So, it’s a case of the status quo as Lamigo Monkeys as continue in relentless pursuit of their 6th title in 8 years whilst Uni Lions and Fubon Guardians continue to struggle. Oh no, wait, I’m being told that this was last week. Let’s see what really happened…

Uni Lions

Oh hello? 2 weeks ago your season was in the toilet and now look what’s happened, the Lions have now won 8 out of their last 10 games! A few players have come back from injury but Roenicke and Chen Chieh Hsien remain on the long-term absentee list.

Midweek saw the Lions sweep Brothers in Taichung in a closely fought games. On Tuesday, the Lions trailed 2-1 going into the 9th inning. but thanks to an error on 2 outs  tied it up. Austin Bibens Dirkx struck out three in the bottom of the inning and it went to a 10th. A second Brothers infield error allowed the Lions to take a 3-2 lead and that’s how it stayed.

On Wednesday, it was rather more straight forward as the Lions won 3-1 with Chen Yun Wen picking up his 2nd save in 2 nights.

Both young Lions starters, Jiang Chen Yen and Shih Tzu Chien continue to look more like last season’s versions of themselves. Jiang hasn’t given up an earned run for 3 games/19 innings and Shih has only given up 1 earned run in his last 2 starts/13 innings.

Onto the weekend, Friday’s game was cancelled due to rain then wasn’t played on Sunday due to rain. However, the Lions swept Lamigo Monkeys in the two games played. An impressive 8-1 win on Saturday was followed up by a walk-off homer to win 10-9 on Sunday. Lamigo had rallied back from 9-5 down in the 9th before Kao Kuo Ching’s homer with the Lions 18th hit of the game, won it.

So, an impressive week for the Lions with 44 hits in 4 games. The bullpen has settled down, Austin has found his use as reliever, the hitting is looking better, the fielding is looking better. Uni Lions are 1.5 off the top with an 18-1-19 record…

Lamigo Monkeys

The defending champions had another mixed week and are 4-1-5 over their last 10 now. On Wednesday they drew 5-5, Chen Chen Wei tied the game in the bottom of the 12th with a 2 run shot. Thursday’s game saw the Monkeys show a bit of their 2018 selves, rallying back from 4-0 down to win 10-4, 4 runs in both the 6th and 7th innings.

The weekend wasn’t so good as they made the short trip to play Uni Lions at Tianmu Stadium. On Saturday they gave up 11 walks, including 7 from Radhames Liz as they fell to an 8-1 defeat. Sunday saw another defeat and this was cruel, they lead 5-3 after 3 innings then conceded regularly to go 9-5 behind. Lin Hung Yu and Chen Chun Chiu both hit 2RBIs to tie it as 9-9 in the top of the 9th before Kao Kuo Ching walked off for the Lions as the Monkeys lost 10-9.

Lamigo’s starters aren’t quite looking as effective with Zeke Spruill being released on Monday although he did relieve in this game. It’s been a sorry decline for Zeke who in 2017 had a 15-4 record with a 2.56 ERA. He went 7-1 last season, but his ERA was 5.12 and this year, has been ineffective 0-1 after 7 games with a 6.82 ERA.

Lamigo Monkeys remain top with an 18-1-16 record.

Chinatrust Brothers

The wheels are beginning to fall off for Brothers who go into this week 2-8 over their last 10 games.

They lost both midweek games at home to Uni Lions, 3-2 and 3-1 respectively with infield errors losing the game on Tuesday. Both of these games could have gone either way, with Brothers putting two on base in the bottom of the 9th in Wednesday’s 3-1 defeat before Lions closer Chen Yun Wen got the 3rd out and ended the game.

The weekend’s rain meant they only played on Friday and Saturday against Fubon Guardians. 4 different Brothers players hit home runs as they cruised to an 8-2 victory on Friday evening. Saturday’s game was curtailed after 1 out in the bottom of the 6th and with Fubon leading 7-4 at the time, were awarded the win. Up to this point, Brothers starter Huang En Tzu had given up 6 runs in 3.2 innings and his ERA is now 6.59, with a 1-3 record over 9 games.

Brothers only have two foreign pitchers playing at the moment, Mitch Lively and Nick Additon, the latter of whom has struggled to keep his ERA down. They are playing with young Taiwanese starters who are quite inexperienced, maybe a 3rd foreign pitcher would have been more useful than Alex Liddi batting 0.259 and starting in the field.

Brothers are now 19-1-17.

Fubon Guardians

Like Lamigo Monkeys and Chinatrust Brothers, Fubon carry a losing record (4-1-5) over their last 10 games. They also went 1-1-2 for the week.

In midweek they travelled to Taoyuan to face Lamigo Monkeys and after Chiang Chih Hsien’s 2 run blast in the top of the 12th to go 5-3 up, Fubon fans must have been excited. Alas, Lamigo hit back with their own 2 run blast and tied the game 5-5, which was how it stayed, both teams making 12 hits too. Mike Loree a non-factor in this one, giving up 6H, 2R over 6 innings.

