WU LAI 烏來 🌿🍢🏔🌊
- jocelynchan4
- Nov 30, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 1, 2024
⭐️ If you’ve been busy for a while and finally have a free day
⭐️ If you feel like you want to run to some fairytale looking place, far from the chaos of
the city, to give your mind a break from all the stress and mess.
⭐️ If you’re craving that feeling of coming home at the end of the day to feel like Alice
returning to reality after exploring her wonderland.
⭐️ If you’re really hoping to have a memorable day, and just need that extra motivation
to get you out the house, then let me show you Wu Lai.
I was missing that 小時候 feeling of going on those little field trips/adventures with mom, remembering it all in a blur as I fell asleep on the way home, but remembering enough to know that it was a good day. So, I decided to take mommy out to Wu Lai on this day (+ Poo & Pee)
For so long, I’ve been trying to find the perfect place that consists of everything:
👣 A place large enough to keep my steps going, with path after path to explore.
🥪 Good food: not just restaurants, but also at little street stalls and stands
🌊 A view of any body of water, because water makes me feel good 😅
🏹 Some sort of little activity (like those at Camp Taiwan for those of you who know, makes it feel more nostalgic 😀)
Wu Lai really has it all, and I’ll go through them in the order you should visit :))
1) 🚶♀️Wu Lai Old Street 烏來老街 🍢🍡
I was way too busy eating, so I forgot to take photos 😅 but here’s google maps if you want to take a better look at what the street looks like:
It was a decently long, night market-like street, with all the yummy traditional Taiwanese food you can think of. I’m not the biggest foodie and am a little basic, but I believe those of you who love to get a little bite of everything will enjoy this street, because my mom certainly did 😆.
Walking to the end of the old street, you’ll arrive the little train!
2) Wu Lai Scenic train 🚂
I had so much fun with this one. It’s a mini train that goes just fast enough to actually feel a little scary lol, like I was holding on to Poo pretty tight cuz he kept on trying to bite the air.
There’s a little surprise with this train that I won’t spoil for you, but just be sure to keep your arms and legs within the train 😅.
This train really cured my nostalgic craving. It felt like a bigger version of the tiny trains we used to ride as kids. The ones we always wished would go just a little faster.
The train will bring you up to where the waterfall is. I was so happy lol, it was like a surprise at the end of the tunnel.
(one-way tickets were 50nt btw)
People taking a nice stroll next to the trail 🚶♂️you can also walk up to the waterfall!
3) Wu Lai Waterfall 🌿🏔🌊
This really was the gem of it all. Despite the waterfall being kinda far, bits of the water still managed to get to me, where that slight mist in some typa way was so comforting.
I don’t really know how to describe the feeling, but standing there face to face with the waterfall, I felt like my problems were so small in comparison. If I could give this waterfall a name, she would be Athena, and she really reminded me of that scene when Moana restores the heart of Te Fiti.
There are many random seats around the waterfall to just chill on. Highly recommend you to just pick a spot, play a podcast or some music, key is to not look at your phone, and just enjoy and feel the view.
Anyways, it was beautiful, and if you ever find yourself in a position where you really need a force of empowerment, no one’s got your back stronger than Mother Nature 🌿💛
3a) Little Cafe #1 Around Wu Lai Waterfall ➡️《瀑布咖啡/瀑布一號店》
I didn’t actually sit down here cuz I had planned to go check out some place else, but out of all the cafes and little restaurants , I would say this one had the best balcony view directly facing the waterfall (it looked incredibly close in person)
They have some simple snacks, and I can totally imagine me with my girls, chatting the afternoon away with vanilla ice cream waffle 😋🍦.
3b) Little Cafe #2 ➡️《Tony X》
My dream coffee shop, dream library, dream future house, all have one thing in common: big windows🪟. So this coffee shop with their entire glass wall facing the waterfall made me just so happy lol.
Studying/school work is something that’s hard for me, so my study sessions look like… let’s just say really, really long hours ⏰
With that, I’ve learned my options:
I can either be locked in my room
✨or✨ sit on a high chair with an entire forest and waterfall meeting my eyes every time I need a little break from studying math (this is just what works for me, please be in your room if that’s where you lock in best).
With any work that we have, stress will always be there, but I think it can definitely feel the slightest bit better if you do it with a waterfall 🙂.
PS: this place has all sorts of coffee, I didn’t really know the difference btwn the beans, so ask lol and don’t order the wrong thing 😅
3c) Little Cafe #3 ➡️《Wu Lai Three Cafe》
I absolutely gasped when I got a sneak peak of what it looked like down their stairs. Please go visit this place for me because they were closing by the time I got there 😅
Check out the photos from their page, and trust me it looked even more amazing in person.
4) The Wulai Cable Car/Gondola 🚠
I actually didn’t know Wu Lai had a gondola until I looked up at the sky when I was there.
It really never gets old, the excitement of going on gondolas, or like ski lifts lol.
There are 2 things special about this gondola:
1️⃣ That it travels directly above the waterfall, which I thought was crazy cuz it was like walking over something so tall.
2️⃣ That it’s the only way to enter Yun Hsien Resort 雲仙樂園 😀
5) Yun Hsien Resort 雲仙樂園 🏞️
A one way in theme park, where that one way is to get transported through a car suspended mid air crossing over an 800m waterfall. It’s like stepping into a fairytale world hidden behind the gates of the waterfall.
Activites @ Yun Hsien Resort:
Archery 🏹
Rowboat 🚣
And I forgot but here’s their 介紹 😅
If you’re searching for that snow white in the forest feeling, or that one dream of retuning to the 單存 days of childhood. You need to come here. Like there was even this random ice cream popsicle circular stand next to the fish pond. Other than there being 少一點動物, this is what this resort reminds me of:
If you've been feeling lost, empty, or just missing yourself, take that gondola, because where it takes you really does feel like flipping back a couple of pages, revisiting the warmth of some long forgotten memories. 我們童年的故事.
The End 🧘♂️
Before I visit a place, what I’m most hesitant about is whether it’s actually going to be what I imagine it to be, or if I’m going to waste a lot of time just figuring out how to get from place to place. I can guarantee you that a 10/10 outing won’t go wrong at Wu Lai, and if you put everything I just listed into Google Maps, you’ll see that it flows incredibly well from one place to another.
If you’ve read all the way here, and you resonated with any of the “Ifs” I listed in the beginning of this entry, I hope you’re okay. And if not, save yourself a day to take yourself out to Wu Lai, eat some good 阿嬤煮的菜 (home cooked meal from granny), journal by the waterfall, even cry to it lol (the mist from it feels like she’s crying with you too). Play some music, take a nice stroll down the old street, or through the gardens of Yun Hsien Resort. Fly over a huge ass waterfall and mountain. You’ll have fun, and it’ll be a good day (Athena’s got you 🙂, scroll up if you don’t know what I’m talking about).
