when the sky turned brighter, we went out of spring villa to walk to 玉兰茶园观景台. the lady at spring villa told us that its around 5 km away. in the end we din reach the 观景台, cos its time for breakfast, and our stomachs were growling, and also because we already see lots of beautiful scenery and tea plantations on our way there.
after the yummy breakfast, we started our yilan tour. our first stop was 松罗步道. its a nature trail, with a few scenery spots, including a 蓝色吊桥 and a waterfall. the whole trail itself need 3 hours to complete, and from the tourist drop-off point to the start of the trail need to walk about half an hour. so of course we din have much time as we still have other places to go, and in the end we only walk like one quarter of the nature trail, and went back already.
next we went to 呂美麗精雕藝術館.
pls read the paragraph below taken from a blog belonging to a celebrity:
呂美麗老師是宜蘭在地的藝術家
作品橫跨木雕、金雕、琉璃雕
尤其是木雕的部份 強調一體成型
小處也非常細微
像荔枝的顆粒、布料的紋路…都非常細膩
跟真的沒兩樣
for the pictures of the 木雕, pls go to:
http://iamwindy.pixnet.net/album/photo/100160311
we wanted to go and eat 卜肉 at this famous shop which has been open for 70 years. but we realised if we go and eat, we will miss the bus to Luodong train station, where we will have to wait for another one hour fifteen min for the next bus. so we decided to give the 卜肉 a miss.
we met a very nice couple at the bus stop, and they are also going to Luodong train station, and same as us, they are also taking the railway train to 礁溪 to 泡温泉. so they asked us to follow them. and so we chatted, and the wife happens to be a beautician working in a beauty parlour in taipei, and she ask darling to go visit her at the beauty parlour, which will provide her massage, facial, spa, plus one night of stay, for just NT800, which is around 40 sing dollars. so affordable lah! in the end we din go and find her, cos our schedule at taipei is quite tight. haha.
finally we reached 礁溪, and we went to this hot spring hotel called 川汤温泉旅馆, recommended by the husband. the charges quite affordable, they give us one room, and then charge us on an hourly basis. one hour cost us 15 sing. quite a good deal.
they got two taps for us to choose, hot spring and cold spring, of course we chose the hot spring, cos no one will be in the right state of mind to choose cold spring in winter.
after the refreshing hot spring, we took the railway train back to 罗东. we bought 牛舌饼, which is one of the local specialties of yilan. after that, we went to walk around 罗东夜市.
the food that we ate at the 夜市:
冰糖葫芦
卜肉 & 糕渣
包心粉圆
沙茶猪肉，沙茶羊肉面
in yilan, we spent quite a lot on transport, because the nearest town to 逢春园 is 罗东, but from the town centre still need to take cab for 30 to 40 min then can reach 逢春园. throughout this yilan trip, we have our own designated driver, cos he knows the working staff of 逢春园 very well, and so he charge us cheaper for the taxi rides. but its still quite ex lah, which cost us around 22 sing dollars for every trip.
and he is also very nice, very humorous also, always tell us alot of jokes and funny stories in the taxi. haha.
he is 50+ years old, and still look quite young, because he say he use olay. haha damn funny.
actually yilan still got many nice places to go, but just that transport is very inaccessible, and we only stay there for 2 days. yilan is famous for mountains, nature trails, farms, hot springs, and cold springs. its a nice place to go to if you want to admire scenery. :)
