Hualien

We arrived here by train. The train ride was down the coast and offered good views of the ocean to our left and the mountains to our right. We walked to our hostel, after finding a rental car to pick up the next evening. The hostel was very nice and the owner was lovely. She walked us to the supermarket and a few other places so we had a good idea of the neighbourhood. We liked Hualien straight away due to it having lots of places to buy fruit and veges, which we had trouble finding elsewhere, and supermarkets, which we also couldn’t find elsewhere. There are convenience stores everywhere in Taiwan, but the supermarkets seem to be hiding from us.

The next day we woke to the sound of jets from the nearby air force base screaming overhead. We went to the stone sculpture museum, which had some great pieces on display. After that we walked along the coastal walkway for a while before heading back to our hostel. We stocked up on food to take with us to the National Park. We also got some laundry done. That was fun in the laundromat with no staff and no signage in English. But a young guy at his family’s soup place next door was able to help us.

We picked up our car at about 1800, which meant we had all day to get it back to them on the last day of our hire. We were able to park the car securely at the hostel, but only because it was so small. There wouldn’t have been enough room for a bigger car. The car was a 5-door Smart car, they had run our of the Fords, but we could fit ourselves and all our gear in it so it was fine.

That night as we walked home from dinner we heard loud music and thought “ice-cream truck!”, but no; it was the rubbish truck. Closely followed by the recycling truck. People came out of homes and businesses with their rubbish bags and recycling bags to put into the truck. A bit different, but it works.

We left the next morning, but we plan on spending another night here after dropping the rental car back. We had two nights in Hualien but took very few photos. I guess there wasn’t a lot we wanted photos of. The photo at the top is of an abandoned scooter we found. The other one is the coastal walkway.

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