Happy Bday!

Yay happy 24th to me~  

It was my birthday yesterday, but I didn't tell anyone here. Despite that, I still had one of the happiest birthday ever :) 

The night before, the skies were starting to clear up after a whole week of rain. So I stood outside Bayhouse for awhile, looking up at the stars that were peeking through the clouds. Then Ah Qian came back from her appointment and saw me outside, she offered to drive me to Chihsingtan (my favourite coast in the world) to stargaze. 

We got there about 11.30pm but the skies were still cloudy, and the stars could only be seen through a small gap. I was actually quite disappointed hahaha but! I guess I had the blessing of being a selenophile~ as the clock started counting down to midnight, the clouds around the half moon started to part, allowing the light to reflect upon the calm waves beneath. And when it was midnight, I looked up and saw the most perfect shot of the moon smiling back at me :) it was as if she was wishing me a happy birthday. 

In the morning when the sun rose, I had signed up for a Taroko Gorge 1-day tour, so the driver Uncle Zhang fetched me in his black van. He picked up several others from different hostels as well.  And we headed off for a nature's tour. Manz Hualien is so beautiful! 

And on this tour, I bonded with 3 people from diversed backgrounds. So cool though! All 4 of us are from different countries but we can all speak English and Chinese fluently. It was the most comfortable I've felt with strangers since I got here. 

First there's Steven from China who worked in NYC for a few years so he can speak fluent English. And has a very interesting job! He's a British Shorthair Cat Breeder. Very specialised, professional and is his own boss. 

He was traveling with his ex coworker Linny, a Taiwanese American who is now in Hong Kong teaching English. Linny was such a dear and lovable :)

Then there's Yang from China but grew up in Melbourne and is a Pharmacist. He was alone like I was so we started chatting in Chinese. But somewhere along the way, we found out that both of us are more comfortable speaking English hahaha so we switched to English mode :p

then the four of us hung out throughout the rest of the tour and chatted about many things! But Steven had a train to catch so eventually only Linny and Yang stayed to eat dinner together. We had a conversation about each other's age and eventually I told them it was my birthday :)  

at the restaurant, there was a table of high school students who were dressed up in costumes and apparently they were celebrating one of their friends' birthday too! And they sang so many different languages of birthday songs it was fascinating to watch hahahaha and so Linny Yang and I sang and clapped along. Then they brought us blueberry tarts to thank us for singing along haha so cute. Then Linny told them it was my birthday too and the whole table of them sang loudly for me :') so cute and nice~ 

Linny needed to catch her train, so it was left with Yang and I, and we headed to the night market to chill while listening to the live acoustic duo that were busking there. Yang treated me to a nice cup of 米香 I think it was rice wine with lemon and something. Super yumz. And the girl singing was so good! Her name is 蕾蕾 and her Chinese indie style of music is totally my type. So we kinda talked for abit and I'll be heading down this Sunday to catch them again :)

Then the night ended with Yang walking me back to the park, and headed back to his hostel. While I hung out at the park to Skype with Yelicia, Lishan and Kaixin ❤ so we chatted for a really long time (mostly trying to fix technical difficulties) while I showed them around the area and my hostel. Then back at the hostel, lishan made one of my guest wish me happy birthday while on Skype. It was quite funny and sweet :) and then the next day, which is today, this guest left a personal note for me hidden in a box on the table. So sweeet!! I was so happy!! Hahaha 

All in all, I had a memorable low profile birthday that's full of heartwarming moments and definitely a special day I'll remember for life :)

thanks everybody who wished me and chatted with me!! Super happy!! Love you guys! 🙆🏿❤❤ 

and thanks mummy and daddy for giving birth to me and letting me go on this trip~ 

wouldnt be here without you. Love you! 

loves, 

marilyn