From Update at Jelloplanet - Jelloplanet - The life and adventures of Devin Raleigh; enthusiast of travel, language & culture, technology, photography, and more.

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.

From Hualien at Jelloplanet - Jelloplanet - The life and adventures of Devin Raleigh; enthusiast of travel, language & culture, technology, photography, and more.

The park is called Fengle Sculpture Park (豐樂雕塑公園). I had never been there before and like the name says, it is full of sculptures. We walked around for awhile and took pictures with the sculptures. We then walked for several hours all over Taichung city.

Walking around Taichung with Allison and Lien.

We ended up at the Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts which is enormous and had a lot of really cool exhibits. After wandering around the museum for a few hours we headed to Jhongli night market. We waited forever for a bus but just decided to get a taxi instead. We were pretty tired of walking.

Modern Toilet restaurant.

Another thing on my list of things to do in Taichung that I hadn’t done yet was to eat at the Modern Toilet. It’s a restaurant where the chairs are toilets and the table is a sink or bathtub. Your food comes served in miniature toilets.

Lien at the Modern Toilet restaurant.

I may not have been able to cross Water Zorbing off my list but I got see the Museum of Fine Arts and eat at the Modern Toilet.

Check out more photos in the Back to Taichung Photo Album

From Back to Taichung at Jelloplanet - Jelloplanet - The life and adventures of Devin Raleigh; enthusiast of travel, language & culture, technology, photography, and more.

They met me in Tainan and then we jumped on the train to Kaohsiung and then on a taxi to Kenting. I was able to negotiate a ridiculously cheap price for the 2 hour taxi ride.

Once we arrived, we rented a scooter. The problem was that a scooter can only supposed to carry up to two people at a time and neither Shauntelle or Lien could drive one so we couldn’t rent two scooters. At first Lien didn’t want to ride 3 people to the scooter but by the next day we convinced her and we were quite the sight with all three of us crammed on a little 125cc scooter.

The first afternoon there we spent on the beach right in front of the hostel. In the evening we headed to the night market further into town. Because Lien didn’t want to ride 3 on the scooter, I shuttled Lien into town and then went back to pick up Shauntelle.

Shauntelle and Lien at the ladyboy bar.

There is a decent night market in downtown Kenting that we checked out and then we went to a restaurant to grab some food. We sat outside because there was a live band playing. After the band played some songs a group of girls came out and sang a song. I told Lien and Shauntelle that they were really guys but they didn’t believe me. At the end of the song they went around greeting the guests. After Lien and Shauntelle shook hands with them and saw the man hands they believed me. Some of the ladyboys can be pretty convincing.

The next morning Shauntelle and I woke up early to go see the sunrise. We tried to get Lien to come with us but she still wouldn’t ride 3 on the scooter and the place was too far away to shuttle. The sunrise was pretty good but not as amazing as the first one I saw in Kenting. There were some other people there and two guys that kept looking at us. I thought they were going to come over to take a picture with Shauntelle but they asked me if they could take a picture with me… hmmm.. It’s pretty common for Taiwanese people to come up and ask to take a picture with you but usually it’s Taiwanese girls asking to take a picture with me.

Lien at Baisha Beach in Kenting.

We met back up with Lien and went to the southern most point of Taiwan and then spent the rest of the day at Baisha Beach, my favorite beach in Kenting but a bit out of the way.

We made arrangements for the same taxi cab to pick us up and take us back to Kaohsiung for the same ridiculously cheap price. We checked into Kaohsiung 202 (my favorite hostel in Kaohsiung) right next to Love River and spent the evening on Love River.

Lien and Shauntelle at Love Pier in Kaohsiung.

The place was packed. I had come here only a few weeks before with Allison and it was pretty normal even though it was Chinese New Year. Now there were people everywhere.

Lien and Shauntelle on ferry to Cijin Island.

This was Lien’s and Shauntelle’s first time in Kaohsiung so I showed them around. After we walked around Love River we went back to the hostel to call it a night. The next morning we headed to the ferry to go to Cijin Island where we saw the fort and lighthouse.

We jumped on the train and headed back to my apartment in Tainan. Below you can see how tiny it is. Both pictures are taken from the same spot. The first one shows my closet and desk and the other picture shows my bed. Behind me is just a tiny bathroom with shower/sink/toilet all in one. Just imagine 3 people spending the night there.

The next morning we all jumped on my scooter and I showed Lien and Shauntelle around Tainan. By this time Lien was accustomed to riding 3 on a scooter.

You can’t really beat a weekend on the beach in Kenting. It was also great to get to know Shauntelle better since I had only met her a couple of times before.

Check out more pictures of our adventures in the Weekend w Lien and Shauntelle Photo Album.

From Weekend with Lien and Shauntelle at Jelloplanet - Jelloplanet - The life and adventures of Devin Raleigh; enthusiast of travel, language & culture, technology, photography, and more.

I had only been in Tainan for about a month and haven’t really had the chance to go sightseeing. Tainan is an old city originally established by the Dutch East India Company. In 1661 when the Dutch colonists were defeated by Koxinga it became the capital of Taiwan (then under the rule of the Tungning Kingdom and shortly after the Qing Dynasty) up until 1887 when Taipei became the capital. The city is full of the history going through Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese rule.

Banyan tree taking over the Anping Tree House.

First we went to the Anping Tree House. The tree house was a warehouse for the British trading company Tait & Co. during the Japanese occupation. Now it has been completely taken over by a banyan tree. Next door the a museum with wax statues. We didn’t spend much time there because Allison has an extreme fear of wax statues.

After we went to the beach and went around the Anping night market which has become one of my favorite night markets.

Chihkan Tower.

Another relic of times long past is Fort Provintia now called Chihkan Tower (赤崁樓) built in 1653 and later taken over by Koxinga. I drive past it everyday to and from work and it’s a gorgeous building with a beautiful courtyard. They often have concerts there.

Rowing around the moat of Fort Zeelandia.

Fort Zeelandia is another Dutch fort built in the 17th century. Allison and I rented a rowboat and had a row around the moat.

Allison at the park in Kaohsiung.

Our next stop was Kaohsiung, a place I had been many times but perhaps my favorite city in Taiwan. We went to Dream Mall which is a massive mall with an amusement park on the roof and went for a ride on the Ferris Wheel. We walked around the city and went to the park.

Love River.

In the evening we went to Love River which was even more amazing than normal. The boardwalk along the river and all the different colored lights reflecting in the water is always captivating but for Chinese New Year they added a giant carnival, fireworks, water fountains in the middle of the river, and a place where you could go around in paddle boats.

It was a great holiday and an great opportunity to experience more of the culture.

Check out more photos in the Chinese New Year Album.

From Year of the Rabbit – Chinese New Year at Jelloplanet - Jelloplanet - The life and adventures of Devin Raleigh; enthusiast of travel, language & culture, technology, photography, and more.