Taiwan Trip 2015 (台灣30天環島記) - Day 8: Taitung 台東 (Lu Ye 鹿野, Sanxiantai [Terrace of the three Immortals] 三仙台, Dulan @ Night)
As mentioned in my previous posts, public transport around this region was scarce so it was quite a headache trying to get around. After consulting with my hostel's staff about the schedule for public buses, I decided to head towards Lu Ye first in the morning, and then back to Sanxiantai in the afternoon and then back again to Dulan. Initially I was supposed to stay at Fugang harbour today to take a boat to Green Island the next day but I changed my mind at the very last minute.
To get to Lu Ye, I had to first take a bus early in the morning (~7.40am) to Taitung Train station and then switch to the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle. Since I was so used that the tourist shuttle comes in the form of mini vans, I totally missed the bus that I was waiting for when it came to the station. So my stupidity and reluctance to ask cost me an hour to wait for the next bus. It did not help that the morning was so cold (~13°C) that I had to hide inside the train terminal.
There are many huge signboards at the bus station teaching tourists on which type of bus to take to different destinations. If it is too confusing there is always the visitor centre within the vicinity to help. Generally buses from the Taitung station can bring you to certain parts of the East Rift Valley, the coastal area as well as the city centre itself. Since there is only one to two company managing the buses here, the fares can be quite expensive. E.g. the bus fare to Sanxiantai (1 hour distance) cost me almost NTD 400. For the same amount I could take a train from Taitung to Kaohsiung. Therefore, do not expect Taitung to be cheap despite being quite an outskirt/kampung area.
There are many huge signboards at the bus station teaching tourists on which type of bus to take to different destinations. If it is too confusing there is always the visitor centre within the vicinity to help. Generally buses from the Taitung station can bring you to certain parts of the East Rift Valley, the coastal area as well as the city centre itself. Since there is only one to two company managing the buses here, the fares can be quite expensive. E.g. the bus fare to Sanxiantai (1 hour distance) cost me almost NTD 400. For the same amount I could take a train from Taitung to Kaohsiung. Therefore, do not expect Taitung to be cheap despite being quite an outskirt/kampung area.
After waiting an hour or so, the next bus came and it was another 40 minutes to Lu Ye Visitor Centre. According to Lonely Planet, Lu Ye's landscape view is one of the best around and one of the reasons that I came. It is also one of the sights of the East Rift Valley (花東縱谷). However, I came during the wrong season haha. The sky was as cloudy and everything looked pretty dull. There was hardly any tourists here too.
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| Pineapple field. Probably where the jam for the tarts came from. |
From the visitor centre, I walked uphill about 1km towards to observatory centre where people usually do paragliding, but only during the summer months. So during winter, there was almost absolutely nothing to do here apart from sightseeing.
There is a huge grassy hill that tourists could rent a cart and slide all the way down for NTD 100. I tried it once. Not too bad, although I wished the slope was longer haha. Other people were just rolling around on the hills and taking photos.
5 minutes walk away then I arrived at the paragliding area. I can only imagine how people jump off the platforms as they scour through the air, admiring the picturesque view of Lu Ye.
The next bus back to Taitung was pretty late so I had to stick around doing nothing apart from streaming Dota 2 matches (thank goodness for unlimited data plan). As I arrived in Taitung it was already past noon. The next, and last bus to Sanxiantai was roughly around 2-3pm so I grabbed a pork chop bento (NTD 750) whilst waiting.
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| Random citizen screaming at the top of his lungs protesting about the present Taiwanese government |
The bus finally arrived and brought me to Sanxiantai scenic area after an hour's long trip. This was the same bus that brought me to Dulan. Apart from the Little Yeh Liu that I mentioned in an earlier, other notable points of attraction which I skipped this trip included A Mei Cultural Village, Clownfish Museum (yes, Nemo has its own museum) and a botanical garden enroute to Lu Ye earlier. Sadly I only have roughly 40 minutes to linger around this place as the same bus which dropped me will leave at 5.30pm. I should have came here first instead of Lu Ye as the scenery is so much more beautiful and there were more things to explore.
Sanxiantai is pretty similar to Qi Xing Tan beach in Hualien. Instead of a sandy beach it is also filled with pebbles. It was really frustrating to walk through the pebbles as my feet kept sinking in. I was already running around trying to explore as much as I could but the situation wasn't helping. Probably due to the different depths of the sea, it is very obvious that there were two different patches of colours in the sea. Quite a sight indeed.
There was a long bridge linking the mainland towards Sanxiantai island. Due to the lack of time, I was really contemplating whether to cross it or not. At last I just decided to run across the bridge, with my sprained ankle, and tried to take as many pictures as I could whilst maintaining a steady and firm hand (winds were quite strong as well) and having a glimpse at my watch each passing minute.
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| Sanxiantai bridge |
After 15 minutes of so, I made it to the island. I had a good look around for 5 minutes, took some photos, and then ran back to the shore again. What a pity. Definitely a place I would come back again to slowly explore in the future.
Another amazing thing at this place is that the waters somehow flow from opposite directions, and then they move directly below the Sanxiantai bridge and crash against each other and the process repeats again, and again.
I stayed until the last remaining 10 minutes, before heading back to the parking area where the bus left Sanxiantai right on the dot. By the time the bus dropped me off at Dulan Sugar Factory, it was already time for dinner. I headed for the fried chicken stall and grabbed a few pieces of mushrooms, pumpkin and called it my dinner.
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| NTD 80 |
Since the night was still young, I decided to head to one of the bars to chill out. There are several bars in the area but I chose 'Wo Ga Li Gong' because they had Stella Artois draft beer! One of my favourites. The owner of the bar also grilled some pork for all the guests to try for free. A great way to end the night after a long day.
-Day 8 end-
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