Taiwan 2016 Day 5 – Landslide and stuck in Hualien

Woke up to a rainy morning with no sunlight at all. Made K some milk as we didn’t want to let him drink at the time too close to driving. Then after he finished drinking, he coughed and vomited again. Luckily, I quickly brought a plastic bag and collected the puke. A little clean up required and he went back to sleep.

The same routine as the day before, waking up at 7plus and getting the meals prepared. Again I went for breakfast first and followed by mommy. This time around we were packed and ready by 9. K also woke up around the same time and we got him all ready to move and at about the same time, the reception gave us calls to tell us that hotel transport was ready.

K was whiny from the start of the day. In the transfer he was whiny but we didn’t know why. There were other passengers who got off at the train station and we asked to be ferried to the Hotai car rental company down the road just within meters as it was drizzling. We got the documents settled for the Vios while K whined for the phone. Then as I did the car check he whined for me and didn’t want to go with mommy.

Left the car at the rental company first as we went to the stores nearby to get some Hualien goodies, namely Mochi (Ah Mei Muah Chee, 阿美麻糬) and Yam (Feng Xing Bing Pu, 豐興餅舖) and sweet potatoes pastries. When we were done, we returned to the car and drove towards Qing Shui Duan Ya (清水斷崖), a place to supposedly to be a cliff side that boast beautiful views. Worried about car sickness and the consequences of vomiting and cleaning up, I drove within the speed limit smoothly.

Ah Mei Muah Chee
Feng Xing Bing Pu
View of Hualien town
Hotai rental car company

Hualien roads were not as busy compared to bigger cities like Taipei but the city side was a little more. Needed to adjust to the traffic lights, behaving a little differently from Singapore. They were sometimes blinking yellow meaning to slow down and then there was blinking red which was to stop before proceeding. At the outskirts, it was much easier with lesser cars around.

As we approached closer to the place and with K asleep after some whining, I was on the lookout for a viewpoint stop, with a carpark of some sort but it was all road. Then we were past the point as indicated by Google. Google map showed a picture of Qing Shui Duan Ya and the spot on the map but there wasn’t a viewpoint stop at that actual location. I did a Uturn on the road at the right opportunity and as we drove past the same point, there wasn’t any difference. So we gave up and continued on the rest of the journey. Anyhow the weather was cooperating and the view wasn’t going to be fantastic with all the gloom the dark clouds brought along.

View from the car, while trying to locate the viewpoint of Qing Shui Duan Ya

Punched in Cingjing on the GPS and we continued on the same road. The drizzle was much bigger than the day before as we go through Taroko gorge route, taking the same route that we traveled during the day trip. It was winding and a little difficult to negotiate, and always a worry and to be constant alert to check for oncoming traffic because the lanes merged and unmerged multiple times. Thankfully there weren’t much buses or cars from the opposite direction at that time.

We soon got to the end of the route before the start of ascending the mountain. We took toilet breaks first at a camp site to use the toilet and second time at Tian Xiang to get a drink. K woke up as mommy got off the car to get some food and drinks, meant for our lunch takeaways. Since he woke, we settled for having lunch at the nearby restaurants where mommy initially bought takeaways from.

Bee Hoon
Fried rice

When we were done having our lunch at the restaurant, we took some time to walk around a bit so that K could digest, including visiting the 7-11 for window shopping and also using the toilets nearby. K was particularly sticky and was whining again as l went to the toilet. Changed his diapers before we were on the road again.

View from Tian Xiang
Walkpath at Tian Xiang

Onboard the car, he whined for the phone again and for milk which we didn’t allow, for fear of vomiting and we had to endured the whining until he fell asleep. 30mins into the drive we arrived at a gated road in our direction at Luoshan. A car past by and told us that the road was closed up ahead of us, due to fallen rocks until 8am the next day. Another person walking nearby also said the same and gave us a number to call and verify. The authorities also mentioned that but no further advise was given to us when we said we had to get to the accommodation that we had reserved. Too bad.

We had to return to Tian Xiang as advised by our driver yesterday through whatsapp, as he had wanted to keep in contact with us. Without much to be done to salvage the situation, with the crazy exception of taking a 7hrs detour through Taipei that we wouldn’t do, it was a 30mins return to Tian Xiang. As we parked at the Tienhsiang Youth Hostel Activity Center carpark there to evaluate our accommodation options for the day, there were only 2 choices. The other one was a 5star for 360SGD per night vs the hostel.

I went in to check for availability and was given a room for 125SGD per night. I checked in immediately and moved the luggage down first before driving mommy to the 7-11 to get more food stuff and dinner, before she went into the room first to cook for K while I stayed at the car with the still snoozing toddler.

