.: Taiwan Day 7

HUALIEN DAY 3 ~Mt. Shike, Bashiendong, Shi Ti Ping~

Today is the day i can finally feast my eyes on daylilies!! wee~~~

Dad woke up really early today and was very anxious to take a stroll at the beach. Initially mum wanted dad to wait for her but she was too slow at getting ready so i suggested dad to go ahead first. While i was putting my makeup on mum suddenly pointed to outside of the window "Look!! Is that your father talking with a woman?! tsk tsk.. Look!! Look!! Now he's picking stones with her!!"

"Really? I'll zoom in with my camera and take a picture XD!"

*door opens* and dad walks in innocently
LOL

Mum laughed so hard at her own mistake.

At long last!! I can finally set foot on Qixingtan beach.

And I also finally understood what Mr Yu meant when he suggested that we go to the beach to pick some stones when we're at hualien. At first, I was like "huh?? go to the beach to pick stones?". Turns out Qixingtan beach is not your average sandy beach! Mum and dad managed to find a lot of pretty stones.

No swimming allowed at the beaches along Hualien coast btw. The sea suddenly drops very deep which also explains why the waves sound different - like kind of well.. deep and weirdly loud.

Our driver for today was......Mr Lin... again.
Though i wasn't very satisfied with his service yesterday.
He was way too quiet (as in bordering creepy quiet) plus he wouldn't even on the aircon -.- We were dropping hints like "kinda hot huh?" "my hair's messy from the wind" but he didn't even twitch. Now i wonder why none of us dared to directly ask him to just on the damn aircon.

Anyway yesterday Mr Lin asked what was our schedule for today (trying to get more business) and called his friend to check if there's still a road block at Mt Liushidan. When i said i want to go back by the coast for a few more sightseeing spots Mr Lin keep saying there won't be enough time which i thought was weird. I understand that if the sky turns dark it won't be fun anymore because we won't be able to enjoy the scenery then. But one way takes 3 hours so if we depart at 8am and return at 7pm we should still have 5 hours in between. Turns out that TWD4500 (package to go Mt Liushidan TWD3500 + to go back along the coast TWD1000) is only for 8 hours. geez.. so.... calculative.

Mum tried to lessen my burden by helping to negotiate with Mr Lin and got an hour extra. I couldn't think of a good way to hint mum there and then that i want to go back and try find better drivers first and then only ask him if we don't have any other choices. o well.

Today he properly turned on the aircon for the whole trip though. 'Someone' must mentioned/complained to the hotel owner :P. The hotel owner was slightly shocked to hear it and tried to comfort us by saying that some costumers dislike aircon and prefer to breathe in Hualien's fresh air.

Our route for today.

********Mt Shike(赤科山)********

So why is the subheading of this post ~Mt Shike~ instead of Mt Liushidan?
Well, our genius taxi driver's information was wrong and we only found out that the road to Mt Liushidan was STILL blocked when we FINALLY reached the foot of the mountain orz. So no choice but to go to the 2nd popular place for daylilies: Mt Shike. To make matter worse, on the way to Mt Shike he fliped out his hp and called to ask the way....we were lost! It was his first time to Mt Shike as well O.O And he hid the information from us -.- How can you bring us to the scenic spots on Mt Shike if you have never been there yourself???? Okay.. won't mention him anymore. Don't need him to spoil my blog as well.

On way up Mt Shike. Again, never knew mountains and valleys can be so gorgeous.

dad so creative lol

The natives are given a sum of money by the government to not harvest the daylilies so that the flowers can remain as a tourist attraction.

SO wanted to have someone take a picture of me leaning on the tree >w<

On our way down we saw this mountain. That bare area is caused by landslide O.O

Daylilies being dried on the roof before they are packed and sold.

mom very happy to see this fruit tree

******** Bashiendong(八仙洞) ********

Bashiendong has 8 caves with a fairy/god at each cave.. i think. Have to climb a lot of stairs so we only went to 2 caves which turned out to be very interesting! The first cave we went to was having an event for the Hungry Ghost Festival so there was a monk praying and singing with his entourage. Then he started throwing blessed paus, sweets, mochi and coins all over and everyone rushed to get them haha. According to the people there, it's lucky to get them. Dad was super enthusiastic and got us a lot of food and coins haha.

Then we proceeded to another cave and a man in charge there gave me these pretty stones! The white one because "It looks like you" said the man. Not really sure what to make of that remark but i'll take it as a compliment d（・∀＜）

Anddd the coolest thing happened! That man offered to help dad do some qi gong. Dad was totally at awe by the time the man was done and he immediately called mum over to try as well. Mum's reaction was much more funnier... should have taken her video lol. When the man touched her head mum actually screamed a little. She said it hurt a lot and felt like exploding?? Both of them said they felt 'something' in them moving and electric pulses like thing. Mum and dad were like super excited and wanted me to try too but i was having period so cannot in the end.

First time came across this kind of supernatural stuff ﾟ+.(･∀･).+ﾟ Feels...surreal. Sooooooooo wanted to try it myself and see how it feels like. My period actually came this morning so i guess i really don't have yuan fen with it haha.

******** Shi Ti Ping (石梯坪) ********