Hualien Part 1

2 posts in a row woo!
Okay so I'm going to tell you guys about another spur of the moment trip we went on with one of Yue's cousins(She has many >_>;). He basically said he was coming to get us and to get ready the day of so we packed light and hopped in the car and off we went. And we went and went and dang it was a long drive. We started heading through mountainous areas and it got rather chilly. Neither of us had prepared for cooler weather since it's been hot lately in Taipei so we ended up borrowing some of her cousin's jackets hah. We arrived in a city area that looked like any other city really and we stopped for a bite of food before looking for a hotel for the night. We opted for a cheaper hotel and that resulted in us staying in a super shady motel that was also some kind of council meeting place?? They had a huge congregating room on the lobby floor. The elevator tried to kill me on the way up to our rooms and then the lights were so dim in the hallways casting eerie shadows all around. A great place to film a scary movie lol. On the bright side the bed was relatively comfortable after a few adjustments. We woke the next day and ate breakfast at McDonalds..not our first choice of food but it was sustenance I suppose. The McDonalds was huge though, it had 2 floors and there was a large group of business people gathering upstairs for some kind of breakfast party or something. I guess McDonalds has more space for bigger groups compared to small side street breakfast shops.
 I finally found out where we were after seeing signs everywhere since no one really told me where we were going. We were in Hualien, which is basically this huge chunk of space along the coastline that is covered in mountains and scenic stuff.

After our McDs we drove a while more and found ourselves at Liyu Lake.

We were kind of just dropped off there and encouraged to get on one of these little swan boats you can rent. I hadn't been in one of those since waaay back when I would go camping and do outdoors stuff. So we peddled off onto the lake in our little swan boat.

It was a shady day but not too cool. The sky was overcast and we could see the mountains looming nearby. The lake was pretty large so it took us a long time to cross but we made it to the other side and spotted some lovely cranes as well as an unexpected forest dweller.

The lake was pretty and peaceful aside from the Hong Kong tourists canoeing by that kept being loud and scaring all the birds away.

After our boat was back at the harbor we took a drive further into the mountains to Tarako National park. It was breathtaking to see this massive gorge and a mountain wall towering into the sky. Even more amazing was the temple peering over the edge of the mountain. When looking down over the edge of the gorge we could see pools of the bluest water I have ever seen. It was literally blue. There were many tourists here including more from Hong Kong and a large group of Koreans. Not so many European Tourists on this day though but this is definitely a big destination for the area. We climbed towards the temple and then tried to head up the mountain along a set of narrow stairs but once we realized the stairs never seemed to end, not even small ledges to break on, we made our way back down feeling thoroughly out of shape. 

We had a lunch break in between before going to the beach. Okay so I don't know if this is a uniting factor of all Taiwanese beaches but this one was covered in rocks. Little tiny rocks at first that become bigger as they reach the ocean. These rocks are smooth and polished and the water is yet again blue. Beautiful clear blue water. The rocks were kind of uncomfortable so I tried walking barefoot and boy was that a mistake. It was nearly impossible to walk on the rocks without being in pain! I walked towards the water to stick my feet in and the water rushed in so quickly and much higher than I anticipated so my entire lower pant legs were drenched. I searched around and found a slightly larger rock to perch on too dry and look out at the expanse of water. It was the kind of place where if you wished to retire and live a life by the sea, you could be very much at peace. It was no where near a city so mostly old people and a few tourists were around. There was also a pack of beach dwelling dogs. I'm not kidding about the dogs of Taiwan, either they are pampered pups or they run with the gangs of street dogs and apparently beach dogs as well.

That was basically it for the day since the sun set not long afterwards. We went back into town for some food then took a stroll around the area before calling it a night.

Part 2 soon

~Savi