The train trip from Hualian to Taidong is really nice. In fact, they should market it as a vacation in and of itself. It skirts along the coast, passing through countryside, mountain, and along the beach.

On the way there, I was studying while a little boy, maybe 4 or so, was walking back and forth on the car with his mom a few steps behind. He did this for about 15 minutes without any incident, until he randomly saw me sitting near the aisle. He just stopped, and stared for an uncomfortably long time.

哎弟弟，你叫什麽名字？(Hey little brother, whats your name?)

O_O

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O_O

Eventually his mother came and took him away and saved me much awkwardness.

So arriving in Taidong, I was ambushed by cab drivers saying in broken English "Taxi? You need taxi?" I haven't ever really felt homesick for China, but that was one time that I did. I really miss the aggressive sales tactics and negotiating prices. I looked at the bus schedule to when I could go to the museum, but the time passed without any bus showing up. I relented and got a cab, which actually was pretty cheap.

Speaking of China, the museum is a prime example of what China would NOT do. They were building a new train station for Taidong a few years back, when they uncovered a burial ground of aboriginal Taiwanese. China would say "Who cares, fill it in with concrete and call it a day." Instead Taiwan went and preserved it, and built a first class ancient history museum on site, and tried really hard to preserve everything as is. Their IT guy was not preserving their computer system however, because in the main exhibit the computers were down, and a lot of the monitors had blue screens of death on it. That was the first time I've ever had to say the plural of blue screen of death, so I'm not really sure where the S goes. As expected, there were some guys playing around with Windows, but more interestingly, I noticed that the error message on the tiny screens in front of the exhibits let you access the GUI. It had a voice recorder app, and the tablet had a built in mic. I recorded a greeting and put the file on their NAS. Maybe one day some curious IT guy will find it.


It's a really cool place, albeit a bit far from the city. In fact, the regular train station is too. I hope when they go back to the drawing board for a new station, they put one not out in the suburbs. So, I started to look for a way into Taidong. As luck would have it, it turns out there was no way into Taidong. And there were no cabs waiting. I was told a tour bus arrived in an hour, and I could maybe go back on that? But usually the tickets are purchased in advance. Again, I waited and no bus came. I was thinking "I'm going to have to walk 10km to my hostel." However, a large group on a hotel shuttle was milling around outside. I went up to the driver, and looking as pathetic as possible, asked him if I could hitch a ride with him back to Taidong. He was nice enough to say yes, but that they were going to another few places first. Alright then.

So on the bus, the tour guide got on the mic and said that we have a new friend joining us, and I introduced myself. She spoke in Mandarin at first to me, but when doing the tour switched to Taiwanese. I tried to act like I totally knew what was going on, I think to the amusement of the people around me. I pulled out my phone and was wondering where in the world we were going. We stopped at this temple a bit outside of town, which I had no desire to see. The driver also stayed and didn't turn off the motor, so we weren't there for but a minute or so. Driving back closer to the city, I noticed my hostel was a much more comfortable 2km or so. We stopped at a banquet hall type place, and I figured we may not get any closer than this - so I thanked them and went on my way.

My hostel was actually on Google Maps, which I have never seen happen before. However it leads back to what appears to be a bunch of sheds and abandoned buildings. I actually stepped inside a lobby type area, but had no idea if this was a hostel or not. I called them, and the guy said he would come grab me at this street nearby. It turns out the lobby I stepped inside WAS my hostel. They really need to put up a sign... and get a better location. Seriously, would you think there's a hostel here?

While there I met some more friends, Brandy and Mark. Both native Taiwanese, they were in Taidong to visit a hot air balloon show a bit outside of town. They were also going to a concert that night, and asked if I wanted to come along. Why, sure! So we went off to a park to see a very talented native Taiwanese sing. Seriously, she was really good. I met an Australian guy named Robert, who asked if I had ever tried Taiwanese chewing gum. I cautiously said no, and he offered me some. Turns out it was a betel nut, which I had indeed tried once before - it's basically chewing tobacco, and is kind of a working class sort of thing. I took it to be polite, and while not the most unpleasant thing in the world, it's not exactly great. Try it if you come. But only one time.