Onto Thursday and Fubon were taken apart in the 6th and 7th innings. Debut starter hen Pin Syue gave up 3 earned runs, Lai Hung Cheng another as Lamigo went 5-4 ahead. Lin Chen Hua then gave up 4 hits, 4 runs and a walk as Lamigo eventually cruised a 10-4 win.

The weekend series v Brothers was split and poor Bryan Woodall. The 4 year CPBL veteran is now 2-6 over 9 games this season with an ERA of 4.94. He gave up 10 hits, 7 runs as he took the loss against his former side on Friday night. Saturday saw Fubon end the week with a rain-shortened 7-4 win in Taichung against Brothers.

Fubon are now 15-1-18 but are only 2.5 games off the top.

This week’s fixtures

Fubon Guardians v Uni Lions @ Tainan on Tues/Wed at 6:35pm

Lamigo Monkeys v Chinatrust Brothers @ Chengcing Lake on Wed/Thur at 6:35pm

Chinatrust Brothers v Uni Lions @ Tainan on Fri at 6:35pm, Sat/Sun at 5:05pm

Lamigo Monkeys v Fubon Guardians @ Xinzhuang on Fri at 6:35pm, Sat/Sun at 5:05pm

I mentioned several weeks ago that I would only be posting about my trips if there was anything worth talking about. I became to get the impression I had run out of things to do in the Taipei area but, that’s not exactly true.

On a usual Saturday trip to Xinzhuang, I would leave Tainan at 11 and arrive at 3:30pm in Taipei and go to the baseball. I couldn’t do that on Saturday, it is the NBA playoffs and I wanted to watch Golden State v Houston Rockets but it was a 9am start. I couldn’t watch the game and get the 11am bus. To ensure I watched the full game, I needed to take an earlier bus so I could watch it on my phone as I travelled north.

This would put me in Taipei around 12:00-12:30pm, 4-5 hours before the game so I needed to find something to do. It didn’t like it would be too hot and I wanted to do a little bit of hiking, nothing too crazy just a nice trail and looking at the Xiao Bai Yue’s or small 100 mountains, there were a couple of options.

Guanyinshan was the initial choice but Jiantan was close to the centre of Taipei and was close to the Red MRT line, perfect. I downloaded a map of the trails and as I arrived in Taipei at 12:30, got off the bus at Daqiaotou MRT station and made my way to Jiantan MRT station.

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I had been told about a shrine not far from where the Jiantan Mountain Trail started and almost opposite the MRT station, beside the local water station.

I walked up the steps beside the closed water station to the shrine, and to be honest whilst the views were OK, I didn’t see the significance of it. I got a couple of photos before making my way back down the hill, to the main road and to the start of the trails.

It was only a short walk from the MRT and I knew the trails were well walked. Some people had said the signposting was confusing and whilst there was a map at the bottom of the steps, I didn’t end up needing to use that, or indeed the map I had downloaded onto my phone.

Jiantan mountain stood at 157m which sounds ok and a relatively short climb but as like many other trails in Taiwan, this started with a lot of steps. It only took about 10 minutes to make the short, steep climb to the first observation deck.

The path levelled off after the first observation deck as views opened up to the south-east of central Taipei and there was a mix of trail, paving and boardwalk for next 300 metres or so. That said, despite it was hotter than expected and I was glad I’d decided to wear a base layer instead of a cotton t-shirt as I do usually when I hike on weekends away like this.

‘Jiantian benchmark’ signposted off to the left and I presumed correctly that it was the summit marker. There were views over to the Tianmu area and behind that Yangmingshan. I couldn’t quite see Tianmu Baseball Stadium as it was hidden behind other buildings.

I carried on, and they were never that many people on the trail. It meandered up and down as it moved eastwards to the plane spotting platform that overlooked Songshan Airport. I was limited by time, and one of the signs said it was 1.9km back to Jiantian station but 3.6km onwards to Jiannan Road station. Without hesitation, I decided to press on, and after a short uphill climb, that track turned to a road.

I was never really sure if that 3.6km was true, as I came to a sign that said 1.9km back to the plane spotting platform 15 minutes after I left it. One hundred metres later, it said it was 1km back to it. There was one moment of confusion when I reached a military area, the signs were in Chinese and I was happy I could identify it was right and downhill to Jiannan Road station. It was a steep downhill walk back to civilisation and I was on at MRT train at 2:35pm, a nice 1hr 30-minute hike.

With the hike done, I took the MRT to my accommodation for the evening to check in and onto the baseball. Uni Lions won 2-0 and I was up early on Sunday for a completely different kind of tourism.

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Around 11 days ago on another non-descript evening after work, wasting countless hours on YouTube I came across a video about things you must do in Taipei. It had the usual, Elephant Mountain, Taipei 101 but then suddenly, something of great interest. Somewhere I’d never heard about before, and within minutes was scouring the internet frantically for reviews, trying to find out as much as possible.

