day5: hualien

wednesday, 4/2/2008:

on my last day in hualien my tour buddy took time out of class and took me biking by the ocean! she came to meet up with me at the hostel about 8:30am, where i rented a bike, and we biked (through the city) to nanbin park, where the bike path began. i was really nervous about biking through the city, but i made it through alive. although the past two days had been cloudy and sometimes drizzling, this morning was VERY sunny! the ocean was a beautiful blue and i was very excited to be seeing a lot of it. we started on the trail. the destination was chishingtan. not long after we started out, i realized i was severely not feeling well. the night before, after getting back to the hostel, i had realized that i had not drank water in like two days, since i left taipei, so i walked to the nearest seven and bought a liter of water and drank half of it. i guess that was not enough to rehydrate me, plus the really intense sun did not help. now i know why my tour buddy was in a hat, sunglasses, a mask, long sleeve shirt, and gloves! i was like, "aren't you hot?" she's like, "but the sun!!" anyway, i wanted to forge on, but we rested a lot along the way. hualien has mountains (with beautiful clouds sometimes!), industrialism (all these stone factories), and beach/ocean. at first i really paid attention to the beautiful scenery along the way (picture). then somehow i realized we were definitely no longer on the correct path, because i hadn't seen the ocean in a long time and i kept on riding next to dusty trucks. at this point, i decided it was pointless to go on and so my tour buddy led me back to the hostel the short way, through the city. as we turned around, i could see a glimpse of chishingtan, the destination!!! but i was feeling too nauseous to care, plus my tour buddy said she'd just take me back to chishingtan via motorcycle once we returned our bikes...good plan! i think we got back to the hostel around noon or 1pm. after a short rest, my tour buddy took me to her home, near the hostel, where she lives with her family. then we went back to chishingtan on her motorcycle. unfortunately, by then, the sky had clouded over again and the water was back to a grey color, but it was still very nice to feel the ocean breeze. i wanted to get the full experience before i went back to taipei, so i changed into shorts and flip flops and waded among the powerful waves! it was cloudy and the water was cold, but still fun.

then it was back to the shops near the train station that sold hualien's famous muaji, a sticky dessert made from rice flour and that has various fillings inside. hualien is supposed to be known for its muaji, but it's actually sold all over taiwan and asia, and i didn't taste anything really special about these muaji. they had these handmade ones that were pretty good, but i guess i'm not a huge muaji fan. the best was the ice cream muaji, sticky rice flour wrapper with ice cream inside! my cousin wanted me to bring some muaji back to taipei for her and my mom wanted me to bring some back to minnesota, so i left the store with two shopping bags of various muaji. then we went to buy my train ticket, and went back to say hello to the guy (i talked to my first day in hualien) in the information center. it wasn't until then that we realized how much sun we had gotten that morning, because of the info center guy's remarks. i guess it was so bad that he gave us complementary bottles of sunscreen. i was all (or patchy) red, and my tour buddy's nose (the only part of her not covered) was red. that morning i had even applied sunscreen! but i guess unevenly and not very well...hehe. i decided to take the 5:31pm zi qiang hao back to taipei. there was still time before the train came, so i went back to get another ice cream muaji for the train ride! as i boarded the train, i realized how much stuff i had with me: messenger bag (with my purse in it), duffel, and two shopping bags of muaji. i must have really looked like a tourist, with all this stuff, plus i was wearing a hooded t-shirt and shorts and tennis shoes while others were in normal pants and sweaters (it was getting a little chilly and there was drizzling by now), and i also had the worst sunburn by then. my seat on the train happened to be next to this guy who, i found out later, happened to be the same age as me (so random!). he definitely gave me a weird look when he got on the train. he started scarfing down his dinner as soon as he got on the train, at which point i realized i was pretty hungry (i had eaten a slice of bread for breakfast and some pineapple later in the day and the muaji ice cream, but not nothing else since i wasn't feeling well), at which point i remember my second muaji ice cream! unfortunately it was somewhat melted by this time, but still good. anyway, i started chatting with the guy next to me, from which i learned two things: 1) we were taking the special taroko train, which meant we would be in taipei in about 2 hours! the train runs on the same tracks, but has these two layered wheels so that when turning, the train does not have to slow down, but can just kind of lift off the tracks. the train cars were pretty nice since they were new. 2) i should go to alishan. he suggested a few different places i could visit during the rest of my time in taiwan, but really pushed alishan, suggesting i take the little train up the mountain, walk around, stay the night in a hotel, and wake up really early to see the famous alishan sunrise. i ended up taking the suggestion and it turned out to be the best thing i did the whole trip!

we got to taipei 7:40pm, only a 2 hour and 9 minute train ride! i headed back to shilin by mrt, had a little dinner at home, chatted with my grandpa, and then my cousins, and sleeeeep!

WORTH SEEING: chishingtan

WORTH EATING: hualien handmade muaji

full set of pictures at picasa!