Taiwan in Review: “We Found Him Soaked on the Beach.” “Well, *Put’s on Sunglasses* I Guess He’s Washed Up.”

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Queue the Who! (CSI Miami reference) Alright, so in my attempt to play catch up with my blogs, I’m going to cover my three trips to the beach I made so far (not counting my time at GaoXiong, which will be a totally separate blog). So pitch the super umbrellas and lay out the towels, it’s time to catch some rays of light (see what I did there? That can mean the sun and enlightening knowledge! Awww yeah).

Sept 10th:
So being new to Taiwan and the coast, Ben, next door neighbor Cuauhtémoc Reale (I’m not going to lie, I still can’t pronounce his name, so I’m calling him by his last name from here on out. And if you’re curious, he’s half Mexican and half Canadian – which if you average the two makes him American), and I decided to head out to the beach. I had read online and in my book that FuLong, which is on the northeast coast of Taiwan, was the best beach in the north, and a website online confirmed this, so we thought this would be the most logical place to go. We woke up bright and early, and made our way to the metro station 20 min away (unaware at this point, and not until about a month ago that there is a metro station 5 min away from our dorm) to then take a 15 min metro ride to the train station. After on old man insisted that we use the machines instead of the ticket counter (which was a pain because Ben at this point didn’t have coins to use for the ticket machine) we just missed our train by 5 min. We then had to wait 2 hours for the next train, but there wasn’t a train schedule to look at (with clear routes, just endpoints and we didn’t know the track system at this point to know what went/stopped where), so we didn’t see when our train was coming in until 30 minutes till, so we ended up waiting the whole two hours at the station instead of going somewhere for a bit and then coming back. We then took the cheapest train (which is fine) to the beach, which added another 90 min. So long story now short – we played the waiting game for a long time. During all this, among the things we talked about were our language abilities, and I told Reale about Chinese and the random French I knew from 6th grade, like “pouvre chien” (poor dog – to be relevant later).
The actual train ride was interesting because the train was really more like a cross-distance metro than an actual train. I even used my metro card to pay for the ticket (this will be explained later, but Ben had his wallet stolen a few days before, which is why he had to use the ticket machine). Also, there weren’t any assigned seats – so we rushed to get some (successfully).
We eventually got to the beach, and met some other NTU exchange students who were also on the train, but in a different car. We got some street food really quickly – which was the first time I saw rice sausage (which contrary to what it sounds like – is rice packed into a sausage skin. Is that what you thought it was? Well good for you). I had a normal sausage – on a stick (yum). We then finally made our way to the beach, which was suppose to be the whitest beach on the north coast. It was not. The beach was ok, but there was a lot of trash everywhere and the sand wasn’t as fine as it seemed to be advertised. But the beach is the beach, and it was still fun. Ben, Reale, and I were a lot more adventurous and actually got our whole body wet. Then the three of us decided to walk down the beach and see what we saw. We passed an area roped off for a resort (which caught me off guard – because I’m making a lot of comparisons to Hawaii where all the beaches are public – though I knew before that there were private beaches here, but it still threw me off) and walked for about 30 minutes. We eventually found a huge rock structure (about 3 stories high) and lay out for a bit. It was really serene, and it was nice to chill, even if the rocks were too bumpy to be comfortable.
We then started to throw the Frisbee around on top of the rock, and as one could guess, it often went off the side. Reale went to go chase it once and found a military bunker embedded in the rock. Ben and I immediately went down to explore, and while it was small, was also really cool – and what I’m guessing was a Japanese WWII watch point. We then started to walk back and found that the other guys from the group had rented a surfboard or two and had just returned them (no!!!!!!!! though we were gone for like three hours).
We then went back and got on the train – only this time we didn’t get seats so we had to stand for the whole two hours (no, I don’t know why it took an extra 30 min this time). About an hour in, a group of friends got on the train with a French bulldog in this doggy cart that was too small for him, but was the only way a dog (or any animal) could ride on the train. I turned to Reale and exclaimed “Pourve Chien!” After 8 years, I was finally able to use that random phrase. Education is power. We finally made it back, late and sun-kissed, and while not happy with FuLong, happy to have gone to the beach in general.

