Blogs from Hualien City, Hualien, Taiwan, Asia

Blog 12_Japan_2023 April 1 Port of Call: Hualien, Taiwan – Weather: 73°F/23°C – Light rain predicted – Wind 6 mph. Today we stopped at the island nation known as: Formosa or Taiwan or Republic of China your choice. Formosa – the original name of the island, given to it by European sailors means, Beautiful Island. Today’s excursion, eight hours in length, was entitled: Best of Taroko Gorge National Park & Hualien. Eleven busloads, approximately 484 guests participated in this excursion. Fortunately for us our bus was one of the first to leave the port, so we avoided much of the crowding experienced later in the day. The predicted light rain held off until we boarded the busses and then it intensified to a downpour. Fortunately, we had purchased ponchos so were afforded a modicum of rain ... read more

Dzięki urozmaiconej rzeźbie terenu, Tajwan jest dość specyficzną wyspą. Chcąc przejechać 100 km w linii prostej z zachodu na wschód, trzeba zrobić coś na kształt banana. W naszym przypadku był to smutny banan bo zaczynał się na zachodzie, w Tainan, środek mał w Taipei a tą czarną końcówkę, którą się obcina, w Hualien. Schematycznie wyglądał tak: ^. No, to jak już opisałem i narysowałem mapę naszej dzisiejszej, 600 km podróży pociagiem to teraz parę szczegółów. Na dworzec Szybkiej Kolei w Tainan zamierzaliśmy dotrzeć sposobem bacpackerskim, czyli czekanie-autobus-czekanie-autobus-dworzec. Niestety z powodu braku czasu, oraz tego, że shuttle bus turystyczny, pierwsze ogniwo naszego łańcucha podróży, kursuje od 10.30, daliśmy za wygraną i do dworca dowiozła nas taksówka. Stąd, jadąc w odwrotnym kierunku niż przedwczoraj, dojechaliśmy na jakieś 15 minut do Taipei (pół smutnego banana) gdz... read more

Hualien is an industrial coastal city, and feels completely different to Taipei, much more rough and ready. For a start, walking the streets is hazardous: there are few pavements, and those that do exist are usually blocked by parked bicycles and scooters, so just walking around the city requires constant vigilance to avoid the traffic. The city feels tougher: not unfriendly, but not all welcoming smiles (as in Taipei and Kinmen) either. The train journey from Taipei took 4 1/2 hours because the fast train was sold out, so no time for more than a walk to the seafront in the evening. This area is being renovated and is a building site, so to get to the actual promenade everyone had to shuffle through a narrow alley formed between fences and tarpaulins blocking off the building ... read more

Kaksen dan. In brez skrbi, obisk v naslovu je bil povsem prijateljski. Ampak zacnimo z jutrom. Kot v vsaki soseski je tudi v Paulovi za katerim koli vogalom pac zajtrkovalnica. Tako sem se podala tja in snedla svoje preljube kitajske buhteljne pa seveda nai cha. Vmes je mimo prikolovratil Paulov sostanovalec Ryan in skupaj sva hvalila dobrote izpod rok lokalnih kuharic. Podala sem se na stop do centra, ker je PAulovo stanovanje pac precej oddaljeno od centra, nekako tako kot Dolgi most in center Ljubljane. Zastopala sem takoj prvi avto, kar me sploh ne preseneca vec, in tip me je zategnil direkt do zelezniske postaje - ki je v bistvu povsem na koncu te dolge dolge ceste, ki vodi do sem. Skratka, brez ovinkov, in ze si tam. Vse karte za vlak ob 8.35 so bile ... read more

Yesterday we were worthless and barely made it out of the house. When we did go, Eva walked around the city with us and we bought food to cook for dinner. We made a massive beef-filled squash and some salad and we couldn't eat it all, so we're gonna reheat it tonight. Today we went with Eva to Taruko National Park. It was really beautiful, but the trails we "hiked" were sort of a joke. The first one we did, the Swallow Grotto, was literally next to the main road. The second one, Lushui Trail, was overlooking the road -- not really the experience I'd been expecting, but nonetheless pleasant. Tomorrow we head to Taipei and meet our next CS host! Technical details - The garbage trucks play a tune like ice cream trucks would in ... read more