[Travel] Part 3 of 8, Taiwan

Hua-Lien 花蓮市

Since we stayed at one of the roof in Tian Mu District, I had no idea where there is this two stray cat lying around.

Waking up the next morning and we prepare to move to Hua Lien Country, where it’s one of the biggest county in Taiwan surrounded by mountains.

If you decide to pay a visit to this beautiful place, located east of Taiwan, it is always best to book the train tickets in advance. The train ticket costs us NT$445 from Taipei to Hua Lien (one-way). What to do there? Sightseeing and for more adventurous ones, there is sky diving from a cliff (really!)

The Taipei Main Train station is a pretty huge place. You can see if you board the correct train here.

If you are on an early train trip, be sure to stack some food or have an early breakfast to avoid getting hungry half way through the trip.

The brand for this milk literally translates to “More More Cow Milk”

More like an automatic gate to me. Insert from the front and get the ticket again from the top.

Instead of having a high-speed bullet train, this journey took approximately around 1 and a half hours (if I remember correctly).

As it’s a train with seat numbers. There is a also different tram numbers.

So be sure to check the ticket before going into the wrong tram.

It seems comfortable to me.

And there would be an officer to check the ticket’s validity.

So we are going from Taipei.

To Hua Lien.

Along the journey you will come across these beautiful scenery.

And some weird industrial mines like this.

And some scenery like this where we only get to see in movies.

It’s the chinese character for Luck. Pronounced as Fhook in Cantonese.

Unlike the city center, Hualien is a much more suburb area where you are less likely to high tech building or skyscrappers.

And this is the city of Hualien. Note the signboard with 85? It’s one of the local famous bakery/coffee shop in Taiwan. Upon arrival, we head towards a backpacking hostel that pre-booked via a website. This really makes a difference in positive experience in travelling to a totally different that you have no idea where to start looking.

And as usual, I had no idea what is this hostel/guesthouse’s name.

But if you can decipher Chinese characters, perhaps you will able to find this shop. Found it at the table of the hostel.

Power meter.

There are plenty of book and sticky note messages all over the wall from past patrons. The bar also provides interesting selection of drinks during the night.

The bunk-beds. It’s pretty clean really.

And we stayed right below the stair. Do not be intimidated by the look of it. It’s actually really comfortable and has 3 beds down there. And that does makes me wonder of the building structure in Taiwan. They do have basement for them to run in case of earthquake? Doesn’t look like a store room for me though.

It’s pretty enjoyable to just read these messages.

With the accommodation settled, we went forward and ask the reception if there is any activity that can be done during our trip here for…1 day. The owner then suggested that we can book a day-trip to the Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園. We did.

What’s for lunch?

It would be really bad if we were in Taiwan and did not have a taste of their famous Beef Noodle.

I did not take any beef, but it seems that it’s really good.

Taroko National Park

After a filling lunch, we then headed towards the destination. A mountainous tourist attraction with spectacular view, there are people that rent a bicycle and go uphill with it. Quoted from friendly taxi driver, she said that during student graduation at this period of time, the tree will bloom and fill the entire tree with red leaves.

Before making a turn into the national park, we stopped by this…

Long bridge.

Right after that, we are brought to this Shakadang Trail.

I’ve been told that you can actually take this trail and walk towards another mountain…but it would take approximately around 4 hours.

We didn’t take too much of time walking around here since it’s about to rain.

Though I have no idea what that meant, but it seems like someone died here from drowning?

Looks like the water dried up during June.

As you walk along, some of the path gets pretty steep but it shouldn’t be too hard.

Just as you walk along, you can’t help but to stop a while to look at the mesmerizing scenery around.

Just right ahead of the Sakadang Trail, after the red bridge, there’s this tunnel.

Right ahead the hill it’s just more and more tunnel and hill to look at.

But among these lush beautiful hills, there’s actually bats/birds living inside.

Upon closer inspection, you’ll see these holes.

Tourists are then allowed to walk at the side of the road.

into this unusual looking tunnel.

Though we are supposed to get a closer look at the Tunnel of Nine Turns Trail,

But it appears that there are landslide/rocks falling down due from the recent heavy rainfall. And according to the locals, it’s pretty a normal situation happening here.

And finally towards the last spot in Taroko National Park, a temple.

Nature’s water (pun intended)

The waterfall up close, right in front of the temple.

And there’s still construction going on at this place.

It’s actually a pretty hot sun during that time. That conludes the trip to the national park in Hualien.

But surprisingly, we are also brought to this place after that. Seems like an attraction to locals here.

Obviously you can’t really swim near the beach as the waves are pretty dangerous for kids to be playing around.

But you can enjoy some snacks.

Dried fish.

And it tastes like chewing-gum.

Looks like a watchtower to me. However, it seems that this is nearby a air force base where you keep hear planes flying by.

Weather center?

A friendly trash truck

And after chewing on those fish, we felt like flying. Right after that, we left to hostel, didn’t spend much time at the beach. The wind is pretty strong.

The taxi driver stopped us by a jade merchant… (yes you can guess the rest of the story).

The dog that sits in front of the shop.

And right before we reach our hostel, we asked the driver is we are able to go to buy some locally made products, such as the infamous mochi.

Dinner time!

There were 2 place that we went at night in Hualien, namely a night market at the city and another near a beach.

We definitely surprised to see a version of Mixed Rice in Taiwan.

Fruit juice stall.

Dimsum shop

And the infamous Braised Pork Belly (Lu Rou / 滷肉) Rice.

Though we did intend to do some shopping here but most of the shops closed earlier than expected. That is like 8 – 9PM.

It seems I bound to bumped into McD more frequently than KFC.

Hualien at night, it is hard to really compare with Taipei’s night markets as it is rather in a smaller scale. But according to the taxi driver earlier, that the aborigines here does resemble part of Malay ancestors back in the old times and speak some Bahasa Melayu…and so that what they claimed.

The market itself, sells quite a lot of snacks like grilled meat

Across the stretch of road in the other night market, there’s this massive amount of stall providing entertainments like dart throwing or some mini-sized pinball machines.

And even here, you can even get a taste on the fermented bean curd/smelly tofu.

There is this dancing show during our trip there.

Performed by the aborigines of Hualien. Not sure they belong to which tribe though.

But if you didn’t fond of those performance, you can walk pass the stage towards the beach.

Where you will see a bunch of locals chilling out to the sea waves sound.

But what do you eat here besides snacks? There’s cooked food. Mostly seafood.

Tried the beer and food…but it tastes different.

And so we head back for the night.

And bumped into this friendly stall vendor.

That sells this extremely unforgettable tasty bun. Pronounced as “Kwah-Bao”.

Even after 1 year…I still can’t forget the smell of this…bun.

Taiwan Hualien’s ice blended dessert.

And their very own iced milk tea.

And everyone’s back to home.

That concludes the trip to Hualien. A short and concise one, but I definitely eager to come back one more time to explore on the wild side of this place. Cliff diving anyone? More to come!

The entire travel-log to Taiwan consists of travel to :

  • Taipei City
  • Shilin Night Market
  • Xinbeitou Hot springs
  • Wulai, Taipei
  • Hualien County, Taiwan
  • XiMenDing
  • Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
  • DanShui old street
  • Danshui Fisherman’s wharf

The links: