Airport Interlude

I am writing this from Taoyuan International Airport, waiting for my flight to board. Sonny is already on his plane, probably taking off as I type. I meant to catch up on all my blogging, but the battery of the school's laptop just died before I completed my post so I am using my phone. I guess you guys will have to wait just a bit longer for my Taroko photos. :)

Meanwhile I will post some of the pictures I took with my phone and never managed to get onto the blog. 

First up, hot pot at our neighbourhood joint, with black skin duck 

The coffee bun and drink I ordered all by myself in Chinese. 

Awkward translation at the high speed train station. 

Sherlock! 

Ok, that all for now, I am going to take a nap in my super comfortable lounge chair I snagged and I will "see" y'all in Singapore!

Day 23 - Hualien & Taroko Gorge

The next morning we woke up bright and early and took the MRT to Taipei Main Station to catch a train to Hualien. Unfortunately, when we got there, we were told that there was no room on the trains until after noon! We bought tickets for the first train we could and killed time by wandering through the multiple malls all around the station - including one fancy mall that we waited inside for it to open so we could check out their food street. When it opened all the shopclerks came and stood in front of their stores and this crazy music played and they all bowed and welcomed us, all the way through the mall. Then, when the music stopped they all went inside and resumed their normal activities. It was very strange. Finally the time came to head back to the train station and board our train.

After less than two hours of a beautiful train ride through the mountains and down the coast, passing rice paddies all the way, we arrived in Hualien. Taroko does not have much in the way of accommodation, with the only options being the Silks Palace (way, way out of our budget) or the Catholic Youth Hostel (with two of us, getting a double at a hotel is actually cheaper than 2x dorm rates),  so I decided to stay at Hualien which has a myriad of hotel options and a pretty frequent, hour-long bus service to Taroko.

Our hotel was a 40 minute walk from the train station, but since we are cheap, we hiked it instead of taking a taxi. Stopping for bubble tea on the way gave us the energy we needed, and only sorta tired, we finally arrived at our adorable little hotel. When we checked in, the desk clerk informed us worriedly that because of another booking she had needed to change our room to a king size instead of a double. We told her it was fine and we would manage somehow :) This hotel room, while again not the hugest was far, far nicer then any I have stayed in for awhile. The bed was huge and very comfortable, and there was even a heat pump in the room, and truly hot water in the shower!

Because of our late start, we were unable to head to Taroko Visitor Center to pick up maps and plan the next day like I had wanted. Instead we decided to explore Hualien, and maybe eat something. We had spotted what looked like a little night market on our trek to the hotel so we headed there.

It ended up being quite cool, with lots of young-people owned unique stalls and shops and a free concert put on by the youth guitar group! There was even an American-style hamburger place, but I chose to get squid balls instead. They were so good I forgot to take a picture, but they are basically a gooey calamari omelet sorta texture that is fried in round molds then doused in mayo, fried onions, wasabi, and soy sauce. After we downed those we continued wandering, and I window shopped, until Sonny spotted this place that sold a Taiwanese pork rib soup he wanted to try. We also got the century egg tofu. Its an egg that has been left to ferment wrapped in sawdust until it turns brown and green. Its one of those foods that I just can't look at while I eat, as I like the taste but the appearance is - lets face it - quite gross. This dish was nice because you could eat the tofu, which looks much more pleasant, and dredge it in the sauce from the egg to get the taste. The serving staff were very surprised and pleased that I, a white girl, seemed to enjoy the century egg. Sonny says I am a weird American :)

People lining up for food

Century egg tofu

Not sure why I look so furrowed - probably cause Sonny is sticking the camera in my face again

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and relaxed in our warm room and watched some television on our flat screen tv. We also ate an entire bag (ooops!) of the moochi Hualien is famous for. Oh living the high life!

Day 22 - Taipei Interlude

Back in Taipei it was time for something that I had been waiting this whole trip to do - visit Yuan Zai! She is a baby giant panda who was unveiled to the public on January 6th, and since less than 20,000 people a day get to visit her, I had been waiting until the initial craziness died down a bit and until I could take Sonny on a weekday. We woke up early and headed to the zoo, but we still ended up with the 12:40-12:50 timeslot. Its not the best, as she sleeps most of the day and is most active around 11 and 4.





We headed out on the train to see if we could catch a glimpse of a baby panda playing. Doesn't Sonny look super excited?

There, thats better! He got me back for this by sticking the camera in my face.

When we got to the zoo, we had to wait for a bit until our turn to see the panda, so we went to see the native Formosan animal exhibit.

Deer with spots

Monkeys! I saw the backside of two of these from the bus on the way to Alishan

 This is the juvenile formosan black bear. He is older than Yuan Zai but still pretty cute.

Big big bug hunting goldfish

Can you spot the bug?

Then it was time to go and line up for the panda. The tickets said to arrive 10 minutes early, but when we got there they were nearly 30 minutes behind for some reason. We speculated that something must have happened to cause the delay and they worked quickly and seemed to be getting back on track, using multiple lines for different time slots and policemen with megaphones.They take quite seriously the total number of visitors thing and if you miss your time slot you get stuck off to the side, waiting until someone else misses their's.

The line. It was insanity.

Tuan tuan, the father was in a separate enclosure outside. He was munching on bamboo when we first walked by, but by the time we got our shot to go see him up close he was napping.

And finally, it was time to see the baby! We paraded into the panda house, and zig-zagged through the queue system they use, and when we arrived at the front we saw...her little white sleeping butt. Sigh. Oh well :) You get approximately ten seconds to see her, as they are pushing the line along, but I'm glad I got a quick peek of her little snoring rear. I recommend you go back up and watch the videos of her awake and actually being cute

Mommy Yuan Yuan on the left and the tiny ball ofd white fuzz is the star of the show, except she seems to have missed her cue

After we left we got our picture by the cardboard cutouts instead. We then grabbed a bubble tea and left the zoo because our next destination was calling, the Maokong gondola!

Maokong a hilly/low mountainous area to the south of Taipei. It has long been a place where oolong - particularly Iron Goddess oolong was grown, and is now full of teahouses where people come to drink tea and enjoy the views. Quite excitingly, the easiest way to reach the area is by gondola, a full 4 km ride. Even more excitingly, the gondola is considered part of the MRT system and its very cheap to ride!

Once we reached the top we walked along the road, visiting the Tea Growing Information Center, and getting directions to the tea house we wanted to try after learning all about roasting tea. We walked quite a long way to get to our tea house, and when we got there, it was closed! Disappointed, and not seeing another option we liked well enough to spend the money on, we headed back down to pick up Sonny's repaired laptop, then head to dinner with the colleagues. Dinner was a hot pot buffet, which was fancier than we normally eat, with long tables full of things to add to the hot pot. It looked very nice, but to be honest we prefer our cheap hole-in-the-wall hotpot. Plus, even with all my stomach-expanding training, I can't eat enough at buffet to make it worthwhile. At least we got to talk to the colleagues, and meet Silver Nitrate's wife. After dinner we went back to the apartment for sleep as we would be waking up early to head to Hualien, our base for Taroko Gorge.