East Coast
Given breakfast voucher by the shop, we have it packed and set off as early as 7am for our next stop which is close to 6 hours drive away. This long drive truly defines what "it is not about the destination, it is the journey" all about. We have been driving on west coast highway all the way from Taichung to Kenting, which is located at the southern tip of Taiwan. We headed back to North via east coast and I must say it have to be one of the most eyes-pleasing drives that we ever had.
With these kinds of views most of the time when you are driving, it's hardly a sleepy ride.(Although I would have preferred to be passenger.)
After 2 hours and a half drive, we have a stop by at Taitung for brunch. I had "rou geng noodle" and it was nice, considered we found the eatery randomly. Taitung is rather a small town and all I know Ah Mei, a famous Taiwanese singer was born here.
The journey continued for another 3 hours with more green and blue on the way.
One can't help to stop and enjoy the view.
Hua Lien ( 花蓮)
Taroko National Park
Our check in at the hostel won't be until 3pm and hence we headed to Taroko National Park upon our arrival at Hua Lien City which is 30 minutes drive away. The park is pretty huge and if to be on foot it might take a while to cover the place. Shuttle bus is provided to get you around. We have our car to cover that. No entrance fee is charged.
Our first stop: Shakadang Trail
Basically the park is a gorge, or in another word, canyon. We were always in awe with the humoungus formation there. There are a number of spots that you can pick to visit if you don't feel like covering the whole place. Some sites may need to do some trekking. For our visit, we picked top three: Shakadang trail, Swallow Grotto and Eternal Spring Shrine. 2 hours was sufficent to cover these 3 main places.
Swallow Grotto. Hard hat is encouraged to be worn here and it is provided at the site. No rental fee.
The iconic Eternal Spring Shrine
Chishingtan
It was around 5pm when we decided to go to the beach (all of us were hungry due to absence of lunch but we won't want to miss another beach moment). Chisingtan is 25 minutes drive from Taroko towards the direction of the city. Cloudy day it was again that day but it's my first experience to visit a pebble beach. It was not white sandy beach where you lie on and tan for yourself but can't help to hear the sound of rolling pebbles as the ocean water gets back to the sea once it hits the shore.
It gets dark after 6pm and our stomach seems to agree. We have a quick check in at Lantian Baiyun (1800 yuan for a quad room and my friend commented it is one of the best toilets he has seen) and the guy at the hostel was friendly to recommend a place for dinner. We decided to go vegetarian dinner as everything else seemed to close in that oddly hour (except for night market, of course).
Animal-free yet scrumptious dinner @ Lu She Da Di
Zi Qiang Night Market
This market is rather small but it was quite organised compared to others that we went. The crowd was smaller but the atmosphere was still there. We get to try the barbequed maize which happens to be famous across Taiwan.
River Tracing
Had an early start on the next day for the activity we have been anticipated before the trip begins. Lantian Baiyun reverts to us with a quotation during the hotel booking and we decided to give River Tracing a go. I googled about it and it seems to be a popular local sport. 800 yuan per person, the cost covers transportation from our hostel, safety equipment, insurance, an instructor and the best part, photos!
Early part of our hike
Putting on the wet suit felt like we are going for a dive. But with helmet and safety jacket, don't think we can even make it to go under. Our instructor made us dip into the pool of chilly water before starting our tracing 300m upstream. My favourite part would be the cliff jumping, just 5m high though, which concluded our hike.
Happy faces after completing our tracing.
Tzu Chi
Hua Lien is the headquarter of Tzu Chi Organisation, a well-established corporation to provide relief effort. The basis of its foundation is parallel to Buddhism's teaching. They have their own hospital and university too. The workers work there are volunteers who are mostly retirees. We were shown around by a retired teacher, in which I hypothesised she was an English teacher. She has made two uncorfortable remarks during the tour but it was still an insightful visit.
The place is quite huge and you can skip this place if you have limited time. No entrance fee.
Tzu Chi Headquarter at Hua Lien
Tzu Chi Headquarter at Hua Lien
Bidding farewell to Hua Lien before heading to our next destination.
I'm going to miss this view as we are leaving Hua Lien County to further north.
It's about 3 hours and a half drive to Jiu Fen and some of the route were very hilly. Hence, I wouldn't recommend start driving late evening (which we did) as it could be very dangerous with minimum of light source. During our trip, it gets dark around 6pm in Taiwan.
Rejuvenating dinner at Su'ao, Yilan County before reaching Jiufen