At this point in time, I was still unsure whether to go to Taipei to see the Lions on the 12th. I had supposed to have been working Saturday which was then cancelled on the Monday before. By the time last Tuesday came around, I was on 100% set on going to this place. It just looked too good, I just tried to get my head around everything and decide exactly what I would like.

I checked out the hostel about 9am and took the MRT around to Xingtian Temple station. It was only when I reached the temple had I realised I have been there in my first month in Taiwan but that wasn’t where I was going. I continued north, under an intersection and through some backstreets and after 20 minutes I had finally arrived.

It took me a moment to gather my bearings and make sure I knew where the entrance was, I was here, at Addiction Aquatic Development.

What on earth?

Addiction Aquatic Development, I just told you.

Ummm…?

You know, the gourmet marketplace offering some of the finest seafood in Taipei, a seafood lover’s paradise.

And?

Did you not know already?

Know what?

I absolutely love seafood. I can’t describe the excitement I had in the 11 days leading up to this. Usually, I’m known for my somewhat, tighter tendencies. I don’t usually splurge on food. In fact, the more expensive meal I’ve had in Taiwan cost about NT$700, I rarely spend more than NT$350 on food when on my own.

I love seafood, but I love sashimi and nigiri, tuna is one of those foods I simply love. I walked in through the entrance and I was immediately struck by how smaller the building was than first expected. It was dimly lit and that helped with the atmosphere.

There were tanks of huge crabs upon walking in on the left, then up the ramp to the right, was the supermarket that seemed to reach around like a tentacle. Towards the back was the seafood bar that opened at 10am.

I came to the standing sushi bar on the middle corridor and I had a quick glance at the menu outside. I took a deep breath and entered. I felt a bit out of place, I don’t usually splurge and with the dimly lighting it felt like going into a very posh restaurant and there I was with my backpack and Lions cap, only 4 hours removed from watching baseball again.

I was presented with a menu and with at least 6 pages to browse through, there was an overwhelming amount of choice. I had looked at the menu before on the internet, had done my research and yet was still, clueless. There was too much choice. I wasn’t interested in price, I was interested in getting a good variety of food.

I guess I would have to learn the hard way. When it comes to seafood, I can eat seafood at a better rate than I can most other foods but my fear was portion sizes and over-ordering. That would be my downfall in an incredible next hour.

For the record, if you would like to see the menu please click here I started with the Deluxe Sashimi Set and I italicized standing for a good reason. I noted, learning the hard way for a good reason as I would wait 20 minutes for my order. I was presented with a bowl of 10 pieces of sashimi; tuna, salmon, prawn and scallop. I almost felt nervous, as I picked up my chopsticks and savoured the moment.

Needlessly to say every piece was melt in your mouth delicious, it put my mouth on the verge of a virtual orgasm and the experience was over within a matter of minutes. Time to order plate two.

The two English speakers to my left had ordered tuna, I enquired and was told it was a Deluxe Tuna Nigiri set, without hesitation I ordered that too. Looking around, I would guess there was space for around 40-50 people. I knew the sushi bar was notorious for its long waits and it was at half capacity by the time my second order had arrived.

This platter looked too good to be eaten, I guess there is a good reason why people don’t eat too much when it comes to high-quality food. I almost felt guilty for eating it.

As I finished the last piece of tuna nigiri I contemplated a third order but had been on my feet for an hour and really did not want to spoil the moment. I paid my bill and was politely escorted to the exit, with was at the far right of the building, next to ‘To Go Seafood’ which offered live lobster, oysters with cheese, abalone and yellowtail amongst other delights. This small shop was square shaped, I took a few moments to look around before moving into the supermarket area towards the middle.

I browsed for around 20 minutes but it was becoming increasingly busy. Some of the produce was fresh to eat such as ‘sashimi’ and ‘nigiri’, there was also meat, wines, beers, fruit juices and a whole lot more.

I picked a box of tuna and salmon sashimi for 370NT (£9.50 for anyone back in the UK) and made my way towards the checkout.

They offered utensils in boxes at the exit so people could eat directly outside the exit at tables, and outside on chairs at street level. I did neither and instead chose to get a coffee so I could sit down just outside next to the bar/charcoal grilled section.

I left around noon, with my next destination being Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium. I vowed to return to Addiction Aquatic Development on my next trip to Taipei, maybe next time I will order more appropriately at the sushi bar but there is a first time for everything. It is not the cheapest place to eat, I spent a little over NT$1,400 but, for high-quality food, you are getting exactly what you pay for.

Addiction Aquatic Development can be found at: No. 18號, Alley 2, Lane 410, Minzu East Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City, 1049 or simply Google it. The nearest MRT station is Xingtian Temple and I highly recommend Google Maps to guide you there.

My next post will be a somewhat shorter one, focusing on what you must do when going to Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium

For now, that’s it.

Tom

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The season continues to progress and it’s Tuesday lunchtime, it’s time to look back on last week’s CPBL action.

