Taiwan Trip 2015 (台灣30天環島記) - Day 7: Hualien (Qi Xing Tan 七星潭), Taitung 台東 (Dulan Tangerine House 都蘭橘子舍, Water Flowing Upwards 水往上流, Dulan Sugar Factor + Aborigines Live Band Performance 都蘭糖廠)

May 16, 2015

Taiwan Trip 2015 (台灣30天環島記) - Day 7: Hualien (Qi Xing Tan 七星潭), Taitung 台東 (Dulan Tangerine House 都蘭橘子舍, Water Flowing Upwards 水往上流, Dulan Sugar Factor + Aborigines Live Band Performance 都蘭糖廠)

As I woke up I could feel that the today was much colder and strong winds were brewing, but that didn't deter me from cycling to Qi Xing Tan beach (although the original plan was to catch the sunrise but that was too crazy to attempt in this weather). On the map it actually looks quite near, about 5km plus or so, but using the same bike with the wrong seat size, my butt was hurting so bad throughout the journey that I ended up walking most of the time with my injured foot.

Occasionally when I tried cycling the wind was very strong till the point that my bicycle started to wobble. Halfway through the journey I then took a shelter at a breakfast shop to restore some body fuel (pork burger) before continuing the journey again.

And after what seemed like forever, I've finally arrived at a beach. Few years back, blue skies and a scorching sun greeted me. Today the sky was blanketed by thick clouds, strong winds and the waves raging upon me and the other visitors. The whole scene was just plain grey and dull haha.

I could still the sea water splashing against my face even I was already a good 50 metres away from the sea. This guy below should be pretty drenched, along with his camera. With pretty much nothing left to appreciate under this harsh weather conditions, I left after just hanging around for about 20 minutes.

Cycling route to Qi Xing Tan

Upon checking out from Black Bear Hostel, I then made my to way to next destination further down the East coast: Taitung! Throughout the journey, the rapeseed flowers that I mentioned in the previous post can be clearly seen at all the farms that I passed by. At this time, mostly half of the fields were covered. It would definitely be much more beautiful when everything is in full bloom.

As I step out of the train, I immediately went to the visitor centre to figure out how to get to Dulan Village, which was my ultimate stop of the day. Fortunately, I was able to catch the last bus of the day which was offered by the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle (台灣好行). If I had missed that I think I would have taken the taxi since I had no idea how to take the buses here at that time. Throughout my 3 day stay in Taitung I decided to leave out exploring the city and focus on the outskirts instead.

On the way to Dulan I passed by Xiao Yeh Liu, which is smaller version of Yeh Liu in Taipei so I skipped this place. There's also the Fu Gang harbour, whereby boats ferry visitors to Green Island (綠島) and Lan Yu Island. But since it was winter, there's is only one boat there per day and the weather would be really harsh so in the end I decided not to go and stayed another night at Dulan instead.

So why Dulan (都蘭)? Well, I came all the way here just to see the live band performance of the Taiwanese aborigines at the Dulan Sugar Factory. They only have it on Saturdays so I purposely arranged that I arrived here on that day. Every week there will be different artists coming to Dulan to promote their music. I thought it was very interesting to experience the aborigine's cultures and Dulan is one of the best place to feel it.

The bus dropped me in front of the sugar factory and then I made my to Dulan Tangerine House Backpacker Hostel (都蘭橘子舍). I picked this place for its high rating on Hostelworld and I was not disappointed. As soon as I stepped and found my host, I was warmly welcomed by the staff.

Firstly I was shown this cute map drawn on the walls that showed all the attractions in Dulan. There's the Sugar Factory which is actually an art museum, some restaurants, a place on top of the hill to have coffee, a huge span of beach to do surfing, and that's about it. Dulan is just a very small village and it's probably one of the most rural place that I've spent a night at throughout my 30 days in Taiwan.

Then I was brought to my room to place my luggage. Instead of using bunk beds, the beds are designed as capsules and I really liked it because this design gives a much bigger sleeping room and there's privacy curtains as well. It was also then I realised I left both of my bathing towels back in Hualien and then I had to get a new one at 7-11. Sigh. Cost me NTD 250. And since I have to use it right away without washing, the towel couldn't absorb water properly, so for the next few days bathing was quite a torture under this cold weather.

Cozy gathering area

Another thing that I'm grateful in Malaysia is that our water heaters can be solely run and sustained by electricity alone. In cold countries like Taiwan, they have to use natural gas, and in this hostel's case, firewood to heat up the waters every day. So sometimes early morning the water would not be that hot for bathing as the heat had worn out throughout the night.

Anyway, after a mini tour around the house I then grabbed the bicycle and head towards a nearby attraction known as 'Water Flowing Upwards'. Basically, it is an optical illusion to show that even the drainage is tilted downwards, yet the water is flowing upwards and against gravity. What are your thought?

Back at my hostel, the staffs were kind to re-heat some leftover food from the night before and served it to all the guests. Finally I get to try some home cooked Taiwanese cuisine, well not exactly home cooked, and saved a meal before heading for the live band performance.

At around 8pm I then made my way to the Dulan Sugar Factory. There are usually two shows, one inside the cafe area (more expensive) and one at the outdoor area. I opted for the latter. To get seats to watch the show, you would have to purchase a drink of minimum NTD 150 at the bar. So I got a Tequila Sunrise for myself and it was pretty crazy drinking such cold drinks out in the open cold weather. My hands were already going numb from the cold. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the aborigine performance. All the songs were sung in their native languages and for this particular band, the guy used an Indian sita as his main form of instrument which was quite new to me. I even bought an album at NTD 250 to support him.

The live band show ended around 10pm with applauses from the audiences. The two Americans that I went with seemed to enjoy themselves as well. I then headed to the cafe to have a look. The staff there allowed me to enter free of charge since the show was about to end. The atmosphere was more cozy compared to the outdoors. After staying for 10 minutes or so I then made my back and had a good night's sleep.