They look so much attractive than those in Jurong Island.

 

 

 

At a quiet corner, there exists a tunnel closed from traffic since years ago. The tunnel actually leads to Zhongshan University. The moment we stepped into the tunnel, a stream of comfortable cold breeze blew through. On the over side of the tunnel, the students were having fun. It's good to be back to school once in a while to feel young again. To make the most out of the bus 99 day-pass, we sit in the bus for the rest of the journey. The bus climbed up the Chaishan hill and terminated in front of a temple. The scene was pretty as it overlook the shoreline of Southern Kaohsiung. In evening, we shopped at SOGO and get ourselves some good deal.

Teva track shoes for NT$900

For the first time we both given up on CROCS

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