Fish's Underwater World

Wulai 8 July

Our final full day in Taiwan. Decided to go Wulai since it was highly recommended by many of the locals. Home to aboriginal tribes as well. We had not had any experience of aboriginal culture. In legend, when the Atayal braves hunted there, they saw smoke from the riverside. They yelled,"Wulai, Wulai!" In Atayal language, hot water is pronounced "wulai", meaning hot spring. Many Japanese tourists go to Wulai for the hotsprings.

The morning started out on the wrong foot. Thanks to me, we took the wrong train. I just remembered we needed to take to the end of the line of one of the coloured lines. After a few stops, it was nearing the terminal stop. The train we were supposed to be on would take about 40 min. That was when i realised we were on the wrong train! Eventually we made it to xindian to take the bus which would bring us to wulai. The moment we stepped out of the train station, we saw the wulai bus. It was already packed till the front door. Thus, we waited for the next bus.

Thinking there was possibly a less crowded bus stop, we walked further on. At the next bus stop, I asked the traffic police if I could wait for the wulai bus there. He had no idea. A passer-by heard me and said that i should just wait at the mrt station bus stop. So we were back to square one.

Soon, the wulai bus came along. Just when we were contemplating over how to pay the bus fare (at point of boarding/alighting), the bus driver said,"Pay up now. NT 40 to wulai." I gathered both mich and my easycard (similar to our ezlink card) to deduct the fare. The bus uncle barked,"After using easycard, still need to pay NT25 each." The machine deducts a flat rate of NT7 only. Need to top up the difference. Anyway, 25+7=32 not 40. Perhaps cheaper if pay by easycard.

Before long, we reached our destination. Our first stop was the wulai atayal museum. Again, no photos to show. The Atayal people tattoo their faces to mean adulthood. Males must fight in combat or hunt and prove their bravery. Females must be able to weave. It is shameful to be without any tattoo. You cant get married without one. The Atayal people are also headhunters, literally. They justify cannibalism by the fact that many people died in wars waged between countries. Their killing one or two did not matter.

After visiting the museum, we had lunch at wu lai snackshop. Reading my lonely planet guidebook, the must trys are the bamboo rice and black boar meat. We ordered beehoon, soup and a mysterious dragon's whiskers veg. The black boar meat was well seasoned and tasty. The bamboo rice was better than that in Alishan. More fragrant.

With our stomachs filled, we set off to explore the area. It was a long walk to the cable car station. The weather was hot and not breezy. The tourist tram was out of order. So we could walk on the tracks. Along the way i took some photos of the wulai waterfall. Just a small waterfall.
The weather was so hot that we bought ice popsicles to suck on. I bought bai3 xiang1 guo3 flavour. Whatever it was, it tasted sweet and fragrant. Finally, we made it to the cable car station. The highlight of the ride was flying across the wulai falls. The top was Yun2 Xian1 Le4 Yuan2, a holiday resort. Me and mich in the cable car. The cable car was very stuffy. No ventilation. But we were too busy trying to take a photo of us to admire the surrounding scenery. Had to admire on the way down. A photo taken at the top. In the holiday resort.
What can you do in the resort? You can soak your feet in the waters. Cool waters. Very refreshing. Healthy too. Something happened while i was soaking my feet in the water, i slipped on a rock and fell into the pool. My pants were all wet. Quite embarrassing....What else can you do? You can take the kiddy rides. Nothing exciting. You can watch performances as well if you go on a weekend.
To watch it live, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyrIIj1SsoE. This one shows a younger lady and an older lady dancing. Was surprised to see the auntie as an anchor dancer though.
For younger, sexier dancers, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jATf7VFbdes
You can go boating in the pond.

Walk around the resort and take photos. Photos from cable car. I insisted on walking all the way up to the waterfall park while Mich waited for me at the cable car alighting point.

Grasshopper at a signboard. Facial tattoos on Atayal people.

A closer look at the waterfall.We did not have time to go to neidong forest recreation area. Heard that there is a bigger, nicer waterfall. From the cable car station, we took a cab down to the wulai st. Then we tried finding the public hotspring. The description given was hot waters with steam. I did not see any steam. Only the uncles were soakin in the hot spring. This hotspring was pretty difficult to locate. Had to climb down from the road side. You only see the stairs down if you know where they are from the road. Anyway the hot spring was disappointing.

Back at the bus stop, the bus driver (the same grouchy bus driver) refused to drive off unless someone took his fren's cab. In the end, we took the cab and had a brief intro of taiwan from the cab driver. He mentioned that wulai hotsprings were better than beitou's cos there was no sulphurous smell. He also recommended us to go wufenpu for clothes. Mich found the cab driver irritating and tried to 'suan' him.

Cab driver: wulai waters very good. you will get younger and prettier.
Mich: yeah lor. I only see uncles around.
Cab driver: waters really good.

Either he din get it or he pretended not to understand. He dropped us off at the mrt station. Since bi4 tan2 (a lake) was nearby, we walked over to take a look.

See the boats? Can do some paddling. Think this was where "it started with a kiss" was shot. Ariel lin and Joe fell into the pond on their "date". Funny show. Joe is so cute. It gives hope to those who are in secretly in love with someone. Cos ariel's love was reciprocated in the end.

Last minute late night shoppin was done in wufenpu. We took a train from the taipei main station to songshan train station. You can hope onto any train as long as it passes songshan. We did not know until we asked the train officer. As usual, he was a grouchy guy.

Wufenpu offered cheaper shopping but no trying was allowed. Managed to get some cheap buys. Totally broke. Need to leave some money for bus to airport the next day. When i was back in ximending, i found my frog prince. Been wanting to get this cushion. Now i really had no space in my luggage.

posted by sunkissfish @ 2:45 PM