Choir Trip, Day 1 [#99...]

I've decided to break this up into several posts, for my convenience & also so I will post more pictures. Note this is à la mode Tea Tour, so I shall probably do 3 posts for the 3 days. Plus I don't feel like writing all that much in one night.

So, let's start at the beginning, shall we? You don't exactly have much choice except to read along (or scroll down). It all began at about 6:00 AM on Wednesday morning. I got up, got dressed, grabbed my bags, & two slices of bread for breakfast (all I could find). I then, foolishly, took my dictionary out of my bag because it was heavy and I wanted to pack light so I didn't look out of place. I hopped the MRT, and got to Main Station about 20 minutes early. With a little bit of doing I found the 3rd North Door to the train station; subsequently I supplemented my breakfast with some simple fare from 7-11 (chosen for calorie/price ratio).

We got on a train bound for Hualian (花蓮) and it took quite a while to get there. Oh, did I mention everyone except me brought a ton of stuff? I mean, I know girls will take a huge suitcase of clothes and stuff for a few days, but everybody had multiple heavy bags, and the roller-ones you can use as checked luggage on an airplane. I played cards with people for most of the ride (3+ hours) and just looked at the scenery at the end.

When we arrived, everybody got on a bus, and we went to a beach. One of our tour guides (a young man & woman from China Youth Corps), the boy, told us not to swim. I thought I heard him wrong but when I got to the water we saw this:

Wave after wave pounded the shore, and there was actually like a big rise where we stood, but every once in a while foam would come over the top. The spray was fantastic, but probably bad for people's cameras... the water near the shore was this crazy blue--I think the picture shows it--and the waves curled into the tunnels (but you'd have to be a small midget to surf inside). Also a group photo, click for large version:

Afterwards we went to the Taroko Gorge (太魯閣 tailuoge) for a while... a lot was pretty awesome sights, and around this time I started seeing the misty mountains like in CTHD. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was filmed in Taiwan. However, I have more pics of this later... O.k., one now, but it comes with an anecdote. We were walking along, looking at a nice reflecting pond:

Suddenly, the sound of plastic on wood turned all our heads. It was quickly followed by a dismayed Chinese expletive, as one of the boys realised he dropped his cell phone. Through the slats in the wood. Down 20+ metres into inaccessible undergrowth, or a river. So, now he has to buy a new cellphone.

In the evening we went to a youth hostel (a CYC establishment), where I saw Luke Wheeler with a bunch of other people. He'd been hiking the mountains with them. Later on, we did some really weird activities as our groups got together & selected us as their representatives (no-one is leet like waiguoren). I beat him in two important games of rock-paper-scissors. Afterwards, played cards in our room (7 people sleeping on the floor, just mats/blankets/pillows, no beds) for a while. But the schedule said to bed at 12:00 & up at 6:00 AM...

Note: In preparation for the 100^th post, I have made some changes to the template thus allowing larger pictures. Relish in their resolution!! Also, happy 2^nd anniversary to the Collective~my apologies for the belated wishes. Until next time, rock on. [1h50]