Uni Lions

If you thought the Lions season couldn’t get any worse, and I’ve been writing that in my roundups for the last 2 weeks, it has. The disabled list is now up to an astonishing 24 players, see here for the full list, note since that was published another injury has been announced…

As for the baseball, it was a mixed bag with all five games being played ‘at home’ at Chengcing Lake Stadium in Kaohsiung. The Lions fell to a pair of defeats in the midweek series v Brothers, losing 6-1 and 7-2 on Wednesday/Thursday respectively. Lions Austin Bibens Dirkx is now 1-4 for the season and is now on thin ice.

The weekend series was a little bit better, but it was low scoring with just 10 runs over the three games v Fubon Guardians. Friday saw a rather unusual win, just a hit, a walk and an error but that was all the Lions needed to win 1-0. The run came in the bottom of the 7th.

Saturday saw the Lions defeated 2-1 making only 4 hits. Sunday was the best game of the three, after trailing 2-1 in the 1st, the game was levelled in the 5th and Mai Chia Yi won the game was a 2 RBI single in the bottom of the 7th.

On a positive note, Lions 3B/SS Huang En Tzu has hit 5 doubles in 13 games with 9 RBIs and secondly the Lions went back to back games without errors for the first time this season.

At 12-18-1 the first phase has long since been a write-off but with 24 out of 63 players across both the 1st and 2nd teams injured, you can’t complain too much. This hasn’t been the Lions season so far.

Lamigo Monkeys

A classic case of Chapel Tom cursing a team, and I quote from last week.

Full steam ahead Lamigo Monkeys and you get the feeling the champions are back for another run at the CPBL title.

Fast forward a week and after winning all 5 games last week, losing all 4 this week.  The midweek series was halved, on Tuesday the Monkeys fell 5-4 to the Guardians thanks to a walk-off hit from Lin Yu Ying. Wednesday’s game was postponed.

Lamigo’s struggles against Chinatrust Brothers continued and they suffered a 2nd successive walk-off defeat on Friday. Alex Liddi’s home run winning it for Brothers. Interestingly, Lamigo had rallied back from 6-4 down to lead 9-6 in the top of the 9th then gave up 3 in the bottom of the inning…

Saturday’s game was another high hitting game, Lamigo and Brothers combining for 25 hits. Brothers took an early 5-1 lead and went on to win 8-3, Radhames Liz is now 2-2 for the Monkeys this season but still boasts a decent 2.95 ERA.

If you thought two walk-off defeats in one week was bad, how about a third? This time Wang Sheng Wei did the damage, Brothers winning 7-6.

Lamigo fall to 14-14, 4.5 behind Brothers now.

Fubon Guardians

So what’s main positive from this week for Fubon? Their foreign pitchers all had good games. Henry Sosa remains a Guardians player for now and his ERA remains at a CPBL impressive, 1.76. He gave up 8 hits, 4 runs over 8 innings in Fubon’s 5-4 walk off win v Lamigo Monkeys on Tuesday evening.

No game on Wednesday due to heavy rain and on Friday, ace Mike Loree suffered a very cruel defeat against Uni Lions. He gave up 1 hit, 1 walk and 0 unearned runs, striking out 11 over 102 pitches over 8 innings. So how did he lose? A Lee Tsung Hsien error allowed Tang Chao Ting to advance to 3rd and Mai Chia Yi grounded out but allowed Tang to get home. Baseball can be so cruel.

Bryan Woodall looked a bit more like himself on Saturday, giving up just 4 hits, 2 walks and 1 unearned run over 5.1 innings. Woodall took the win as the Guardians edged Uni Lions 2-1.

The week ended with a second defeat at the hands of Uni Lions. Reliever Lai Hong Cheng gave up 2 hits and 2 runs, taking the loss in tight 4-2 defeat.

Fubon are 11-14 for the season.

Chinatrust Brothers

In Chinatrust Brothers legend Peng Zheng Min’s last season, are Brothers gearing up for a title push? They missed out on the finals last year after losing 4 straight finals but are definitely the CPBL side to watch so far.

Brothers did what Lamigo Monkeys did last and swept the week. I’ve already covered the results with the other 2 sides but Brothers notched up some impressive hitting stats, certainly by the CPBL standards of 2019.

9 hits, 6 runs on Wednesday. 12 hits, 7 runs on Wednesday. A further 38 hits followed at the weekend, scoring 25 runs. Around 60% of their hits are resulting in runs.

Going back to what was said a couple of weeks ago, Brothers are still grinding results out, as proven by their 2 walk-off wins (10-9 on Friday/7-6 on Sunday) v Lamigo Monkeys. They are getting the job done and sit 18-1-9 after 28 games. This was a team predicted to do very little but are so far, taking advantage of other teams struggles. Can it continue or just like last week, have I cursed Brothers to a week of defeats too?

This week’s fixtures

Chinatrust Brothers v Guardians @ Xinzhuang on Tuesday/Wednesday at 6:35pm.

