I’ve lost count of the days.

Today was a good day.  :)

Started off the morning at the Taroko Gorge.  We strapped on our safety helmets and walked around for about an hour.  The view was beautiful and awesome.  We were surrounded by tall lush mountains and marble rocks – in between, the Liwu (sp?) river sliced through.  As I was standing there, I was able to just marvel at God’s beautiful creation.  I’m not one to like the forest/wilderness but standing there and just taking it all in – it was beautiful and amazing.  The photos from the camera do not capture the beauty of the place.  It was nice.  I was also able to drink some iced coffee made from the mountain spring water.  It tasted normal.  Ha.

Oh yes, prior to that, a couple somehow got their important things (I’m assuming passports) stuck in the safe deposit box in the hotel.  They couldn’t get it open forever.  Finally they did – I’m assuming the hotel has a way to mass “reset” “reboot” it.

Anyway, then we had lunch at some restaurant.  This was a better lunch than most places.  The fried dumpling (guo tieh?) was the best I’ve tasted.  We also had seafood salad, chinese hamburger, green onion pancake, shrimp spinach soup, drunken chicken, fish, asparagus, watermelon, and pumpkin taro mochi.

Then we were off to shop at a bunch of little dessert/goodie shops – mostly mochi, pineapple cake (popular from Taiwan), and various candies.  I saw a shop and was able to get a 2nd boba of the trip.  However, I was so freaking full I couldn’t drink it all.  It wasn’t as good as 50-lan.  However, it was so freaking cheap.  It was the size of a large in the states and it was less than $1.  Crazy.

Hopped on a train to head to the hotel.  Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi.  This has been the best hotel so far.  This hotel is so freaking cool and it’s so pretty.  It’s got 4 outdoor hot springs where you have to get naked – that I did not participate it.  It’s got a water therapy pool, jacuzzi, and swimming pool area.  Doctor Fish – have you heard of that before?  I got the dead skin eaten off my feet by fish…lol.  Sounds nasty.  I was so afraid to put my feet into the water.  And it was so unbearable that I couldn’t leave my feet in for more than 10 seconds at the beginning.  It felt so weird having fish biting you!!  And it was so freaking ticklish I almost died.  Finally, after awhile and many tries, I was able to leave my feet in.

Oh yeah, talk about weight loss problems.  So, I hadn’t tried on my swimsuit in a long time because I don’t really go swimming because I don’t like water.  So when I put it on so we could go to the pool/jacuzzi, I realized that it didn’t fit because it was too big.  Fail.  And so the only alternative was a sports bra I had.  I have never worn anything besides a tankini top before.  It was the first time I ever just wore a sports bra out.  It was weird and I was so self conscious.  Plus that part of my body is like a totally different person’s body because the color is so different lol.

Anyway, back to the hotel.  It has 3 ping pong tables, 2 pool tables, foosball, all these computers, reading areas with bean bags, and more.  It’s gym is pretty nice and you can even rent gym shoes lol in case you forgot yours.  And each room says what time it was disinfected!!!  Crazy.  Today, I would have actually been able to use the gym but I after the first day in Taipei, we had to only bring 4 days of clothes for the tour part and so I didn’t bring any gym clothes.

Dinner – I was weary about having a dinner buffet.  I don’t really like buffets that much in general so I was already not really excited about it.  Turns out this is one of the best buffets I have had.  The reason why it was good was not only because the food tasted good but that they had so many different kinds of fancy things in small portions.  It was high quality food in small portions so you could get a taste.  They had escargot in brandy sauce, hainan chicken, rib eye steak, sashimi, lamb in red wine sauce, fish mousse with green tea jelly (I didn’t try this), and so much more.  The fruit was good, the dessert was fancy, and all around a great experience.

Now I am really sleepy.  The end.

Oh yes.  Observation:  Taiwan has a lot of random steps everywhere, sometimes down and sometimes up, I almost ate it – only 3 times.  :)