Lucie & Rhys´s Honeymoon Adventure: Week 54 - Taipei, Hualien, Tainan (Taiwan)

Our last day in Taipei we decided to head 25km south to Wulai, a mountainous area that we’d heard plenty of good things about. We planned to hike to the Dolls Valley and set off through the village, jumping on the tiny, rattly tourist log train to save a mile of the walk. The train dropped us off at the Wulai waterfalls. After a short photo stop we headed on to find the trail head. Sadly, like most places we’re finding in Taiwan, the trailhead isn’t easily accessible for people without their own transport and meant walking down a main road until we found the pedestrian bridge to cross to a wide paved trail running along the river dotted with small waterfalls (one of which Rhys had me scrambling up ropes and rickety ladders to get to a pool near the top). We walked as far as the next village before turning back and our timing was perfect, along the path on our return we came across two snakes, a Greater Green Snake and I think, a Big-Eyed Rat Snake, neither are venomous but of course we didn’t know that at the time and were pretty impressed with our sightings. Back in the village we headed to the public hot springs by the river intending on taking a dip but decided against it, it was a bit like bath time for the locals and we didn’t want to intrude. We grabbed some BBQ pork belly from one of the street stalls for a late lunch and went to wait for the bus back to Taipei.

Wulai waterfall.

Back in the city we had one more stop for the day, Taipei 101, the third tallest building in the world at 508m. We joined the queue and packed into the lift, the world’s fastest at 37.7mph. We wandered around the observatory and up to the open air platform, marveling at just how small everything seemed down below, before heading back to the hostel for a quiet night in the common room, popping out to browse the night market that was on our street and to buy delicious dumplings for dinner.

Taipei 101.

The next morning we checked out and headed to Taipei Main Station for a train to Hualien 2 hours south. That night we ate at the night market, joining the longest queue there thinking that it meant the food from that particular stall was amazing. It was definitely different, a sweet pork and beef stirfry wrap covered in crushed peanuts (we think).

On Friday we were up and at the bus station to catch the first bus out to the Taroko Gorge at 7:50am. We bought day tickets so we could hop on and off the bus all day stopping off at all the main points in the gorge. We started at Lushui where there was a short 2km trail cut into the cliff passing through forest and giving views of the river. Next we caught a bus down to Swallow Grotto for another 2km walk along a road cut right in to the rock face with overhangs and sheer walls of marble rising up out of the water below. The bus timetable was a bit odd with a huge gap in the middle of the day so we had a couple of hours to waste and ended up walking the 1km to the Buluowan trail to climb hundreds of steps up 120m to a little cafe where Rhys stopped for lunch while I checked out the bamboo groves. The bus finally came to take us back to Swallow Grotto where we then had another wait for a bus down to the Eternal Spring Shrine, a waterfall and small temple. After a lot more time spent on buses and waiting than actually walking we decided we’d stay in Hualien another night to go back the following day and attempt some longer trails.

View from Swallow Grotto trail, Hualien.

Swallow Grotto trail, Hualien.

The first bus for the weekend timetable was at 6:30am so we were up early to get to the bus station in time and had decided to start with a very popular hike near the entrance before the crowds descended. The first 1.5km of the Shakadang trail was beautiful, our early start meant we had the trail to ourselves apart from tribes people on their motorbikes going about their daily business. The path followed a smaller side gorge than the previous day and the river was crystal clear in contrast to the opaque grey water from recent landslides in the areas we’d seen already. Sadly though we’d read the trail was 4.5km long and at 1.5km it was blocked off due to landslides. We walked back to the start and caught a bus back up to the far end of the main gorge to Tianxiang. We had hoped to get a permit to allow us on to a longer trail but finding any information about trails and how to get a permit proved to be such a carry on and we were getting a bit past caring. We ended up heading to the Baiyang Waterfall trail a 6km round trip including the walk from the bus station (supposedly 1:20 hours plus 1.8km to and from the trail head). Once we got to the start we realised the next bus was in 45 minutes with a wait of 2:30 hours if we missed it. We practically ran it (actually we did run about a kilometre of it) and made it to the waterfall at the end. It was a shame as it was probably the nicest trail we found in the park, bright blue water, a sheer marble gorge, overhangs and tunnels dug into the mountain (for which we didn’t have flashlights) and a suspension bridge over the waterfall at the end and we even saw a monkey. We made the bus and arrived back in town at noon. Although not the most successful of hiking trips the gorge was very impressive and one of the grandest natural sites we’ve been to on our trip, we wish we’d had more advice from people before going and we would have looked at booking a scooter so we could do exactly what we wanted without relying on the buses. We spent the afternoon chilling in the hostel by the indoor fishpond and stopped by the night market for steak dinner.