Uni Lions v Lamigo Monkeys @ Taoyuan on Thursday at 6:35pm.

Chinatrust Brothers v Lamigo Monkeys @ Taoyuan on Friday at 6:35, Saturday at 5:05 and Sunday at 2:05.

Uni Lions v Guardians @ Xinzhuang on Friday at 6:35, Saturday at 5:05 and Sunday at 2:05.

Note, next weekend Sunday games will revert back to 5:05pm.

There is something rather alluring about Taiwan’s Pacific coast, perhaps because it’s so different from western Taiwan. Despite Taiwan’s relatively small size and dense population, the Pacific coast feels cut off because of the mountains that go down the island’s spine and split the island in two.

For me, it’s always a welcome relief to visit eastern Taiwan but living in Tainan, it’s not easy. Tainan to Taitung, for example, is 103km as the crow flies, but 220km by road and it takes a minimum of 4 hours to get there by train. It has never seemed worth doing Taitung as a weekend trip and a result has remained unvisited by myself.

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When I returned from the UK, I had to quickly get my Chinese New Year plans together and Taitung was my priority. I was simply unprepared, as it took time to readjust to life in Taiwan after 3 weeks away. Train tickets went on sale on 9th January, but despite being late to book on the 14th, managed to get seats between Chaozhou to Taitung and on the return, Taitung to Pingtung. Better still, I got one of the last hostel rooms in the Taitung area in Dulan, paying just 1440NT for 3 nights, I paid 1000 a night in Kenting last CNY!

For the first 5 days of my CNY break, I did some hiking and a bit of research about Taitung. The main issue was finding public transport information in English, and Diing Dong bus’ website was a Dreamweaver build so I couldn’t right click, Google Translate any of it. It was quite difficult and time-consuming work. And so to the trip…

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DAY ONE – THURSDAY 7TH FEBRUARY

Cramming 3 days of clothes into a 20 litre backpack wasn’t easy but I managed it and left my house at 6:15. From Tainan I headed for Xinzuoying to catch my train to Taitung, I had managed to buy a ticket with a seat for Xinzuoying to Chaozhou, meaning I wouldn’t need to stand up or change trains, but simply change carriages.

It was a smooth journey and I arrived in Taitung around 11:10, my intention was to take the 8101A Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus to Sanxiantai, then play it by ear. Well, that went well for about 10 minutes…

The bus hit traffic as it joined Highway 11 and the 1 hour 25 journey took double that. In a double whammy, the glorious sunshine turned to intense rain. By the time I reached Sanxiantai, I had no chance of making the 3:20 bus back and getting to my hostel would turn out to be tricky.

I had come for coastal scenery, and the rain put a dampener on that! I had to buy an umbrella to protect my backpack but was soon on my way down to the rocky beach. In spite of the rain, Sanxiantai’s most famed spot, the 8 arched bridge was still crowded. It was also waterlogged in places, but I was fortunate to be wearing my hiking boots as most other tourists struggled in flip flops and soft trainers.

The views from the island were OK, and I followed the trail to its end. The boardwalk ended and it turned right on what only be described as a rocky wasteland before going up a steep set of stairs to a lighthouse, and that was it, a dead end. I made my way back to the car-park, looking forward to getting to my accommodation

Getting out of Sanxiantai proved to be a difficult task. The buses were not going into the car-park, and there was a map showing where they left from, a gentleman said something about the number ‘2’. I followed the road out of the car-park to a T-Junction, and turned right where there was a ‘2’ Highway marker. I misheard/misunderstood, after an hour of waiting a bus finally showed and I was subjected to a torrent of angry abuse in Chinese.

He allowed me on anyway, and 50 metres up the road, there was an actual bus stop! A definite d’oh moment if there ever was one!

I was heading for Dulan, about 38km down the coast. The journey was going well, then the bus hit traffic a few km short of Dulan… I finally got off at 6:30 after 90 minutes on the bus. I checked into Travelbug hostel which is where I would be staying on trip. First impressions were good, and after a few sleepy beers, retired for the evening ahead of ‘day two’ on trip.

DAY TWO – FRIDAY 8TH FEBRUARY

Thursday’s traffic issues had been frustrating having spent about eight and a half hours on a bus or a train and do one tourist spot. Things didn’t get better.

I wanted to head to Baxianwong (Baxian Caves) and I go onto the 8:31 bus bound for Jingpu. The 70km journey was without traffic issues, and the coastal views were good. 1 hour 50 minutes after leaving Dulan, I’d arrived at the caves and couldn’t wait to see one of Taiwan’s pre-historic sites.

I got to the main trail and it was closed due to construction work. There was only one cave worth looking at and that was it. The handful of caves I saw were just opening in the rock face, and not caves as you usually expect. I spent 20 minutes walking around and it was time to get the bus back south down the coast again.

I only had to wait 10 minutes for the next bus, and if you think frustrated, you’d be right. It was beginning to feel like the trip would be one I would want to forget about very quickly but my luck changed a bit.

