Hualien
We spent two weeks in Taiwan, and most of that time we were in Taipei. We did go on one excursion, to Hualien, a city on the east coast of the island. The main attraction in Hualien is the Taroko Gorge. But our trip surprised and delighted as soon as we got on the train- when we bought tickets, we saw an option to add a bento box meal for about $2.50 (bento boxes are a legacy from when the Japanese colonized Formosa). We didn't know what to expect, but when it arrived it was much tastier than we had dared to hope! It included rice, a stewed egg, chicken, and some veggies. Unfortunately, the bentos can only be added at the time of ticket purchase, so we weren't able to order more for the ride back!
Yum!
Once we debarked the train in Hualien, we made our way to the Shining Forest Hostel. On the way, we stopped for a boba tea- it was the worst boba we've ever had, and the only bad boba we had in Taiwan! Fortunately the hostel did not disappoint- there were so few people staying there that we were given a room large enough for 4 people all to ourselves!
Anyone who has been to a hostel will be familiar with these maps where guests can record where they come from. Because San Francisco is a major city, it is rare that there is not already a pin in it- but apparently we're the first people from San Francisco to stay at Shining Forest!
The hostel is run by the owner and his mother, both of whom were able to give us lots of tips on where to go and what to eat. The hostel also provided lots of free snacks, including bowls of candy. One candy in particular, a sour salted plum caramel, was so good we decided to buy some to take home with us. We took one to a candy store to ask if they had any. They did- but only five pieces! They insisted we take them for free because they usually sell candy in larger quantities.
Our search next took us to a grocery store, where we found similar candies from a different brand. Luckily, they taste basically the same, but that original brand remains a mystery. We asked the owner of the hostel where he gets them and he referred us to his mother. When we asked her, she told us she doesn't know where they come from- her sister sends them to her!
On the topic of elusive snacks, we had hoped to find a particular kind of salted egg yolk popcorn in Taiwan. It came to us in a Taiwan-themed snack box courtesy of Universal Yums (Matt's sister got us a subscription to the monthly international snack box service for his birthday), but was conspicuously absent from the shelves in Taiwanese stores. Karen mentioned this to her Taiwanese family friend, who actually called the snack company to enquire about the popcorn. It turns out they no longer produce it! There were 3 more bags in the snack company's warehouse on the outskirts of Taipei, and, we were told, we could have them if we came to pick them up. We decided we didn't like the popcorn THAT much, although we were tempted.
The popcorn in question
On our first full day in Hualien, we boarded a tour bus to visit Taroko Gorge. The tour guide had a military background, and it showed. It was the most well-run large-group bus tour we've ever been on. With about 25 people, every stop could have been a mess of waiting for stragglers to catch up, but he kept everyone on their toes and got us all back to the bus on time. We also covered a lot of ground- our fear with guided tours is that we won't really have enough time to look around, but we stopped at five or six trails and managed to see just about all of them! We hiked a total of 6 miles over the course of the tour.
The first stop on the tour was actually a beach with strikingly blue waters. But for Matt the real attraction was the rocky beach!
Matt loves a good rock
Almost every rock on the beach was flat and broad- a perfect skipping stone! Plus, pretty green rocks were everywhere. The area is full of jade and marble, and we wondered if the green rocks were jades. (Matt later measured the density of one: not dense enough to be jade, but still pretty!)
Many of the trails afforded views of the rushing river and the natural marble cliff faces. But one trail had an extra bonus: wild monkeys! On our second full day in Hualien, we returned to spend more time on this trail, and we were rewarded with lots of up-close views of monkeys. A whole family spent 30-40 minutes playing and foraging by the side of the path.
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| Some parts of the trail looked like the belonged in Jurassic Park |
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| A huge millipede |
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| A cricket? We were on the lookout for larger wildlife |
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| Get ready for a dozen blurry photos of monkeys |
It's hard to see in this photo, but across the river there's a group of- you guessed it- more monkeys!
The marble cliffs of the gorge...
...and the blue waters
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| Some trails required helmets |
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| Some trails did not require helmets |
We know our readers- right now you're thinking, "But I can't eat beautiful rocks!" We hear you. Hualien has a large night market, and that's where we ate dinner most nights. It's notable for having more traditional indigenous foods, like bamboo rice.
A mountain of dumplings at a popular dumpling shop
More glutinous rice! This time, it was stuffed into a chicken wing with chives. This was very tasty, but we couldn't find it the next night to try again!
Having tried white bitter gourd juice in Taipei, we were intrigued to see a salted egg yolk and bitter gourd stir-fry. Like with the juice, the bitterness keeps the rest of the dish from being too cloying. This might be the best version of bitter gourd we've ever had.
Spicy shrimp- we saw someone else eating it and decided to try it!
The night market food was delicious, but our favorite meal in Hualien was this hole-in-the-wall dishing out the best stinky tofu we've ever had. We ordered a big portion, then went back to order a second round.
We picked up some fruit from a market. These rotund fruits were too large to eat in the limited time we had.
We did but an atemoya (seen here mostly eaten) and a dragonfruit. Both were really good, despite not really being in season.
Other than the Taroko Gorge and the night market, there wasn't a ton to do in Hualien, but we did visit two museums. The first was the "Jade Museum" which turned out to be more like a "large jade sculpture workshop and store." The employee on duty didn't seem to mind us looking around. We learned that jade is not only green- in fact some sculptures were so brightly colored we thought they must be dyed. Nope! The vivid yellows and pinks were the stones' natural colors.
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| This book is carved from jade. The patterns in the stone look almost like strange illustration. |
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| There's a lot of detail on this one :0 |
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| A close up of the detailed carvings |
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| One of Taiwan's national treasures is a small piece of cabbage carved from jade. This is probably inspired by that. |
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| These are the stone's natural colors! |
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| Now that's a lot of jade |
We also visited a stone sculpture museum. Hualien is host to an annual stone sculpture competition, and the winners are housed both in the museum and on the surrounding grounds. Some pieces were abstract and confusing, but others were cool and confusing!
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| These slabs of stone play with perspective to appear like slightly off 3D blocks. |
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| More stone art |
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