2007-12-24-26 Yilan and Hualian 聖誕之旅：宜蘭與花蓮 PART I (蘇澳)

I am always keen to travel in east coast of Taiwan. About three weeks ago, I learned my classmates planed to travel in Yilan and Hualian. I knew it would be a good chance to carry out my idea of traveling in east coast; I invited myself to join them. I was lucky that we had no trouble to get an extra seat of cars, so I made it. We spent three days (from Dec. 24th to 26th) traveling in Yilan and Hualian. It was cold and raining in Taipei before the trip. I was worried of the bad weather and kept checking weather forecast for few days before the trip. When we were in Yilan and Hualian, it was overcast and sometimes rainy. Even though the weather wasn't perfect, it didn't undermine our travel and it was actually a wonderful trip.

我一直都非常希望到台灣東海岸旅行，大概在三個星期前左右，我聽說碩二的研究生要辦個畢業旅行，到宜蘭和花蓮去玩。我很想跟他們一起去，因為其實能盡興遊玩的機會，大概只有在當學生的時候，所以我厚著臉皮的問他們可不可以讓我跟，很幸運的，剛好車子還有空位，所以我的宜蘭花蓮之旅可以成行。在出發之前，台北的天氣不是很好，天氣預報也顯示我們旅行的時間，天氣大多是陰雨天。我們在宜蘭和花蓮的期間，其實天氣不怎麼好，但是，這樣的情況無損我們遊玩的興致。

Nine of us we in two cars left Taipei in the morning of 24th. We got on highway and passed though Xueshan Tunnel --12.9 kilometers, the second longest tunnel in Asia-- to Toucheng in Yilian within 1.5 hours. It takes fewer hours for travelers to get to Yilian than before. After we arrived Toucheng, we turned to Suao to pick up the tenth member and had our lunch in Suao harbor. We had really fresh seafood for lunch. After lunch, we headed to Taroko National Park.

我們一行9人在24日從台北出發。兩台車開上高速公路，接雪山隧道（亞洲第二長隧道，全常12.9公里），大約花費一個小時半就到宜蘭頭城。在雪山隧道開通之前，要花費的時間更多，現在從台北到宜蘭真的方便很多。到頭城之後，我們先轉到蘇澳去接另一個同學，然後在蘇澳吃新鮮的海鮮午餐，在午餐之後，我們啟程出發到太魯閣國家公園。


While I took photos of our delicious seafood dishes, my classmates were busy eating up those dishes, so I decided not to take any photos of our meals. They never wait for me when it comes food. :D



I saw no fish boats sailing out nor harboring, only few old residents fixing broken fishing nets alone the port .

While we were in Suao, I saw a lot of fish boats resting alone the port. It seemed that Suao was a seaside city in deep sleep. It lacked the scenes of hustle and bustle. I suddenly had sad feeling; I can't help wondering what happened to the once busy and famous seaport of North Taiwan.