October 28,

We had plans today, so we got up and about by 0630. We had our Javas and breakfast of Muesli and yogurts. Then we left our place at 0947, catching the subway to the Kaohsiung Main Station. This station connects buses, subway, and trains. We were early- on purpose and walked around checking out the new station. There were huge skylights, and open skylight areas. All was tied in with a cool-pattered, flowing, modern ceiling and couple of sculptures – one being an organ pipe? I don’t know if Kaohsiung has a tie-in with organs or pipes or organ music. I have questions. We went outdoors, as the station has a great outdoor space. It is like a park. The old station has been left here to be included, as a piece of history? But the old station has construction all around. It was more or less just an empty building. We don’t know, as there’s not any signage. Anyway, we went back inside and down to the trains.

Our train arrived at 1028. It cost us 485 TWD ($15.87) each. We were on an express train to Taitung, and we left on time at 1030. Underway, I saw the train had reached 115 kmph or 71mph. The train stayed underground until between the second and third stop. Once in the open, we were sometimes on elevated tracks. This is some of what helps it reach the speed that it does, and aided in the substantial price tag for it. We passed by the largest fields we have seen in quite a while. They had a variety of crops. We also passed by fish farms with their aeration “movers” going. Around here I saw we hit 120kph (75 mph). There were also orchard groves. The tracks now are right along the ocean on the south west coast of Taiwan. The stretches of beach we can see were mostly black sand ones. Then the mountains came to the coast so we turned east and started going through many tunnels to get to the east side. The interior down here is very mountainous. We saw 125 kmph (78mph) in this stretch. The express train arrived in Taitung on the southeast of Taiwan by 1218, three minutes late.

We went out for lunch, to a restaurant called Jiugelang – meaning aboriginal style meal – Restaurant. We were given a menu in Chinese. So we did google translate and ordered a “Slippery Egg Mushroom” dish; a “Kito Swordfish Willow” dish and Fried Noodles. I had a baby Coke and Jeff had a large Taiwan Beer. The mushroom dish had little bitty mushrooms in a mound of green, soft algae?… maybe?… with egg. The fish was small-chopped, breaded, fried and seasoned fish cubes topped with green onion. And the noodles were stir fried with carrot, onion, and cabbage. It was a lot of food, but good. Finished, we paid 670 TWD or $21.91. We headed back to the train station.

Now begins our planned adventure. We will be going back along the same tracks, but we have booked an old model diesel train, the Breezy Blue. We arrived to check in and were each given a large envelope with goodies. We had 20 minutes so we checked out our package. We were given a Breezy Blue coaster, earbuds, a small note pad, two different sets of tickets (I don’t know why two kinds- momentos?), and some kind of card for a phone game or other(?). We went out to the platform by 1345 and got some pictures, then we boarded the Breezy Blue Train at 1357. We took off at 1410, on time.

We are in a two bench-seating car. The benches were lined up under the open windows. There were old spinning metal electric fans on the ceiling. It was retro-style and neat. There was a man who did running commentary, and this was where the earbuds came into play, but the narration was only in Chinese. He had provided us with a QR code for reading about the train and the route. Everyone on board in this car, besides us, speaks Chinese. We could have booked a big tour and gotten a translation… but oh well! A Taiwanese born, but transplanted Texan, took us under her wing and translated some for us.

At 1456, our train stopped at Jinlun Station for a guided tour in Chinese. A local tribe chief took our car’s passengers on a guided tour of the town. It was fun – he definitely enjoys his job. He wore eagle feathers and boar teeth/husks in his headdress. He also had a knife/sword with a deer’s leg handle. He pointed out three poisonous bee hives – as was translated to us by our new found translator. We were taken into a gazebo and did a tribal line dance. Then another gazebo and the chief demonstrated a bamboo clatter used as a scarecrow. He pointed to me to be a participant to clap it as he had. I could have used one of these back home in our backyard to scare off crackles! As a departure some of the tribe performed a couple of songs for us all.

Anyway, we were back on the train at 1555. Everyone was given a snack of a Millet donut and a Roselle tea. Our car guide turned the car into a photo car and took pictures of us looking out the open windows, standing and posing, etc. He should have been a professional photographer. While we were not involved in pictures it was nice to just sit, look out at the scenery with the breeze coming in from open windows.

We continued on, I asked the Texan lady if he ever said how fast the train goes. He hadn’t so she asked for me. It was 75 kph (47 mph). We were on the stretch of tracks going through the mountains that had many tunnels – on after another. So our narrator did not speak as much because of noise from the tunnels and the lady and I struck up conversation. She mentioned when she was a little girl she rode these trains to and from school. That is so cool! The train is a diesel one and was decommissioned when the electric trains came. Tourists, especially Taiwanese like her, like to ride this for reminiscing and nostalgia sake. She & her husband were visiting her sister & b-i-l (who still live here) through November. She found out we have been traveling for 30 months and we talked for quite a while. Her husband loves to travel to South America, which led to some conversation with him.

We stopped at one train station only for a photo op. Then we moved on and stopped at the southernmost station in Taiwan for sunset pictures – the sun didn’t cooperate too well though. At 1738, we arrived at Fangliao Station and our adventure excursion ended here. We said goodbye to our newly made tour buddies, wishing them well, and quickly bought tickets for the 1800 fast local train to get us back to Kaohsiung. It cost 131 TWD ($4.26) each. The train arrived at 1745 and we boarded, leaving on time. It was dark outside, so we just sat appreciating our day’s adventure. This train stopped at practically every station – almost every five minutes – that we had whizzed through earlier. It was definitely not the express!

We arrived back in Kaohsiung by 1913, and caught the subway riding the three stops back to our place. We just had a popcorn snack for supper. What a day! And to boot the Chiefs won!!