Taiwan Trek, Day 6: Like Okinawa only with mountains, or a more Asian Hawaii

Now sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

Today is Friday the 13th, but it appears I got all the bad luck out of the way the previous day,  when downpours put a damper on our excursions and I ended up putting a dent into our rental in a hotel parking garage. Although the day began with rain...:

The view this morning from our Chihpen hotel room

...that would be the only precipitation we would see for the rest of the day, as the thick clouds appeared unable to make it past the Coastal Mountain Range. We were on the road and moving north on Highway 11 away from Taitung 台東 by half past nine. The first stop of the day was at Hsiao Yeliu 小野柳 - though it didn't bear much resemblance to its more well-known northern namesake, my daughter was interested in the unusual coral and rock formations, the product of thousands of years of water and wind erosion:

Though the crowds were light at that time of the morning, any calm was shattered by the fighter jets screaming overhead, which we learned from a worker were practice runs in preparation for an air show to be held tomorrow. Admittedly, it was kind of exciting, though I can only imagine the terror an enemy combatant would feel as one of these planes suddenly appeared on the scene:

The views began to get more impressive as we continued along Highway 11:

Passing through one of the numerous towns and villages en route:

The next stop was the Platform of the Three Immortals, a series of eight arched bridges connecting the mainland to a small coral island. The name comes from the supposed connection between three large stone formations on that island with three of the Eight Immortals of Chinese mythology. Or something like that. If the bridges look familiar, it's because they're often featured in tourist literature on Taiwan:

Looking toward the mainland from the island. I would've liked to have walked around but a signboard said it would take at least a couple of hours to do the full trail and we had a long drive ahead of us, so we headed back across the bridge and to the parking lot:

There were so many places to stop and admire the views. Like at Shihyusan 石雨傘:

The water looked very inviting in the heat and humidity, but most of the beaches on the east coast are rocky and the sudden drop offs in water depth often create dangerous currents and riptides:

One of those WTF in Taiwan moments occurred when we drove by a torii 鳥居 with the Japanese-looking words 男人の石 ("Man's stone") etched on the wall behind it:

I wasn't surprised to see what lay at the end of the driveway. Amber stayed in the car:

Back in the Nissan, the views continued to impress, resulting in a lot of pulling over and getting out:

Less impressive was our next destination after Sanxiantan, the Caves of the Eight Immortals 八仙洞. Only about half of the caves were open to visitors due to trail damage, and except for one that had been converted into a Taoist temple, there was very little to see, despite the fact the caves are the site of the earliest human habitation in Taiwan:

Perhaps it was the earlier stop at the 男人の石, but the largest of the caves reminded me of a vagina:

The perfect antidote to the humidity turned out to be a papaya milkshake 木瓜牛奶:

Another Tropic of Cancer monument, though not as popular with visitors as the one on the parallel Highway 9:

We stopped for lunch at the Xibulan Visitor Center 奚卜蘭遊客中心. While the food was being prepared, I strolled across the New Changhong Bridge 新長虹橋, which spans the Xiuguluan River 秀姑巒溪, a popular rafting spot:

While I was on the bridge, a small temple procession passed by. It must take a lot of faith to be willing to wear something like that on a day when the temperature was over 30°C (86°F) and the humidity was around 80%:

The food was worth the wait. I had the very tasty "Noodles Served With Alianthus (sic) Prickly Ash Olive Oil", and then picked up a bottle of Lemon Wheat Ale brewed by Highway 11 Craft Beer:

Making a stop at Dawan 大灣:

Hualien 花蓮 eventually began to appear in the distance:

We pulled up to the Fullon Hotel Hualien 福容大飯店花蓮 at around 1630. The view from our room - on the left in the background you can make out the Chateau de Chine Hualien where we stayed earlier in the week (it's the white building with the blues, reds and yellows on its exterior):

A refreshing dip in the third-floor outdoor pool and a not-so-fond farewell to all the sweat I'd accumulated on the drive up from Taitung:

Of course we overdid it at the hotel buffet during dinner this evening, but that Lemon Wheat Ale went down so well in the room afterward. What, did you think I drank it while driving earlier?:

Our trip comes to an end tomorrow with the long drive back to Fengyuan. To be continued...

