Taiwan Trip Day 1 : Departure - Hui Lien : Taroko National Park - Stone House Minsu

Hello everyone, with a blink of an eye, I'm back in Singapore again. Lots of photos taken but they were all scattered around in my camera, iPhone, iPad and some with my father's camera. So it would really take me some time to sort through them and upload them. As I browsed through those photos, I'm beginning to miss Taiwan already. It's the best experience I had out of all my Free and Easy Trips so far. The sceneries there are beautiful, food is nice, people are warm and friendly and there's so much to shop! Oh, and most importantly I didn't get scammed. 4 days 3 nights is definitely not enough. How I wished I'm living there. You know, when you feel bored over the weekend and there's nothing to do, you can just take a train and go explore.  

Here's a photo of the people who are travelling on this trip while waiting for our departure at Changi Airport Terminal 1. What can you see? Seriously, all our habits and emotions are displayed in this photo, like it or not. Haha. There's my parents who are the first time flyers looking sleepy yet excited. There's me, the lazy one sleeping away like a sleeping beauty. *Ahem* There's my brother, who's constantly connected when there's wi-fi available and there's bf who's always on the look-out for food.

I made this booking as early as last year's December when Jetstar is having the 1-for-1 promotions. Got to know about this great deal through my friend, Cindy. Total cost to and fro is about S$1,400+ for the five of us. Reasonable. Early, this year, Jetstar emailed me that there's some changes to my flight itinerary which ends up to be in my favour. Cause instead of arriving at Taiwan at 11am, now we arrived at Taiwan at 6am. Save more time. 

We arrived at Taoyuan International Airport at 6am. Dragging our luggages around, we try to hunt for breakfast while finding a way to contact Auntie Liu, the owner of Stone House Minsu (石頭的家). My homestay in Hualien. I must say, throughout this trip we met with a lot of warm and friendly Taiwanese people around. First, is the lady who was stationed at the passport chopping counter. When she realised that it's my father's birthday today, she took the initiative to wish him Happy Birthday. After we cleared the airport customs, we met with another young guy who coincidentally is from Hualien too and he taught us how to travel to Hualien from the airport. He also told us a NT10 coin is enough for me to call Auntie Liu. Taiwan Country Code is 886 by the way and minus the 0 if I should called from my handphone. There was nothing much to eat as the Airport was under major renovation. Managed to grab some quick bites at the Hi-Life convenience store. Spotted a very interesting bento set which is packaged like a manga.

      
So how to go to Hualien from Taoyuan International Airport? I have did checked through some travel websites and even "asked" Google Map but I remember nothing when I'm there cause there were so many bus and train system there. So, we depends on the directions given. 

Bought the bus ticket from the counter. There's like 6 or 7 different bus operator there but only two bus Company goes to Taipei Main Station. That is Da You or Guo Guang.

Some of the stuff which I felt are rather interesting. Can't be found in Singapore.

At Taipei Main Station, it takes 2 hours and 30 minutes to reach Hualien from Taipei. Due to the fact that we bought the train ticket so last minute, we all only managed to get No Seat tickets. Sob.

Ostomate toilet for those with special needs. 

Remember our tickets with that states No Seat? We were taught that we could just find any empty seats and sit down first before we get chased off because sometime, that person who bought the tickets might not be boarding the train. So the five of us found seats and sat down. Bro and my parents got chased off after a few station. Only us still remained seated throughout the whole journey. How lucky. We even bought bento set to eat on the train. The no eating and drinking rules on Singapore MRT doesn't apply here, Thank goodness.

2 and 1/2 hour on train is really bored so I took out my iPad and start snapping the sceneries through the train window. Created this beautiful collage with most of the snapshots. Nice?



TO BE CONTINUED