Tienhsiang Youth Hostel Activity Center
Toilet and shower
Bedroom

K woke up at 6pm when it was already dark. I carried him to the room and he started his whining again. He was fine only after a while. Spend the night in the room with TV, hand phone videos and photos, puzzles and books and toys and balls, followed by our dinner and his dinner.

Microwave curry chicken
Baked chicken takeaways

Went to borrow a tub from the reception to bath for K where he spent a lot of time. He wouldn’t get out of the tub as I think he was feeling cold.

He was whining for milk which we gave and just before sleep he was whining again. Repeatedly. Mommy then smacked his bottom before he stopped and went to sleep. A prelude to terrible 2. A difficult trip with all the whining and winding.

Taiwan 2016 Day 3 – To Hualien and Qi Xing Tan

It was 5am when K asked for milk. Worried that about regurgitation so I prepared a small amount in a daze and went back to sleep. The next thing we knew, it was already 820am. Late! Mommy swinged into action and went to cook quickly. K woke up at 830 and drank milk again, probably hungry from not eating a lot the day before.

I washed up and started to pack while K entertained himself by watching tv. Good thing the laundry was pretty dry after being hung under the aircon for the whole night. I went downstairs to the same stalls to buy cong zhua bing and noodles teppanyaki black pepper for breakfast. It was weird that no one was lining up for the delicious cong zhua bing, maybe it was because it was a weekday.

Cong Zhua Bing and Teppanyaki Noodles for brekkie

After our breakfast of the Taiwanese food, and K had biscuits, we got changed quickly, packed the bags and left, with the pasta left semi cooked, without even waiting for landlord.

1030 was the train to Hualien and we braved the small drizzle to get to the station. With 4 tickets on hand, we proceeded thru the barrier at TRA to platform 4. The train hasn’t arrived by the time we arrived. As the train pulled into the station, we waited behind a crowd during boarding. Our 2 big luggage was parked at the luggage compartment near the entrance while we got ourselves seated comfortably at our 4 seater which came with a table. It was a good move to have bought all the seats cos we had a lot of hand carried items that we left on the empty seat.

Train tickets to Hualien
Inside the train
Destination stop – Hualien

The whole journey was spent trying to keep K entertained. He spent some time on the handphone looking at photos and videos, walked along the aisle of the train and played puzzles that we brought along. Worried he got dizzy prepared plastic bag. Thought he almost vomited but didn’t and thankfully he fell asleep, which gave us time to rest. There were sales of food items as the train staff pushed a trolley down the aisle and we bought a bottle of mineral water. I took a nap as mommy entertained herself with hand phone games. There weren’t much to see outside, all we saw were rice fields which reminded me of the Jay Chou song Dao Xiang.

When the trained pulled into the Hualien station, we headed towards the exit where we found a resort staff with our name card. He helped us moved the bag to parking where a van waited. We were on road after boarding, took a short trip to the gas station to pump gas and we were on our way. As usual, we looked out for K but he didn’t puke in the 10mins time drive to the resort.

Hualien train station behind the construction hoarding
Resort transfer shuttle
Arch with bells at the entrance of the resort
Hotel Bayview

Resort staff helped with the luggage as we checked in Hotel Bayview. Mommy had booked the Honeymoon room that came with a balcony, had a sea view of Qi Xing Tan, which is effectively the sea, and a nice tub. With the free wifi, we FaceTime home to keep parents informed on our location and then left for lunch. Reception informed that there was nothing much to eat nearby and they didn’t have a restaurant. So we walked around and found a mini food stall in what looked like a cultural center.

Room with balcony
Bathtub
and shower

Ordered 2 fried rice and sunfish dish for lunch. Fish meat was quite chewy and had translucent skin, something that I was eating for the first time. K ate some home cooked pasta and shared with us our fried rice. Then we paid 510NT and left for the supermarket on the opposite side of the road to buy milk and yogurt and the milk coffee.

Fried rice
Sunfish dish
Iced tea and hot tea
Qi Xing Ke Zhan, 七星客棧
Temple next to the eating place

Before we start exploring the beautiful beach and its surroundings, we returned to the room to leave the unimportant things and left for bicycle riding. The hotel had free bicycles for rent but didn’t have one with child seat so we proceeded to another bicycle rental shop about 5mins walk away to get one with a baby seat. It was a nice area for cycling with good paved road for cycling and strolling, a beautiful view of the long coast accompanied with cool sea breeze. There were tourists but not in overly crowded numbers, enough people to make the place lively, even though there was a slight drizzle. Managed take a couple of photos at the stony beach and the surrounding. Thankfully toilets were available as I had sudden stomachache. We rode back soon after as K seemed tired.

