In the Lonely Planet Taiwan guidebook there is a little town south of Taideng that's doesn't get much of a review other than it was apparently named as one of the best places to view the sunrise of the new millennium.
But it has a beach!
After the chill of Alishan and the hustle of Tainan and Zuoying a warm, quiet beach sounded like a good idea, so we got ourselves tickets to ride the train across the bottom half of Taiwan as far as Taimali.
Taimali is a small town that grows a lot of crops - custard apples mainly - and has a beach that is all but deserted. The walk down from the railway station - do you see the hitch here? Walk down means a return walk UP the hill - wasn't all that far, but didn't get any better the closer we got to the town. With packs on and carrying a bag we marched up the main street, found a 7-Eleven to get some cash, and decided on a feed. Rowie picked out a street vendor selling fried chicken.
This lady put KFC to shame! It was good, and it was ridiculously cheap. The short time we were there the bain marie emptied out and another load was almost sold out as well. Seems the locals liked it as we'll.
Anyway, with not much to hold us there we walked back UP the hill to the train station to find a mob of primary school kids doing an activity in the car park. They were drawing a picture of the front of the railway station when we got there, then they went on to a few games before their teachers put on a concert for them and their families. By concert I mean they set up a drum kit, plugged in guitars and mikes and went for it, back up dancing, and crowd (and parent) participation. It was a bit like a Taiwanese Wiggles concert.
Another young guy befriended us for a while in the station foyer asking all sorts of questions of the two strange travellers in his town before the train turned up and we were on our way to Taideng.
It didn't get any better here either!
We marched past the incessant taxi drivers at the station - first mistake - to go find a place to stay and then hopefully something to eat. After a while we got sick of walking and whistled down a taxi to take us to a hotel close by, somewhere. We ended up at some high class Chinese place, but I was past caring, I just wanted to get this pack off and a bed for the night. By this time it was already well after dark. After checking in we went downtown by taxi - second mistake, too far away from town - to find something to eat and have a look around. We found yet another night market and I tucked in to some BBQ squid and bacon and spring onion on sticks, washed down with a Taiwan Beer.
Taideng didn't do much for us so we decided it was time to head up the east coast a bit further to Hualien, and Taroko Gorge.
Another session at the train ticket window and another short hop up the coast by rail and we stepped in to the Sleeping Boot hostel in Hualien with out a hitch. Easy when you book ahead and make plans!
