East Coast Girl

Well, hello again friends! Let's pick up right where we left off, shall we? After enjoying the beauty of the Taroko gorge in Hualien I boarded a train that took me 150km south to the town of Taitung.

I have to say, before I start telling you about my experience, Taitung was probably my favourite place in Taiwan, owing largely to the lovely people who provided accommodation for me there. So thank you Tracy, it was truly a pleasure staying with you!

As I arrived in Taitung, the first thing that I noticed was that the temperature there was significantly higher than where I had previously been. Figures I guess, the more South you go, the warmer it gets. My first afternoon in the town was spent cycling around its Forest Park 森林公园 with my hosts and their children. The park is huge, filled with flowers in bloom and it leads right up to the seafront. A beautiful place, and perfect for cycling tours. In the evening, I went to explore the Railway Art Village. The space where Taitung's trainstation used to be has been turned into a place for local artists to sell their work. They also have an outdoor stage where concerts are held almost every day. The place has a great atmosphere, especially at nighttime. For then hundreds of hand-painted paper lanterns light up the street. I wandered around the area for about an hour, taking pictures of my favourite works. I was enchanted and fell in love with Taitung right then and there.

Taitung's seafront.

I'm just gonna leave these here for you to enjoy.

The town's name in characters.

The next day I spent going up the East coast by bus. There is a tourist shuttle bus once every two hours which goes up the coast, stopping at several scenic spots. With a one day ticket you can ride to your heart's content, provided you can get the bus to pick you up. More on that later. First, I went to Jialulan 加路兰, a stretch of rocky shore. I then walked along the road for about 2km to Shanyuan 杉原 and its sandy beach. On the way, three cars pulled over next to me asking where I was going and if I needed help. So if you're planning to hitchhike in Taiwan, just walk around for a bit looking lost, chances are someone will pick you up. Anyway, the beach was really beautiful and at the north end of it there was a fish conservation centre, which essentially meant that you could walk out into the sea on planks and watch the fish swimming around there. After walking around there for a bit, my plan was to catch the next bus to my destination. Small problem: since apparently all the tour busses stopped at the conservation centre, there was no space for the shuttle bus to stop. My frantic waving was ignored coolly and there I was, left to wait for the next bus. Which, as you might remember, wasn't coming around for another two hours. However, since I knew that people were all too willing to pick up a lost foreigner on the side of the road, I decided to walk to the next bus station. I walked for about 100 metres, when I heard someone call out to me. There was a group of seven elderly men sitting around a table, drinking beer and eating chicken stew. Because apparently I looked so lost and hungry, they decided to invite me to lunch, an invitation I gladly accepted. The hour I spent there was pretty funny, the men unable to speak English and me struggling to make sense of their heavily accented Chinese. They all had quite a strong Taiwanese accent, but I did manage to understand that several of them wanted me to meet their sons and also one of them had been a sailor and thought that girls from Hamburg were all jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Sadly, I am not from Hamburg. So, after a very entertaining hour, they sent me on my way, the daughter of one of the men came to pick him up and drove me to where I wanted to go. I have to say, that in Taiwan in general, people are just extremely friendly towards tourists. Also, I felt completely safe there. I would probably hesitate to accept a lunch invitation by random strangers in Europe, in Taiwan though, I felt like it was no problem whatsoever. Which it wasn't :) What a pleasant country to travel in. Now, back to the East coast. My last stop of the day was the island Sanxiantai 三仙台. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The island is made up of volcanic rock, giving you the feeling of stepping onto a different planet. I could have spent the entire day roaming around the small island, alas I did not have enough time. So I decided to return to the mainland for a short walk along the pebble beach. A good decision, the sound of waves rolling over pebbles is one of the most calming things I have ever experienced. An amazing day altogether!

The shore at Jialulan.

Pretty random cows.

This was how far you could walk out.

I tripped and fell on this bridge because I was so excited to get to the other side.

The sea is slowly taking over the island.

View from the lighthouse.

On my third day in Taitung, my hosts took me with them to a plum orchard. The plum trees were in bloom at the time, a wonderful sight to behold. We did have to make it past a barbed wire fence to get to the orchard, but apparently it's fine, they do this all the time. On our way back to the hostel, we picked up an Italian guy who was walking around town by himself. He promptly decided to move into the same hostel and also prepare some pasta for dinner. When we got back to the hostel, there was another guy waiting for us to come back so he could be let in. After they had been checked in, we took off again, this time with more company, to check out an archaeological site where traces of the so-called South Island culture were found. At the site they had also reconstructed some of the buildings, quite interesting to see. The last place we went to check out was a seemingly ordinary river near Taitung. Turns out it's pretty amazing actually, for it's where the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate meet. You can actually see that the two sides are made up of completely different stone. Now I'm not going to pretend like I know anything about tectonics, it was still really cool to see though. In the evening, we had a delicious meal prepared by our new Italian friend. Grazie!

Plum orchard with a view of Taitung.

On your left: The Eurasian Plate. On your right: The Philippine Sea Plate.

This house was used for the education of young men. Apparently they lived there for a year. It's built on steles so that they could practice climbing.

Yum.

I spent my last day in Taitung cycling around a little village called Chishang 池上. This place is known throughout Taiwan as the spot where Mr. Brown Coffee shot an advertisement once. So they all come to cycle through the fields and take pictures with rapeseed blossoms (I'm not kidding, this plant is called rape. I checked). I loved my day there, the scenery really reminded me of Europe. I had my lunch in the form of a lunchbox, a specialty of the village. Basically you get a box with rice, vegetables and an egg in it and you can add meat if you want to. It was delicious and with a happy stomach I was on my way to Kaohsiung.

Doesn't this remind you of Europe?

These were put up all along the bike path, so that you could keep tabs on how many calories you were burning.

I found this by chance. A huge garden/park.

The lunchbox.

And this is where you went to eat it.

 I apologize for the delay, I sort of got locked out of my Google account. I'll try to get the next post to you soon :)

Chinese Word of the Day: 拿铁 natie caffè latte. I've been spending a lot of time at coffee shops recently.