My alarm clock went off at 4:15 am for the Taitung Hot Air Balloon Festival, which is about 30 minutes north of Taitung. The mountain setting with the hot air balloons filling up and taking flight was beautiful. We wanted to take a (disappointingly) tethered ride, but tickets had already sold out.
Alf and I headed back to the hostel to get an much needed, extra two hours of sleep before trying to catch our next ride. I woke up still feeling a bit out of it, so tired that I maybe could have forgotten or misplaced things at the hostel.
We walked down from the hostel a couple KM to the freeway entrance, where we were picked up by a group of Jehovas Witness guys coming back from church. They had 4 guys in the car already, but we were able to squeeze and only traveled with them for about 30 KM and dropped us off at a nice restaurant for lunch. On the drive, we politely declined an info pamphlet and had a nice conversation about our lives in Taiwan. They let us off in a small town next to a restaurant. When we entered, the place surprisingly looked like it could have belonged along the California coast, especially in Big Sur with the classic, yet modern beach feel. I had never had swordfish before, so we had an order of that, and it did not disappoint. I'd recommend it.
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| Big Sur, CA or Taitung, Taiwan? |
We exited, and got out our sign that said "Bei Shang," and once again waited about 10 minutes before a fresh BMW flip around after they passed us, and asked us where we're going. As usual, we said "Anywhere north." "We're going to Hualien, is that okay?" "Yeah, sure." "Ok, let's go." So off we were to Hualien, about 2.5 hours north of Taitung, still three hours from Taipei. We met Emily, Sunny, and another guy who's name I forgot. They were so friendly, and were at the air balloon festival early in the morning as well. They invited us to come to "ice" with them when we arrived in Hualien. Alf said, "that's such a Taiwanese thing to say" (stop for ice on a road trip). It's what we would call shaved ice, but unique flavors like purple yam (taro) and red bean, not necessarily really sweet or fruity like we're used to. Alf mentioned in Australia, it'd be "stopping for meat pies." I could only think of stopping for In n Out on road trips, our traditional American snack.
They dropped us off near a beach, and we went out there for a few minutes before deciding it would probably be best to get on the road. A single guy picked us up and took us to the entrance of the highway to Taipei, where we waited for closer to 15 minutes. Since it was around 6:15, we had another 15 minutes before sunset, thus having to take the train to Taipei. Tim and Bob came in and saved the day. They were cyclists coming back from further south, after Bob was cycling across Taiwan and Tim was the support vehicle. So we talked about our cycling adventures, and hopeful future rides. A mutual one is cycling Route 66, which I was funnily enough just talking my friend Dave about the other day! It's Tim's "ultimate dream." So cool to hear him so excited about exploring the USA.
We parted ways at the MRT station, and the trek was complete. Alf and I had done it. In three days, we hitchhiked all the way around Taiwan!!!
I got all the way to my apartment, and pulled out my keys to unlock my door only to find the key from Hostel Who Knows in my pocket...I had dropped off the wrong key as I was leaving...How could that have happened? I called up my landlord first to let me in (luckily he let me in) and then the hostel to see if they could mail my keys back to me. Of course, the owner said, "No problem, we'll exchange addresses and keys." It's an appropriate end to the journey with the helpful and easy going nature of Taiwanese people.
Thank you to all the people who picked us up for your trust, helpfulness, and enthusiasm. You guys quite literally made our trip. Thanks to Alf for being a great travel companion and having such solid Chinese.
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