My first week of travelling on my own. Here are the pictures! I am very surprised there aren't any Swedes here, I only encounter Finnish people all the time. First in Hualien, then on the boat to Lyudao.
I forgot to bring my sunglasses, not for the last time... I am wondering, though, who came up with the stupid idea to put WHITE tiles in front of Chiang Kai-shek's Memorial Hall? I practically had to walk with my eyes closed to get over the square.
Someone had left fruit in the park: some squirrels came to enjoy watermelon in the heat.
The world's second tallest building (or maybe third, I think Tokyo Skytree might be a bit taller, now that it's finished) Taipei 101.
Inside the shopping centre beneath Taipei 101. This fountain looked quite fun: there were lots of holes in the ground and the water would erupt randomly from different holes. Lots of children were playing there, trying to avoid getting wet. The shopping centre had other interesting things as well, such as the grocery store with REAL cocoa powder (unfortunately I can't carry it with me) as well as a wide array of cheese, butter, sour cream and the most delicious sandwiches ever. I also found this book shop with a lot of English titles, although my main interest were the maps: I managed to find a map of 中華民國, the Republic of China, displaying all areas claimed by the country I'm currently in (including all of mainland China, Mongolia and areas currently in possession by Afghanistan, Russia and India, to mention a few).
In one of the shopping centres next to Taipei 101 I found this jigsaw puzzle shop with puzzles with motives from anime and Disney. No shopping, though, my backpack is more than full already.
Salmon, fried in butter, found at Shilin Night Market. Delicious!
A very price-worthy dessert: an enormous pile of chocolate, banana and something icy for merely 70 yuan!
The one and only, original 臺灣的珍珠奶茶! Here they however seem to give you like a litre or something of the drink, it is impossible to drink it all! Comparing with the ones sold in Shanghai the beverage seems to contain more milk here and the "pearls" are much tastier.
太熱了! Even at night it is unbearably hot!
Considering that in Sweden I can not carry my bicycle anywhere on public transportation, Taipei is really generous no matter that some stations are closed to the possibility to take bikes.
Nice with a temple that is not a souvenir shop and with free entry. Something for the People's Republic to think of.
Travelling southwards to Hualien. As you may notice, the transcription to Latin letters is not quite consistent on the two signs. Pinyin is a difficult issue on Taiwan, them having two different pinyin (hanyu pinyin, the same as on the mainland, as well as tongyong pinyin, invented on Taiwan). Depending on how much you like mainland China, there will be different views on which pinyin system to use. This means that in practice, most major cities use some sort of ancient Wade-Giles system when transcribing their names (the same thing with ordinary people when transcribing their personal names), while computers work by writing with zhuyin, a character system that works a bit similar to hiragana/katakana or the Korean alphabet, where every character represents a sound. As the system is so chaotic, people here are really bad at pinyin and asking them to write anything in pinyin to make it easier for me to pronounce is pointless. Oh, and about the train, I think it left around midday, as I arrived in Hualien at 15.10. The ticket cost 440 yuan.
I would love to swim... Everyone that goes to Hualien visits the Taroko gorge, as did I. I took the bus from Hualien bus station at 9.00 to Taroko Visitor Centre. The trip took around 40 minutes and cost 92 yuan. Do note that no change is given, you have to carry the exact amount. At the visitor centre there was not much, they don't hand out helmets anymore, no matter the signs you might see in the gorge about them doing this. Helmets are handed out farther up in the gorge. Therefore I set out to the Shakadang trail, beginning 1 km away along the road from the visitor centre. The Shakadang trail is a piece of cake to walk: 4,5 km one way on an almost flat surface. The views were beautiful and free!
In the forest along Shakadang.
Here but no further. It would be possible to continue walking in a loop from Shakadang trail end, but it requires a permit, so I had to turn back to the beginning of the trail.
I have never seen so many butterflies in my life as along the Shakadang. They were available in all colours and this one was as big as a small bird!
After Shakadang I set out for the Eternal Spring Shrine trail a short walk away. This one is much hillier and more tiring to walk than Shakadang, although compared to Taishan this still was a piece of cake. This is the suspension bridge right at the beginning/end (depending on where you start to walk along the trail). It was a bit scary to walk across it, as it was shaking and I was way higher up than I would like to fall...