Baiyang Waterfall trail, Hualien.

The next day we were up early yet again for our train to Kaohsiung, 5 hours away. The train trip was incredibly scenic, taking us through the East Rift valley, across the southern tip of Taiwan and up along the west coast. The whole way we were sandwiched between beautiful lush mountains and the sea, again we wished we had our own transport so we could take our time and enjoy it. Once in Kaohsiung we went straight to the ticket office for another ticket on a local train to Tainan. An hour later we were there. We jumped in a cab with the grumpiest cab driver ever and arrived at our hotel late afternoon. After all the early starts we were pretty shattered and relaxed in the room planning our route for Thailand and the Philippines. When we headed out for dinner, for the first time we were a bit lost. I can speak enough Spanish to read menus in Latin America without an issue and in Korea we would either point or things were in English, here we just have no idea. We walked around for a bit and finally came across a bar with a couple of pictures in the menu. We sat on hanging park benches and were served cold ribs and chips.

For the first time in a while we had a private room and weren’t woken by an alarm or other people in our dorm. We slept until 9:30am then headed down for breakfast (which we then didn’t eat - tofu and pickled vegetables...). We spent a couple of hours in the room until checkout before packing our bags and walking around the corner where after a few wrong turns we found our hostel and bed for the next 3 nights. We decided another chill afternoon was called for as we were feeling a little tired and headed to Macdonalds for a comforting western lunch. Rhys headed back to the room and I spent an hour or so wandering around the shops on the way back. Every street has many more lanes running off of it, it’s a real warren. At one point I followed some locals into an accessories market area and then got completely lost and thought I was never going to see the light of day again. That night we had more fun trying to find a stall where we could understand the menu and ended up at a deep fry buffet place where you point at what you want from a selection of vegetables and unidentifiable meats and the guy fries it on the spot. A bit of it was definitely chicken but what part of the chicken we have no idea.

The hostel we were staying at (Lucky House) had the most comfy bed we’ve had in ages and a lay in was on the cards. Tainan is Taiwan’s oldest city and is full of temples and history so around lunch time I headed out to visit the Confucius Temple and a couple of other spots leaving Rhys to chill in the room. I was expecting something a bit grander but it was quite peaceful and the gardens and huge banyan trees were pretty. After walking along the cafe and tree lined Fujhong Street, I stopped briefly at the Yonghua Temple before wandering over to the Koxinga Shrine (the guy responsible for throwing out the Dutch). It was nice enough with a few historical tidbits translated into English and I had the place to myself. Across the road I popped in to the Koxinga Museum which had a great exhibition on the Niaosong culture. On the way back to the hostel I stopped by the Taiwanese Literature Museum and the City God Temple, where all your good and bad deeds are weighed (favourite engraving of the day translates as “when all you do is crafty and evil, burning joss sticks is useless”). After an hour or so respite from the heat in the air con room Rhys joined me to visit the ChihKan Tower. We ended up helping some students with their English homework before going in. The fort was small but had some intricate roof details, I think the highlight though was feeding the hungry goldfish in the ponds in the grounds.