Hualien - Taiwan - Day 4 - 9 Days Backpacking

Day 4

6 of us woke up at 4.15AM this morning to try to catch the Hualien sunrise at ChiXingTan on bike. The night before we ask for directions from Chi but when we went out to the streets, we still got kinda lost. So at 4.35AM, I was thinking whether we would miss the sunrise. The morning sunrise in Hualien was estimated to be around 5.15AM and we were not sure if we could find our way.

So somehow we came to this section of the road where we thought, let's just follow this route. I still do not know how we did it, but soon it looked like we were on our way. The route I took was 5KM, but took about 45mins to complete because there's a section where it was straight uphill for 2KM.

By the time we reached the beach, it was already bright, but thankfully there was a little cloud cover on the horizon, and we managed to sneak it as a sunrise when it appeared over the clouds at 5.21AM. The view was magnificent and the beach was really beautiful as well. If you thought of proposing here, please do. The atmosphere is totally made for it.




The trip back to the hostel was very much faster. Stopped by at a foodstall for some light breakfast of dumplings and cold soya milk. Refreshing! After packing up, I was leaving on the 11.15AM train back to Taipei, took a short 5mins walk to the row of shops opposite the train station to get some local foodstuff for friends back home. Ah, thank the convenience of the hostel as I bought enough to complain about carrying the items around.

As time came for me to leave, I was rather sad to leave behind the memories and new friends I've made here. My advice is to spend 3-4 days at Hualien as it is a really beautiful place and its really enjoyable. Well then, its back to Taipei for some rest.

Hualien - Taiwan - Day 3 - 9 Days Backpacking

Day 3

Started at 7.30AM and followed a van that came to pick me up to Qing Liu 青流 Rafting Company. Reached the shopfront after an hour of sleeping on the van with a group of aboriginal youngsters and then spent another 45mins waiting for them to get registered and other groups to arrive before setting off for the Rafting Visitor Center at the Siouguluan River 秀姑峦溪 which runs for 81km through the Siouguluan Mountains and is part of the YuShan National Parks 玉山國家公園. So expect to have great views of the mountains while rafting.

At Rafting Visitor Center, a video will be showned to teach rafters emergency recovery techniques and safety rules to follow. After that it's straight to the action and a short walk to the river to mount our rafts. There were about 800 over rafters altogether, many of them are from the local universities taking their summer break. Rafters are advised to wear pants and long sleeved shirts to protect themselves from the sun.

Rafting took about half a day as we navigated through the mountains, sometimes on rushing white water, stopping for a simple lunch in between. At the end of the river, which goes out into the Pacific Ocean, we were made to capsize our rafts and float along and relax to near the mouth of the river. The sediments at the bottom of the river which was rather low when I was it, was very fine and smooth.

So once I came back to land, I went for a shower at a simple facility and then went back to the hostel with the van that picked me up in the morning. Felt really tired and had a sunburnt feet but still, I thought that the rafting trip was good fun with a good view to offer.

Back at the hostel, some of my hostel mates were planning to visit Liyu(Carp) Lake 鲤鱼潭 which is about 40mins by bus, for an aboriginal festival with fireworks and water fountain show. This was not unlike the musical fountain show back in Singapore at Sentosa. But it was free and the fireworks were great. By the time it was over, we settled for a night market back at the city area tasting different foods and just walking around.

Went back to the hostel at 11PM and Tim(Hostel owner) was not back yet. So most of us hanged around watching Miami Ink on TV, drinking and just talking & asking each other about our countries.

Then Tim came back at close to 1AM with a new signboard, Amigos is now part of Hostelling International.