Yesterday I didn’t post pictures from the hostel – too lazy to pick up the camera – so I post them today. The room was traditionalish (or at least what I think traditional is here), with a firm wooden bed, and the view on top of the hostel – great.
Also, you remember yesterday I got a very nice tan just on the upper side of my arms and thighs due to the sun + scooter stance + lack of sun protection. Well today I had sleeves and sun cream. Put a whole lot of cream on my arms, legs, face and neck, put the sleeves on and… took them down 5 km later. There was no sun today, just boring pale clouds – I’m sure Nature is giggling right now…
Today I returned on the same route as yesterday, but this time I stopped at other places. By far the best was … erm, forgot the Taiwanese name, let’s just call it Island-with-oddly-shaped-bridge. The rocks in that area were great, with crabs, jumping fish (really, they were just jumping on the rocks) and a lot of normal fish in the crevasses and ponds formed in the rocks. Walking on the island was like going back in time. I was walking on a platform, all around was thick vegetation with weird insect sounds. The huge rocks in the middle of the island were unnatural, with caves or arches formed over time. Would have stayed there all day exploring every piece of rock or chasing the fish and crabs, but I had to get going (also get some more water, I was sweating insanely).
I presume the types of rocks fr
om the Island-with-oddly-shaped-bridge were the same as in the Mountain-with-something-like-12-caves-in-it. Managed to see about 5 of them, although there were paths to all of them. But I needed to get yet more water from somewhere.
Also stopped at an aquarium about clown fish. Seems that after “Finding Nemo”, the market for clown fish boomed and Taiwan saw the opportunity, creating a clown fish breeding facility, as well as an aquarium.
Along the road, I saw a lot of the rice plantations, as well as a playground (?) made out of hay..
Unfortunately, unlike yesterday, nothing adventurous happened today. Until I got lost while entering Hualien. Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Stopped and searched for the first person that understood what “train station” means. Unsurprisingly, he offered to lead me there. Had a hard time following his scooter on the busy streets, but I’m getting pretty good at it. He left me in front of the station and I knew my way from there. Um.. or not. The station looked the same, the park in front of it – the same, but the streets felt weird. Somehow, they were NOT the streets I went on 2 days ago, when my train took me here. So I call the hostel and then give the phone to a friendly Taiwanese person on the street (friendly Taiwanese people are very common here, I have yet to find an unfriendly one). The girl from the hostel understood where I was and explained to me.. the train station has 2 opposite exits… found my way after that…