2nd day at 浪淘沙. the day that we are supposed to go up up up! succumbed to Mr Looi's persuasion, we took his ride again. but he was very nice to push away his original client to bring us up on this trip! (he left his original clients with his disciple!) haha.
had a nice breakfast of 稀飯(porridge)! 土司(toast)! 豆漿(soybean milk)! wahh. it was nice. homely and good.
so off in the early morning we embarked on our journey to 合歡山!
along the way stopped by the roadside to buy 烤番薯! haha. those kind which are piping hot, purple meat!
stopped by 新白楊 where it was a natural stopovers for people going up. the weather was good, really good. Mr Looi kept commenting that we were very lucky. visibility was good. weather was a little chilly as we are some distance high up. so here and there he would stopover and open the bonnet to cool the engine (which are working hard to bring us up the mountain roads). so we warmed ourselves in front of the car haha.
then suddenly he exclaimed and pulled over just because he saw 櫻花! - sakura! he was saying that its already past the season for sakura flowers, and that we were actually very lucky that there was one tree left, flowers half bloom though.
had lunch at midhill. it was a good and simple lunch. the 山豬肉 is strongly recommended. the best part of it, we saw a pig! haha a mini pig, named - NANA. haha. so cute and fat. cheryl fell in love with it. haha.
continue on our way up 石門山, the view was breathtaking. but it was COLD. COLD. COLD.
so we went up 石門山 and did many typical jumpshots. haha it was there that we met a nice couple who volunteered to take a photo for us. he went away and came back, as he was saying that he can use his DSLR and take a nice shot for us and he will send the picture to us. his girlfriend did the jumps with us too. haha. an experienced climber, he is only in berms, tshirt and sneakers, while we were kind of freezing.
winding roads but we went into the clouds as the car climbed stealthily up. we saw cyclists along the way - a pack of them to be precise. looks like those training for cross country kind. what made us very amazed was that they are not young teenagers. haha. COOL. so we kind of went mad, and because our windows were actually down (For us to enjoy the cool fresh mountain air), we screamed "加油!" "JIAYOU!" "GAMBATTE!" to every passing cyclist. some acknowledged, whilst others thought we were mad. i kind of think we were mad.
one particular stopover at 合歡山莊, we saw that the freaking temperature was 10.7 deg celsius. and we were really not fully equipped with the right clothing. we saw many in those kind of thick winter wear, and we - were just in layers (as many as we can pull on ourselves) of tops.
FINALLY, we reached 武陵 3275km. we met another family there. because we asked them to take a photo for us, and in the end we took a photo for them, so we began interacting. they had 2 kids - a boy and a girl. we tried to psycho the kids to do jump shots. shy as they were in the beginning, we all did a perfect shot! :) NICE.
because we wanted to go 清靜農場 to see sheep, but when we were having our lunch along the way, Mr Looi told us that the sheep were having some kind of POX (similar to our chicken pox) and so, all the sheep were kept away. but still he drove us there to take a look, to see if we have a tiny bit chance to catch any sheep. didnt go into 青青草原 afterall since there was nothing to see or touch.
so we turned back to 合歡山 to start scaling the 北峰(NORTH PEAK). the 主峰 (MAIN PEAK) was supposed to be easier but less satisfying. when we were going up, many were coming down. it was quite late already and sky is darkening fast. the sun sets at about 5plus 6. so we only went up to 0.3km. the whole journey up to the peak as told is about 3 hours up. we went mad looking at the clouds. although we left cheryl and mingsi at one of the lower parts, and we went bersek screaming our lungs out to hear our echoes ring through the mountains, it was ... SHIOK! we didnt have any other word to describe the experience except 爽! Mr Looi kept telling us to be careful, cos if any of us suffered anyyyyyyyy injuries, that's it. really that's it.
caught the last peep of the sunset before we reluctantly said our goodbyes to the beautiful mountains.
soon, we made our way down. cause it was dark already. so we had to rush downhill. he picked up speed as we made our way down. (usually he would drive slower around the bends, because of our tendencies to 暈車).
we tried our best to entertain him & ourselves by singing. we sang the whole way down. until we all got tired, and silence resumed. and we all fell asleep. and my head was throbbing and killing me. cant eat panadol cause was on empty stomach.
by the time we reached 花蓮市 again, it was 9pm. cause the descend took a full 2 hours.
had 鵝肉 (Goose meat) for dinner! wah it was good! no wonder it was famous. and too not forgetting our 炸彈蔥油餅 again! got Mr Looi to order for us. this time, we had 1 each. the night before we had only 3 to share among 6 of us. but because it was damn good (and relatively quite cheap) we had 1 each tonight! :)
and more fruit juices for the night.
this was the night that we had a good heart to heart talk. everyone took turns to say stories and we all listened kaypohly. mingsi had a bad nose and fell asleep after her medicine. then we all squeezed into one bed to listen to fang's story. hahaha.
and tomorrow, we're gonna move off to another part of 花蓮! where we are going nearer to sea! for our activities! :) and of course the very 民宿 that we are all excited about -藍色珊湖礁 (which our dear Mr Looi called it the 藍色黑胡椒 :)
- this is definitely THE day. of the trip. i dont know for others, but for me, this is THE DAY :) if i had to choose one day to remember, it would be this day. pictures dont do the place justice, the view and the feel - have to see and feel it for yourself cause thats when 所有遺憾統統化為烏有。
:: 就這樣被你征服 剪斷了所有退路 我的愛恨已入土