Taiwan I | Footprints 2 | Nature at its best

Day 2's first stop was the star of Hua lien – Taroko National Park. It was nature at its best. Nonetheless, its green is definitely a no match for our evergreen rainforest, but somehow the perfect combination of the green and the windy nice cool breeze together with the scarf and the warmth of layers of cloth, it made the experience a nice soothing relaxing affair. For safety reason, the best scene of Taroko was closed as earthquake just happened days ago. From the news, it is obvious that Hua Lien was the prime centre of major seismic activities – able to see the splitting of the fixed staircase as if it was a scene from the magical show of Harry Porter. Some of us have a cuppa of coffee there.

Some of us were bitten wildly by the shutter bug.

this is the auntie selling postcard. not overpriced at all.

And most of the tour group members were trying very hard to enjoy the natural breeze and refreshing air while occasionally being polluted by the smoking crowds of Uncles, notably sporting the looks and language of Mainland.

Then, it was off to JJ Valley Cow farm. This farm was promoting so-called non-toxic milk, literally translated from its cubic name. Basically, there are promoting everything natural. The grasses that the cows consumed were supposed been grown naturally, free from any artificial pesticides, possibly hydrophonic, I guess. The water that the cows consumed is free from pollutants as much as possible. The air that the cows breathe is as far as possible from the polluted air. This is one major nice relaxation stop, which I wished can be prolonged. We had a walk within the vicinity, pet some domestics and consumed their ‘non-toxic’ milk products. The yogurt, milk, and buns were totally extraordinary soothingly nice. I am still searching for the proper adjective to describe its taste and experience.

Lastly, as the sunsets below the horizon at earlier hours than in my homeland, around 5pm, we were all checked in and dined at the Hotspring hotel in ZhiBen as the first group, thanks to our speedster bus driver.

My tourguide told us before hand that on the same day, there will be total 52 groups coming in. No kidding. This is seriously a holiday season. Claire and I wasted no time, changed to our comfy clothes and rushed to the hotsprings. There were 3 main pools there, the super hot, moderate hot and the sissy hot.

We spent most of our time in the moderate hot, alone for around half an hour. We tried the super hot, and decided to be soaking there for more than 5minutes would be like an X-Games. I did go underwater in the superhot pool from top to toe for few seconds, just for the fun of it. While the sissy hot pool, I guess appear more like a pool for the children to pamper in a pool without catching a cold. No camera was allowed there.

As the crowd started to flock in like the mad cows of Spanish bull trampede, we left the pool and went out for a walk outside the hotel.

Bought some 'lingkim' to eat... Reminds me of linkin' park...

mascot & pet of the restaurant... definitely 'non' halal.

I took Claire to the hotspring pools that I been to last time, when I came here during my medical elective.

After the walk, we decided to call it a day.