Sept 17th:
Well aware that the weather would start to become rainy (since I’m still unconvinced Taiwan is aware what the word cold means) we knew we had to hit up the beaches again the following weekend. Roomie Ben had heard of a beach that was closer and supposedly better, so Ben, fellow Tar Heel Rebecca, German friend Joern (should be an o with two dots above it, but this is much easier to type), and myself hopped on the metro to Danshui. Danshui is basically the farthest metro stop away from ours, so it was a good 30+ min trip, but the surrounding scenery was to die for (as the metro goes above ground half way through the trip), with a good exposure to the northern half of Taibei, suburbs, a bit of farmland, and amazing countryside. Seriously, Taiwan is just filled with tons and tons of green countryside/mountains, which looks completely untouched. After our metro trip, we got off and stopped at a 7-11 quickly to grab a quick snack (and I got some sunblock) and hopped on a bus. After a twenty-minute ride, which again painted a nice picture of a more rural life for the Taiwanese, we suddenly stopped at a few buildings with a beach behind it.
Holy cow, this beach was amazing. BaiShaWan translates to White Sand Beach, and the name (or it’s reputation) didn’t disappoint in the slightest. The last time I saw sand that white was in Hawaii (again with the comparisons). In a mixture of stunned and pleasure, we took off our shoes and started walking down the beach to find a place to lay our towels out. Even the sand itself was better than we were imagining, that awesome fine grain sand that’s almost impossible to find anywhere else (save – you guessed it, Hawaii). Seeing as the whole beach was public (score!) we walked down about 100 yards before laying our towels down and hopping in the water – only to get yelled at by someone on an ATV to get out of the water and that swimming was forbidden. While the guy seemed official (and was yelling at others too) and we obeyed, we were still confused as the speakers on the beach would blare every five minutes (in Chinese, English, and Japanese) “There are no life guards, swim at your own risk.” Furthermore, there were quite a few surfers – although I assume they were allowed because they had a personal flotation device attached to their leg. But the guy – who I’m going to call Buzz Killington from now on – Buzz Killington said we could swim in the little bit of roped off area in the water.
After our “forbidden” dip, we went back to the beach to go lay out, and I used some of my sunscreen as well as some of Joern’s so I wouldn’t get burned. We ended up spending the afternoon switching out between playing in the water, and chilling on the beach reading/writing/or listening to music. Around three, I went back to some of the buildings where there were a few bars and a surf shop. I went to the bar with their back door patio closer to the beach, and got a sausage, fries, and a Corona (sponsor!) and just vegged back for half an hour to soak everything it. It was amazing. The view was incredible, between the white sand, the deep blue ocean, the Carolina blue sky, and the green mountains to the left (the buildings were on the right side of the beach). It was really nice to take that moment and soak everything in – something I’ve been valuing a lot more since my time in LanTau on my rock.
After my reflection period, I went back to my friends, and did the same cycle of swim to chill on the beach, repeat until about five. We then went to the other bar (which was more of a restaurant than a bar) and got some drinks. (Non-alcoholic, this is weird now – cause as I’ve previously mentioned Taiwan is big on getting beverages instead of snacks – so when I say drinks, it depends on the time of day as to whether I mean alcoholic or non. Seeing as this is before dinner, the implication is non). Ben got some fries (and made a priceless facial expression after eating the first one – he was really hungry), Rebecca and Joern got milk tea, Rebecca got some juice mixture, and I got rose tea, which was surprisingly delicious (and I’m now convinced that any liquid with rose in the name is just better – rose wine, rose tea, etc.) And to top it off, my drink had a little rose on top – classy drink for a classy boss.
Then an interesting phenomenon happened. As we were getting close to finishing our drinks, two girls and some guy came down with a bunch of suitcases, and the two girls dressed in anime costumes (known as cos-playing). This caught us completely off guard, but no one else seemed to give them anything more than a double take. As I confirmed later they were models, taking pics on the beach. But even then, I was still a little thrown off. Partially because they seemed so out of place on the beach, partially cause one of the girls had her hair in ponytails down past her knees (and while I realize those were probably extensions, that’s still just plain freaky), and partially because they didn’t have any other photo equipment besides the camera. While I’m not the most educated person on the modeling world or on how photo-shoots work, I always figured they had those weird light umbrellas or the little light sensors, but now that I think about it, the models in Macau didn’t have those either. And after BaiShaWan, I’ve seen a few more models at NTU taking some photos, some in anime outfits, and some in dresses and what not (guy side note – holy frick they are all smoking hot), again without all the fancy equipment. Also, a lot of engaged couples will do one of their photo shoots at NTU.
But anyway, after getting over the randomness of cos-players at BaiShaWan, we finished our drinks, and caught the bus and the metro back to the dorms. When Ben and I got back, we realized that the sunblock I’d put on (multiple times by the way) didn’t work at all, and that I was in for a rather painful rest of the week.
Rest of the week:
I learned the word for sunburn (Shai) when I went to go buy aloe.
Also, OW.

Nov 5th:
So skip a head a bit and we get to November, where we knew we would have an oddly sunny weekend. Obviously that translates into another trip to the beach. This time it was Roomie Ben, Rebecca, her Taiwanese friend Florence, our friend Maria, and myself headed back to Danshui to hit up BaiShaWan. After we got to DanShui, Ben said that he had gone to just Danshui before, and there was an amazing food street nearby. So we spend a good hour there walking around, and getting all sorts of food, including a potato with enough liquid cheese to drown Key West (which was interesting because it wasn’t that fake nacho cheese, but tasted like real cheese that got melted and then watered down), various fruit drinks (I didn’t get one), hot-cold pineapple cakes (which was a super fluffy bun with a huge slab of butter in the middle – very good if you’re ready for the butter), fried durian (a very stinky fruit – I didn’t care for it, but as always I’ll try most everything once), and I got a few sausages cause I was in the mood for them. And that was only a small portion of the food there. There was also every type of chuan’r you could think of, every fruit you could think of, a ton of candies, and loads of good, Taiwanese/Asian food.
After all the exploring and tasting, we hopped on the bus and headed back to BaiShaWan. It was just as beautiful as before. For the most part, it was much of the same chilling and swimming. Buzz Killington even kicked us out of the water again! (The swim area was gone and we forgot about Buzz Killington) However, when Buzz Killington was at the other side of the beach, we’d hop in. I also applied (Maria’s) sunscreen properly and was burn free (although the mostly overcast day helped). I also wrote down a bunch of stuff write in my Taiwan reviews so y’all should be caught up to snuff eventually.
There were only two things that were really different. One was that Ben suddenly decided to become a gopher, and wildly starting digging a four-foot hole. This led to a bunch of shenanigans, which included throwing a bit of sand in the whole to tick him off, an ensuing sand fight, later Ben falling head first into the hole while he was digging, and Rebecca doing a silly dance while in the hole. Two, there were a bunch of guys next to us doing a bunch of random competitions and races. I note this because right as we were leaving, they started sumo wrestling, and I was rather upset I didn’t have time to go ask them if I could do a quick round. Oh well.
We then went to the bar to get a drink (alcoholic this time) and enjoy the sunset/scenery like I did last time (except last time I didn’t have the sunset). Again, was quite relaxing. Then we went next door to a fish restaurant and ordered some veggie dishes, a plate of shrimp, and a huge fish. The fish was delicious and I didn’t have a huge problem with the fish bones (for once). The shrimp was also interesting cause I’d never eaten shrimp with the head still on before. Florence was talented enough to peal a shrimp with just her mouth, head and all, which I found impressive (seeing as I’d never let the head get anywhere near my mouth in general). After the meal, we headed back to the dorms.

And since then, I haven’t been to the beach (save GaoXiong, but again that’s going in the GaoXiong blog). So I’ll end this catch up here, and in the mean time – some wisdom from the master:
Amazing how a hyped beach isn’t nearly as awesome as guidebooks and websites say they are, and yet a beach that isn’t quite as hyped is one of the best I’ve ever been to.
Seafood by the sea = win
Seriously, that sunburn freaking hurt, and I put on sunblock! What the frick?!
--Robby

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