A benefit of working in Tzu Chi School is I have a lot of friends in Taiwan who either have gone back for good or at least on holiday on December. They helped me planned the trips well since its a very rush trips considering plan to visit 7 cities in 10 days ...yee haaaaa
I don't have to mention the traffic on 24th, but thanks God I managed to be on the check in counter on time with ojek helped with delayed flight.
Got to Taoyuan at 6am. The trip was started from west, Hualien county, With the guidance from YCH, I took U-bus to HSR station then to Taipei train station in order to be able to continue to Hualien as no direct train to Hualian from Taoyuan International airport. U-bus to HSR Taoyuan = 30NT took about 30 minutes, the ticket can be bought in the U-bus service counters, just walk through the sign to Bus station and walk till the end, you will find U-bus Service counters. HSR train to Taipei Station is 165 NT, Taipei - Hualien 418 NT, which was pre bought to be able to have a seat. The ticket can be claimed in any seven eleven or ticket counter in Train station.
The sign in Taipei Station was pretty confusing, since its the busiest station, where the conjunction of MRT, HSR and train are all in one and even though I can speak a little Mandarin, not helping, but I managed to get to the right train to Hualien.
Internet wise from prior reading, we can get free wifi in Taipei station...butttt the registration counter was actually outside the station. Take a walk to M exit, see the building across, got into the hall and again poor signage, after asked here and there, successfully found and registered, but wasn't able to try in front of registration counter so need to got back to station to try ANDD......it failed.... but was too lazy to walk back to the hall. One of the disadvantage in Taiwan as well, as foreigner we can't buy a SIM card so either count on this free wifi or count of local friend's hotspot which I did.
The train was about 2.5 hours to Hualien. in Hualien, we rented car, but read its more expensive the cross city car so we got Suzuki Swift for 1,600 NT, including petrol. In Taiwan got a lot of theme homestay but since I am a fan of hello kitty, we got this hello kitty room for 1,480NT/night, which was quite a surprise for me actually
The sign in Taipei Station was pretty confusing, since its the busiest station, where the conjunction of MRT, HSR and train are all in one and even though I can speak a little Mandarin, not helping, but I managed to get to the right train to Hualien.
Internet wise from prior reading, we can get free wifi in Taipei station...butttt the registration counter was actually outside the station. Take a walk to M exit, see the building across, got into the hall and again poor signage, after asked here and there, successfully found and registered, but wasn't able to try in front of registration counter so need to got back to station to try ANDD......it failed.... but was too lazy to walk back to the hall. One of the disadvantage in Taiwan as well, as foreigner we can't buy a SIM card so either count on this free wifi or count of local friend's hotspot which I did.
The train was about 2.5 hours to Hualien. in Hualien, we rented car, but read its more expensive the cross city car so we got Suzuki Swift for 1,600 NT, including petrol. In Taiwan got a lot of theme homestay but since I am a fan of hello kitty, we got this hello kitty room for 1,480NT/night, which was quite a surprise for me actually
Not much we can visit on the raining day in the city, so eating was the only spending time activities. You MUST try this xiao lung bao, called Gongzheng Baozi, its in the corner of ZhongShan Road. There are 2 different shops but we just decided to try the corner one. We were lucky to be able to get table as rainy days so the queue was not as long as normal....One word..yummy, I fell in love with Taiwan immediately, I heard there are a lot of xiao chi but this was truly satisfying. All these below, 1 basket of xiao lung bao, 1 basket of dumplings, 2 bowls of sweet and sour noodle and 1 glass of hot milk tea only for around 170 NT. Very recommended to visit.
my habits to try a street food brought us to this, the food is just fine but the story to get that was very interesting, got there, nobody were queing, but when we ordered one since we were still full, she said we have to wait for 20 minutes. Wow... Then we said okay we will be back, she answered not too late because she will close store...OH?? Ok, we will be back in 15, she said no, 20. Haha...We thought wow so good but apparently we were told later on its only her marketing strategy. quite the one.
Next was Qi Xing Dan Beach, its black sand seashore and not a swimmer friendly place I guess and especially its winter. It actually got the bicycle trail but we didn't really have time to do it since we only had a day to finish all in Hualien.
Swithed rent car to be able to to drive and drop the car in Taichung, we got Ford Focus, normal cost for 1 day is 2,100NT but since we predicted that we will return the car late in the afternoon and got promo buy 2 days only for 2,800NT so we rented 2 days instead, then we stopped for in a place for wonton. Dai Ji Bianshi. this is 4 generations' shop, so crowded, even on 11am and they only sell wonton, it's 65 NT/bowl of 6 wontoons. Good but not salty enough for me.
Short visit to Tzu Chi Foundation where we worked for in Indonesia, we went for Taroko National Park, but decided not to drive up Taroko later on since its raining and very slippery and both of us are not familiar with the road.
One last bite before departing for Taitung, another quite wellknown xiaochi, they called it zha dan cong you bing, basically its fried runny egg in pastry and when you bite it, it feels like exploded, so named zha dan (bomb). cost 60 NT/pcs.
We drove
down the highway 11 to Taitung, heard that the driveway is the best coastline and
yes it was...superb and magnificent. Only dark stopped us for spending
more time on the view, and rush to Taitung.
The homestay in Taitung was more expensive, 2,800-4,000/night but then we chose one that like Japanese stype with the separate bathroom for 1,200 NT, clean and cheap just in Taitung City, didnt really pay attention to the name but across 7eleven in Donghe Township not far from Jialu Lan recreation center.
Since nearby, we started from Jialu Lan youqi qu, its a recreation area overseeing the sea, before the favorite Taitung's antigravity spot (water flowing upside), in their language shui wang shangliu, it's around Dulan Fishing Bridge and halfway up the hill, A narrow ditch lies next to the stone and
water in the ditch runs upwards against gravity. But In fact, the tilting angle
of roadside landscape larger than that of the road surface is the
secret behind the illusion.
Another mangnificent spot was Brown Road or Avenue of Brown, mostly wellknown because of commercial adv of Takeshi Kaneshiro, we rented bicycle with two persons ride, for 200 NT if not mistaken but trust me, its hard to padel, its better renting a normal bicycle, although its straight and no traffic, its feel like ages to get to the end.
And...you shall visit Lu Ye Gao Dai too or Luh Yeh Highland, huge grass, although its more recommended to visit on summer when got hot air ballon festival.
Food is one of the reason people visiting Taiwan, and since we were nearby the Guanshan area, after trying the wellknow meatballs, they call it rou yuan, the picture below tells more I guess, for me, I am not a fan of it, especially I have to pay for the meals below for 100 NT.
Then night train brought us to Kaoshiung for more exiting moments shortly after dropping the car, lucky the dropping is only next to station because its heavy raining.
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