Taiwan Travel - TaiTung to Hualien Part 3

We arrived at Taitung and stayed in a hot spring hotel. We went to a restaurant for dinner nearby the Hot spring hotel and the tour guide decided to let us try to release the Heavenly Lantern. Our goup of 24 people are split into 3 groups. Each group will have 1 lantern which need at least 8 people to hold the lantern straight and it was shaped like a hot air balloon. We wrote our wishes and blessing on the lantern and once ready, the staff of the restaurant will light the lantern and we had to hold the lantern with our hands, bearing with the heat from the flame. Once the lantern was filled with air, we released on the count of 3 and watched the lantern rose steadily. It was such a great sight and our release was a success which means our wishes were heard. Our tour guide told us that the success rate of releasing the Heavenly Lantern were very low and we were lucky.Another group of the Singaporean tourists from the same travel agent were not lucky. They were there 3 hours before us and they burnt the lantern and had to redo the 2nd one which still were not successful. I am sure if it was the Heavenly Lantern or what , all I do know is that one of the wishes I have written on the Lantern has come true.

The Lantern rose with great speed that I only managed to capture the below

The 3 Red Lanterns in the sky

                                         

We proceeded to check in to our hotel. As my girl was still feeling very sick, so the tour guide arranged with the hotel to bring us to the clinic about 15 drive from the hot spring hotel. It was another kind of experience to see how the clinic operate and the small town where the clinic was located was Lu Ye. I must say my girl actually felt better after taking the western medication.

Taken from the balcony of the hotel room

We took a scenic train ride from Taitung to Hualien to see the Taroko Gorge.

The marvelous geological features the craggy cliff & cave in Swallow Caves. We had to wear safety helmets as loose rocks as big boulders would come crashing down the cliff and we had to stick as close as to the side of the cliff as possible to prevent being hurt by the tumbling rocks.