Luye Highland and Biking in Chishang

Third Day on Trip Around Taiwan

Very famous tree

I’m now on my third day as a solo traveler around Taiwan using public transportation and as someone who cannot speak any Chinese. My second day was spent in Taroko Gorge with a night at the very nice Silks Place resort hotel. Today will be a little different as I am meeting up with friends at Luye about 2 train stations before Taitung and they will have a rental car. Even though we had a car, many of the places we visited are reachable with the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus.

From Silks Place in Taroko Gorge National Park, I took a local bus to the Hualien train station. Not a pretty station and it appears they are doing construction to enlarge it. I got a reserved seat on one of the express trains going through Luye. Since this was a holiday weekend, I had my friends purchase the train ticket in Taipei about 2 weeks before. Taitung seems like a very popular place with local tourists during holidays and weekends.

The favorite pastime for locals on a nice holiday weekend is to enjoy biking on paved farm lanes among the recently planted rice fields around Chishang about 30 minutes north of Luye.  But not any ordinary bike will do, these had to be quad electric bikes! The experience was unlike one I have ever had. Effortless biking on smooth roads where all around are lush green fields with stalks gently swaying in the wind and mountain ranges in the front and back. It was beautiful, serene, and culturally very interesting because there were a lot of us.  Most the locals were young couples having a nice “date” among the pretty fields. 

Apparently, this area became very popular after Eva Airlines used a scene in one of their commercials and my understanding is that the model was a famous movie actor. That explains the large crowd taking selfies around a large tree used in the commercial that unfortunately was badly damaged in a recent Typhoon. That one tree is worth many thousands of tourist dollars, so everything is being done to keep it alive.

Spot where Eva Airlines "I See You" commercial was filmed

Right here was the shot

After the wonderful “bike” ride in our electric bikes, we headed to the Luye Highlands which is a flat plateau where Taitung has their hot air balloon festival. Our October visit was too late to see the festival and the balloons, but we had fabulous views from the plateau to the valley below and the Central and Coastal mountain ranges. To calm a morning chill, we had coffee at a little shop on the Highland called Lao Wang Coffee. The homemade pastries also hit the spot.

Too late for hot-air balloons, but beautiful none-the-less

Let those kids run and work off their energy!

Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus comes up to Luye Highland

Camping on the Luye Highland

Nice place for a cute coffee shop

Later in the day, my friends dropped me off in Taitung before they headed back to Taipei. I stayed at the new Gaya Hotel in downtown Taitung. Somewhat of a boutique hotel with amazing views from the infinity pool on the roof. My next post will be what I did on a rainy day in Taitung. 

A Luxury Resort Hotel within Taroko Gorge National Park, Taiwan

Silks Place, Tianxiang, Taroko Gorge National Park, Taiwan

Taroko Gorge is an amazing natural wonder and why would you not want to stay there, at least for a night? At the junction of two rivers in Tianxiang, 18 km from the Taroko Gorge National Park entrance is the Silks Place resort hotel, a historically significant hotel built supposedly at the insistence of Chiang Kai-sheks son, Chiang Ching-kuo.

There are many options to get there, car, taxi, the hotel’s shuttle from Hualien, Taiwan Tourist shuttle bus, or what I did, the local bus from Xincheng, the closest train station to Taroko Gorge National Park. After an exciting and not too long of a ride on the narrow Taroko Gorge road, we arrived at Tianxiang right in front of the Silks Place hotel.

I arrived too early to check-in, so reception took my bag and said they would email me when the room was ready (amazingly, I had a strong 4G in Tianxiang).  It would have been nice to wait in a lounge and have a drink, but I did not find one, so I got my Taiwan beer at the stall across the parking lot. With time to kill, I decided to climb to the Tianfeng pagoda and when finished there I found a park and some other trails (uphill) behind Tianxiang. When I was totally exhausted from climbing and hiking, I got an email saying my room was ready.

