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Published: October 14th 2011
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Today Ronald went out to scout prices for the train and/or bus to Hualien. It seemed that we needed to take a train to Kaoshiung and then a bus or train to Taidung and then another bus or train to Hualien.
We packed and got in a cab (with help from Thomas and Bárbara) to go to the station. We got there at 13:50 and the woman at the counter sold us a ticket for 13:59 and it should take about 2 hours.
When the train stopped and everyone got off, we had gone one stop too far. We were in Pingtung, so we asked a couple of conductors and eventually just took all our stuff with us to ask at the information counter. The woman sold us a ticket by train to Hualien leaving at 16:56. We tried to find a cheaper option, but there sort of wasn't one. We had the option to go to Kaoshiung and then take a bus to Hualien or take a train to Taidung and then a bus but they all ended up being around the same price.
We left our bags with her and went to eat…at KFC. When we came back, we got on the train and noticed that there were people standing! So there were probably cheaper tickets we could have bought and were just not told. Boo. We could have sat on our bags.
The most interesting thing that happened on the train (besides an old woman screaming at someone on the phone for about 30 minutes) was when we stopped in Yuli. I saw a sign written on the pavement that read, "Waiting area for female passengers at night" with an arrow. Pretty cool!
When we got off the train we walked to the nearest 7-11 to try and use the wifi to contact Pei, our host. A guy outside the 7-11 offered to help us and shared their wifi connection with us via his iPhone. Once we found her number he called her for us and waited until they came. Taiwanese people have been so amazing to us so far -- really nice people. Anyways, when Pei came, she came with a friend, Eva, and we got on the back of their scooters with our enormous bags to go to their place...risky...but it worked! Haha..no problem!
We are sleeping in Eva's room because it's bigger (and maybe because her English is better than Pei's). We figured out that I had sent requests to both of them and they had both accepted! They live in the same house with 6 people total and all go to the same university. They made us some tea and showed us some places on a map Eva had and then explained how to get to 7-11. It was really late and we hadn't eaten so we walked there for dinner.
Tomorrow to the hot springs!
Technical details -train ticket from Pingtung to Hualien: 661 per person
-the train from Pingtung to Taitung: about 2 hours
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