I didn’t go all the way back to Dulan but stopped off at Donghe Bridge. I’d passed it the previous day and the car-park was full of tour buses but, it was quite the opposite. It was almost completely deserted. There are actually two bridges, one is the modern highway one where you get off the bus and the other is an old bridge. So what’s so attractive about it? The views. It is just a 100 metre or so bridge with a couple of fruit stalls next to the car-park but you are next to the mountains and can see the ocean.

I bought a coconut and enjoyed the peace and quiet as I sipped away at the coconut water. There is an unwritten rule for me in Taiwan, if I see coconut’s being sold, I must buy one! As a further side note, it’s been my go-to drink in recent months, there is always a bottle of coconut water in my fridge!

I walked across the bridge and spotted a trail under it by the side of the river. At the end of the bridge, I turned right and descended to the river and then along the path to the sea. There was a beautiful quiet beach with just a handful of tourists and the river itself was just a trickle, a few feet wide and about few inches deep at the mouth.

I moved on and walked into Donghe, knowing I was at the mercy of the bus times and I didn’t have much money left on my Easycard. With 17 minutes until the bus, I didn’t walk to 7 Eleven and put money on it, instead waited for the bus and that was silly.

The bus was late, then once back in Dulan would have had a quick connection but the next bus south along the coast was delayed… by 35 minutes. I didn’t want to go too far and got off in Jialulan, one of the many coastal scenic spots in the area.

It was busy as you’d expect for mid-afternoon but there wasn’t much to see, there was a good view of the mountains further up the coast and a few art installations. It was worth about 20 minutes of my time.

By this point, I couldn’t be bothered doing anything else. It was past 3pm and I was pretty bored with sitting on/waiting for buses. I went back to Dulan, enjoyed some food and went out up to the Sugar Factory later in the evening for a few of Highway 11 brewery’s craft beers and a bit of live music. Would it be too much ahead of day three?

DAY THREE – SATURDAY 9TH FEBRUARY

No, it wasn’t too much, although I had had a fair bit to drink and only had about 5-6 hours of proper sleep. My plans for Saturday’s were as normal, hike. I’m tempted to incorporate my usual Hiking with Tom post into this, but I will keep it separate and this version shorter.

Somewhat tired and in a groggy mood, quickly got up, changed into hiking gear and onto the 7:51 bus to Nanjunjie, a short 5-minute ride away. The plan was to hike up Dulanshan, which I was to believe was a 14km walk and not too difficult so I was quite confident it would be an easy day, and I’d be done by lunchtime.

From Nanjunjie, the road up the mountain started and Dulan Mountain Trail was clearly signposted. It was 1 hour and 10 minutes of road walking, up and up and up with the views getting better as further height was gained. You could see right up and down the coast, the sea and Taitung City.

The road ended and I was shocked to find it was another 3.8km to the summit of Dulan mountain. Looking at the information board, I’d gained about 600m and had a further 590m of elevation to gain, but mercifully it looked like the path levelled off after 2.3km.

The first 1km was an easy, steady ascent before things got tricky. The path got steeper, and the ropes at the side of the trail were necessary. I’d been unable to bring my walking poles and even then, they’d have been useless against some of the more slippery sections.

At 1.7km there was a small opening and I realised I was on the ridge between the East Rift Valley, and the East Coast. It was possible to see down into the East Rift Valley but unfortunately, they’d be no more views like it. I trudged onto the 2.3km mark and the aboriginal shrine before my hopes of an easy last 1.5km were soon dashed.

The ridge got narrower and there were numerous up and downhill sections with more rope, a lot of tree roots with some huge rocks to squeeze over/past and a bit of mud too. What I thought was a 25-minute walk from the shrine, took 50. I finally reached the summit after 3 hours and 16 minutes.

The information board said there were expansive views from the top which turned out to be wrong but it didn’t detract from what had a tough but fun ascent.

I made my way back along the ridge, then down from the shrine to the car-park where the trail started. There was a small matter of the 4.2km down the road, and it was not pleasant. By the bottom, I was begging for the finish and as my excellent luck would have it, minutes from the end, I saw a bus heading north.

I had a 35-minute wait at the side of the road which gave me time to sit and relax my legs/feet after a tougher walk than expected.

I got back to Dulan about 2:40 and the rest of the day was whittled away. I had laundry to do, to plan out my final day and of course to eat and drink plenty as I usually do post-walk.

DAY FOUR – SUNDAY 10TH FEBRUARY

I really could have done with more time in bed, the man in the bunk above wouldn’t stop moving, getting out of bed all night and I was still completely shattered by 8am.

I packed up and left the hostel with a rough idea of what I wanted to do, the first ‘attraction’ was Water Running Upward just south of Dulan. There wasn’t a bus for a little while so I walked instead which took about 15 minutes.

