Saturday 16, November 2024

Hualien was going to be a short stop so that we could book a tour to the Taraoko Gorge. Unfortunately, due to the earthquake in April, most of the trails entering the gorge at the east side are not accessible. The government have been spending all their efforts ensuring that the three major roads that cross the middle of Taiwan are repaired and safe to drive. One road was reopened very quickly, (by the end of May) the other two have taken a little longer to repair and have been down to a single-lane of traffic and restricted use. That would not have been any fun on a bike. Taiwan Kong-rey created more problems with landslides and the roads department are working overtime to get that cleared.

We have seen some road damage as we cycled up from Fengbin yesterday. But, it is amazing how quickly they get everything cleared and ready to go again. We believe this is from Typhoon Kong Rey.

Today then became a rest day, but as most of you know we don’t actually rest on our rest day. We walk the City we are in. However, we did manage to sleep until 8:00. We had breakfast next door, they didn’t seem to be keen to see us. We managed to use google translate for the menu and point to pictures.

As we wandered around the City we came across a kids play area. These were concrete slides. – Tough kids.

We then headed out to the train station to see if we could change our tickets. No problem, cancel the originals, issue the next set and get 4 NTW$ back (about 18 cents). We are going further on the train but do not have to change, it was cheaper.

We got a taxi back to our area and then walked to the Train Museum. This area was built by the Japanese as a train station and administration area. There was also a small farmers market set up. Ralf wandered around the museum and I got chatting to an amazing man at the Farmers Market.

He was 72 and had learnt English in Junior High School. He told me he liked to read English books so that he can continue to learn. We had a great chat, while Ralf was taking photos of the engine and property. He told me that the Japanese grew sugarcane in the mountains around Hualien and logged a lot of the old growth forest. They built the railway so that they could transport the sugarcane back to Hualien and send it to Japan. He told me he had been a farmer all his life, after leaving school he worked on his farm and grew fruit and vegetables. He was very happy to be working the land, but it is hard work. I was amazed at how good his English was, considering it had been over 50 years since he had any formal teaching. I learnt French in school and struggle to understand and speak the language.

After we had spent time at the museum, we had a wander down to where the night market sets up and discovered another market. Some of the stalls were closing up as it was after 2:00 and they had sold what they needed to sell: fish, meat, fruit and vegetables.  We came back to the hotel to pick up our laundry and spent a pleasant hour watching the dirty clothes go around and around. Another job done on a rest day.

Ralf wanted to go to a bike store and found a store that had good reviews. Off we went for another walk. It was a good Giant bike store, the owner spoke very good English. Ralf bought a phone holder to attach to his handlebar. He has had to use his phone for google maps and has had it inside an old map case. It made it difficult to see and follow the instructions. Although we only have a few days left of cycling, it will come in handy on other trips.

There is an excellent night market here in Hualien. I suggested to Ralf that we eat first and then go to the night market. That way he wouldn’t get frustrated at me not liking any of the fatty, fried foods that they have to offer. Also, there is nowhere to sit and eat at most night markets. We went to NuPasta, but it was a bit expensive. We went back to Three Koalas where we knew they had pasta on the menu. The food was excellent again.

Immediately after dinner we went down to the Night Market. We knew it was a big market over 400 stalls, but very well set up with lots of food stalls, games of chance, and music. The market was well worth a visit and it had a huge seating area with tables where you could eat what you have chosen from the many food stalls.

There are a lot of murals/grafitti on the walls in Hualien. I enjoy seeing this kind of thing, rather than someone’s spray painted signature.

We had a good day.