Jiaoxi, Yilan (宜蘭設治紀念館) and the Sea of Yilan Restaurant (蘭海歐義廚房) - 17th April 2014

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Thursday, 17th April 2014

"Train travel is always fun and even more so in Taiwan where we had absolutely no difficulties with the spoken language."

Our train delay at Wai-ao Station this morning certainly did not dampen our travel plans to Jiaoxi, the hot springs mecca of Yilan County. In fact, we spent a fair bit of our time photographing every single nook and cranny of the train station.

Things started to pick up as soon as our train arrived and within 20 minutes, we had set foot on Jiaoxi township, a fairly comfortable place to navigate on foot. The town was littered with numerous hot spring hotels with their eye-popping signboards trying real hard to attract the gaze of visitors.

After our foot springs dip and fish spa, I bade farewell to my travel mates and continued my train journey to the town of Yilan. Upon arrival, I was greeted by the Jimi Square opposite the train station where it was named after a famous Taiwanese illustrator and writer. The Square was crowded with young children on their Thursday afternoon school's excursion.

I slowly made my way across the local shops at the old town to locate the Memorial Hall of Founding of Yilan Administration. This was a traditional Japanese-era house belonging to the magistrate with its nicely spruced up interior plus a few interesting exhibits of the town's early history.

Next to it was the massive Luna Plaza that made an ideal shopping stop with its sizable Eslite Bookstore and Carrefour Hypermarket. And it made a perfect spot to cool off from the early summer heat.

By early evening, I was back at the homestay ready for our dinner plans. At the recommendation of Mr Huang, we made our way to the Sea of Yilan Restaurant for our meals. This was a relatively long walk from where we stayed and it was reached after passing through the massive Lanyang Museum. The stand-alone restaurant building was quite un-missable from where we were.

Each of us ordered a complete set meal that came with starters, steak, and desserts. Included in the price were some complimentary snacks courtesy from the kind owner. With the reasonable prices coupled with great Taiwanese hospitality, this could easily be one of the most memorable meals we had during our vacation.

Our fantastic two-night stay in Yilan was coming to an end after tonight. Without a doubt, we had warm memories of Wai-ao and our cosy homestay by the beach.

"I certainly hoped to be back at Yilan someday and Sea Luv would be my choice again."

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