Hualien Day 2
We set to meet at 9am in the lobby, and be ready to head out the door at 10am to catch our bus at 1030am to start the day. Todd made us (Carly and me) eggs, but Todd cooked it raw so we made our own and I cooked Todd’s eggs longer to make it my lunch.
Today was a great example of how plans can go to shit and you just gotta go with the flow. We were ready to leave by 10am but because we were so scattered -- one was pooping, one was taking the sheets off the bed, one was hitting on the receptionists, I was doing my own thing wondering where everyone was, we missed our bus. Our other group of 4 friends came to meet us, but since we were late, they didn’t get on that bus. We spent the next hour trying to figure out what to do, rearranging our day in congruence with the bus schedule, lined up for bus tickets only to find out they were sold out. All 8 of us finally decided on what to do. We ended up back at the lobby at 12pm, waiting for the bus at 1pm to take us to a Liyu Lake. A lot of us expected this enourmous lake was to be surrounded in luscious greenery with simple hiking trails which would take 3-4 hours to go through. This wasn’t the case.
I was told the bus ride was going to be 20minutes. This wasn’t the case. 1 hour and 30minutes later... we’re still on the bus. Playing 20 questions and name games.
Someone suggested going to see some zoo animals. Sure. The bus comes every hour.
I didn’t realize that the entry tickets were $350NTD to check out the zoo. Pass.
Joe and I wanted to hike, so we branched away from them and started walking. We walked across the bridge.
We came across a hill of trees which looked like palm trees. I asked what they were, Joe told me they were betel nut trees. Okay. Let’s climb it.
We found an opening. I had Joe lead first to get rid of the spiderwebs.
It was cool.
We met up with the rest of the group at 3pm. Only 2 out of 6 folks came out. Apparently, the zoo is massive, but the 2 guys didn’t have a good time so we went to the next destination:
Liyu Lake
With the 4 of us, 2 of them went kayaking for 1 hour = $200NTD. There’s a block of restaurants on the side of the road, they all sell the same thing. I was adamant there’s gotta be at least one person selling something else. Nah. They’re all selling tao cake, turnip cake, little fried shrimps and fish, fish cake, Mu Gua smoothie at around $50NTD each.
It’s alright when you don’t have much of a choice.
The other group of 4 met up with us couple hours later. Since there’s a big group (8 people) of us, we got a set meal of 7 dishes for $1800NTD at one of the restaurants. We got fish, duck, lots of veggies, big bowl of soup, tempura, and rice.
The last bus out of here is 6pm to Hualian train station. We got to see some fireflies in the bushes by the bus stop.
I passed out for an hour when we got back to the hostel. Went to the lobby to find 3 of them playing board games. We played until 1am.
This guy in the lobby seemed to have had a good night. I’m sure his back will be paying for it the next day.
A bunch of people playing Mario on the other side of the lobby.