Cycle Taiwan Day 13 - Kenting to Taitung - The beginning of the Eastern Coastline Adventures

Good morning Kenting! Day 13 will be the day we start riding on the eastern coastline of Taiwan. many said it's beautiful and we shall see then. By the way this is the minsu we stayed "海晴天旅店" GPS : 21.945981, 120.795306

Breakfast at Kenting town centre itself and found this delicious local pork burger.

This is second time in a 9 seater Volkswagen T5 van (commonly used by the Taiwanese) to Fangliao instead of taking a bus. It costs us NTD300 per person. The distance was about 60km on the same route we took when we came to Kenting.

Next to Fangliao Railway Station is Fangliao Railway Arts Village located at Chunyun Road GPS : 22.366346, 120.596177.

The street along Chunyun Road is interesting and full of art works to see.

We spent a fair bit of time taking pictures and enjoying the exhibits by the local artists. These old buildings were once left idle and were dormitories of Taiwan Railway Administrator. It has been converted into a Art Village sometime in 2002.

One for the album at F3 Fangliao Art Village.

Once again we were back to this station but this time we were heading to Dawu, the opposite direction.

The train fare from Fangliao to Dawu Station is NTD96 per person.

A banner directing visitors to a nearby bus station to Kenting or Hengchun at the train station.

It's drama time, a competition on who will pose like as a lonely traveller waiting for a train to no where.

Dawu Train Station was in the midst of upgrading and the condition was rather not conducive but I am sure it will be converted into another attractive station soon.

This train ride has actually helped us to cut across the southern tip of Taiwan at Pintung County where we shall begin our journey on the eastern side of Taiwan coastline.

Dawu Rainbow Village 大武彩虹村 was one of our intended places to visit and we have finally found it.

A severe flooding caused by Typhoon Morakot had damaged the village of Fushan Tribe and it could not be restored to its original state. The tribe was forced to move into a permanently prefabs houses along Dawu Street where you could see their houses with wooden doorplate written in the tribe's language. The tribe has painted their houses with bright paints sponsored by paint company. It has become a  place to visit especially for a pit stop.

Dawu Rainbow Town is located at Dawu Street, Taitung County GPS : 22.358614, 120.906500

We stopped by Dawu 7-11 (GPS : 22.362030, 120.907147)  for a break before heading northwards on Route 9 Nanhui Road.

The road condition along this trail is still not perfect, certain stretch was still narrow and some under severe construction work but the experience to ride along this ocean view was gorgeous.

Stretches like this was nice and safe with beautiful sky and the vast Pacific Ocean on our right. Not forgetting the headwind and a couple of uphills.

A sign on the highway as we passed by.

One has to be careful with the traffic whenever there is construction work going on by the road.

Looking new and so nice to cycle through.

Another stretch of tricky trail with massive road work.

After another severe climb it's time for a banana break.

We had enough of the eastern coastline experience and it was time to look for the nearest train station so that we could get to Taitung before it gets dark.

Taimali 太麻里鄉 here we come. This is a rural town with mostly aborigine peoples and it was once known as the Village of  Sunrise where the sun rises from the eastern sea.

Taimali Train Station 太麻里站 is sited on an elevated ground and were glad to see it standing majestically waiting for us. GPS : 22.618593, 121.005200

The climb to the station and the last one for the day with a final view of the vast Pacific Ocean at the horizon.

The train fare to Taitung from Taimali is NTD51 each.

A bicycle track at the staircase to assist one to get to the respective platform.

By the time we reached Taitung it was already dark and we just wanted to get to the nearest hotel. We found this one Xing Long 龍星花園渡假木屋 at Xingxing Road GPS : 22.793479, 121.126285. NTD 1,100 per room.

We were recommended by the hotel staff to try 九格浪 原住民風味餐 at Wenchan Road GPS : 22.790881, 121.125565 serving aboriginal dishes. It was crowded and noisy that night with loud talking customers with their drinks. We persevered and enjoyed our dinner.

The dishes we had it was delicious and pricing was reasonable for NTD1,320.00 Photo credit Anne Cheong.