View from the Bell Tower on the Eternal Spring Shrine trail.
Butterflies were not the only animals in the gorge: I saw animals all the time!
The Eternal Spring Shrine. This was located at the end of the trail seen from where I began: apparently the trail was closed for maintenance today, which I didn't notice until I got here, as they had only put up the notice on this end of the trail. I had wondered while I was walking why there were no other people at all in sight. From here I took the bus back to Hualien, costing 104 yuan and taking about 45 minutes.
Having some Taiwanese 火鍋, hot pot. The portion cost 100 yuan and included free drinks from their drinks buffet (not too large) as well as FREE ICE CREAM FROM THEIR ICE CREAM BUFFET!!! As the 火鍋 was rather 還可以 (so-so), although enormous for 100 yuan, it was perfect to end the dinner with some ice cream to get a nice taste in your mouth before leaving. This restaurant is located in central Hualien, right to the east of a very new McDonald's and a shop called 199, if I remember the number correctly.
Time to leave Hualien. I took the train to Taitung leaving at 08.20, arriving around 11 (we should have arrived right before 11, but we were a few minutes late). The ticket cost 345 yuan.
From Taitung station I went to the bus stop to take the bus to Fugang harbour. There are 6 buses a day, so it can hardly be called a frequent service. The trip cost 42 yuan and took about 45 minutes. Both the train station and the harbour are located far from central Taitung, so I did not really get any picture on what kind of city Taitung is.
Tickets to 綠島, Lyudao (sometimes translated to Green Island), are bought! A round trip ticket cost 920 yuan, as you can see on the blue part of the ticket. This boat trip is VERY well-known to make people seasick even in good weather. I was however spared from this, but instead I got to sit and listen to other people vomiting during the 55-minute-long ride, beginning at 15.30 (I think this might have been the last boat for the day, or maybe there was one more, the boats stop going very early). The rough sea begins almost instantly as the boat exits the harbour and continues until it stops at the harbour on Lyudao, Nanliao harbour. If you are inclined to get seasick, you most likely will get seasick on this trip, as even during an excellent day as this the waves were high (of course there was some variation in their height, but it was not such a smooth ride as the one from Qingdao to Incheon or from Yeosu to Jeju). On this ticket you can notice another Taiwanese peculiarity: the date. As they use Republic of China years here, currently it is year 101. I was talking with a Taiwanese on the train and talking about old events in the 1940s made him have to start counting what 1949 is in Republic of China years. Interesting.
From the Nanliao harbour, I had been promised pickup service by my hostel: as I walked along the pier, looking at the signs people were holding I couldn't see my hostel until at the very end, by the scooters... After what felt like an eternity of crazy overtaking of other scooter drivers (no helmets, of course) we finally arrived at the tiny Gongguan village on the Northern side of the island. I wonder what they would have done if I had had a large suitcase with me, as it could hardly have been fitted on top of a scooter.
First time I see this kind of warning sign! After leaving my bags I went for something the islanders never do: I went for a walk. There was lots of amazement over this strange 外國人, foreigner, walking 3 km to the lighthouse. On Lyudao people take their scooter even to their neighbour. I saw no crabs, though.
Right below the lighthouse there was this amazing water pit: for not being a hot spring the water was astoundingly warm! I was getting ready to gasp for my breath when putting my toe in the water, but instead I was pleasantly surprised. I had not brought my swimsuit with me, but I didn't care, I swam in my underwear. This is one of very few places on Lyudao where you are allowed to swim, as the sharp coral reefs and the high waves in combination with the cliffs have made the local authorities to ban swimming along most of the coast. Therefore, this pit is a must-visit if you want to swim!
The lighthouse at sunset.
On my way back I was getting rather hungry, so I stopped at one of the million 250 yuan barbeques they have on the island. I got to eat as much as I wanted from their buffet, but right as the sun had set it was starting to rain these insects from the sky. I don't know what was wrong with them, they were flying around like crazy, colliding with everything. As the biggest of them were of the size of a 5 kr coin, it was quite unpleasant. Three of them fell onto my grill: two of them I managed to swipe away, but the third one got stuck with its feet and died.
