#Pink and #Undecided's Taiwan trip : Hualien (Day 4 P1)

#Pink and #Undecided at a real haunted house in Hualien

Yellowww everybody! Happy Wednesday! OMG I can't believe that it's been months since we went to Taiwan and we are nowhere near finish with our Taiwan Trip Reports. So okay, this is the story about what went down on day 4. And as usual, the amount of photos that we're about to share is too crazy to be put in a single post, so we're splitting the story into 2 entries. 

Day 4. Part 1. Here we go.

We started the day with breakfast, which was omg so yummy. That was the first time I ever tasted (omg wait, I forgot the name) a dish which consists of rice + minced pork and some yummy sauce. Okay, if I'm not mistaken it's Lu Ruo Fan. Yes, I believe I'm correct (just checked with hubby and he confirmed it hehehe). And Lu Ruo Fan will be the sole reason if I ever return to Taiwan (that's a lie, BTW, I miss other dishes too... *weep*).

Somehow we didn't snap photos of our breakfast menu (blame #Pink), but I believe we did the next day, so be patient okay... Hehehe...

We were going to see the Haunted House of Hualien that day, but first, a photo of #Pink's hunny and his boy toy LOL.

And then a photo of #Pink's hunny with his wife. LOL.

Off we went aaaaand... TA DAAAA... Behold: Haunted House of Hualien.

Doesn't look too scary to me... But then again we were there during the day LOL.

The sky looks amazing, doesn't it...

Helloooo everybody, #Pink here! The official name of this place is  The Pine Garden, but is better known as The Haunted Art House of Hualien, if anyone loves ghost stories/histories like i do you can check more about this place HERE! #Undecided hubby told us that this place was the last hiding place of the Japanese army where they dined and danced the night away, just before their suicide mission the next day. Talk about creepy! We didn't even know that this place's supposedly very haunted *gasped!* until we got back to the hotel later and i Googled more about this place! Thankfully we didn't stumble into any ghosts or anything scary while we were there :p!

It was a beautiful place nonetheless, and we of course took our time to snap pictures from every angle possible hehe..

 

Then when we went further in to explore the place, we saw this:

It's a bunker or a shelter *i don't remember..*

 

No idea what's written there -___-, translation anyone?

So of course, we kinda made the boys to re-enact a little bit. Naturally.

Obviously they delivered

Did they nailed looking scared? #Undecided's hubby's face always looks amused though zzz!

Then we found a few souvenir shop (but sadly nothing too interesting to buy from). I asked Joe why Taiwanese people doesn't seem to speak English AT ALL and whether they have English lessons at school, apparently they do (the basic ones, of course) and he said the main reason of why they don't speak English is because they are scared (maybe he meant shy?). Found an example in this souvenir shop, we were blissfully unaware that it's prohibited to take picture inside the store (the no photograph sign was not visible enough LOL), and later i realize that the storekeeper kept on watching us with an anxious look on her face. I think she wanted to tell us "no pictures" but too afraid because we're clearly foreigners and don't speak Chinese. LOL

See, we even managed to take a pose picture :p

Just outside the souvenir shop we spotted this mini wishing (well you can say) pond. No idea what this really was, but #Pink and I went ahead and tossed coins into it. I personally wished that I could go back to Taiwan someday. No idea what #Pink wished for.

Come to think of it, #Pink might not have wished for anything. She might just wanted to pose doing it. Hmm...
Shut it BB! I think i wished the same! I totally forgot by now though. Let's go again someday soon BB! Winter time though, please!

Then we went to the second floor of the haunted house

Yeah right, as if you can read it, Can hahahaha...

As always, #Pink was drawn to the ceiling. 
BB, it was because Joe told me that it's the original ceiling and all, never been restored

Reminds me of my grandparents' old house.
I'd say it must be pretty creepy at night

Wanted to show you the bridge. 

A candid photo of hubby and I (that's another lie, we posed like this hahahaha)

How is this candid, #Pink?! I thought that was the theme!??!
No theme #Undecided :p, yours was the one that's supposed be candid :p

Err....

Cool looking log...

with a heart-shaped gap.

Love love love the view here. I wish I could stay and lounge, but it was quite hot that day and we still had other places to go to, so off we went.

The 2nd destination was a temple. I can't remember the temple's name to save my life so I will let #Pink take it from here hehehe... Oh btw, Joe had to bargain with some other visitors so we could pretend that we were this one big tour group and paid cheaper for the admission fee LOL. Thank you, Joe! 

