Honeymoon - Taipei to Hualien - 3 Mar 10

Met our tour guide 小楊 at 740am then went around fetching the rest of the group. 忠烈祠 is the first place to go. It is a memorial for those soldiers who died during the revolutions and the only attracting point is the shift changing parade. Next is 野柳地質之園, where one of the stones look like queen's head. lunch is at 九份古之街. the beef noodles, 舊道口牛肉麵, were nice. Before that it was a gold mine. We tried the 五味綜合魚魚丸湯 but i didn't like the fishball in taiwan, it wasn't bouncy. We went past 蘇澳 to go to 馬祖廟。that was the last stop before we embark on 3 hours of journey without any resting point. The journey was tough and our bus are travelling around the mountain hence throughout the journey we were tossing around. and it seems very dangerous. when i looked down we were like inches to the end of the mountain. BUT the scenary is the best. its facing the pacific ocean hence it seems like no boundaries.

Its around 6pm when we reach the aborgines showcase, 南島文化劇場. it was a series of dance and at the end of it they pull audiences down to take photo with them and they charge 400NT!! hahaha... after that is makan at 花蓮 then we checked into 麗格hotel. At first when we are see the room, we went down to change cos its twin bedded. I wasn't able to sleep if i were to sleep alone in a unfamiliar place. the receptionist wasn't able to change, lucky my tour guide talked to the manager, they upgraded our room to a very big room and in the room there is SPA facilities!! We went out to find ZW's cousin shop. We tried calling her but the phone number is wrong. we went into her branch, Fragrance, (which was just outside our hotel) and saw her sis in law. ZW communicated with her and managed to find cousin. I think its fate that we saw her sis in law cos she wouldn't be in this shop for long as she have to go around delivering buns. But luckily that shop's pump was spoilt so she came over to repair. At first she didn't recognised zw, she thought we are cousin's tenant. In the end her sis in law send us over to another shop, a cafe, to wait for her. When cousin and her husband came, we chatted for a while then we went over to her house to visit her mum in law. Her mum in law is blind but she is very healthy and alert. She is full of smiles when she felt zw and me. then after that we went over to cousin house which is just above her mum in law. I showed our wedding photos to cousin and we took photo as well. Her dog is very cute very active. After that we went to their night market, it is between 和平路 and 自強路, but its already quite late so a lot of things are closed. 來來鹹酥雞and 第一家烤肉串are closed. We ate the 法式官財板 and 阿川大腸蚵仔麵線臭豆腐專賣店. The 鴨血湯 and the 黑胡椒牛肉官財板 are very very nice!! I even had 2 serving of the soup!!! my craving at least has been fulfilled!!

After that they sent us back to hotel and its already 1am, we tried operating the spa facilities but dunno how. it took us some time before we get it working properly. We slept around 2am and the next morning have to get up at 6.30!!