Yan's travelogue

Farglory Ocean Theme Park

I got Rachel, who is the owner of the Sunrise BB, to help book the tickets to the ocean theme park cos I worried the tickets might get sold out that day, & I realised she got us a very good deal - 2 tickets to day tour (8am-5pm) of the theme park + standard double room 1 night costs us only NTD1700 (SGD74). A full day pass to the theme park would have cost us NTD890 (SGD39). Rachel also got us free transfer to-fro the theme park. I loveeeee Taiwan & its people.

Anyway, it was really hot in Taiwan then and even now. The temperature went up as high as 38 deg cel, but it wasn't as humid like in Singapore, so it was still bearable.

We went to the first show and it showcased manatee (海牛). They have the shape of walrus, and weighs 250kg. They are mammals, but they live in the water, and spend half of the time sleeping in the water. Manatee don't have gills to help them breathe, they just go to the water surface for air for just 3 seconds! and it can last them for 20 minutes in the water.

Giant squids. They looked stoked when they saw us! Swimming and floating around so happily.

Onboard the cable car. The scenery was really so beautiful I was in awe and am so touched.

Cute dolphins, you don't say! I know dolphins are really intelligent mammals, performing all those stunts, but I didn't know they can crack simple mathematical equations too - like with all the mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), and numbers in the range 0 to 9. Like they got some kiddos from the audience to set questions, like what is 3X3, they would flapped their tails 9 times in the water to indicate their answer!

All the cute plushies! And the weather went a bit unbearable in the afternoon so we stayed inside to la liang with the air-con!

Water bumper rides! We felt like kids playing with the kids. Lol. But they had those scary rides too - like Viking ( i hate viking), and the big water slides! which we took as the last ride. They had a total of 3 slides, of which 1 slides down backwards. So scary but funnnn!

The last show we caught was to see the super star sealion 大雄! He was so funny when he hid his head down when the guy mentioned he was 200+kg and has no girlfriend!

We left at 5pm, and headed back to our BB and night market for dinner! Love Hualien, the sea creatures and my melmel :D

Day 2

We woke up at the ungodly hour of 645am to wash up and left for the photoshoot company. We had our make-up and hair done in two hours and off we went with the photographer, his assistant and our make-up teacher for our outdoor shoots! The scorching hot sun was merciless; poor us and the photographer who got sunburnt by the end of the shoot.

Mel & I are both nature-lovers, so we thought of having a nature-themed photoshoot and requested for nature's scenic views as backdrop for our pictures. But I didn't take much pictures of the places we went and they were so breath-takingly beautiful! Regrets max.

Sleepy b with the hair nicely done : )

On our way to 陽明山.

We had a total of 5 locations for the photoshoot, 陽明山 was our second location, and we were lucky to have passed by the 後山 of 陽明山, which was really beautiful. I still have a vivid impression of how gorgeous it was. Upon reaching the mountain top, we can't help but felt blessed that we actually had the chance to be there - the serenity in the mountains, the clear sky, bright green grass patch with a few wild cattles.

The last location of the shoot.

Tranquil blue sea and its horizon, and the beautiful coral rocks aplenty.

Our photographer called it a wrap at about 5pm, and we reached our motel and prepared to head out for dinner.

Another BBT from Ximending. This was the bestest deal we had. It's charcoal roasted oolong milk tea from Preso Tea. Words have failed me, it was SO nice we finished it in 5 minutes.

Yummy mango chua bing for only NTD60 (SGD2.60). Look at how generous they were with the diced mangoes.

We spotted MC Hotdog filming his new MV there too. There were lots of people crowding around, watching and taking photos. He's quite arrogant lol.

魯肉飯 for supper again! This time with 煎蔥蛋.

Day 3

After 湯面 for lunch at a streetside near Ximending, we went back to Lishe, the photoshoot company, to choose our photos. The photos turned out so pretty we had a hard time picking 22 from the 163.

We left for Taipei main station at around 3 to catch our train to Hualien at 440. The ride took about 2 hours, very fast and comfy!

I booked our accomodation at Hualien with Sunrise Bed & Breakfast(BB). BB is just a term coined by tourists in Taiwan for 民宿. We stayed in a superior double room (NTD1599 - SGD70) for the first night since there were no available standard double rooms.