Went to Taroke on one of the day. It was a long and winding journey there but the view when we arrived was worth the journey. It is amazing that such nature made beauty exists just a short distance away from modern civilization.
Our guide was really considerate and decided to let us walk the shortest distance.
This valley was caused by earthquake and volcano eruption. The river was grey in color due to the cement residue in the river. Natural cement...
Magnificent view
The white parts on the rock is limestone..
View from the end of the tunnel.
Lunch was at a aborigine restaurant
Quite yummy actually.
Too shy to take pictures of the dishes..so here's the food I ate.
Dinner was at this place made solely out of wood. The food was yummy and portion was big. But as this place was quite ulu..we prepared instant noodles for supper.
Checked into our hot spring resort after dinner.
Nice lobby
Super nice~
Personal in-room hot spring
Our supper
Too bad we only stayed a night there but it was a great experience...i tried the public hot spring and it feels like hot swimming pool..that's all. Guess I should try the sulphur type someday. View outside the hotel.
The resort..the balcony overlooks an open field..very nice.
Passed by the pacific ocean...at the other end of the horizon is America.
Lunch was at this place called "Dong Po Zhui Yue". Nice and artistic restaurant. And they serve ala-cart buffet..I like.
Some of the dishes we ate...wished we had more time to spend there but everyone seems to be in a hurry to leave so we left without really being full.
Interior of the restaurant.
Next, we proceeded to Fo Guang Shan. I am not really keen in temples during trips but this was included in the tour.
They had this gigantic statue of the Buddha there and this wishing well with a Gong...hehe..I managed to hit the Gong 3 times...it is rumoured that if you hit it 3 times, your wish will come true.
Next, we went to take the Bullet train to Tainan...something which I was looking forward to in this trip.
The interior of the bullet train station
From Taipei to Kaoshiung, it only takes 55mins..which normally it may take 10 over hours by bus. Our journey was a short 15mins but it was cool to experience the bullet train. Ride was smooth and fast..no feeling of travelling at high speed at all. This train can travel up to 200km/hr. I was told the one in japan can travel up to 300km/hr. Wow.
Us in the bullet train.
The interior of the train. Did you know the seats rotate to face whichever direction the train is travelling? Hehe..I was worried about getting train sick for a moment if I need to sit backwards.
Station was indicated clearly so no worries of getting lost.
We are staying on a farm in Tainan. The resorts here were made out of natural oak and our guide kept emphasizing on the 'wood therapy' of the resort since the bed was specially imported from japan and made of wood as well.
Happy to see the large beds but don't enjoy it at all. Its so hard that its probably better to sleep on the floor. I don't feel comfortable at this resort at all since the place was quite ulu and the rooms were dark and not comfy.
The farm had many of this trees which emitted an awful smell which attracts flies..y flies? Cos this tree uses flies to help them spread their seeds..y not bees? Well, guess it wanted to be different. But I hated the smell...couldnt get it out of my head even after we left that place and I complained to the staff there non-stop about why anyone would plant such a horrible smelling tree.
Minus the horrible smell, I finally had a chance to smell something nice..Gui Hua. Used to drink this drink and the flower really smells good...thank God for it cos it helped to counter off some smell from the flies tree. We had fireworks the night before..nothing great but it was a nice experience...guide said as we're too near the expressways, we can't release Kong Ming Deng...hopefully we'll have a chance to do that when we visit Taiwan next time.
Along the way to Alishan, we stopped by this 地久 bridge. I dragged dear to walk through it with me...but we were both scared of heights and this kind auntie had to comfort us saying that not to worry, the bridge is safe. Haha..there is another 天长 bridge on the hill but too bad its closed, so we can't walk it..but I wouldn't want to walk it too..its too high up and dangerous.
After a tiring mountain journey, we arrived at Alishan.
Strange tree cave