What would a resort hotel be without a great pool? Silks Place has one. It’s a large outdoor rooftop infinity pool or check out the indoor pool which is more kid-friendly. Near the outdoor pool are several hot tubs for soaking. A rooftop tennis court is also available.

Daily activities

Locations of the different facilities

Need some pampering, then leave the kids at the Kid’s Club and head to the spa. Afterwards, in the evening watch an aboriginal performance and a movie.

I reserved the Garden View King room. It was a good size with a nice view of the river. Like most Taiwan hotels there are different room sizes. When you book just specify what you want.

There were some snack biscuits and the mini-fridge had a couple of free items in it including a facial mask. Nice little details. The room is somewhat dated but still shows nice.  I had wished the bathroom would have contained some marble from the area but instead had a pinkish color tile.

Facial mask

Since there is not an abundance of good restaurants in Tianxiang, I highly recommend you book the hotel’s available dinner plans. I purchased the “Western” dinner package which was a very abundant buffet consisting of many stations which I thought was reasonable for NT$880 including service fee. There is a Chinese dinner available which looks to be off a menu.  

Chinese restaurant

"Western" dinner buffet

Dinner fruit station

Beautiful desserts

Breakfast was also a buffet with many stations. If the weather is nice and you are one of the first ones to arrive, you will be asked if you want to sit on the terrace. DO IT! What a treat.

Breakfast outside on the terrace

Breakfast bread station

More bread and pastries

The abundance and freshness are even more remarkable given the location where the hotel is and how food needs to be transported to it.

Not sure the purpose of scales, maybe just decoration

Overall, I really enjoyed my stay at this hotel within Taiwan’s natural wonder.

On to Taroko Gorge and Silks Place

I am now on my second day around Taiwan as a solo traveler who can’t speak Chinese and only using public transportation. My first stop was Luodong where I visited the National Center for Traditional Arts and had a nice stay at the Sunny Stream Villa homestay. See Day One post here. I am now traveling down to Taroko Gorge and will spend the night at the luxury resort Silks Place in Tienxiang which is 18 km down a twisty, sometimes one-lane road in Taroko Gorge National Park. 

Nondescript Luodong Station

To get there I will leave from the nondescript Luodong station and take what is called a local train that stops at every station on the way to Xincheng, the nearest station to Taroko Gorge National Park. I purchased the ticket when I first arrived at Luodong. The fare was about US$3.50. Cheap!  I had inquired about the express train to Xincheng, but it left late, cost more and it was a standing ticket only. My experience is if you can pronounce the city you want to go to correctly, you’ll have no problem with ticket clerks outside of Taipei or better yet, write down the city and times you want to leave on a piece of paper and show them.

Local train interior

Local trains do not have reserved seats, but on this weekday I had no problem getting a seat. The train was filled with many local tourists, heading to Taroko Gorge. While the train seemed slow going (just over an hour), the view was amazing every time we came out of a tunnel and saw the coast.

Very pretty Xincheng Station

Xincheng station has been redone and is very nice. Half the parking lot was full of private tour buses which is where most of the tourists headed.  If you are traveling on your own, you have two options to get into Taroko Gorge, the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus, and the local bus. Both stop at the bus stop in the parking lot at the left as you exit the train station.  My only goal was to get to Tienxiang since I had toured the amazing Taroko Gorge before, and both buses made a stop there. As it happened, the local bus arrived first and with my “Easy Card” I was off along with the other tourists!

Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus route

Amazing

Incredible that a road could be built here

Tienxiang

The bus made a few stops, but overall we had a quick trip through the beautiful Taroko Gorge and I finally arrived at Tienxiang. I arrived too early to check into the Silks Place resort so they took my bag and said they would email me when the room was ready (amazingly I had 4G).

Silks Place resort hotel

So I had time to kill in Tienxiang. A hike up to the Tianfeng Pagoda was in order in addition to walking around Tienxiang. I had wished Silks Place had a lounge where I could rest and have a drink. They have a  lounge, however, it’s only for those guests who pay extra to be “Retreat Guests.”  So I had my Taiwan beer in the stall across the parking lot. At 3:00 pm I got an email saying my room was ready (I will review Silks Place in my next post).