LOL, i don't even think i KNEW the temple's name, BB! I googled though and apparently it's called Ching Xiu temple, the best preserved Japanese temple in Hualien. I remember my mum kept on telling me that Taiwan's got a lot of Japanese influences (even the way they talked was tinged with Japanese pronounciation. Not that i can testify since i don't speak Chinese! They all sounds the same to me :p, can't detect different dialects) and it's quite visible actually. Not only from this temple, but with their love for cutesy stuffs that scream Japanese. I saw lots of Anime-ish stuffs and decoration all around Taiwan so it does feel like a mini Japan at some places haha.

Ching Xiu Temple

#Undecided's hubby looking forlorn because of the no smoking sign

It was so hot we stood there in shade and being watched by the attendants, maybe they were worried that we might try to sneak in without paying for the entrance fee. I guess our Indonesian vibe was pretty strong LOLOLOL

No idea why he's waving haha

This makes me feel like i was in Japan *delusional* suddenly. I really really want to go to Japan soon!

AAAA, very Japanese, yes?

Love this photo. Joe had to speak to another visitor and asked for their help to snap this.

That's my hunny and #Undecided. Told you we're interchange-able. Isn't #Undecided looked really funny with he shades on? LOL.

Then we spotted a little store... It was selling ice cream *shriek*, of course we gotta have some, it was so so so HOT!

I have no idea why #Undecided's hubby insisted on posing like that -___-

OHHHH frosty ice cream! It's currently as hot as that day in Hualien here in Surabaya (which is a record, it's never actually been this hot before!) pfffftttttt

I totally forgot the flavors of our ice creams, it was tropical fruits' flavored though

Hunny, who's always intrigued by bizzare food, chose this

It's a SEAWEED ice cream. YUCKKKKK. He kept on trying (forcing, really) to feed me a spoonful, which i refused whole-heartedly obviously! It seems to be absolutely disgusting and he agreed that he'd never eat another one ever again *LOL*

Spotted this when we went to the loo

Even the loo's curtain looked very Jappy hehe

Hunny found this uncle selling painted stones outside the temple :

Then i got captivated by the bizzare looking grass.... They all grew in bunches and shaped like flowers!

And off we go to the next destination (yes, we went to a lot of places that day!), Liyu Lake (again, no idea of the lake's name until i Google it haha).

Across the street of the lake was lined with restaurants

Hualien's views are definitely amazing, we're treated with mountains and sea/lakes simultaneously, always

I was genuinely worried the swing would snap!

And then we spotted water bikes lining up. I know, we do have them in Indonesia (well, duh!), but not everyday we get to water bike in Taiwan, right. Plus we ate a lot so we needed the work out LOL.

Plus don't think there are too many pretty dragon-shaped ones lying around in Indonesia. There are super cute Panda shaped ones too but i forgot to snap pictures. I think there were even Hello Kitty ones!

See the Hello Kitty sign?

Oh, err.... there it is, not panda apparently. What's that anyway, raccoons?

The vest was killing me. Because again, don't be fooled by how cold it might look on the photos, it was super super hot that day.
Yeah and they INSISTED for us to wear them. Very safe right. As Indonesians we found it quite excessive (safety vest for riding water bikes on a lake? Sounds paranoid hehe), i guess Taiwanese takes safety measurements seriously!

Had to walk on that wobbly path made of  jerry cans! They jerry cans were super hot too because of the super strong sun!

I realized now that the pictures all seems so misleading, like #Undecided said-it looked really cool in the pictures! It was swveltering hot alright!

We ended up racing with Boss Re's boat. It was all a ruse because in the end we let them win just because we wanted them to pedal farther back. LOL.

See, before we start jetting off, the owner of these water bikes told us that if we got too tired of pedaling, we should just call them and they will pick us up by their motor boats. And we obviously did. LOL.

The uncle, busy aligning his boat to ours.

As for us, we were also busy... Documenting *ahem*

See how busy we were. LOL.

Eventually they made #Pink and her hunny moved into their motor boat before towing us back to shore.

I then got... errrr... mesmerized by how pretty my mermaid nails looked under the sun!

Sooo pwettyyy, my fave gel nails so far!

Then Joe dragged us to a restaurant just opposite the lake. He wanted us to try out the live drunken (tiny) shrimps!

That's the tiny shrimps (i wonder if they are like a special breed that stays super tiny like that until adulthood or they just serves infant shrimps???) inside the tank

Lemon juice's apparently very famous in Hualien

A closer look at the shrimps

I'm into lemon juices, i think i had a milky watermelon juice instead-copying #Undecided's hubby who's a huge watermelon juice fan!

