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

In the evening of 24th Dec. 2007 we arrived at Hualian. We went to our B&B and checked in, and we left our baggage in rooms; then we started our local-food hunt immediately.

Our B&B was right next to a beach which provided spectacular views of mountains and ocean.

I was testing my camera and playing with differently possible compositions of photos.
I thought if I magnified the frame and the boat of the picture, this picture would be a kind of surreal.

Our B&B provided free bikes to its lodgers, so we, ten people, were able to ride bikes in a gang wondering in Hualian city. We were all excited and slight in craziness that made me feel we were young and naïve kids setting out to our unknown journey.

It was chilly night, so our first stop to have excellent local food is Bawang Jianmuya (Overlord Ginger Duck.) It's a kind of fondu of duck cooked with ginger, Chinese herb medicine and rice wine which makes diners healthy and keeps them in warmth in cold winter.

(Video will be available soon)

Those two people devoted most of their time driving. Thank to their contribution to bring safe and nice trip for us. The guy in the left is Stephen Chou's fan, a smart and really funny guy. I always call him the Alien from Mars. He is too weird to be an earthling.

After having hot and spicy food, we decided to have icy cold dessert. Kind of silly, I know, but it was fun.

We went to a famous local dessert store which sold caramel ice dessert mixed with Douhua (made of soybeans) and Yuyuan (made of taros.) There were delicious.

When we are awaiting our dessert, we played a kind of game. We decided to spin a car key and, by the key's random pointing, we picked models to post as characters from famous movies. The fist round was to select out Mr. Yi and Wang Jia Zhi from Ang Lee's Lust, Caution. It turned out that our youngest guy had to play Mr. Yi and the tallest and also biggest guy had to play Miss Wang.

It was so hilarious.

The second round was to pick three of us to play Lyra, Pantalaimon and Iorek from The Golden Compass. The two LUCKY guys were picked again. The youngest one had to play Iorek; the tallest young had to play Pan, and one girl of us had to be Lyra.

The third round was to pick four characters--Will Smith, his dog, his gun and his bathtub--from I Am Legend. Our youngest guy, unfortunately, was selected out again. He had the best luck at that night. He had to play Robert Neville. Well, I was lucky to be the bathtub.

We almost brought down the store; it was full of our laughter.

When we were on the way back to our B&B, we found a pool. A game started. We played Scissors, Stone and Cloth to decide who should be threw into the pool. The two lossers had to step in the cold pool during the chilly winter night. Haha..., everyone was happy, though.

We went back to our B&B around 10 p.m. and it was close to the time we exchange our Christmas gifts. We decided to have some mixed drink when we played card games and exchanged gifts.

We played card games before we exchanged gifts. The losers were punished by the winners plucking ears. Anyone showed their true nature on the faces in the game.

We had drink; and I had too much drinking. When we started exchanging our Christmas gifts, I was terribly drunk. And it was time to how funny I was. Everyone was surprised to see I behaved hilariously. I was in surprise, too. But it was nice to get drunk in safe circumstance and have a lot of fun. We were all euphoric.

We took a walk along the beach after exchanging gifts. It was fun to walk alone a deserted road and on the beach in the midnight.

I saw a dog sleeping in the middle of a road, which put it in danger. I wanted to help it get out of danger. I threw a rock at the dog and precisely hit it even though I was drunk. I did it first time in my life. It was fun when alcohol was working. One of us danced Cha Cha Cha in the middle of the road and the smallest girl was amazingly to somersault.

We did funny or silly things in turn.

A memorable night.