Heading back to the hostel, we picked up a bunch of beer. Mark, like all Taiwanese, was in the military. BUT, he was actually was part of the honor guard that protects the most important monuments around Taiwan - 3 in Taipei, and 1 in Taoyuan. He answered some of my stupid questions in regards to that.

1) The rifles are M1 Garands.
2) All the clips are empty.
3) Every day, they have to get up at dawn and stand at attention, outside, for 2 hours.
4) While standing at attention, there are coins placed on each shoulder. If one falls, they have to go back to training.
5) While doing the routine, there are plain clothes guys in the crowed watching. Any slip-up and you're out of the honor guard.
6) They are so focused they don't really see people individually, so my silly faces are for naught.
7) The tours are 3 months long.

Later the singer from the concert showed up! We had a few drinks with her, and I chatted with another guy named Ben. It was 1am though, and amazingly, we were getting up at 4am to go watch balloons.

Wait... the show is at 4am? Shit.

So 4am comes along, and they wake me up. Thankfully they were driving, and the trip was about 45 minutes each way. As you can expect, I promptly fell asleep in the car. The show itself was cool, I especially liked the Darth Vader balloon. They played the imperial march when it took off. All in all, a lot of balloons leaving this mountain to fly around for a bit.

Back in Taidong, I took a nap before checking out. The first spot I wanted to see was the old train station right next to the hostel. Basically, when they shut this thing down, they decided instead of bulldozing it, they would just turn it into a park and let people paint, play music, or do whatever they want. It turned into a sort of artist village, and it's pretty cool to run around the old station and tracks. After checking that out, I went off to Liyu mountain to get a birds eye view. Again, not terribly tall, but it did have some cool looking temples on the way. Unfortunately there wasn't anything else in Taidong, so hailed a cab to go back to the train station. The cab driver was super nice - he told me exactly how to get to Kending, and we chatted about the weather, Taidong, life in general. I didn't have the exact amount and he didn't have change, so he was really cool and waited for me to buy a ticket to break my $1000. Nice fella.

Taking the south link line, it's about 50% tunnel through the mountains in the center of the island. This continues until you pop out the other side, near by destination, Fengliao. But that's it for next time.

I have completed my week long trip around Taiwan, which was quite a trek. I met lots of new people, became more familiar with a train system than I thought possible, and learned that I can fall asleep on a park bench with little effort. But over the next few weeks I'll try to type up and post my time spent at all these various little spots around Taiwan, and my impressions of them. My first stop on the trip was Hualian.

















I had to work until 6:00 on Friday, so I rushed out to Taipei main to catch the train there. It was about a 2.5 hour journey, so I wasn't sure how late the trains ran. Well I was lucky and yet unlucky. There was a train leaving in about 20 minutes after I got there, but it was completely sold out. You can get a commuter ticket, intended for short term trips where you stand the whole time. However, standing for that long with my bag was not really appealing. About 30 minutes after that, there was another train that I would only have to stand for a little ways, then a seat would become available. I opted for that one instead.

It turns out commuter-only tickets are fun. You just kind of park yourself in the walking area off to the side of the bathrooms/water dispenser. And fortunately it was night, so the lack of AC wasn't too big of a concern, but I wouldn't want to do it during the day. Anywho I was going car to car trying to find a place to crash when I came across Guy.

I call him "Guy" because I don't know his name. He was a foreigner, judging by his accent American or Canadian, playing a ukulele. I knew there was a long trip ahead, so I sat across from him and struck up a conversation. Guy is very strange. At first I enjoyed his company, but at around an hour in, I wanted to run away. I asked him his name, to which he responded "Man, I don't do interviews, there's so much more to talk about!"

Okay then.

