Walk around the station for an hour, and went back to our hotel.
The taxi that we booked was already there waiting for us. Packed our luggage, and off we go to 乌来.
It's a 45min journey from 台北. It's a place which is quite outskirt, away from all the busy and fast pace of city life. The hotel (or home stay , as how the locals put it. 民宿）is famous of its public jacuzzi (温泉), but not so with its accommodation. 天池 The condition of the rooms are quite under par considering the price that we have to pay for the night. (NT$2200). We found a lot of bugs/ants sharing our room with us.
But one thing for sure, the scenery of the front entrance is really breath taking.
The problem with it is, it is 30min walk away from the city, and the route is of peaks and valleys.
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We walked out together. Weather was very hot.
Along the street , we picked one shop for lunch. Ordered a famous veggie dish. 炒过猫。
And of course, not to forget was the famous local wine, 小米酒。NT$50 per cup.
Apparently, guantou and lianhan just reached the hotel from airport. And they were too lazy to come join us. And so me Danielle Laogu and Adele walked our way up to go visit the conventional railroad of 乌来。
A little background about the city of 乌来. Years ago, back then, the heart of the economy of 乌来 depends on logging and tourism. There is no means of transporting these logs out. That's why these railroads were built.
At that time, there is no chair on top of the platform. Only a simple flat piece of wood, and the logs are all put on top of it. And it's all human brute force which moves those thing. Eventually , they improved the platform from just a simple piece of wood, into a wooden chair, and then 2 chairs, and then when visitors start coming, they make it more comfortable.
Of course, nowadays, everything is motorized, and you can reach the top of the hill is just mere fraction of the time of what they used to take.
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乌来 Is a place which is the host of the oboriginal tribe of 泰雅族。How the city got its name have got to do with this.
As 乌来 is a place with a lot of natural 温泉, the water produces a lot of steam during the winter. When the 泰雅族 came down to the river and tried to find out what's that all about, they found out that the water was actually hot!! And they said "uLah!!", which means "it's hot!!". Well, the rest is history.
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Saw a lot of people playing beside the river banks and waterfalls. Some even take it a step further.
Guantou and Lian Han walked down and meet us at the street, and we had our dinner in one of the shop. After that, did some walking along the same street, and then bought some tidbits back for supper for the night, before heading our way back for a 30min evening walk back to our hotel.
As this place is famous for its 温泉, each of our room comes with our own personal private 温泉. And the rest of the night were spent in gathering in Laogu' room, playing cards, catching up, and supper and drink before we hit the sack.
Very tiring but fulfilling day. :)
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