Thursday was a holiday in Taiwan, but Friday was not. The government allowed everyone to be closed, if they worked on a Saturday. I was very bitter and shocked that I had to work a six day week in order to have a four day weekend. I felt much worse for all the poor children that had to be at school on a Saturday.
So after the long week, I had four days of holiday. A friend and I decided to go to Hualien on the east coast. Hualien means lotus flower in Chinese.
There were warnings of a typhoon, but the weather predicted it wouldn’t hit until Saturday. We were crossing our fingers that the rain would hold off until then.
Our train arrived early in the evening. As I pulled out my map to locate our hostel, it began to rain. It rained almost non-stop for the rest of our holiday.
In the morning, we rented scooters to explore the seaside cliffs north and south of the town. I negotiated for the bikes in Chinese and was quite proud.
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| Southern coast |
Hot springs south of Hualien. We basically paid for a private bath tub that we could fill with artesian well water. A bit disappointing.
It’s been a while since my last hostel. Was glad to be out of the rain.
This was as close as we got to Taroko Gorge. The tunnel into the park was closed with a gate and a guard. We were so disappointed, but decided to head north and see more coastline.
I think that this river looks very different when there isn’t a typhoon.
Rain pouring into the tunnel.
Shortly after the tunnel, the rain became so bad that we decided to turn back. It was nice to see such a pretty coastline.
On Saturday afternoon, we had had enough. Our train wasn’t due to leave until 2:00 A.M. on Sunday, but we decided to see if the train station would exchange out tickets for earlier ones. It turned out that all trains were cancelled due to the typhoon. We were giving the option to take a small local train north, and then a bus to Taipei. With our tickets refunded, we were happy to leave.
Exhausted and sick of rain, we managed to squeeze onto the local train north.
The holiday was a bust, but I did get to see some nice coastline and I had excellent company.
Advice: Don’t go when there is a typhoon. The majority of the spring, summer, and fall has spectacular weather.
Hostel – Surfing Formosa Backpackers Hostel 15 minute walk from the train station.
206 Jian Guo Road, Hualien City, Hualien, Taiwan
p. +886 3 8352515/+886 0913 810 828
Escape From the American Dream 