Our first stop is Puli Winery (埔里酒厂). It's not really a winery now but more of a wholesale marketplace for locals and tourists to buy local products. I must say some of the food there are pretty unique! The picture below shows 陈叔叔 in the blue t-shirt and the entrance where a lot of food-testing begins! whoohoo!
陈叔叔 told us that this place is known for producing Shaoxing Wine (绍兴酒). Indeed, some of the products here are include the wine as the ingredients as well as the fragrance of the wine. 陈叔叔 gave each of us a toothpick and reminded us not to throw away so that we can sample from every stall and then decide if we want to buy some of the food back. We sampled things like pineapple tarts with wine flavor, chocolate with wine flavor, cakes with wine flavor and there's even ice-cream with the wine flavor but we din try it...Below are some pictures:
The friendly 陈叔叔!
Cakes with Shaoxing Wine flavor
Stalls inside the 'Winery'
Nice packaging of egg rolls, which me, tom and hp got a box of the original flavor for ourselves!
Packaging of the wine-flavored chocolates, be it milk chocolate, dark or white chocolates.
After this we hit the roads again. The mountain roads were so narrow and it seemed to be only one lane but then we're surprised and shocked that such a narrow road itself is possible to have 2 lanes! and some more there are many buses coming down the mountain from the opposite direction. Imagine you're high up on the mountain and at some turns there's no reflective mirror (meaning blind turns) plus some parts there's no fencing and those kind of big tour bus drives beside ur small taxi. They should really ban buses from going up the mountains! Their buses are those kinds where all the passengers were seated on the upper deck so the center of gravity is actually raised. Imagine the bus make a turn and then topple. lol~ Somemore 陈叔叔 likes to overtake and the drivers on the NARROW mountain roads like to cut lanes! And later on in the journey is started to rain and there's a lot of fog due to the clouds so sometimes we can't see clearly the roads in front of us. This is how i would describe the experience taking 陈叔叔's taxi - (carplate 673-LK). I will always remember this taxi and its owner =). The journey was totally unexpected and thrilling! yet we kept telling ourselves 'trust the locals'. Afterall, 陈叔叔 had been driving this road for 40yrs and even appeared in spore's newspaper as the recommended local guide of Hualien should one visit Hualien. This is the best part of my Taiwan trip man!
The second stop is Cing Jing Farm (清境农场). We're at ard 1000+m abv sea level i think. And the temperature is 16 degree celsius. And it was drizzling. This farm is a open concept farm where the sheeps are free to roam about on the mountains. We got the tickets and were super excited upon entering the gates for we can touch the sheeps! and there's so many of them! *not to mention the shit(s)!* there are shit(s) all over the floor and i accidentally stepped on a pool cos one sheep was chasing me! It's hard to avoid them anyway! 陈叔叔 told us that this kind of sheep they survived well in cold weather. This place totally rocks! And after it stopped raining, we look down at the sea of clouds below us flying about, what we callled the 云海 and the view was damn nice. I'm standing above the clouds! whoohoo! and Hui Ping tried to entertain me by muching the clouds when i said the clouds flying passed us looked as though they're like marshmallows to be eaten! And Tom did a short video clip of the sheep. Damn funny!
I was afraid to touch them at first but managed to overcome my fear. But still if a flock of sheeps came and surround you, you'll still feel threatened!!!
The shit(s)!
Tom and David appearing to be interested in this sheep. Must be a female! hahahahha...joking!!!! LOL~ One can also tell if the sheep is a male of female. Male sheep produces low 'baaaaa' while female ones are more high-pitched. i think dat's called a bleat rite? sheeps bleat...haha
It's foggy due to the clouds and there's many sheeps below. Wonder how they balanced themselves cos it's pretty steep!
See the clouds below? Nice rite?
陈叔叔 with HP and David
Some ass shots!!! haha!!!
Another pic of the clouds below us =) I love this place!
The next stop took quite some time for us to reach there for we had to travel to the highest peak! - 3,275m above sea level!!! This place is called Wu Ling (武嶺). The view was great here too! and it's about 12 degree celsius here. And i'm wearing shorts and a think piece of t-shirt! This is why i say our journey is so unexpected. I din expected it will be so cold! Some shots from the highest peak:
When u speak there's even vapor coming out from ur mouth! Though it can't be seen in this photo. haha~
They say we looked like les!
We also did a video clip here doing jumping jets and saying we're not cold when we're doing the actions of jumping around and shivering and rubbing our arms. haha! Videos please!!!
After staying for a while, we travelled down the mountain a little to reach our next stop, He Huan Shan (合欢山). 陈叔叔 says u dun have to be at the highest to feel the coldest. Lower than Wu Ling, He Huan Shan is supposedly colder - nine degree celsius! Nth much here though.
Camera setting was wrong. Pardon the brightness.
The last stop in the mountains for the day is Bi Lu Shen Mu (碧绿神木). It is actually just a tall and old tree popping out from the mountain (40m tall). No photos at the moment for my camera was flat. Have to get from my frens. But it's still cold dere and my jaws were started to chatter.
Next we just make our way downwards. The sky getting darker and at around 7pm, there was heavy downpour at Hualien. We're heading off to this eatery for bbq food and was told by 陈叔叔 that our another group of frens, Wen Jie and Xiaoli plus XL's 2 other frens, were there waiting for us. On the same day itself, they also travelled from Puli to Hualien and also toured along the way. Initially they liased with 陈叔叔 but then they changed their fren cos Wenjie had a local fren who can charter a cheaper transport for them. Unfortunately, their cab driver got lost at Taroko Gorge for that was his first time driving this road and in the end 劉阿姨 had to drive out to fetch them. Then along our journey 陈叔叔 kept teasing Wenjie saying the cab they got was a '烂车' and their tour was not as good as ours cos the cab driver would probably not bother much abt them. The next day he kept saying this too! haha! He just kept repeating. Lol! Guess he's just sore abt the fact that he lost one business ba.
We had BBQ Chicken Chop Rice. The chicken chop was very nice! Very cheap for a big portion of rice + vegetables + chicken chop!
After that we head back to the minsu - Stone House (石头的家). The rooms were very nicely decorated. Me and my cousin got the Princess Room. It was decorated by 劉阿姨's daughter. (Picture with HP)
Then 劉阿姨 invited us to eat watermelons. What's so big deal abt watermelons? Well, we get to eat them in spore anw... But this is no ordinary watermelons!!! They're super big watermelons!!!! Really super big!!! That even i have difficulty lifting it up. Lol...(picture with David) I think it's more than 6kg since i can lift my own backpack, which i weigh is abt 6-7kg.
Picture of us and 劉阿姨 (second one from the left). With the mighty cab of 陈叔叔!
Indeed, the type of service, the warmth and friendliness u get from 劉阿姨 and 陈叔叔 and the cosiness of the room, is way more worth than staying in any hotel.
End of a long Day 2...