Taroko National Park and Liyu Lake

I went to Taroko National Park on the weekend with one of my colleagues from school, Joy. We met up with her friends, an exchange student from china, her fellow research friend when she did her masters, her boyfriend and her brother. We met up at Taipei Main Station at around 7.30 am on Saturday morning and took a train to Hualien. The train ride took about 2.5 hours. When we got to Hualien, we proceeded to rent scooters to facilitate our journey over the weekend.

At the scooter rental place

First time on the scooter for yours truly, it was an interesting experience to be honest. After renting the scooters, we went to have lunch at a local hot pot place. The hot pot was really spicy and much more so than the ones I had in Taipei. The food was good though and I think I overate as usual. We then went to eat Cong you bing after lunch at this apparently really famous place in Hualien. It was really really good and had a runny egg in the middle. 

Famous Cong you bing store in Hualien

We then finally proceeded to Taroko National Park on scooters, it took about 40 minutes by scooter but the views along the way and at the park were awesome to say the least. We reached the park at around 330 pm but could only stay for an hour and a half as it gets dark at around 5 pm. We had to leave at 5 as it was dangerous to descend the mountain at night. As can be seen in the pictures, the park was beautiful.

 Temple set against the cliff

We then went to have dinner at the night markets and I tried various Taiwanese snacks. We stayed at a temple for the night. It was really good accomodation as it was really cheap at like 250 NT per night per person and each room has a bathroom. The bed was really comfy as well.

View of the temple in the day

We woke up at 8am the next morning and went to have xiao long bao for breakfast before going to Liyu Lake. We basically walked around the lake and it took about an hour. It was really beautiful and the views were spectacular. We then went to the train station to catch the 1230 train to Luodong. I opted to return back to Taipei as I wanted to meet my EP manager Tammy before she left for Hongkong on Monday. We thus parted ways on the train and they headed of to Yilan. I had MOS burger for the first time at Taipei Main Station after reaching Taipei. It still tastes awesome and some how slightly better than MOS burger in Singapore although it is basically the same stuff.

I then went home and had a bit of a rest at home before heading out to Gongguan to have hot pot with the rest of the EPs. We went to this buffet style place and it was free flow food, alcohol and ice cream for 469 NT. It was awesome and we all ate so much. Even a day after the meal, I still feel full just thinking about it. Tammy also got to meet the rest of the EPs during the buffet dinner. It was overall an awesome dinner.