The bike route down Eastern Taiwan is boasted to have the most beautiful views of sea and mountains in Taiwan. From Hualien to Taidong, there are two popular routes: Highway 11 and Highway 9. On most blogs I read, cyclists took three days to make the trip, but all commented that it was quite possible to do in two if we were fit enough. Highway 11 hugs the border between the coast and mountains, passes by fishing villages and beaches and goes through tunnels and bridges. Highway 9 goes through the valleys and along the railroad tracks, with majestic views of mountains looming over. Boyfriend and I chose to do Highway 11, in two days. We left Taipei on Friday night to Hualien, where our journey started.
We rented our bikes from the Giant Store there the following morning. (**I had made reservations a week beforehand, recommended) They have a great program where you can rent a bike from one location and drop it off at another Giant store. This is SO convenient, and it only costs 1,200NT to have for 3 days, and you can drop it off anywhere there is a Giant store (which is most cities in Taiwan). They prep you with all the tools you need: helmet, repair kit, spare tires, lights, and the best part-bags for your stuff! We emptied out our bags and easily fit our stuff into the provided saddle bags that hooked on to the back of the bikes. The helpful guy pointed us the way to Highway 11 and by 9am we were on our way! I won't go over every detail of our route, we just stayed on Highway 11 the whole way through! For a good description of roads and stuff we passed, here's a blog of a guy who did a similar trip.
On Day One, we went from Hualien to Chenggong, which was over 100 km and about 10 hours of biking. The first few hours were expectedly hilly, and my enthusiasm drained quickly. As soon as the sun started beating down and pedaling got hard, I got pretty grumpy as well and wondered why I had decided to punish myself this way. But we kept on going.
At least the views didn't disappoint.
While I cursed and fought my way up hills, the boyfriend effortlessly rolled up the hills and took selfies as he patiently waited for me to catch up. Lovely.
I had never sweated so much for so long. If it weren't for all the water I kept on drinking, I would have just dried up like a raisin.
I used to be terrified of big vehicles passing by while I'm biking. Now I know it's even scarier when you're both in a tunnel!! WTH! Esp when the tunnels never end!
The going got easier after lunch time, and we cycled along in peace after I allowed boyfriend to teach me how to use my gears properly. This made SUCH a huge difference. He went ahead sometimes, but always came back to make sure I was alive and didn't hitchhike my way back. I got better and better at going up hills. But by dusk, our bums were burning..so we found a hotel off the road to stay in Chenggong, ate, giggled at our tan lines and crashed for the night. The worst was over, and we were so proud of each other for biking longer and harder than either of us ever had before!
On Day Two, we dragged each other out of bed early to get on the road before it got too hot. When we left at 8am, it was already seething hot. We only had about 60 km (4-5 hours) of biking to get to Taidong, so we planned to go at a more leisurely pace and stop more along the way. My butt could not have possibly hurt more. We moaned and groaned but stopped at the sight of San Xia Tai. It was just as marvelous as I had seen in pictures before. Just arches of bridges, but to me it looked like a Chinese dragon! I just loved how it spread over the ocean, not just another river.
Sanxiatai
On top of the bridge, breath taking.
My handsome boyfriend conquering rocks!
We passed by fields that reminded me of Bali, so many rows of green and mountains in the back!
By lunchtime we reached Dulan, a place I've always wanted to check out. It's known for their expat artist scene and parties at this old sugar refinery factory. Unfortunately we had missed out on the celebrations from the night before so the grounds were empty, and just a few cafes were open where we stopped for lunch. Further down the road, we found a beach behind a half-finished hotel resort. It was pretty, and we finally got to change into our swimsuits to cool off. I left Dulan feeling like it was a bit overrated and deserted, but oh well.
The Old Dulan Sugar Factory
Feeling refreshed after a mango smoothie and ice coffee at the cafe in their parking lot!
Shanyuan beach front
When we got back on Highway 11, we decided not to stop anymore til Taidong. There wasn't too much left to go away, about 30 km. We were both very sun burnt, and ready to go straight home. I had been to Taidong before, and if we had more energy I would have suggested exploring but, seriously. Not at that point. Thankfully the way to the train station in Taidong was paved out for us on a nice bike path lined with trees. The Giant Store is practically attached to the train station on the left, and we dropped off our bikes and changed out of our sweaty outfits in relief by 3pm on Sunday afternoon.
So, about 16 hours of cycling broken down between two days, 160+ km traveled and still alive. In case you haven't caught on by now, I despise cycling. I don't even OWN a bike! So this was huge for me, and it was more challenging then all the sports I've engaged in before simply because cycling requires ENDURANCE, something I am not familiar with on such an extreme level. I probably won't ever go on a long bike ride again. Ever. But I am so glad we did it!
I would never have made it without the encouragement and support of my boyfriend, my inspiration and hero. Thank you for not letting me give up, so that now we can reminisce on this one time we biked down half of Taiwan together x
VICTORY!!!! WE MADE IT!!!
Watching the sunset in the train, on our way home back to Taipei. YAY!
