“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber
Our journey to Hualien, Taiwan was full of these secret destinations. After getting our first big taste of travelling, we were hungry for more. The next few school breaks were all short so we chose more local places to visit. First holiday on the list was Dragon Boat Festival and the first trip on the list was Hualien. Dragon Boat is a traditional boat racing festival where hundreds of contestants paddle along the river in boats that look like, you guessed it, dragons. Hualien is a small city on the eastern coast of Taiwan and is known for its gorgeous scenery. We packed our bags, hopped on a train with our friend Jessica and headed east.
Train riding was a new experience for me. There is something uniquely vintage and surreal about slowly gliding scenery, a methodic side to side sway and the clickity-clack of the track. A strange metamorphosis occurred on this trip as the landscape changed from factory to rice patty to mountain to coastal shore; all intriguing in their own way. The only downside of the trip turned out to be the actual train itself. With the creation of a high speed rail in Taiwan, the classic train has moved to an old cabinet somewhere along with floppy disks and VCRs. The train feels and looks old and offers merely a squat pot to answer nature’s infamous call. For those of you unfamiliar with Asia, somewhere in this grand history one of the greatest con artists of all time confused the mass populous on this side of the world. Shunning the revolutionary idea of a toilet, this con convinced the eastern world that sticking a porcelain bedpan into a hole in the ground was equally effective. The unpleasant motions and acrobatics required to use such an item led to the common street name, “squat pot”. How the most technologically advanced societies on earth can hold on to an excretive tradition equivalent to a boy scout on a camping trip is beyond my comprehension skills. For those of us who are foreign, we avoid “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” at all cost, and search desperately for the nearest normal potty. Trapped in a Stone Age train for two and a half hours leaves one with little option. And so it was that we arrived in Hualien, ready to explore and ready to explode.
Our overzealous host met us at the train station and whisked us away before we were even able to relieve ourselves. Thankfully, she stopped a few long minutes later at a local fruit stand. We were able to get some amazing fresh fruit and finally use a bathroom. Then it was off to settle our accommodations, tour the local market and buy a bus ticket to visit a local lake. Being a much, much smaller city, Hualien is far more “old school” than Taipei. The standard of living is much lower and people do things in a more traditional manner. For my Virginia friends, it’s like going to Scottsville after visiting D.C. This was very apparent as we toured the local market with fresh meat hanging on hooks, people haggling over unknown parts of a chicken and fish being gutted and scaled. Wanting to add to our fresh fruit snack, our lovely host purchased a bag of fried chicken butt for me to enjoy. (Parts now no longer unknown.) We then grabbed our bus tickets and headed for the lake. 
The lake was a mirror of magnificence as it lay nestled below giant green mountains. Renting a paddle boat, we slowly made our way onto this mirror to relax and rejuvenate. After living in a major city for months, words cannot describe the feeling of tranquility while floating along, gazing at the surrounding beauty. This was the perfect place to indulge in fresh pineapple and a greasy chicken butt. I have to say, as unappealing as it may sound, the butt isn’t too bad. Kind of a mental turn-off and a little bit of work for the meat, but overall it is acceptable in times of desperation. Unfortunately, I was not desperate. We enjoyed our snack and drifted lazily until finding the energy to paddle once more. At which point we chased a duck and discussed whether or not the Asian boaters nearby knew how to play chicken. Our time done, we returned to port, docked up and then traipsed over to the local market for some real food. We explored for a little while longer and then returned to town.
