Taiwan Day 4 - Taipei to Hualin

Today was a travel day from Taipei to Hualin.

Haulin is the largest city on the east coast of Taiwan. It was about 2 hours on a modern train. Brad had to get on line to purchase tickets at the Taiwan Rail Station, could not get them from the vending machines in terminal. Each ticket cost $441 or about $US14. The trains were self leveling so the ride was very comfortable. As we left Taipei we were in rural country side. Once we arrived on the east coast, we were treated to a magnificent view of the eastern seaboard. Large boulders in the water and a very large mountainous island just off the coast. Small Asian fishing boats and lush green vegetation all created a scene right out of the books.

We arrived in Haulin at 1pm, found our hotel (Na Lu Wan Hotel) and checked in. Nice room, larger than the one in Taipei with 2 double beds, flat screen TV, fridge, shower, free breakfast and cocktails in evening for a total price of only $57 per night.

While Haulin does not have much to offer an American tourist, it makes a perfect jumping off point to visit Taroko National Park. Since we had the afternoon to kill, we decided to have a bite of lunch, check out the downtown central district and then figure out how we were going to get to and navigate the Park itself, which is about 30 miles away.

While walking towards the center of the city, we came upon a Japanese type teppanaki bar. Think Benihana style but instead of tables for 8 people consider a long counter with a cooking surface that goes the entire length. 

They handed us a piece of paper for us to mark down what we wanted to eat. We choose to have a combination for 2 of steak, shrimp and cod fish. The meal was served with stir-fried bean sprouts, cabbage, a small piece of boneless beef ribs cut into pieces and cooked in a spicy garlic sauce, whole shrimp – with the heads and tails still on, a thin piece of white fish with the skin, a bowl of soup, cup of rice and a glass of cold tea for about $10 for the both of us.  After lunch we went exploring further into town.

We found a shaved iced shop and had dessert there. Brad ordered 8 Treasures over his ice. It included 3 different type of beans – red, black and pinto, along with barley, sweet gelatin stuff some weird fruit and other things. I ordered mango with milk. The milk was gelatinous – sounds strange but it was surprisingly quite good. The ice underneath was drenched in a natural sugar liquid.

After our dessert, we headed back to the information center near the train station to learn about our options for our tour of the park. As we were leaving we were approached by a man who spoke fairly good English. He saw us looking at the bus schedule. After explaining how it worked, he offered us to hire him and his taxi for the day. A guided bus tour – which is done in Chinese, would cost us $988 each. He offered us a private tour in English for the full day for $2,000. We told him we would consider it, took his business card and walked away. Upon thinking about it we turned back, found him and arranged to have him meet us at 9:30am. We shook hands and expect him to show up in the morning.

Made our way back to the room to chill out. I decided to put together this blog, so I sat at the desk for about 90 minutes working it all out.

At 7pm we headed out to see what we could find in the night markets. While the guide book implied there were 2 robust markets, what we found was quite the opposite. When we got to the first market I saw a crowd of people at one shop. 

Seeing they served dumplings, Brad got us 2 seats inside. We ordered regular dumplings and others that translated as Small Dragon Buns. 

The were all steamed and were quite good. Cost was $60 or about $US1.90. We then walked to the second market which was supposed to highlight the local fresh seafood. There was just one stand but it had a very long line of people. The stand served oyster omelets. We took a pass.

The guide book mentioned that there was a very famous 70 year old restaurant that all the locals go to. When we arrived there we discovered that they serve just one thing – wonton soup!! 

We ordered 2 bowls and enjoyed it very much. Cost was $120 or $US3.80.

We then walked some more and looked at some shops, hopped into a taxi and made it back to our hotel. Still hungry, we found a stand selling fried things, so we ordered a fried chicken fillet, picked up a beer at 7/11 and took it back to our room.

End of a quite day, looking forward to the park and all it has to offer tomorrow. Also hoping that “Tonny” the taxi driver actually shows up at 9:30am.