Day 3, Monday 18 Aug

Our sleep didn’t last for long. At 4.45am in the morning, we woke to our alarm, calling us up to watch the sunrise. In 15 minutes, we dashed out of the hotel and walked towards the waterfront just in time to catch the sun peeking out from beyond the horizon. It was beautiful and totally worth it.

>> A thousand words...

>>Mmmmm, a well deserved breakfast.

After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed towards Tarako Gorge 太魯閣 to take in the amazing sights of the craggy cliff & cave in swallow caves燕子口 and then we took a very long stroll through Nine turn grotto九曲洞.

Not as impressive as many scenic spots in New Zealand, Tarako Gorge was still a magnificent sight and one of the best scenic sights in my Taiwan trip.

Just before leaving Tarako Gorge, our bus made a toilet stop and we got to admire the Eternal Spring Shrine 長春祠 from far.

>> Spot the Shrine

Following that, we proceeded on to our next stop. It was a Jade Museum, but to be honest, it was one of those places tour guides bring tourists to learn about Jade in hopes to earn commission out of us during the hard sell session that usually follows the tutorial. EK and I didn’t buy into it and hanged outside the museum, taking photos will silly stone/jade statues.

When the rest of the group had heard enough hard sell and bought enough Taiwan jade, we proceeded for lunch at this horrible restaurant (basically a massive warehouse turn restaurant) filled with many tour groups, it was clearly a commission earning restaurant. Our first dish once again, was egg omelette. EK and I didn’t eat much, saying we’d diet for the better food at the night market.

Our next destination was Taitung台東. We were staying at a relaxing hot spring & spa resort called the Luminous Hot Spring Resort & Spa. However, on our way there, we stopped by a petrol station and stocked up on amo...

Then, we pulled over to see a significant landmark of the world. The World's Tenth Landmark of Tropic of Cancer was built in Taiwan, located at the intersection between Boai road and Shixian road in Chiayi. Basically, this means that the point we are standing on is along the Tropic of Cancer. If you studied Geography, and I’m trying to remember this off the top of my head, it is a line that circles the Northern Hemisphere of the globe. This line crosses certain countries, and one of them being Taiwan.

>> Our driver...

We arrived at the resort around 4pm, and was greeted by a welcome song sang by a Taiwanese aborigines, or a descendant of a Taiwanese aborigines.

After checking in to our room and going “WOW…AHHHH…WOW” as we took in the specialness of our room with its own hot spring tub, we went to check out the facilities of the resort. One of them being the free rental of bicycles. We were lucky to find a free bicycle tour was leaving at 5pm, so after selecting our bicycle, we joined the exploratory tour, which took us to admire the nearby farms, to see the amazing natural landscape, and to learn a little bit about volcanic rocks.

The tour was slightly less than hour, getting us back to the resort just in time to join our group for dinner at a nearby restaurant. Dinner, once again, wasn’t great. These catered dinners were edible, I wasn’t complaining, but wasn’t fantastic either. You’d eat so you wouldn’t starve, but you wouldn’t find any of us stuffing ourselves.

After dinner, we returned to the resort for a quick shower (all yucky from the bicycle trip), then continued to explore the rest of the resort. We visited the gym and swimming pool, went to the reading room which provided free internet as well, and looked around the gift shop. Then, at around 9pm, we joined everyone at the field for an aborigine song and dance performance.

After the song and dance performance, there were other planned activities, such as archery where EK took a shot at it, and we went swimming too (but not for long). We ended up soaking in the hot spring tub in our own room, enjoying a nice cup of coffee while we were at it.

Day 4, Tuesday 19 Aug

The next day, I woke up feeling not so well. cold yet warm, it was clearly a case of slight fever. I down a glass of Eu Yan Sang Fever Relief power I had brought along, and went for breakfast. Feeling weak, I didn’t eat too much.



My fever got a lot worse on the bus, and I took the opportunity of the long bus ride to rest. I deduced that it was a combination of factors that brought upon the fever…lack of sleep, warm weather (Taiwan was very warm & humid), unhealthy food, etc. The fever was unstable. One minute I thought I was recovering, and the next, I was back to having the fever.

Along the way, we came by a roadside fruit store and upon everyone’s request, we pulled over. MANGOS! My eyes lit up. Despite my face doctor telling me I shouldn’t eat mangos, and my fever screaming at me, I had to try a few bites. I was very obedient…not really eating but tasting. There’s a difference. EK bought a mango which the shop owners helpfully sliced for us, and a cup of mango ice shavings. Both were GOOOOOOODDDDDD!!!!!

>> DROOL...it was so sweeeeeet!

After more sleeping on the bus, we arrived in Gao Xiong, the second busy city of Taiwan, where we stopped to have lunch – a very good lunch indeed. It was in a very nice restaurant, and it was ala carte buffet with a wide selection, ranging from sliced abalone to yam desserts. I felt bummed I was unwell. I would have eaten a lot more if I had the appetite! Our tour guide noticed my sickly symptoms and offered to help me get some medicine. The restaurant manager kindly drove my tour guide to the pharmacy to get the medicine. Everyone’s so nice!

>> A Bit of Gao Xiong

>> The appetite of a sick girl

Our tour guide came back with medicine for me, reporting that my fever, as she had expected, was due to weather changes and heatiness. Nothing to be worried about.

After lunch, we went to a pearl culture centre (another tour-guide-commission place). They specialised in edible pearl powder, which they claimed could cure a whole load of symptoms. For me, being a sceptic after trying so many face products, did not believe them when they claimed how good the powder worked on zits.

After a good rest on the bus, I felt a lot better and my fever had disappeared. We arrived at Fo Kuang Shan 佛光山, aka Light of the Buddha mountain. It’s named that for a reason.







We didn’t stay there for long as it started to pour. We proceeded on to discover our next Taiwan experience, riding the bullet train! Known for travelling a speeds of 300km/h, it is a proud establishment of Taiwan.

We had an hour to kill at the train station, which looked like a real airport compared to the actual Tao Yuan airport we landed in. Passing time, we browsed magazines and bought snacks as I was getting hungry – a good sign of recovery.

>> Egg rolls...YUMMERS!

The bullet train we took headed to Tainan 台南. It was only a 15 minutes ride and it really didn’t feel like it was travelling at speeds of 300km/h. That’s usually the case when you’re the one travelling on it, but we got a taste of how fast it was going when we departed at Tainan, as another bullet train sped past the train station without stopping.






The sun was setting as we our tour bus left Tainan train station for our place of stay for the night, Nanyuan Leisure Farm 南元休閒農場.

>> And the rain came down...

I was so excited because the itinerary said there was a possibility of setting heavenly lanterns off into the sky, but we were told that it wasn’t advised anymore due to the many injuries and cases of these lanterns falling back down and setting people’s houses on fire. So after the not-so-great dinner which we had expected, we set off fireworks instead. That would be exciting for Singaporeans who have never had the luxury of playing with fireworks, but coming from New Zealand, and Malaysia in EK’s case, we’ve been there, done that. Nevertheless, it was still fun.

Our bedrooms were on floating platforms by the lake, and our beds were specially imported from Japan, of tatami-like hardness. To recover fully, we didn’t go out to enjoy the night life (that is, golfing into the lake). We slept early that night, recuperating from the lack of sleep of the previous nights.