About time I made an entry about my recent return down memory lane, albeit with a twist. I am backdating the entry as well. Instead of an earthquake, my return to Formosa (Taiwan) is now a category 2 typhoon.
Day 1 We reached Taoyuan International and promptly caught the bullet train (高铁) to ZhuoYing station (左营) before catching the MTR to Kaoshiung city, where we "checked" into this apartment. I'd rave about the place but it'll take up too much space (but if you're keen to know, drop me a note). We then went in search of the maid cafe to pay a little visit. After stumbling on a few anime stores, we finally found the place. A quiet and cosy spot called the Tokuyomi@Kaoshiung. The girls were friendly (and cute!), service was excellant and the menu was rather creative too (oh, and the food was not bad. Local flavour with a dash of Japanese). After dinner, we went off to the famous Liuhe night market (六合夜市) and then spent the rest of the night watching cable TV while savouring our first chicken cutlets (香鸡耙) and fruit tea.
Day 2 Early day as we caught a bus and headed down to Hengchun (恒春), an old city which I had been to previously back in 2000 when I was sent here for training. Along the way, there were many familiar sights such as the betelnut stalls (minus the girls now). We reached the town around noon where we suddenly became lost since there was no readily available map of the area. It took us a while before we found our lodging, a nice hostel called the "Surf and Shack". Once we're done settling our stuff, we grabbed our cameras put on our hiking shoes (well, maybe just me) and hit the road, road 200 that is. The area was once my "playground" when I was here for training, so coming back has always been a dream because of the sights that we could not experience properly as a soldier.
Along the road just a few hundred metres out from the town's East gate, we came by Chu Huo (出火) a site with fires sustained by an upwelling of natural gas. Apparently the place sort of shifted nearer to the town based on my memory. Further down the road, we came to this restaurant that I've been dying to go to. Why? Nine years ago, during a certain Exercise R** B****, my team stopped by this restaurant and had a meal (illegally of course) at the rear of the building enroute to our final checkpoint up the mountainous range called Chi Niu Ling (赤牛岭). It was forbidden to bring any currency (or have any contact with the locals) during the exercise but as you know, us boys being boys, ahem ahem. We're not the first and we're definitely not the last. Unfortunately, they were not opened for business for a while, most a pity.
Moving on, we reached the county border of Manzhou (满洲) and my aim was to visit the famous Chikong waterfalls (七孔瀑布), a series of 7 consecutive waterfalls at the base of the imposing Laofuoshan (老佛山). Although the road towards the falls was a gradual gentle upslope route, it tire us out quickly, partly due to the long walk all the way from Hengchun (about 10 to 14km to reach the route). By the time we reached the carpark gateway, my buddy gave up so it was up to me to make the journey of another few hundred metres to reach the base of the falls. I had to trek into the sparse forest area and negotiate a few streams before I reached the base of the first fall. The subsequent climb up to the other falls had to be done with the aid of ropes and trees. The weather was slowly but surely turning bad with the on-coming typhoon and the slopes were slippery enough to make me give up after reaching the 3rd fall.
It was rather disappointing but we hurriedly made our way back to the main road to catch the bus back to town and the hostel. It was only that night when we switched on the TV that we found out the inbound Morakot, scheduled to make landfall the next day. All along we had thought the strong winds we felt during our hike was a natural occurrence as I had felt such winds when I was last here.
The writer will not be showing any photos in the next few entries as he is still trying to finish sorting and labelling the hundreds he took. Photos will be posted up in chronological order which can be followed along with these entries on his facebook site.
Day 1 We reached Taoyuan International and promptly caught the bullet train (高铁) to ZhuoYing station (左营) before catching the MTR to Kaoshiung city, where we "checked" into this apartment. I'd rave about the place but it'll take up too much space (but if you're keen to know, drop me a note). We then went in search of the maid cafe to pay a little visit. After stumbling on a few anime stores, we finally found the place. A quiet and cosy spot called the Tokuyomi@Kaoshiung. The girls were friendly (and cute!), service was excellant and the menu was rather creative too (oh, and the food was not bad. Local flavour with a dash of Japanese). After dinner, we went off to the famous Liuhe night market (六合夜市) and then spent the rest of the night watching cable TV while savouring our first chicken cutlets (香鸡耙) and fruit tea.
Day 2 Early day as we caught a bus and headed down to Hengchun (恒春), an old city which I had been to previously back in 2000 when I was sent here for training. Along the way, there were many familiar sights such as the betelnut stalls (minus the girls now). We reached the town around noon where we suddenly became lost since there was no readily available map of the area. It took us a while before we found our lodging, a nice hostel called the "Surf and Shack". Once we're done settling our stuff, we grabbed our cameras put on our hiking shoes (well, maybe just me) and hit the road, road 200 that is. The area was once my "playground" when I was here for training, so coming back has always been a dream because of the sights that we could not experience properly as a soldier.
Along the road just a few hundred metres out from the town's East gate, we came by Chu Huo (出火) a site with fires sustained by an upwelling of natural gas. Apparently the place sort of shifted nearer to the town based on my memory. Further down the road, we came to this restaurant that I've been dying to go to. Why? Nine years ago, during a certain Exercise R** B****, my team stopped by this restaurant and had a meal (illegally of course) at the rear of the building enroute to our final checkpoint up the mountainous range called Chi Niu Ling (赤牛岭). It was forbidden to bring any currency (or have any contact with the locals) during the exercise but as you know, us boys being boys, ahem ahem. We're not the first and we're definitely not the last. Unfortunately, they were not opened for business for a while, most a pity.
Moving on, we reached the county border of Manzhou (满洲) and my aim was to visit the famous Chikong waterfalls (七孔瀑布), a series of 7 consecutive waterfalls at the base of the imposing Laofuoshan (老佛山). Although the road towards the falls was a gradual gentle upslope route, it tire us out quickly, partly due to the long walk all the way from Hengchun (about 10 to 14km to reach the route). By the time we reached the carpark gateway, my buddy gave up so it was up to me to make the journey of another few hundred metres to reach the base of the falls. I had to trek into the sparse forest area and negotiate a few streams before I reached the base of the first fall. The subsequent climb up to the other falls had to be done with the aid of ropes and trees. The weather was slowly but surely turning bad with the on-coming typhoon and the slopes were slippery enough to make me give up after reaching the 3rd fall.
It was rather disappointing but we hurriedly made our way back to the main road to catch the bus back to town and the hostel. It was only that night when we switched on the TV that we found out the inbound Morakot, scheduled to make landfall the next day. All along we had thought the strong winds we felt during our hike was a natural occurrence as I had felt such winds when I was last here.
The writer will not be showing any photos in the next few entries as he is still trying to finish sorting and labelling the hundreds he took. Photos will be posted up in chronological order which can be followed along with these entries on his facebook site.
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