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.