My travel journal - part 2
Day 4 (Tuesday, 19th Sep):
- Walked down to one of the bus stops along Kending street and waited for the Kending feeder bus.
- Alighted along the main road and waited for a cute penguin van to pick us up and send us to the Aquarium - it’s so big and nice! The shipwrecks (the fish’s homes) look so real and they really have baby whales… We’d spent about 3 or 4 hours there before heading off.
- Took a cab to a kending harbor. Damn… the driver took the long route and we ended paying NT450 for cab fare. So expensive!!! Lucky thing the shoreline was beautiful – unlike anything you’d seen before in Singapore. Add to the fact that it was a protected area (meaning to say that picking a stone is also considered a crime), it’s definitely a sight to behold!
- Keeping in mind that the rest of the journey will be really hectic, we decided to take our own sweet time, doing one thing at a time… really relaxed!!!! Ahhhhh~ wish im back in Kending now (even though the food variety is limited and if you want something filling… you got to pay a lot more).
- Also, as we’d overspent in Kaoshiung, we decided to eat cup noodles on our last day in kending. The hotel staff (wearing t-shirt and bermudas – beach boy style) was like… “Aiyoh!!! What happened?” Hahaha…
Day 5 (Wednesday, 20th Sep):
- Woke up damn early to take a long-distance bus from kending to fangliao. Itz approx. 1 hr journey and costs only abt NT150. From there, we’d to take a train to Taitung (approx 3 hours) at only NT174! And from there, we took another train (NT42, approx 20 mins) to get to our destination – Lu Ye.
- With our haversack and barang barang in place, we had to walk up a steep and winding road. Mind you, it’s a really really really small town and there’s only one cab in sight. But the driver was not around. So we walked about 1 or 2km up the slope before we see farms (flora or tea farms) right in front of us. You could hear birds chirping. Cool breezes from the mountains and a distant chime (it’s actually the siren of garbage truck somewhere). Lucky for us, we bumped into a middle-aged couple by the roadside and they volunteered to drive us up to the mountain top. We hopped onto the back of the lorry and the scenery was brilliant and the air was so fresh as they drove on! Wow!! It was a good 8km or more up the mountain. Lucky thing we weren’t so gung-ho to insist on walking up. Hahaha…
- Waited for 2 hours before I could take on the para-gliding. The wind pressure and speed was too low previously and the coach would not have been able to fly us both up then. Paid NT1200 (inclusive of insurance) and wore the gear. Hehehe… first attempt was a failure because I almost tripped and had to restart. 2nd attempt was a success and it’s not as scary as I thought. Glided in the air for about 15mins and I certainly felt like Peter Pan. It was like a dream and I felt very relaxed. “It’s such a pity”, the coach said. The wind wasn’t at its best that day. Otherwise I would have flown higher and reach the base clouds. Damn!
- When I landed at the pasture down the foot of the mountain, we realized that someone was hanging at the cliff, but was later pulled up by the rest of the people. Apparently, the guy weighed 90kg and the wind wasn’t strong enough to carry both the coach and him. In the end, instead of gliding, they had a free fall landing… hahhha
- Guess what? I was so hyper for the rest of the evening that I was beaming from ear to ear. Hehehe.. do give it a try if you can and you’ll see what I mean.
- Last minute change of plans. Decided to head for Taipei straight instead of Taoyuan. Thus, we bought train tickets to Hua Lian (NT249, approx 3-4hrs) and transfer train to Taipei from there (NT445, approx. 3hrs). It was really close shave. We ran on board the train once we reached the station. The moment we’d settled down, the train was on its way Lucky us!
- Forgot to buy dinner and we had to starve our way to Taipei. We didn’t book any hotels and we didn’t know where to turn to. So the starving souls dragged their feet across streets after streets to find hotel for the night. It was close to an hr later before we decided on this Japanese hotel. So tired that we both fell asleep after bathing…
- Walked down to one of the bus stops along Kending street and waited for the Kending feeder bus.
