h u a l i e n

It rained in the morning as we watched the clouds bathed the mountaintops. 

The temperature was around 25 degree Celsius. Just nice for me. 

A faint rainbow sailed through the air as we made our way down for breakfast. 

Food is good when the weather is a little chilly. I always love that feeling. 

A bonus when the view is great.

Erm why is he texting?

We waited for the drain to drizzle to a stop.

 And we’re off!

The scale of Jiufen is really nice. 

Walking down a maze of streets, steps and back alley, our first stop was the very popular tago ball dessert stall which sports a fantastic view of the mountains and ocean to boot.

It began to drizzle lightly again but that did not bother us.

In fact, seeing people carrying umbrellas around Jiufen feels almost festive.

The famous steps of Shuqi Street reminiscent of scenes in Spirited away.

There's a lot of climbing in Jiufen and sometimes a wrong turn requires quite a climb to get back to where you were.

But there are nice scenic pit stops for the occasional breather.

Food!

Taking a break at the famous fishball stall that serves up 5 types of fishballs in one bowl. 

Great texture! Those fish balls...

More food!

Tea break at a strategically perched café before we head on back to check out our stuff and say good-bye to Jiufen.

Bus stop. On our way to the train station.

A quick lunch near the train station. This Chicken dish was actually pretty tasty! Too bad I couldn't take my time as we were rushing for the train.

All aboard! 

2 tickets to Hualien. 

And 2.5 hours later on an express train via a coastal route, we arrived in Hualien.

The main purpose we travelled to Hualien was to visit Taroko Gorge, which was about an hour’s drive from Hualien City.

  

Settling into our accommodation, we took the night to see the city centre. 

Bound by 3 main roads, the city centre is a triangle that was surprisingly quite pleasant to walk.

The streets were easy to navigate and the shops have enough variety to keep us interested with friendly services which felt more stress-free compared to the crowded Ximending.

A food alley selling the popular Gong Zheng Bao Zi that we gave up on after seeing the really long queue.

A peculiar triangular shop that marked the end of one of the streets.  I stood outside, imagining a parallel universe happening, sliced by the apex of the trangle as YQ stepped out of the shop to continue his hunt for trendy bags and shoes.