Taiwan Trek, Day 3: Things to do in Hualien when you're dead (from the heat)

Preventing idiots from approaching the churning surf as a typhoon nears

Curse you, o weather gods! Although it looks as if Typhoon Maria (see here and here) will not make landfall in Taiwan, it's effects were being felt in Hualien 花蓮, even though the weather was sunny for almost the entire day today. We had planned on going whale-watching on this Tuesday, but the boats understandably decided to remain in port, a wise decision considering the high waves we could see crashing against the breakwaters from the upper floors of our hotel. Following breakfast, Amber and I walked over to Hualien's cement factory-lined coast to have a look at the turbulent water, albeit from a safe distance:

The fact that my toes were beginning to burn during the short time we were out in the sun also convinced us that this would not be a good day to stroll through the city, as was our initial plan. Instead, we relied on the air-conditioned comfort of our rental Nissan to make our way around, a wise decision considering the 35°C (95°F) heat and sweat-generating humidity that prevailed until after sunset. While northern Taiwan was hit by high winds and rain, those of us here in Hualien broiled.

Leaving the Chateau de Chine Hualien 花蓮翰品酒店. According to the hotel's website, the inspiration for the building's exterior comes from the art style of Piet Mondrian. That may be the case, but whoever designed the uniforms for the staff must have done so after binge-watching old Partridge Family episodes:

Our first stop in trying to fill in the itinerary gaps created by canceled whale-watching excursions was the Pine Garden 松園別館 compound, a former World War II command post built by the Imperial Japanese Navy 大日本帝国海軍 in 1942. The site was chosen for its height advantage, as the mouth of the Meilun River and Hualien Harbor can be seen, along with an unobstructed view over the Pacific:

The graceful building was also where kamikaze pilots 神風 spent their last nights partaking in "gentleman's sake" (according to the pamphlet provided with the admission ticket) before leaving the following day on their final missions:

Around thirty Ryukyu Pine trees dot the property:

The upper floor of the main building is now used for art exhibitions and literary gatherings:

The nearby Little Wooden House is the only wooden structure from the original complex, and was used as a meeting room for officers. Supposedly the highest-ranking officer committed suicide there in the aftermath of Japan's surrender. Amber was more interested in the giant Rhinoceros beetle resting on one of the screens:

From the Pine Garden, we drove about three kilometers north of Hualien to Qixingtan 七星潭, a stretch of waterfront providing fine views of the high cliffs further up the coast. Swimming is prohibited due to the rough surf, but today access to the beach was denied due to the typhoon located somewhere out to the sea, which was really churning up the water:

The southern end of Qixingtan is normally a hive of activity, but the beach closure meant almost all of the seafood restaurants were shuttered as well, so we drove back into Hualien in search of a place to eat lunch. Along the way we stopped off at the local Martyrs' Shrine 忠烈祠 (every city in Taiwan seems to have one), but the main building was closed off:

We eventually found a parking space in the downtown area and set off to find a place to eat. Many establishments in Taiwan, however, close after 1:30 or 2:00 for an afternoon siesta, but we managed to find an air conditioned-cafe that was open (and busy). Lunch for me was pork bibimbap:

Afterward, we walked close to the seaside to watch the waves continue to crash against the concrete breakwaters:

The calmer view in the other direction:

One of the few places worth checking out in the central part of the city is the Hualien Railway Culture Park 花蓮鐵道文化園區, a restored railway depot that was originally built in 1932:

The depot had its own detention cells:

It wouldn't be Taiwan without a massive banyan tree somewhere on the premises:

The heat and humidity eventually forced us back to the car, in which we then drove to a department store in order to bask in the air conditioning, while leisurely checking out the local branches of Muji 良品計画, Eslite Books 誠品書店 and H&M, before sitting down to kill more time at Mister Donut in the basement food court. My daughter did all the ordering - I've been using the excuse of my limited Mandarin skills to take advantage of Amber's native fluency in the language and let her handle much of the daily communication requirements with restaurant workers, hotel staff and retail store employees. The result has been my daughter shedding a lot of her natural shyness and learning to interact with adults:

For dinner this evening, we headed over to the Dongdamen Night Market 東大門夜市 to pick up some deep-fried goodies. It would've been nice to have eaten everything there as the temperature was starting to fall, a cool breeze from blowing in from the sea and the predicted rainfall hadn't started. However, a major concert was about to begin, judging from the huge temporary stage erected in front of the night market, the presence of TV station vans and the fact that the immediate streets had been blocked to vehicular traffic by the local police. Based on past experience in Taiwan, I knew that shortly the surrounding streets would soon likely be choked with parked cars and pedestrians, so we got our food to go and returned to the hotel to eat in our room:

Hualien seems like a pleasant-enough city, but other than serving as a launching pad for visits to Taroko Gorge 太魯閣, there isn't a whole lot to see and do here. Tomorrow we're heading south (hopefully away from Typhoon Maria) along the Route 9 inland highway to Taitung 台東, the other large city on Taiwan's east coast. Everything weather permitting, of course.

To be continued...