On Day 13 after a train ride from Fengliao to Dawu we commenced our cycling to Taimali then train again to Taitung.

Cycle Taiwan Day 12 - A Day Exploring Kenting on Scooter

Four of us rented 2 scooters for the day with a fare of NTD600 per unit. While Anne & Robert preferred to explore with their Bromptons. After a simple breakfast at Kenting main town we approached our nice land lady to hire her scooters from her. By right you need to show your International License in order to be able to hire one, but we could not produce any as we were not prepared for it. Anyhow our nice land lady has closed one eye for our favour. Kamsia Kamsia.

Our first stop was at Little Bay Beach 小灣沙灘 GPS : 21.941788, 120.804876

At the entrance of Little Bay Beach.

We took a few brief stops before we went over to the southern most tip of Taiwan such as Shadao 砂島 GPS : 21.914394, 120.847342

Somewhere close to the tip we parked the scooters at the entrance and took a walk to the tip.

The walk was relaxing with nice thick green canopy along the path.

Finally we were here at the southern most tip of Taiwan.

And the iconic monument at the tip.

One more for the album.

As we continued to ride around the route, we could see couple of small and cute cottage houses, some operating as restaurant and cafe.

We ventured into a rather small path to a cliff somewhere at GPS: 21.922355, 120.854029 known as Longpan 龍磐 Park and enjoyed the vast and magnificent view.

The wind was so strong that it could even blow off your cap away if you are not careful.

Longpan Park
龍磐公園

The strong wind is about to transform us into Power Rangers .......

Further up of Longpan came a place with sandy wind where you could actually feel the sand blasting onto your face and this place is called Fengchuisha 風吹沙 GPS : 21.947300, 120.838718

As we continued to travel north to Gangkou Suspension Bridge
屏東滿州港口吊橋 GPS : 21.988211, 120.841791

One of the several shops at this commercial corner of Gangkou

We decided to have our meal at this shop, Chashan Beef Noodle Restaurant
茶山牛肉麵 GPS : 21.989704, 120.841935

The menu on the wall for you to pick your choice of dishes available here.

I love this DIY creation holding chopsticks using disposed plastic wrappers, often these wrappers are found flying all over the place.

My choice of an ecomony rice what we called as "chap fan" in Kuala Lumpur.

We continued the anti clockwise loop turning towards the western side of the tip.

After cutting across the southern tip from east to west we stopped by at a park in the vicinity of Longluantan Nature Center 龍鑾潭自然中心 before coming to this Baisha Beach GPS : 21.936279, 120.717618. The beach is where famous film director Ang Lee shot his scenes for "Life of Pi".

At the southern tip on the western side with nice blue sea, rugged rock formation and lovely breeze. This place is known as the Moubitou Park. 

A shopping arcade at Moubitou Park with enticing street food that one just simply could not resist. 

The beauty of this nature formation is absolutely outstanding and worth the time and money to visit.

Maobitou Park
貓鼻頭公園 can be found at GPS : 21.922288, 120.737514

A gorgeous length of rocky coastline with clear waving blue water.

The pavilion for visitors to have a good view of the surrounding.

Bye bye beautiful Moubitou it was time to go back to our "minsu".

We passed by Hengchun Fishing Building at Houbihu GPS : 21.945463, 120.743990 and later I found out that it used to be a small fishing village. The place is rich in fishing resources from the Pacific Ocean and Bashi Channel meeting each other which is an ideal place for fishing. Houbihu is the biggest fishing port in Kenting National Park and also is a tourist attraction.

After a short rest at the homestay we walked to the night market to have our desired delicacy.

And the delicacy we were eyeing was "3 cup chicken" 三杯雞 Sān bēi jī. Why it's called as such because traditionally this dish is cooked with 3 cups: 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of rice wine, and 1 cup of sesame oil ~ hence the '3 cups'. We had other food too for dinner. Photo credit : Anne Cheong.

The anticlockwise route we took with our rented scooters with a distance of 68km, in deed it was such a remarkable experience to see the southern tip with motorised two wheels.