We said goodbye to Taichung after five days in the city and Nantou region. We’re at the midpoint of our trip to Taiwan, and the next leg of our trip is to take us to Hualien – population 104,000 according to the 2016 census – where we’ll spend two days and a night. Since driver Kong was available in the morning – his next client was a 10AM pick-up of Hong Kong tourists and arriving at Taichung Airport – he was able to ferry us from our Taichung apartment to the city’s HSR station. He got us to the station plenty early with time to spare, and we gave him a fat tip on top of the NTD300/SGD13.35 fare, and said our goodbyes. The kids, and especially Peter, are going to miss him. Kong has been a genial, flexible and accommodating person and a superb driver. And most important of all, his driving skills and solid vehicle meant that I didn’t get even the slightest whiff of vertigo during our Taichung stay. That alone really made it possible for me to enjoy this trip so far!
We’d collected the train tickets for our three train transfers – Taiching => Taipei + Taipei => Hualien, and Hualien => Taipei on Day 07 – on the first evening at a Family Mart outlet near our Taichung apartment (there’s an administrative charge involved and charged per ticket – we had twelve tickets, so it cost NTD107/SGD4.76 in all), so all we needed to do was to scan our printed tickets at the gate and head to our assigned seats when the HSR train arrived. The HSR leg from Taichung to Taipei took an hour ten minutes, and was comfortable and smooth. Arriving at Taipei main station, we had another hour before the connection to Taichung, so it was as good an opportunity to feed our two younglings. The Taichung to Hualien segment was via normal i.e. slower rail, but we opted for the express train still which was an hour faster than the normal service. Still, this second leg was less comfortable and pretty bumpy than the HSR segment earlier on, and took 2 hours 23 minutes including a ten minute delay where the train stopped just before reaching Hualien.
The host of our stay in Hualien picked us up and brought us to the house – beautifully renovated, and I think Ling just might do a blog post of it at some point – then drew us a map, and annotated it with all manner of instructions, phone numbers to call, and references – then drove us out again to drop us off for lunch at 王記茶舖, a restaurant with a range of lunch sets that come with bubble teas. Post-lunch was decision time: we’d arrived in Hualien at a bit of an odd time: the night market wasn’t going to open until several hours later, the launching of fireworks at Chisingtan Scenic Area could only be in the evening and Hualien city itself isn’t dense with things for visitors to do (outside food that is). We decided to head straight to Chisingtan for a mid-afternoon checkout, so dialed a referred cab company from our host to ferry us across the about 6km distance. Interesting point to note: the cab referrals via our host all gave us a decent discount of NTD100/SGD4.45 each ride as soon as we mentioned that we were staying with her- very nice!
Along the way to the Scenic Area, the cab driver remarked that setting off of fireworks isn’t permitted anymore. Not that we could verify that information, but we didn’t see anyone selling firecrackers anyway when doing a quick visual around the Area after we arrived. The beach at the Scenic Area is quite suitable for a leisurely stroll, though the coastal winds at this time of the year are quite strong, even if it doesn’t approach the gale-like force we experienced at Gaomei Wetlands. So, we opted to rent bikes (NTD200/SGD8.90 for a dual-type bike, NTD150/SGD6.67 for normal ones), and headed out. The kids loved the experience, though that’s probably in part because it was daddy mommy providing the horsepower for them to enjoy it!
Next stop after a visit to Chisingtan was to Dongdamen night Market – in the next post!
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