Walking/cycling path by the sea at Qi Xing Tan
Lots of rocks
of the pebbly beach

After returning the hotel bike, we got back to the room, made milk for K and K enjoyed a fun long bath at the tub. Then he spent some time watching tv although there weren’t any baby tv. I went to return the external rental bike afterwards since we know we won’t be riding again. It was then nap time as K fell asleep at 5pm while we relaxed and played with our phones and did the dishes.

K woke up at 645pm when we got ready to go. The staff at the reception gave us a taxi contact card so that we could get anywhere we wanted. The taxi picked us up from the entrance as the thoughtful staff shielded us from the drizzle with umbrellas. Our first stop was to Carrefour to shop for groceries and we got there with 175NT. Mommy bought fish while K enjoyed his ride in a car built into the trolley.

Carrefour

We called the taxi again to go to Zi Qiang night market. Fortunately the drizzle fizzled as we arrived at the night market. Our objective was to find dinner suitable for K, something with rice. Visited a ru rou stall ordered veg, rice and fish ball soup which K managed to have a little bit of each.

Zi Qiang Night Market
Wide open spaces with many stalls
Ru Rou rice and vegetables

After we were done with the sit down dinner, we walked to buy the so-called coffin with chicken (蔣家花蓮創意官財板) and it was quite nice! There were some stalls having kiddy rides where K spent some time sitting in them, both moving and stationary, while mommy went around exploring the night market to buy and try more food. She bought a duck related food but it tasted very weird – it actually numbed the mouth and the tongue! Next we ordered papaya juice and shared with K and also some stinky fries (堂薯薯臭薯條) which was delicious. We completed the food tasting with the order of piggy noodles (豬豬豬原住民美食) to go, and got a taxi to return to the hotel, that costed about 250NT.

Coffin rice stall
Coffin rice
Statue at the end of the market
Kiddy rides
Salty numbing chicken
Salty chicken
Smelly fries stall
Smelly fries
Pig Pig Pig stall
Piggy noodles packaging
What’s on the inside

After we were back at the room, we started to eat the piggy noodles, which was a big portion and overall tasted ok. We walked to the Family Mart to buy some cake for K and milk. It was then toddler maintenance before some play and a well deserved sleep.

Escape plan to Taiwan November 2016

A brief summary on the itinerary

Escape Plan to Taiwan 2016:

Total duration 9D9N
There is no time difference between Singapore and Taiwan.
Flight time is 5hrs 35mins on Scoot from Singapore to Taipei.
Return is almost 5hrs on Tigerair from Taipei to Singapore.

Flight from Singapore to Taipei at 1255am, arriving at 530am in Taipei. Return flight from Taipei to Singapore is at 155pm and touching down in Singapore at 650pm.

Day 1 Arrival in Taipei and some shopping
Day 2 Cat Village, Jiufen and Shifen
Day 3 To Hualien and Qi Xing Tan
Day 4 Tokoro Gorge
Day 5 Landslide on the way to Cingjing
Day 6 Arrival in Cingjing farm and Old England tea and Swiss Garden
Day 7 Cingjing farm visit and arrival in Flying cow ranch
Day 8 Flying cow ranch, Leofoo village and stay
Day 9 Home Sweet Home

This trip was planned to celebrate our boy’s 2nd birthday. Therefore, most of the destinations in the itinerary were more catered towards his interests ( but since he arrived, most of our trips were already like these).

Budget – affordable most of the journey until the visit to Leofoo village which was quite expensive.

Taiwan was a country known to be affordable if we want it to be. Taking public transport such as the trains and staying in Airbnb helps keep the costs down. However, travel in less developed areas required us to book a driver or self drive which was not too bad. The only big spendings we had was the Flying cow ranch farmstay in a private villa and safari hotel in Leofoo village which was expected to be expensive.

Complexity – High without car. Ours made easy due to car and Google maps on data plan.

The public transportation in Taipei city was easy to use and therefore getting around was straightforward. Out of the main city and into the mountains and farms then a car is a must or private car is a must as public transportation would require quite a bit of planning and a lot time. Road signs would require a little to get used to but it’s not too difficult if you know Chinese. When going through the mountains, we learnt to read road blockages due to landslide. Knowing where to get the most updated news is essential as most of the mountainous roads are single lane and only one way there and planning ahead helps to avoid a long detour. Sometimes there are no data signals on the mountainous area but it is not difficult since there is only one road to navigate.