We started our Taiwan adventure with a trip to Taitung County in Eastern Taiwan. Taitung is also known as "Houshan"
(後山) by locals, and its name literally means "behind the mountains".
Taitung is a quaint town isolated from the rest of Taiwan by its huge mountains. It boasts several scenic areas and its most famous tourist attraction--Sanxiantai.
Tao-yuan Airport
Our flight arrived a little after midnight. The queues weren't so long because it seemed that our flight is the last flight for the day.
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| At the waiting area of the airport |
The officer I queued in seemed happy to meet someone whose job is the same as his, and he cheerfully welcomed me to Taiwan.
According to our friend, the last trip of U-Bus can be availed to reach Taipei. But because there were no public transportation at this time of the day to Taitung, we had to wait out until morning at the airport. Luckily, there were nice lounges where we were able to catch some zzz's.
Some
helpful tips:
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1.
You can sleep at the lounge at the arrival area if you
come in from a late flight. The chairs are comfy, and there are others who do
the same.
2.
If you need to have your money changed to NTD, there's a
bank at the arrival lobby. You should do your banking immediately after
arrival if you arrive at midnight, because they tend to close as soon as the
last flight ends.
3.
There’s a convenience store downstairs if you’re up for a
meal or some snacks.
4.
Opt to go for the buses if you’re not in a hurry. A taxi ride from the airport to Taoyuan
train station costs 550NTD. A bus ride
costs a little more than 50NTD.
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Tao-yuan Train Station
We needed to take the train to reach Taitung County. You have two options, either take the Taiwan High Speed Rail (HSR), or the regular trains (TRA). We opted for the regular trains because we would arrive exactly at the check-in time for the bed and breakfast we will be staying in. The TRA is also cheaper by half than the HSR, and passes a more scenic route at the east coast.
To get to the train station, we went downstairs from the arrival area to the bus station. There are ticket booths where different bus companies sell tickets to different areas of Taiwan.
Most
of the buses started arriving around 5:00a.m. There are hardly any
buses before this time. You can check the wall beside the ticket booths
to see the bus schedule and available routes.
The bus we needed to take didn't need a ticket. We queued up in line No. 7 for the Tao-yuan bus, and waited for bus 5059. All we had to do was drop 50somethingNT in the box beside the driver. I don't remember how much exactly though, because we had some translation difficulty at that point.
The driver handed us a card each, indicating that we've paid already. After the ride, we had to hand back the cards to him.
It took us a while to understand the concept of their train system. But once we understood, everything was a breeze! The website gives information about the time and the price of each train route.
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Understanding the TRA
1.
Select
where you’ll be coming from. In
our case, it is Tao-yuan. The options
are Taipei, Tao-yuan, Hsin-chu, etc.
These are the major train stations.
2.
Select
the substation. The second drop
down menu are the sub-stations under the major stations. We picked Tao-yuan also.
3.
Select
where you’re going to. We chose
Hua-lien. Here, we opted to transfer
trains, and bought a separate ticket from Hua-lien to Yuli, because there is
a train that would be leaving earlier.
You may split your booking to find earlier train schedules, or book
all the way for less hassle.
4.
Buy your
ticket. You may opt to buy your
ticket online but we suggest that you buy your tickets at the train
station. There are no lines, and it
would be easier for you to adjust your schedules that way
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We were able to plot the fastest route to Taitung through the website (just because it arrived earlier doesn't mean it is faster)!
We bought our tickets, and boarded the train. The train ride took around 3 hours, then the transfer from Hua-lien to Yuli took about another two.
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| Inside the train |
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| Huge legroom for a comfy ride |
The train was surprisingly comfy, with a huge legroom and restrooms. Some train attendants pass by every now and then to sell hot meals, snacks and drinks.
The train station was organized and had signs everywhere, which made it easy for non-Chinese-speaking tourists like us.
Accommodation
We were picked up by Mr. Chen, our friend from
SanSenDai Homestay. The drive from the train station to the homestay was quite long, but the mountainous view was amazing.
We were quite impressed when we saw
SanSenDai. It was waaaay better than what we expected, plus it was affordable too! Mr. Chen speaks good English, and guided us all throughout our stay in Chenggong Township.
SanSenDai Homestay boasts several beautiful rooms that made our three day stay comfortable. We chose their elegant mountain-view room, which gave us a nice view of the mountain range right in front of the homestay. It cost us only 1,200NT/night! Such a great value for our money!
Mr. Chen however, recommends the sea-view room for our next stay there. He showed us the room, and from the balcony you could actually see the Santiansai glistening proudly under the hot midday sun.
Getting Around
There aren't many transportation options in the area, and it's best to rent a service to get to go to the scenic places in the area.
Mr. Chen's
homestay also offers these services, and he'd be happy to assist you in your transportation needs. Can I reiterate that Mr. Chen is such a nice guy?
Food
There are a few meal options in the area. Most are a few minutes away by car, and we were fortunate enough to have Mr. Chen accompany us whenever we go out. There is one fast food right outside the homestay that serves really great noodles and grilled meat.
The fastfood was divided into several booths or kiosks, and in each booth was a menu for a certain meal type. Kiosk 1 had noodles, kiosk 2 had barbecue, and so on. We've seen something like this in Singapore, and I guess it's probably common in Chinese countries.
If you happen to stay in
SanSenDai, try eating out in this fastfood right beside them. Try ordering the spicy fried noodles! It was so spicy that I thought my tongue would bleed. Just the way I wanted it! Their grilled pork and fruit shakes are yummy too! Most of the food range from 50NT to 90NT.
For dinner, we ate at a fancy restaurant that serves steak. Mr. Chen also owns the restaurant, and assured us of a nice discount for being guests at his homestay.
The food was extraordinarily good! And the ambiance was quite nice. We ordered steak and prawns, and were blown away by the meat quality and the freshness of the prawns.
The food was a little more expensive there than in other places, but it was all worth it! Our dinner wasn't too pricey thanks to Mr. Chen's discount!
The steak and prawns cost us around 800NT, but was already inclusive of soup, salad, and drinks. It got me so full that I'm planning to visit again once I go back to Taitung.
We also had dinner at another seafood restaurant with Mr. Chen where you'd pick your dish and they'd cook it for you. It challenged my chopsticks skills (and I terribly terribly suck at it). The dishes were equally good, and we paid only around 1,200NT for a hefty meal for three.
Chenggong Township's main attraction is the Santiansai bridge. I will detail more about this scenic wonder in my next post.
As of now, tah tah!
<3 BVG
2. You may hold the rice bowl to your mouth and use your chopsticks to push your food directly to your mouth.