Vad är detta för lol-färdsätt, pall på flaket av en bil? Var är mitt trepunktssäkerhetsbälte!? On my way to go snorkelling. The entire excursion, booked by my hostel, cost 300 yuan and we got all the equipment needed as well as 30 minutes of floating around on the reef, looking at the colourful fish. The corals themselves are not particularly colourful here, the patterns were more interesting. I was once again the only 外國人, foreigner, so the safety instructions included were not of much use for me as they were only given in Chinese.
I rented a bike for the day as well! 200 yuan for a... ridable... bicycle. Riding a bike is pure freedom! Once again I was stared at with disbelief: will I really be riding a bicycle, not renting a scooter instead? The weather would be so hot! As I have never driven a scooter, I did not want to rent one now either. Scooters being the main mode of transport here was very clearly noticed during the snorkelling excursion as well: suddenly all of us participating jumped on their scooters to drive to the beach where we could access the reef, when they noticed that I only had a bicycle, meaning that someone had to sacrifice himself and take the 外國人, foreigner, with him.
Riding along the west coast of the island. The cars and scooters were few and far between, only my bicycle, the waves and I!
At one of the world's only 3 salt water hot springs, the Jhaorih hot springs (Zhaori with hanyu pinyin, outside Taipei area most places use tongyong pinyin with which zhaori is spelled jhaorih). Some of the pools were too literally hot springs, making it difficult to stay there for too long, but luckily there were pools to cool down in as well. Entrance ticket was 200 yuan.
The eastern coast of the island was quite rough to ride along, as the road climbed very high up. For almost 3 km (I think) there was constant uphill... The view over the Pacific Ocean was rewarding, though.
Should you visit this ice cream bar in Gongguan village on Lyudao, mind the threshold at the door, as I stumbled on it both on my way in and out... My toe is still hurting.
Wiie, jag haver orkat studera hur man får självutlösaren på min kamera att fungera! Här haver jag fått en sticka i hälen.
The announcement in the middle made me confused at first. The first announcement (not shown in picture) would probably be very calming for Ouliwei to know, as they were warning against venomous snakes.
On my final day I thought I should visit a cave I had seen a sign about the day before when I was riding my bicycle, the Swallow cave. Swallow cave was nothing special though, only lots of birds inside. On the outside there was however an interesting debate between some crabs going on that I listened to and observed for quite a while, until a group of screaming tourists arrived and the crabs ran away under the large rock to the left.
Time to take the seasickness express back, leaving Nanliao harbour at 12.30, travelling for 50 minutes. One of the people working at the hostel told me to sit in the back if I would not want the trip to be so bumpy: the waves sure were a lot less noticeable.
A simple meal on Taitung railway station. As there are only 6 buses per day from Fugang harbour and none of them would fit if I wanted to get to my train, I had to take a taxi. The 10,3 km long journey cost 305 yuan (although he charged me only 300). Starting fee is 100 yuan, then it rises 5 yuan for every 230 metres. The trip took about 15 minutes.
Waiting for the train.
Arrival in Fangliao. My train left Taitung 16.00, arriving in Fangliao at 17.43. The trip cost 138 yuan. From Fangliao it is possible to take the bus to Kenting if you exit the train station, walk right ahead past the part of the street with tiles and turn left around the corner at the first road you come across. Here you will see some seats on the street next to 7-Eleven: this is the Fangliao bus stop. Here is a hole in the wall where you can buy tickets. This side of the street is where buses towards Kaohsiung depart, the Kenting buses depart from the other side of the street where there is a sign with a big mouth. The trip cost 184 yuan and the trip took about 1 hour and 15 minutes. The buses run all day (I have read rumours about them going 24/7, I am not sure whether this is true).
The bus does not announce stops, rather people seem to get off at random places just by telling the driver. I am not sure if this is really how it works or if the driver was just being nice. Luckily, someone wanted to get off right in front of my hostel, so in Kenting I did not have to walk at all, just step inside. Now I'm sitting in the lobby, enjoying the views of the night market outside.
And a map of my travels.
勿行！
