Hualien

Allison and I at the gates to Taroko Gorge.

I had been to Taroko Gorge in Hualien back in 2010 but Allison had never been so we planned a trip over the long holiday weekend.

Taiwan is divided by a massive mountain range running north/south down the center of the island. Hualien is located on the less populated eastern side of Taiwan. Tainan is located on the southwest coast and Taichung, where Allison lived, is on the west coast right in the middle. To get to Hualien you have to take a train or bus either to Taipei around the northern tip of the island or to Kaohsiung and then around the southern tip of the island.

It takes 5 or 6 hours to go from Taichung to Hualien so we wanted to leave Taichung early Saturday morning to give us the most time possible in Hualien. That meant that I had to leave Tainan Friday night after work, arrive in Taichung around midnight, and then wait for about 5 hours until the first train left Taichung for Hualien.

It didn’t seem to make much sense to me to pay for a hostel since by the time I got there and checked-in I would have to leave in a couple of hours. Many places also charge a fee for late check-in. So what was I going to do in Taichung for 5 hours in the middle of the night?

Sleeping in Taichung park.

I wandered around the city a bit and went to Taichung park and took some random photos. I tried to take a nap in the park but I couldn’t really sleep so I basically just wandered.

Allison met me at the train station in Taichung a little bit before our train was to leave for Hualien. The train was of course sold out so we didn’t have a seat. We found a nice spot on the floor by the doors and camped out for the long ride.

Once we got to Hualien the owner of the hostel arranged to pick us up from the train station. The hostel was full but she took us to a really nice fully furnished apartment that they rent by the week and charged us the same price as the hostel. I’d much rather stay in a furnished apartment than share a tiny room with bunkbeds and 5 other people.

We dropped off our stuff and the owner of the hostel gave me a ride to a scooter rental shop. I rented a scooter then went back to pick up Allison and off we went. There is a highway that goes all along the eastern coast that is a beautiful drive. We drove all over the coast and then up into the mountains.

Driving around the mountains on the coast.

The next day we headed to Taroko Gorge which is about a 30 minute drive outside Hualien. When I went last year, we just got a taxi/tour that drove us around from one place to another. The nice thing was that he would drop us off at the trail head for a hike and then pick us up on the other side. This time I had a scooter so we had much more freedom about where we wanted to go. We did have to backtrack a little for some hikes though.

Allison and I on the scooter.

We spent the day hiking all over the place and didn’t leave until it started getting dark. On the way back I felt something hit my leg while I was driving but I didn’t know what it was. We stopped at a Tepanyaki place for some dinner and I realized that I had lost my watch. The pins in the band came loose and it fell off. It was pretty sad since it was a really nice solar powered G-Shock watch that I had had for 6 or 7 years. We went back the next day but couldn’t find it.

We then wen to a weird dried fish Museum in SinCheng and too a cool stone beach where they catch giant Sunfish.

Beach at SinCheng. This photo is from a previous trip to Hualien.

Hualien, like pretty much every other city in Taiwan, has a few night markets. The owner of the hostel told us about one night market that was famous all over Taiwan for a special barbecue place. We filled up our basket with what we wanted and placed our order. We were #190 and they were currently serving #73. It was going to be a couple of hours wait but everyone told us it was worth it. Neither of us really thought it was that good.

Now serving #73…

While wandering around the night market we stopped in front of an arcade. There is a game in most arcades that has a Japanese Taiko drum. It’s basically like Rock Band… but with a Taiko drum. I played one game and then this little kid comes up to me and asks me in Chinese if I want to play with him. He goes and grabs a stool around the corner so he can reach the drums and pulls out some coins. We played a couple of songs together. It was one of the cutest things ever seen. I have a video that I might upload but for now here is a picture.

Playing Taiko drumb game with cute Taiwanese kid.

Even though the weather was a bit cold and overcast it was a great trip. The eastern coast is amazing and Taroko Gorge is such a beautiful place I don’t think I would ever get tired of going there.

Check out more pictures from this trip in the Hualien Photo Album. You can see a lot more pictures of Hualien and Taroko Gorge from my previous trip in the Taroko Gorge Photo Album.