I’d heard about how bad this was, Water Running Upward being where it looks like water flows uphill. Despite how inane this sounds, it is notoriously popular. It was quite literally a small, shallow drain with some water in and due to the surrounding landscape, a total illusion. I moved on, and caught the next bus down to the coast to a somewhere better attraction, Xiaoyehliu.

Back in 2017, I visited Taiwan’s northern coast and went to Yehliu, a geological park with numerous eroded rock formations. So why does it have the same name? The rock is the same (sandstone) and it’s a smaller version of Yehliu, xiao’ meaning small, so Xiaoyehliu is a fitting name.

Thankfully with it being only 9:20am, I’d arrived before the crowds, and the park was naturally split into three separate sections. The middle section was the best one but there was no information to tell you which rock looks like what. On the main boards, it gave a rough idea of where ‘Doufu rock’ or ‘Mushroom rock’ were, but in reality, it wasn’t obvious where they actually were.

I found a bit of peace and quiet in the right hand, third section of the park. I spent about 25 minutes sat, watching the waves crash into the rocks with only a handful of people around, sat doing the same thing.

I took the 11am bus into Taitung City which I had low expectations of. Most people say, skip Taitung City itself given there isn’t a great deal to do there.

I was in a bit of a bind. My train out of town was at 3:36pm and it was now 11:25. I couldn’t venture too far out of the city and I was also low on money. I had a walk around the old railway station area which was largely left intact, with the tracks and platforms remaining with a few art installations to look at. There was quite a bit of information about Taitung, and it felt as if the city was making an effort to modernize.

Taitung is a peculiar place for Taiwan in that, the train station is now 6km north of the city centre but better suited for the railway itself.

As I was walking I saw a sign for Liyushan, a small mountain rising above the city. It didn’t look much but I had a look anyway! The views in all directions from the numerous platforms were superb despite only being 75m above sea level. I spent over an hour on Liyu but part of that was because I had no idea what I was going to do next.

I descended and had intended to hire a bicycle but was now in a bigger bind. I had 2 hour 30 until my train with a bus at 2:30 to the station, and not much more to do in the local area, added to that, I couldn’t find anywhere to hire a bicycle.

It’s fair to say my remaining time in Taitung was wasted, I walked around vaguely going north and east, with the idea of getting some lunch and visiting the Forest Park. Stupidly, I thought the entrance to the Forest Park was further north than what it was, and by this time was stuck halfway between downtown and the train station.

I just carried on walking, getting to the station about an hour before my train. Not the greatest end to the trip that had its fair share of letdowns.

Getting back home to Tainan wasn’t too bad. I got to Pingtung and had to walk down 4 carriages, I had booked a seat from there to Xinzuoying. The train was going to Tainan so why not stay on board? Well, it sat there for 16 minutes, with a faster express leaving in the meantime. I got off at Xinzuoying at 7:15, went upstairs, tapped in my Easycard and boarded the 7:20 back to Tainan instead.

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So, Taitung. I’m not sure what to say, I enjoyed myself but I could have planned things better. I could have done more sights but it’s not often I don’t completely pad out a trip and do as much as possible.

Next up, a separate, Hiking with Tom post from Dulanshan.

Tom

It’s 1am, and I’m struggling to sleep ahead of my first day off for Chinese New Year. Just as I manage to get a couple of hours *music plays*, it’s my alarm. I’m confused. It’s 4:20am, what? Then I remember why…

My initial plan for this week’s hike was a trip to Meiling in Nanxi District, Tainan. Yet, by Thursday I had had a change of heart as I knew Meiling would be very busy with it being peak plum blossom season. The other option was Weiliaoshan (尾寮山) in Pingtung County, a 20km walk and a definite step up from last week’s measly 13km. I wanted a bigger challenge but was I ready to do 20km…?

I’ve always walked to hike in Pingtung, I remember going through it on the train three years ago and seeing these big mountains. I just wanted to get out and explore, hike, climb the mountains, see the views. This was it and I was excited, as well as a bit nervous.

Weiliaoshan is a well-hiked trail (a “little 100 peak” 小百岳) from Dajin (大津) in Pingtung close to Maolin National Scenic Area (茂林國家風景區). I got myself up, and into Tainan at 5:10am for the 5:20am train south to Pingtung City. It was only going past Xinzuoying I realised the line had been routed underground with 7 new stations, so the journey from Xinzuoying to Pingtung was painfully slow. Eventually, after 90 minutes of stopping everywhere, I arrived in Pingtung City at 6:50am.

Dajin was still another 30km/1 hour north on the 8218 bus and I caught the 7am one. The problem was, coming back. Dajin only gets about 7 buses a day, with a gap between 12:10 and 2:50 coming back so there was no incentive to rush the walk.

I got off the bus, with the trailhead being metres away at the junction of Highways 27 and 185. There were already a few hikers waiting to start their walks and that’s what I did at 8:05, I set off knowing it was a long hike and I had to take things steady.

The hike started on what is known as the ‘Industrial Road’ with a couple of junctions early on. It was paved for a short while before turning into a track. To be quite honest, it was very easy going at first with a series of gentle switchbacks up the hill. The first 3.5km was done within 40 minutes, before two important splits in the path.