Tianfeng Pagoda 

Restaurants and stalls across from Silks Place parking lot

Church up above Silks Place

I had reservations on the southbound express train leaving about 10:00 am the next morning from the Hualien Station. This ticket was bought in advance when I was in Taipei. Both the local bus and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus terminate at the Hualien train station. When I checked out, the local bus was waiting in the Silks Place parking lot. I also have noticed that the local buses do not always keep to a schedule and may leave early, so keep that in mind. After another trip through Taroko Gorge this time by a betel nut crazed driver, I arrived safely at the badly needing upgrading Hualien station for my next destination in my around Taiwan trip.

What happens when two big buses meet on a one-lane Taroko Gorge road?

One backs up.

A Homestay in Luodong

Sunny Stream Villa

If you have just come from Taipei, Yilan/Luodong is very different. It is more rural with many small fields that are submerged in water or that are planted in rice. Standing among these fields are houses. Some are very nice and have been turned into homestays. If you visit the Yilan/Luodong area, I would recommend staying in one of these homestays. I found myself spending a night in Luodong as my first stop in my around Taiwan trip as a solo traveler who does not speak Chinese.

 

Lots of water and small farm plots

Finding Taiwan homestays where English is spoken can be difficult. Try the usual booking sites such as Airbnb and Agoda. I have used Google Maps and clicked on the homestay and where they have a Facebook page listed, I message them and see if they reply in English. Payment is another issue. Most Taiwan homestays want a deposit sent to a Taiwan bank. This is where Airbnb and Agoda are more convenient.

My homestay in Luodong was called Sunny Stream Villa and like most homestays, it is owned by a nice couple. When determining which homestay to stay, I will look at the reviews on Google Maps and other sources such as TripAdvisor if the homestay is listed. I find pictures are also very useful to determine the condition of the house. 

As a rule, I don’t want to be far from the train station since I am traveling around Taiwan using public transportation.  However, to get to Sunny Stream Villa I had to take a taxi from the bus station which was in front of the rear exit of the Luodong train station. The taxi driver did not speak English, so I showed him the location of Sunny Stream Villa on Google Maps on my phone. Apparently, I didn’t show him the street name in Chinese.  He got me close but not at the correct address. With help from the hotel he stopped at, I got to the Sunny Stream Villa.

The host/owner warmly greeted me as I walked in (but I forgot to remove my shoes, a big no-no). She offered me coffee and a snack. Her English was good, so I told her I wanted to go to the National Center for Traditional Arts (NCFTA) and how was the best way to get there. It was too far to walk or bike, so she called a and made sure the driver knew where to go.

After a long day of visiting the NCFTA, the Luodong Forestry Culture Park, and a walk to the night market, I got a taxi back to Sunny Stream. This time I made sure the driver saw the street name in Chinese on Google Maps. When I got back, the owner offered me fruits and snacks. As guests, you also have access to the kitchen, coffee maker and any snacks on the counter.  Everything was very clean and organized.

Fruit and snacks available

My room was on the top (4^th) floor and there was no elevator or “lift” as my UK friends would say. I had a great view of the Yilan city area and the mountains in the background. The room was large and beautiful. The bath had a large tub and windows all around so you could view the city as you shower. There was a balcony shared with the other fourth-floor room, but there was no outdoor furniture which would have been nice to sit on and enjoy the weather and views. Only a small complaint I have is that the AC controls were in Chinese. It would have been nice if there was a sheet that translates those to English.

Roof balcony

The morning breakfast was elegant. Many different items were served in a bento type tray. It was fresh, satisfying, and nice to look at. Afterwards, the owner dropped me off at the train station as I continue my journey around Taiwan with the next stop at Taroko Gorge.

Simple elegant breakfast

and the breakfast carbs...

Nice stay. Thank-you!