0600 We woke up early (0600 morning call!). The good thing about tours, is that you wake up early and get to see more.. The bad thing about tours? Waking up early

0845 Our first stop of the day was windy Yeh Liu. It was about an hour travel from our hotel (Kilin Hotel). The day was very sunny and great for taking photos. We spent about 30 minutes or so walking around, looking at the famous queen’s head rock. Managed to catch a photo of a lady as she struggled with her umbrella and the wind (she won).

Almost couldn’t get a nice shot because of all the tourists but in end managed to catch a snap of a fisherman who was walking back from a day’s catch (wonder if he’s the same person I saw three years ago?).

Also took a photo of this little guard house up on the hill when we were leaving although it doesn’t seem to be in use anymore.

Jiu Fen (九份)

1030 Our next stop was Jiu Fen (九份), a kinda touristy place which has this long lane along the slope of the moutain we were on. Sam mentioned that the place used to have nine families (hence the name Jiu Fen). Of course, its a crowded place now.. Lots of tourists visit the place.. They do have quite nice food there. First stall sells beef noodles and a few shops down there is a nice fish ball shop also. Walking all the way up brought us to a nice place to take in the scenic coastal view… With a little more time, I think it would be worth it to relax at the numerous cafes and enjoy a morning there.

Su Ao Harbour (苏澳港)

1430 We stopped at 苏澳港 on our way to Hua Lien. There was temple with three different types of 妈祖 (Wooden, Jade, Gold) on 3 levels. Was rather interesting to see the sculptures and carvings on the doors. There wasn’t much else to to do since it was a rest stop after all… Bought us a huge fried prawn tidbit and off we went. 

Hua Lien (花连)

1630 to 1700 Had a traffic hold-up on 苏花公路 due to repairs to the mountain face to prevent rock slides on the mountain roads so Sam was worried we would be late reaching Hua Lien (花连).

1730 We managed to reach in time after all for Ami Aboriginal Show in Hualien. The show was okay.. not sure I would go watch it again since its all rather showy. Didn’t really feel that the person performing the tribal chief was authentic but then I guess its all part of the show. Dinner was just next to the performance which was great since we were pretty hungry by then.

2000 Reached Union Hotel (国统大饭店)! We quickly headed up to our room (326) to stow the luggage. Since it was really too early to go to sleep, we wanted explore the town a little but quickly realised we were on the quieter side. Luckily, we managed to head in the right direction where most of the activity was and did some quick shopping at a department store. That’s when we chanced upon a nice litle cafe “Les Duex Magut Cafe n Tea” on  Jian Guo Rd. Sec. 1 (建国路一段). 

The cafe was a two-storey building where the top floor had swings for chairs! Felt very cosy and certainly interesting as we enjoyed our desserts. The bottom floor actually had half of the area dedicated to cats! There were all sorts of cats that drew close when we approached and definitely glad we explored to end the second night. 

Finally captured a candid shot of darling! He keeps harping that i did not Blog. Okok… So i begin by putting the face i love most on the Blog lor. More to come. Stay tuned.