Taiwan 2017 - Day 2.

Can you believe it ? We were given hotpot coupons for breakfast at our hotel this morning. I mean like who has hotpot for breakfast ? As much as I love my steamboat, I so do not fancy it having first thing in the morning.

To make things even worse, 十三, the driver that we booked had already texted us saying that he had arrived just as we sat down. And no, it wasn't our fault. Well, maybe we could have all woken up a tad bit earlier but the real issue was the elevator. It took us close to 10 minutes to get from the 10th floor to the ground floor. There are a total of 3 passenger lifts at the hotel and each time it arrived at our floor, it would be fully packed. This happened for the next 10 minutes until we got super pissed and decided to go up and then down. I've never experienced this issue in any of the other hotels that I've been at thus far. It was appalling.

It didn't help that we were given coupons for the hotpot either. We still had to wait for the soup to come to a boil and then wait for our food to be cooked before we could start eating.

We had to go back up into our rooms to grab our belongings, which wasn't an issue to be honest. It was the coming back down again which we experienced the same issue.

So all in all, we made our poor friend wait for close to 30 minutes. Sorry 十三 !

Well, that aside, our first stop today was Yeliu lovers lake.

My grand-mother did attempt to walk with us but the slope leading up to the pathway deemed to steep for her and even if she did make it up to the pathway, she would still have to climb numerous steps to get to the lake, so my poor grand-mother didn't join us. Instead, she had 十三 to accompany her. I'm not sure how they communicated or if they even did, just like a duck and a chicken.

Our next stop was Yeliu geopark.

Along the way to the geo park, we stopped to take a few photos.

Yeliu geopark is a really beautiful place where all the rock formations are. I think it is worth the visit. We didn't spend much time there though as my grand-mother can't really walk long distances and it started to drizzle as well. And apart from that, it was really crowded.

As we were heading off to our next destination, 十三 pulled up at the side of the road and told us to alight whilst my grand-mother wait in the car. Who would have known what he was up to. Can you guess ? Well, he made my mother and I climb this cliff. I found it quite hard so can you imagine what it was like for my mother ? She's not very young and besides, she was in her fit-flops and a dress.

But you know what ? We're glad we did it, because it was a lot of fun and we would not have caught the lovely view otherwise.

It was truly an unique experience.

Our next stop was Jinguashi gold eco-park.

But before that, we went somewhere nearby.

Again, my grand-mother didn't want to come along as there was quite a bit of walking. Sigh, I feel really bad that she doesn't get to see all these lovely places.

So anyways, my mother was really interested with the gold mine and was looking forward to the eco park visit. But unfortunately for us, it started pouring as soon as we entered the park.

We decided to seek shelter and try our their famous miner's lunch box as recommended by 十三.

Sadly, we didn't get to explore much of the place because there was a lot of walking to be done and there was no way my granny could have done it. So we left shortly after. Perhaps someday I could take my mother back there and we can explore the fifth tunnel as well.

十三 brought us to see the yin yang sea after and gorgeous it was.

And then we went to jiufen.  Can you believe it ? After so many visits to Taipei, I finally managed to visit jiufen.

Managed to have a bowl of my favorite mochi balls there as well.

As we were leaving the place, my grand-mother said he couldn't walk anymore as her legs were hurting, so poor 十三 accompanied her back to the car and waited for us. I didn't buy anything except for a box of chopsticks. We felt bad as well for letting them wait so we just explored the place briefly before heading back.

Our next stop was the shifen waterfall. It is also known as the niagara fall of Taiwan, so you can only imagine how excited we were to see it. It was sort of the highlight of our trip. But you know what ? We didn't get to see it. We only got to hear it from a distance as the entrance closed at 430pm and we were there at 630pm. Yes, we were extremely disappointed.

Well, that aside, we went over to Pingxi to light a lantern. Again, I can't believe I've never done this, despite having visit Taiwan over and over again. Well, that's one thing off my checklist.

After lighting the lantern, my mum and I explored our surroundings quickly before heading back.

Well, you thought that it would be the end our day right ? You thought wrong. He brought us to the night market at Shuanglian.

Sadly though, there's nothing here but food. So just a word of advice, if you're looking to do both eating and shopping, perhaps you should skip this place.

Right, we're now back at the hotel and I am totally knackered.

Good night from Taipei. xxx