Hualien: The Escapades [Part 1]

Alright, here it is!
What actually happened in Hualien...

The first thing we saw was a hospital!

Ok kidding,

but it was an interesting-looking building on the way to our first stop.

This is what we were really going to see...

and it just happened to be right next to the hospital.

Kendra was approached by this worker at the temple while we were there.

When she told  him she was from Utah,

He said, "Oh the home of the Mormons?

Are you going to be attending church tomorrow?

There is a building just down the street."

Of course this happened to be General Conference weekend,

so Kendra had to say no.

After the temple,

we made our way to downtown Hualien

to see another temple.

On the way,

we made a spontaneous detour:

A fish market!
It was the coolest, most disgusting thing I've ever seen.
Just look -

It was ridiculous.
The part that freaked me out the most
was the fish that were laying out in the open and still moving!
Talk about creepy...

Anyway,
after the market
we continued through Hualien.
It's actually a neat little city.

Random fun fact:
There are these weird-shaped bench things all over the place -

Please don't ask me to explain this one...

Pretty sure that's impossible.

I just took a picture because it reminded me of my drink at the Toilet Restaurant

The other really cool thing about Hualien

is that there are Sidewalks!

Those are not all that common in Taiwan as it is...

At least useful ones anyway.

Lots of the time the "sidewalks" are choked with

scooters and food stands and mercahndise

making it nigh impossible to use them.

But it was a different story in Hualien!

And besides being useful,

they were beautiful.

See, Taroko Gorge is made up of marble

[It apparently has been nicknamed "The Marble Falls"]

And the sidewalks in Hualien are polished pieces of marble cemented together.

As if that weren't enough,

some brilliantly creative person

decided to shape images in this collage-like way

by using darker and lighter pieces of marble.

And these pictures are on all the sidewalks in Hualien.

Of course, I failed to get any pictures of this.

All I have is this picture of a small piece of the sidewalk:

You kind of get the idea, yes?

I actually wasn't trying to take a picture of the sidewalk in that picture at all,

but of this truck:

Of course I completely failed at that, too,

but luckily Kendra is a better photographer than I am.

[And she wasn't using a broken camera... which helps a lot...]

So this is the other temple we went to see:

This was the [FIRST] giant spider we saw...

And this is how both I and Heather felt about this -

And after the temple,
there was only dinner!



Where we...

Tried squid! And...

Didn't wear shoes!

 We did so much walking!
We were all exhausted and so grateful to be able to sit down.

Of course, by the time we finished eating it had started pouring outside.
So we had to walk all the way back to our hostel in the rain.
So we were even more tired than before we stopped to rest for dinner.
But let me tell you...
Those beds in the hostel?
Probably the most comfortable I've ever slept in.
Ever.


That was day Number One!
But, guess what!
We were there for three days.
So...

More to come soon!





 

Hows about... Hualien?

There is a town on the eastern side of Taiwan called Hualien.
It probably wouldn't be much of anything,
but due to it's close proximity to one of the natural wonders of the world,
it is quite the bustling metropolis.

For our 2nd three day weekend,
we visited this town,
and we planned to visit the nearby Taroko Gorge.
(That's the natural wonder I was talking about.)
This plan was foiled when the Gorge was closed because of rain.
We were only able to hike a few of the lower trails.
It was still incredible!

In order to get to Hualien from Feng Yuan,
we had to take a train down to Xinwuri -

Where we walked to the high speed railstation -

[That blue thing is the track for the high speed rail]

Where we caught the high speed rail to Taipei -

It was actually Banqiao, not Taipei...

But anyway,

There we walked to a different platform -

 To catch yet another train to Hualien.

[There were some stunning views on this ride.]

[Unfortunately... standing room only...]

And then we had to walk around a bit to find our hostel -

But we made it eventually!

Here is what our hostel looked like:

[Our room]

[The View from our Room]

 My first order of business after we checked into our hostel

and ditched our ridiculously heavy bags

was to get a new camera.

Because mine was...

Incompetent.

To say the very least.

So I got this one -

 

It is... So cool.

You could probably tell that from my face.

Anyway.

Moving on.

So because of this nifty new camera,

I have a ton of pictures.

Far too many for one post.

So, that is all for now...

But there will be more to come soon!


Before I go,
I'm sure you are wondering the reason for this three day weekend...

Right here -





October 10th
[That's 10/10 day, in case you didn't catch that]
is Taiwan's birthday!

Happy [extremely late] Birthday Taiwan!!
And Thank You for the holiday!