The lake proved to be one of those secret destinations I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. It was not a big tourist hot spot and I don’t even remember the name. The big secret, however, is not truly a destination. The unexpected culinary offerings of Hualien are grandiose enough to count as a destination in my book. Even now, when I think of a reason to return it is often the food that brings these thoughts to my mind. We tried quite a few amazing dishes but the true winners are the pork buns and moachi. There is a famous little shack in the heart of Hualien where the line wraps around the block and the steaming bins are stacked high. Like many food havens in Taiwan, there isn’t much to look at, but the Bible has it right; appearances are not everything. I’m not sure of the technical Chinese name for these things but it translates out to something like “little white buns of porky perfection”. When you bite into a steaming hot, chewy bun and greet a little ball of minced pork taking a bath in perfectly spiced soup, you will want to jump up and yell, “Mamma!”. (I really have no idea why you would yell this and neither will you, but I do promise that you will want to jump up and yell something stupidly irrelevant.) Needless to say, I ate pork buns until I looked and felt like a pork bun. And just when you think you are done stuffing yourself, you begin to roll home and pass a window where they are making little dessert balls that resemble your stomach in its current condition. You discover that these are moachi and Hualien is known for their moachi. Moachi are very chewy little balls filled with all kinds of things. The best being the coconut, peanut butter, and frozen with ice cream variations. We tried some, became addicted and then plotted ways to eat more of them each day. If you know my mother, ask her about moachi. She loves it and hasn’t even had the famous ones yet. Unable to eat another bite, we crawled home and rested up for the big adventure facing us the next morning.
Taroko Gorge is why people come to Hualien. Perhaps the most well-known national park in Taiwan, Taroko features some of the greatest scenery you will ever experience. For those on a short schedule, like us, the way to truly see it all is to hire a taxi for the day. These taxi drivers do tours of all the famous sections of the park and can give great insight and history about the well-known areas. Our host kindly requested an English speaking driver and we set out to see a whole new side of Taiwan. The next few sentences will feature quite a few words and I will attempt the impossible task of visualizing the surreal. Just close your eyes and try to see it with me. (Okay, so technically that is impossible. Read along and THEN close your eyes and try to see it with me.) The mountains and gorges are amazing. Colored rocks carved into patterns and formations like God was finger-painting with the earth. Rivers with water glistening like emeralds and sapphires. Hiking trails pass through caves and around waterfalls with rainbow creating mists. We saw bats and butterflies and unique trees and plants. We hiked mountains to ornate temples and waded into streams of crystal clear water. We saw mountains resembling an Indian head, King Kong and even the shape of Taiwan. We trekked barefoot through a cave that was a waterfall. We climbed stairs for what seemed like hours to ring a bronze bell overlooking the valley below. We wore hardhats to avoid potential death by rockslide. We took pictures, pictures and more pictures and created memories to last a lifetime. I’ve included extra pictures to hopefully help you capture just a moment of the natural beauty that pervades such a place. Awesome, in the true original form, is the only way to describe Taroko.
Not content to merely hike all day, we insisted on biking for the last day of our visit. We went to see a local hero, famous in years gone by for saving people from drowning, and rented bikes for the day. The word bike is a stretch considering these were more like rusted pipes screwed to two wheels. But, they did their job (by this I mean they moved in a forward direction) and at three dollars a day I cannot complain any more. There are some amazing bike trails around the Hualien area and we chose one that followed the coast. Our journey took us through some previously unseen parts of the city, down an amazing stretch of coastline and even through a few farming areas with grazing water buffalo. At which point (thank you, Veggie Tales) someone must always begin singing a silly song with Larry. “Everybody wants a water buffalo…” please save me! We peddled to a nearby boardwalk area for some much needed breath catching and ice cream. We took some pictures and headed back, making a pit stop at a popular goat restaurant where we tried coffee and cheesecake made with goat milk. (Not bad, but no pork bun.) Knowing our ride to the train station would come soon; we left the goat behind and returned our bikes. Our whirlwind weekend was over, but not so over that we couldn’t scramble to the moachi store and get some to bring home.
Tired, sun burnt and overwhelmed, we waited patiently to board our train. We settled in and tried to find a comfortable position to steal a few moments of much needed rest. The train rumbled to a start, the swaying began and soon the clickity-clack became a lullaby for our weary heads. I fell asleep praying that Mother Nature would not call while on the “Squatting Express”, and dreamt of the many secret destinations I had visited. Well, secret to me and my limited local knowledge. It had been a long weekend but one of the best ever. Tomorrow, school was waiting; but those cares and concerns seemed thousands of miles away.
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