The trip was a great success and they were lucky to get some great weather for the three days they were there. The train trip down the coast is always scenic, with the ocean on one side for a good chunk of the trip and the mountains on the other. As mentioned last time, they were staying at the newly renovated Silks Place and it really lived up to its hype.
The Silks Place bus picked them up from Hualien station and took them deep into the gorge where the hotel nestles into the gorge at a splitting of two arms of the river. The rooms offer majestic views of the gorge itself, the river continuing to flow around gigantic boulders of stone and marble. The dining areas have been extensively remodeled to incorporate some outdoor dining and decks overlooking newly planted gardens. They enjoyed the all inclusive dining and many of the facilities, including the three giant heated pools in the basement level. During their time, they went on lots of hikes, including a half day 8km hike, the Sha Ka Dang, where the bus dropped them off and picked them up at the end.
On Friday they set off up the MRT line to Danshui and wandered the streets, Chris in search for an elusive hat stall he’d bought a much loved hat from last time, and generally enjoying the sights, sounds and smell of the river on a full tide. They bought some tickets for the short hop across the river to Bali and enjoyed the riverside park there, a place we have only recently explored ourselves. On Friday night Cass and Val visited Joe the Jeweler to pick up Val’s pearl pendant which had just been completed. I was at a school get-together down at Alleycats for an hour or so, so I got some Indian takeaway for all of us as it had just started to rain and our plans to get out for dinner would have been awkward. We washed it down with some Jacob’s Creek red bought at the Ker Qiang Rd 7/11 store: it’s weird buying that here, just around the corner!
Guandu Temple is a magnificent complex of temple buildings built in 1661 and it occupies a site perched on a hill on the bank of the Danshui River with views to the Red Bridge and Bali downriver. We wandered around here for ages enjoying the magnificent granite carvings on nearly every surface we could see. Some of these carvings are so intricate and three dimensional that we wondered how they could ever have been completed. The gardens are pretty and so well cared for but the sights and smells at the “little eats” stalls below were enough to make us seek our lunch elsewhere on that day! Forgoing our adventurous spirit, we ate some fare from the local 7/11 at the little table outside the shop: it was pretty good!
Suitably fortified, we drove through the underpass below the main highway to the other side and sniffed our way to the Tittot museum and display centre. Tittot is a famous Taiwanese glass blower and artist and his workshop is on site as well. We admired the superb examples of glasswork he has gathered from all around the world, and then both Cassy and Val made some small purchases as souvenirs. We made a stop on the way home at the incredible temple of 1000 statues that we’d visited not so long back after a tip from Mr. Lai, my octogenarian fellow stair walker. It is a hidden gem and Chris and Val couldn’t quite believe the number of stone men but more importantly, “Why?” I certainly couldn’t answer that question! Alleycats pizza for the three while I met up with Wal and Rourkey for a few beers.
Lazy day today after the weather got a bit frowsy again. We all wandered down to the local Carrefour store and Valerie bought a fantastic little Sony camera with great specs and at a real bargain price: electronics seem to deliver so much more bang for the buck than they used to. Cass is going to make her bon curry for tea and I’m looking forward to it: one of the best Japanese inventions ever! Photos are from some adventures on Saturday and the slide show will appear here when I eventually remove it. Cass is reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” and I’m reading the shocking but compelling “City Of Thieves” by David Benioff