Cheers! We looked pretty disheveled after rowing on the water bike, seriously in Indonesia we usually rowed like what, 10-15 minutes? Here they let us rent the bike for however long we wanted, with one flat price (Joe haggled quite a bit as well haha)! Madness. Our lack of...errr...stamina and the sweltering weather made up gave up pretty quickly though LOL.

We all thought we're gonna have lunch there, apparently we're just there mainly to try out the live drunken shrimp (which apparently is a must try in Liyu lake, not that you can pay me enough to actually try it. Well, you can. Depending on how much that is)! Also managed to try out some other delicacies.

Taiwanese version of gorengan (fried snacks) hehe, yummy! We even ordered some more!

The scary live drunken shrimps. Apparently you're not supposed to open the lid before the shrimps all passed out from all the alcohol because they would leap out for dear life *LOL*, you can see shadows of them jumping around scarily inside the bowl though. One time Boss Re's younger daughter opened up the lid, much to the restaurant attendant's chagrin

Peeking in to see if they all stopped jumping around already

Transparent tiny shrimps

Ta-dahhhh

#Undecided gamely tried one, i'm much more of a chicken in this kind of thing and seeing her plopping the whole living thing inside her mouth (plus witnessing how most of them still moves a little) with the antenna poking from her lips.... HUWAAAAAA I DUN WANTTTTTT DUNNNN WANTTTTTTT!!!!!!

Joe's the only fan of them though. Hunny kept on fishing for the last ones of them and feed them to Joe hahahaha

I'll take the fried fishes anytime!

Yes, this one's yum!

Boss Re who always looks so happy whenever he's putting something inside his mouth *LOL*

While #Undecided's hubby always looks miserable whenever i made him pose while eating!

Then we're off to yet another location! And before #Undecided try to push the whole naming thing to me again, let me clarify that i dunno the name of this next location! I Googled already and didn't find the answer!

Hahaha I wasn't going to ask you, #Pink! I know the name of the place! It's the Seafood House. Okay, I just totally made that up. LOL.

Maybe someone can help us read those 3 Chinese letters up there?

The view. Gorgeous. But again, if you think it was cold by looking at this pic, you're mistaken. It was scorching hot. LOL.

Picture perfect, yes?

There's a small area that puts up posters and stuff and also snacks.

So obvi #Pink's hunny had to try the seaweed-flavored-popcorn. It was good btw. Unlike the ice cream back at the temple. Hubby and I ended up finishing the whole bucket hahahaha...

So the idea of this place is: catch your own meal. But instead of fish, we fished for... wait for it... mussel. Hahaha... So basically it was pretty simple. They gave us a couple of sieve and styrofoam and that was it. LOL.

The pond.

The crowd. Yes, it was too crowded for my liking. I was getting a major headache. 

Call me a city girl, but you will never see me dip my toe into that pond.

#Pink's hunny and Joe. Hard at work.

And still had time to pose while doing so.

Proudly showing off their catch.

While I sit leisurely underneath the shade. Munching on the popcorn with hubby and #Pink LOL. 

Don't let the photo deceive you. They're minuscule IRL.

See!

We jokingly said that we should just throw these back into the water and walk away without paying.

Closer look on what we were about to commit a crime against LOL.

But of course we didn't!!

Actually we did #Undecided! She posted this entry before i can make a disclaimer so now i am making one! LOL. We did threw the mussels back to the pond because Joe said it was not worth it or something (it was expensive? I can't remember exactly why), so they went and threw it back in! #Undecided's been having a lot of memory lapses lately, i think she's been working too hard haha!

The resto where we had lunch. Yes, that's Joe's back.

We submitted our catch to the cook and here's what they did with them. (No, we didn't. The cook just took the mussels from their own stash. LOL, i let #Undecided writings be because it's amusing for me how forgetful she is being lately, and how confident she is in saying stuffs that never actually happened LOLOLOL. Sorry BB!!!)

I LOVED THEM!!! They were so fresh and yummy.

And we ordered some other dishes because let's face it, there were 9 of us and only so much mussel. LOL. Here's what we got:

And of course, can't miss coffee!

Hello Mr. Brown!

And then suddenly Boss Re started laying down on a bench and in no time, he was down under LOL. 

Little Ashley. Staring at her dad in disbelieve. LOL.

And in no time, hubby followed suit. LOL. Too much sun is never good for the boys. 

And that's it. Part one of our day 4 in Taiwan. We're off to go ride hot air balloons!! A first for both #Pink and I. We're signing off now. Have a good day, and stay safe everyone!

Cheers!!