Days 44 & 45 - Hengchun To Taipei, And Rewarding Ourselves In The Hot Springs Town Of Beitou, The Long Walk South In Taiwan
Days 44 & 45 - Hengchun To Taipei, And Rewarding Ourselves In The Hot Springs Town Of Beitou, The Long Walk South In Taiwan
Last night, the Taiwan National Weather Service issued a typhoon warning and evacuation orders for the southeastern coast, exactly in the location where we were scheduled to walk.
We decided to cancel the coastal walk, because the heritage trail was closed anyway, and instead head back to Taipei.
But getting back to Taipei from our southeastern location would take some time.
First we needed to get to the city of Hengchun, where we could take a three hour long bus to the city of Kaohsiung, and then take the high speed train to Taipei Station.
The hiking group was in good spirits this morning, cooking breakfast and packing up their gear.
We were all a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to hike the scenic route along the southeastern coast, but it was clear now that this typhoon was a massive one.
News reports described it as a once in 30 years storm to hit Taiwan, and already they were broadcasting images of flooding, even before it had reached the land.
After breakfast, it was decided that since the weather still looked nice, we would walk to Manzhou town, and meet the taxi driver there.
From there, he would drive us to Hengchun.
It was a fun group of people to walk with.
They posed in front of beautiful buildings and jumped into the air to create cool photos.
I regretted not having more time to enjoy their company.
We were picked up by the same taxi driver who had taken Jules and me yesterday to the community centre, where we had started our walk to the guesthouse.
He recognized us immediately, because we were some of the only foreigners to stay in this little town.
When we arrived at the town of Hengchun, the group asked the driver to drop us off at the north gate of the old city, and we climbed up on the old wall and walked along it to see the other old gates of the city.
Then we walked to the bus station and used the toilets, before the three hour ride to Kaohsuing.
We were given delicious fruit ice cream by a member of the group who bought ice creams for all of us.
In Kaohsuing, we said goodbye to everyone and headed to the Starbucks.
Jules changed his mind and decided that we shouldn’t miss the high speed train, and instead wait to drink our matcha lattes in Taipei.
The high speed rail was indeed very fast, and we arrived in Taipei in about 1.5 hours.
At the huge Taipei station, we ate lunch and took the subway to the hot springs town of Beitou.
Beitou is really close to Taipei.
In fact, it could be considered a northern suburb of Taipei.
We had booked two nights’ stay in one hot springs hotel, followed by another two nights’ stay in another hot springs resort.
Both resorts offered private hot springs baths in our rooms, which we really liked, just in case the public baths were very crowded.
The hotel room we booked was a Japanese Tatami mat room, which meant that at nighttime, they placed futon mattresses on the floor.
I love sleeping on rice tatami floors, but Jules finds it to be a bit hard for his bones, unless the futon mattress is really thick and cushy.
This one wasn’t, so the next day we asked to switch rooms, which they gladly obliged us.
The new room was more spacious and comfortable, and we had a great night’s sleep.
We went to town to do our laundry, see the city, eat a lunch and drink some tea, but most stores were closed, and it was windy and rainy.
I asked Jules to wait for me at the Starbucks, while I went to do the laundry.
There was no use for both of us to get soaked in the rain.
When I returned to the Starbucks, Jules told me that I should order my drink quickly, since they were closing at 2:30 in the afternoon because of the typhoon.
The restaurants were also closing early, so we went to the supermarket and bought some fresh food to eat for dinner, because our hotel had very few options for vegetarians.
But the hotel did provide a shuttle bus service to and from the city, because it was located up in the mountains overlooking the town.
We were the only guests who had ventured into town in the rain.
Back in our comfortable room, we went to the public hot springs and enjoyed the baths by ourselves.
The typhoon was howling all around us, with heavy rains hitting the windows all evening long.
Images on the TV showed fallen trees all across Taiwan, as Typhoon Kong-Rey finally made landfall.
That evening, we talked about our experiences walking this pilgrimage.
We went through two typhoons, walked about 675 kilometers, had no scary moments and got lots of help from everyone.
We were shown kindness and friendship and loved the scenery down at the south end of the island.
What a journey!
What a beautiful life!
With love,
Tali
Today’s Stats:
Daily Distance - 8 km
Total Distance To Date - 677 km