Turns out "more to talk about" includes his idea that hallucinogenic drugs are the best thing ever, and that he didn't buy a ticket because "the trains going there anyway" and "They don't need money - its all the governments plan to keep the population in check". His attitude was amusing until he started saying really crass comments in English to the people walking by us. "Ah look at this old lady, what a bitch." and "Nice legs darling, come back to my place and I'll show you a good time." I don't know what it's like in Hualian, but in general, people in Taipei can speak English - especially young people. I decided that if he wanted to embarrass whatever country he was from he could do it by himself, so I made for my seat. "Hey man, you just gonna bail? Okay yeah whatever, get out of here then." Yup. Seeya, asshole.

Anyway, I made it to my hostel, had a nice rest, and woke up the next morning to head off to Taroko Gorge. Taroko is a pretty place, and there are several tours there daily. But it's kind of the off season, so not as many now. I took the bus to the end, a village high up in Taroko called Tianxiang. I sat down in a small restaurant for lunch and ordered my favorite, beef and noodles. The owner came up to me with an Asian man and said in Chinese, "This guy doesn't speak and Chinese but can speak English - can you help him order?" I chuckled at the absurdity of the situation. I told him what most of what they had to offer, and we ate together.

His name is David, who was very nice but I feel a little sorry for. He owns a company that sells bubble tea in Seoul, and is in Taipei most of the year to help launch the business here. His wife and kids live back in the UK, who he rarely sees - so he decided to do a weekend getaway. After going around Tainxiang, it was time to leave, but a landslide blocked the road. Stuck there, David and I drank for about 2 hours. So, that was fun.








Going down to the next stop, I bid him farewell and started to hike down. It's really pretty there, and although the bus stops have people milling about, usually I was completely alone in this vast canyon. I was quite surprised when I came across a cafe in the middle of nowhere. I got another beer and took a rest.

Continuing on, I found another bus waiting at almost at the entrance to Taroko. I didn't know when another one would come, so I quickly ran and hopped on. Grabbing a seat at the back, I found Jordyn. Jordyn is an intern in Taipei, on her last week before heading back to the states. She was super nice, and was apparently not offended enough by my likely terrible BO to talk to me. Turns out we stayed at the same hostel, in fact, the next room over. She was going to a beach, and was cool enough to let me come along.

Hualian beach is so so. It's really just a park next to the ocean, because nobody really swims there. It's covered with rocks, and really isn't all that pretty. But for some reason it's also next to an Air Force base, and there were F-16s both on the ground and in the air. I thought that was cool.

After a stroll around the beach, we went to catch the last bus back to the city. Hualian is the city of waiting, because I swear the bus took 1.5 hours to get there. In all, I probably spent 5 hours of my day waiting on fraking buses. So, screw you Hualian. After getting back to the city we went to the night market, which is so incredibly small it's not worth it.

If you can believe it, we met more people at Hualian night market. We ordered some food, and sat at a table with a very nice couple. The guy was named Apollo, AKA the coolest name ever. He and his wife live near Kaohsiung, and invited us out to visit - unfortunately I didn't have any time to do so, but we had a nice chat anyway. I went to get some watermelon juice for us, and I swear to god, I had to stand 30 minutes in line. After waiting all day, I was about ready to kill someone.

So after saying goodbye to Jordyn, and getting a nice rest, I was going to go around Hualian and see the city before heading off to Taidong. This included a hike up Meilun Mountain, a visit to the Martyrs Shrine, see a several hundred year old tree, and finally eat at a famous restaurant. Meilun is a pretty wussy mountain, but was a nice way to spend 30 minutes. The Martyrs Shrine was pretty. Now, as far the tree goes, that is the biggest load of BS I've ever heard. This tree is not 100 years old. I'd be shocked if it was 100 days old. No tree grows like that. The info I got from the hostel said it's completely natural, I guess in the way that your mouth "naturally" spewed nonsense. Maybe they mean just the top, but I find the whole thing suspect. Take a look at the pic and decide for yourself. Yes, this was absolutely the right place. A sign nearby said the same.

The last stop before leaving Hualian was Gongzheng Dumplings. The line was massive, but I had nowhere else to be, so why not? The guy in front of me said this place invented Xiao Long Bao. I acted impressed, but thought in no way was that true. A quick internet search confirms that. Regardless, I walked back to the train station with my bounty of baozi, ready to leave this city of waiting and lying.