- Alighted along the main road and waited for a cute penguin van to pick us up and send us to the Aquarium - it’s so big and nice! The shipwrecks (the fish’s homes) look so real and they really have baby whales… We’d spent about 3 or 4 hours there before heading off.
- Took a cab to a kending harbor. Damn… the driver took the long route and we ended paying NT450 for cab fare. So expensive!!! Lucky thing the shoreline was beautiful – unlike anything you’d seen before in Singapore. Add to the fact that it was a protected area (meaning to say that picking a stone is also considered a crime), it’s definitely a sight to behold!
- Keeping in mind that the rest of the journey will be really hectic, we decided to take our own sweet time, doing one thing at a time… really relaxed!!!! Ahhhhh~ wish im back in Kending now (even though the food variety is limited and if you want something filling… you got to pay a lot more).
- Also, as we’d overspent in Kaoshiung, we decided to eat cup noodles on our last day in kending. The hotel staff (wearing t-shirt and bermudas – beach boy style) was like… “Aiyoh!!! What happened?” Hahaha…
Day 5 (Wednesday, 20th Sep):
- Woke up damn early to take a long-distance bus from kending to fangliao. Itz approx. 1 hr journey and costs only abt NT150. From there, we’d to take a train to Taitung (approx 3 hours) at only NT174! And from there, we took another train (NT42, approx 20 mins) to get to our destination – Lu Ye.
- With our haversack and barang barang in place, we had to walk up a steep and winding road. Mind you, it’s a really really really small town and there’s only one cab in sight. But the driver was not around. So we walked about 1 or 2km up the slope before we see farms (flora or tea farms) right in front of us. You could hear birds chirping. Cool breezes from the mountains and a distant chime (it’s actually the siren of garbage truck somewhere). Lucky for us, we bumped into a middle-aged couple by the roadside and they volunteered to drive us up to the mountain top. We hopped onto the back of the lorry and the scenery was brilliant and the air was so fresh as they drove on! Wow!! It was a good 8km or more up the mountain. Lucky thing we weren’t so gung-ho to insist on walking up. Hahaha…
- Waited for 2 hours before I could take on the para-gliding. The wind pressure and speed was too low previously and the coach would not have been able to fly us both up then. Paid NT1200 (inclusive of insurance) and wore the gear. Hehehe… first attempt was a failure because I almost tripped and had to restart. 2nd attempt was a success and it’s not as scary as I thought. Glided in the air for about 15mins and I certainly felt like Peter Pan. It was like a dream and I felt very relaxed. “It’s such a pity”, the coach said. The wind wasn’t at its best that day. Otherwise I would have flown higher and reach the base clouds. Damn!
- When I landed at the pasture down the foot of the mountain, we realized that someone was hanging at the cliff, but was later pulled up by the rest of the people. Apparently, the guy weighed 90kg and the wind wasn’t strong enough to carry both the coach and him. In the end, instead of gliding, they had a free fall landing… hahhha
- Guess what? I was so hyper for the rest of the evening that I was beaming from ear to ear. Hehehe.. do give it a try if you can and you’ll see what I mean.
- Last minute change of plans. Decided to head for Taipei straight instead of Taoyuan. Thus, we bought train tickets to Hua Lian (NT249, approx 3-4hrs) and transfer train to Taipei from there (NT445, approx. 3hrs). It was really close shave. We ran on board the train once we reached the station. The moment we’d settled down, the train was on its way Lucky us!
- Forgot to buy dinner and we had to starve our way to Taipei. We didn’t book any hotels and we didn’t know where to turn to. So the starving souls dragged their feet across streets after streets to find hotel for the night. It was close to an hr later before we decided on this Japanese hotel. So tired that we both fell asleep after bathing…
Labels: Taiwan 台湾
posted by ikan bilis at 10:31 PM
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