The first, was at Shitougong Residence, the official trail went curving right then bent around left but there was another path that went straight ahead. I carried on the official trail, and the path split again, straight ahead for Dajin Waterfall and up the hill, to Weiliaoshan. As I carried on, I realised the path that went ahead at Shitougang was a shortcut and all the locals used it.

I carried on to the 5km mark where I had my first drink and I was getting the impression the walk was a bit too easy. The forest cover provided nice shelter and the terrain was absolutely ideal, I was beginning to become complacent.

Just beyond 6km, I got my first taste of what was to come… the first steep rope assisted climb. It was more like a scramble in places, worse still, I had a guy in his 50s trailing me and I didn’t want to be overtaken, so it was 5 minutes of pure climbing.

I let him pass, and I took a rest in Viewing Scenery Pavilion (觀景亭) at the top. The trail was quite quiet, I only passed about 10 people in the first 6km and it would remain that way. The views from the pavilion didn’t particular exist, due to both clouds and vegetation in the way. I pushed beyond the rain shelter, and the day’s longest, hardest and most swear and sweat-inducing climb started just beyond the 6.5km mark.

I had expected the trail to get harder as I was still 570m below the summit with less than 3km to go. It was a relentless climb, every time I thought I was at the top of it, it continued and did so for almost 20 minutes.

I pressed on to Cloud Viewing Platform where there were 2 locals enjoying what looked like a 3-course meal. The view was OK but I knew that Weiliaoshan is notorious for its cloud issues, hence the name ‘Cloud Viewing Platform’. The push for the summit included 4 or 5 steep climbs and between them, nice flat sections on the forest floor.

At 11:04, the summit of Weiliaoshan was complete. There was no view, a single bench with just a sign and a trig point to mark the end of the hike. Kindly, a local couple took my photo at the top and I had 15 minutes break to rest my feet and legs because of the long hike down again.

I had seen about 30 people on my way up, going down was a completely different story. As I made my way back, it was like a traffic jam in places. Before I even reached the 8km mark again, I had let about 20 people up the hill. At ‘Cloud Viewing Platform’, there was a small army of people and I stopped briefly for a photo and that was it.

At the top of the journey down ‘the long climb up’ I let a group of about 12 up before I made my way down. I had managed to suffer from amnesia, as I had forgotten how difficult it had been to climb. Going down, it was worse given I’m quite clumsy. It required quite a lot of concentration, careful foot placement and patience. It took longer to get down than up but the hard part of the walk was over.

From here on, it was quite an easy walk. I passed the rain shelter, and 900m mark before stopping at ‘Viewing Scenery Platform’ again. The climb I had found difficult earlier in the day, was quite a simple descent. The time was now 12:53, and I knew there was absolutely no point trying to break any records with the next bus at 2:50pm.

I say that then walked the remaining 6km or so in around an hour. There were no issues to speak of, and it was a nice pleasant, if not tedious way to end the walk.

The bottom was reached at 1:55, giving a time of 5 hours and 51 minutes. I had an hour until the bus so down on the benches opposite the trailhead. Sadly, I felt myself getting bitten by mosquitoes whilst sat down. It would later turn out I had 20 very nasty bites on my elbows/lower back.

I had a quick walk on the bridge between Pingtung and Kaohsiung, before it was time to leave on the 2:50pm bus. I got into Pingtung and bought myself a couple of beers for the trip back which would take a long time!

From arriving in Pingtung at 3:50pm, I didn’t get back into Tainan until gone 6pm. I had took a fast local train to Xinzuoying, then after seeing the fast trains at 5:10/5:38 were delayed, took the local at 5pm. My train was held at Zhongzhou for over 20 minutes to let three express trains through, not a pleasant journey back but it didn’t spoil a great day.

Summary

Distance: 19km

Difficulty: 3.5/5

Ease accessing the trail: 3/5. The bus takes you to within 100m of the start but buses are infrequent.

Pros: A good solid climb particularly beyond 6km, favourable terrain, forest cover, well signposted.

Cons: No view at the top,

Advice: Start early as the trail gets busy, if you have your own transport, use it. Get water before you arrive in Dajin as there are no shops open in Dajin early in the morning, it’s a tiny place!

Recommended? Yes.

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There may be a break this week. I’m off to Taitung for 3 days from Thursday, I have no idea whether I will get a hike in or not.

Tom

The jet-lag has gone, and exactly a week after I landed back in Taiwan I have finally got myself straight.

My apartment is tidied, all my washing is done and my body feels back to normal. A follow up post will come later today, as I review my time in the UK. Since I came back, I’ve felt refreshed in the classroom but outside of that, my home life has felt a little more chaotic which was to be expected.

Anyway, this is it. The 2019 blog, my 11th year in a row blogging on WordPress. This was the first of many posts from 2019, let’s do this.’

Tom.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton