Taitung and train to Fangliao bus to Kenting

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We arrived in Taitung late in the evening and the tourist info centre was closed. We negotiated 900 NTD for the hotel by the train station which included breakfast and free bicycle use. Excited not to have to walk so we jumped on our rusty steeds down the road to a cool but touristy restaurant that had tables around a grassy centre which we guessed was used for tribal dancing.

The next day we looked into getting out to Green Island or Orchid island which we had heard a lot about. However, we found out we missed the only ferry for the day to Green Island and the ferry to Orchid was not for a few days later in the week. We decided it would be pretty expensive and didn't want to miss a day so we planned to head to Kenting, a beach area and national park instead.

We had some time to kill so we hopped on our bikes and headed in to town. We found a little chain restaurant that served some decent Taiwanese food. After this we biked out to the beach which had a little bike path. The beach was rocky and the surf was pretty intense with 6 ft swells crashing right at the waters edge. Not really swimming material. We saw a few fisherman and snapped a few pics of the waves and the incoming storm and then headed back to the train station.

To get to Kenting we caught a train to Fangliao and caught a bus the rest of the way. The train ride was really beautiful. First it headed south along the coastline passing blue water and small towns dotted by palm trees. Then it headed in land through the rainforest and hilly area. We had definitely caught the train at the right time because when it turned to head north along the west coast the sun was beginning to set and we got to watch a beautiful sunset for nearly an hour. Meanwhile I (Geoff) tried to get a perfect picture of the sunsetting over the water. At Fangliao, it was easy to catch the bus to Kenting, our driver was a little nuts but we survived unscathed.

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Photos

Tiatung
A beach we biked from our hotel

Taitung - stray pup
There were about six of these hiding in the grass by the beach.

Fangliao Train
East Coast

Fangliao Train
West coast sunset