機車環島! (Ji Che Huan Dao)

Ok, here's my trip report for ‘Ji Che Huan Dao’ ("Round the Island on a Scooter" - it sounds better in Chinese). I'll be putting up a link to my photos when I upload them but that may be a few months away as I'm travelling at the moment.

Day 1, Tainan-Lugang

We left Tainan at about 2pm, stopping briefly in Cigu for a late seafood lunch and then rode up the coast (on the 17) to Lugang. It was quite a nice ride with not much traffic, just going through little villages and towns. We arrived around sunset and stayed in some motel listed in our guidebook (it was really nice and only 1700 a night) and ate at some noodle place near the market recommended by the guy in the hotel. We also walked around some of the old streets which look quite nice at night.

Day 2, Lugang-Sanxia

We spent the morning seeing the historic sites of Lugang - temples, museums, old houses, which really are interesting even if you've seen temples before. We could have easily spent more time there but by around 12 thought it best to get going. We headed north on the 17 (not the best choice - I'd advise going inland to the 3 ASAP as we ended up riding around Taichung Port amongst all the giant container trucks). Once we'd finally made it onto the 3 it was quite a nice ride. We had a late lunch at a 'winery' somewhere before Dahu, which served a Hakka set meal for 200 each (about 4 different dishes) which was probably the best Hakka food we've had in Taiwan. Despite the restaurant owner's opinion that it was too far, we continued on up to Sanxia on the 3 (although I would consider taking the diversion around the reservoir instead of riding through Taoyuan at peak hour). We arrived at around 7pm and again stayed at a place we found in our 7-11 guidebook (which also has great maps for navigating through all the towns and cities). After dinner we wandered down the old street and over a bridge in front of the temple where everyone seemed to hang out.

Day 3, Sanxia - Danshui

This was a short riding day, to make up for the day before. We slept in then rode up to Yingge and wandered around the pottery area for a bit. After an ice cream and the realisation that we're really not that into pottery, we then rode up to Danshui in time for lunch. We stayed at a hotel directly opposite the MRT stop (we needed to go into Taipei early the next morning) and had some really good burgers and salad at a place I can't remember the name of, but was advertised on our map. We then spent the afternoon just wandering around Danshui, wondering why we'd never thought to visit there before.

Day 4, Danshui - Yilan

After making it in and out of Taipei by 10:30, we continued up and around the North coast on the 2 (?). We hadn’t been anywhere there before so had fun stopping at beaches along the way and looking at the views etc. We made it to Yilan before dark which surprised us, we thought it would take much longer.

Day 5, Yilan – Xinshe (South of Hualien)

It was raining when we left, so we just had a brief visit to the distillery and gave up on Yilan’s other attractions. The trip down to Suao was uneventful, we had wanted to go to the cold springs but as it was cool and rainy we decided that can wait until our next trip. We had a really nice ride through the mountains after Suao, the sun came out and there were hardly any big trucks etc and just a few cars (maybe this is because it was lunchtime or others had been put off by the morning’s weather), we saw quite a few going in the other direction though. We got to Hualien and decided we didn’t really want to stay there so, after eating some beef noodles, we continued South for a few hours. It was a great ride down the coast, and we found a b&b opposite the beach in Xinshe (‘Ocean View Minzu’), with a good seafood restaurant up the road.

Day 6, Xinshe – Taidong

After viewing the sunrise from our balcony, going back to sleep, then later a swim and breakfast, we were on our way to Taidong. There wasn’t too much traffic around, and we stopped at lots of attractions along the way, including some caves where you go in a boat to see bats, more caves where cavepeople lived, the tropics marker, the wavy bridge, some beaches, ‘famous’ pork bun shops etc. As long as you’re into Taiwanese tourist attractions there’s plenty to see along here, and if you’re not the coastline is nice enough anyway.

Day 7, Taidong – Green Island

We took an early ferry across to Green Island, and upon arrival did a quick circuit of the island just to see what it was like. We were glad to have brought our own scooter across as upon completing our lap we saw queues of people from our ferry still waiting to get petrol for their hired scooters. We found a room in a house that seemed to be rented out by a hotel around the corner, and then set off to explore the island. Our first stop was the prison (used during the White Terror era under Chiang Kai-shek), which was actually quite interesting, and then we went around looking at all the famous rocks and viewpoints. The hotspring area looked nice, but it was too hot for hotsprings so we settled on a swim at the beach near the lighthouse. It made a nice trip from Taidong, but for future visits I would try to go on a weekday.

Day 8, Green Island – Kenting

The first ferry of the morning was fully booked so we got to sleep in and take a later one back across to Taidong. We then headed for Kenting, although after a few hours it started raining and never really stopped. We took the 197(?) and then the 26(?) to come out somewhere near Jialeshui – it was quite nice riding amongst all the trees but would have been nicer with better visibility and drier roads. Once in Kenting we decided to celebrate our last night by staying at a fancy guesthouse along the beachfront with a bath/pool on the balcony overlooking the ocean, and had dinner and cocktails at Smokey Joe’s.

Day 9, Kenting – Tainan

Our last day of the trip was quite rainy, and we had to go really slowly most of the way due to poor visibility and the volume of rain. We stopped at one of the little cafes on the way up from Kenting to try and wait for the rain to stop a bit, but it didn’t so we continued on anyway (and saw quite a few ambulances racing past in the other direction). We took the 17 (?) up the coast as we had wanted to go to Dapeng Bay, but the weather was still terrible so we decided not to bother (the road at the turn-off was flooded anyway). The rest of the ride was not particularly exciting, we just wanted to get back and get out of the rain. As always we got lost in Kaohsiung, then somehow ended up on the 1 for a while, and later realised we were back on the 17. It finally stopped raining for our last stretch into town, thus completing our 1500km journey.

We rented our scooter from a great place, it’s about 50-100m down the road from the rear exit of Tainan train station. It has a big white sign with red writing, and is next to a second hand book shop. Whilst other places had laughed at us or refused us when we said we wanted to hire a scooter to ride around the island, this place thought it was a great idea and escorted us into the back where the better scooters were kept. They had plenty to choose from, we chose a 125cc Yamaha that was about 6 months old, and had no problems with it. The shop had insisted we take about 4 copies of their card so we could call them if we had any problems so they could arrange to pay for any repairs etc. They even paid for the oil change we got in Taidong. We went in the day before to organise things, and when we went to pick up the scooter it had been serviced that morning with new tyres, oil change, full mechanical checks etc. I have a Taiwanese licence, but they are also happy to hire if you just have an ARC. Whilst they are slightly more expensive than some of the other scooter hire places, they are really friendly and helpful, and don’t mind you taking their scooters on long trips.