Hitchhiking: Explore Taiwan

I discovered a new way of traveling that people have been doing for years, but I finally gained the courage to do it myself. My friend Kaddy's friend has been traveling around the world for the last five years hitchhiking. I have always been advised never to hitchhike, but Kaddy said we should try it. This is my story of hitchhiking through Taiwan and let me tell you, anyone who visits Taiwan should experience this as it brought on a whole new sense of adventure for me! I practiced a few Chinese phrases, but, my Chinese is only in the learning stages. Most people who picked us up could figure out where we needed to go and worked out how to get us to a place where we could continue on our journey of hitchhiking in Taiwan (taking a map of Taiwan written in English and Chinese is highly advised).

Kaddy and I started in Dong Gong where I currently live and headed north towards the Jade Mountains which we were highly advised to stay away from because Typhoon Morakot had destroyed the roads.Every Taiwanese person I asked about this said the same thing, "the roads are closed and do not go," but Kaddy and I decided we better find out for ourselves because these mountains are suppose to be one of the best places to see in Taiwan (how could we pass them up!). As we headed north we waited no longer than ten minutes to get a ride from someone headed in the same direction. The second man who picked us up was going to to his home, but he kindly drove forty-five minutes out of his way to get us to a place where we could enter the Mountains. We hitchhiked from Kaohsiung all the way to Baolai and stayed the night at one of the hot spring resorts which was reasonably priced and located in the mountains. The views were picturesque, but the damage from the typhoon was undeniable and made us thankful we were still able to see the beautiful regrowth as well as travel through the mountains.

I have to admit sometimes I was skeptical of anyone picking us up as we waited in the mountains because there were very few cars and literally no roads ahead. We made our way to Taoyuan and we waited around for a few minutes, we asked a few cars to take us but no one was going in the direction we needed. The police told us to turn around and go back, but we told them we were still going on with our trip. They must have sensed our adventurous hearts since they were the ones who picked us up and drove us to the next town. We arrived in Meishan, which is pretty central of the Jade Mountains and the towns were getting smaller and smaller. We were brought to another police station. The police were welcoming and offered us lunch and told us of their interest in some of the police movies from the US. We told them of our journey and they were very adamant that their were no cars and no buses going the way we needed to go and we needed to turn back towards the city. We ate our lunch and thanked them and headed outside. We talked to a few people passing through on motorcycles and none were headed the way we needed to go. We walked a little further from the police station and started to wonder if we would be picked up and then out of nowhere two Taiwanese Angels (sisters) picked us up! We were in shock they were coming through, they had traveled from Taoyuan outside of Taipei and wanted to see what had happened to the landscape from the Typhoon. They spoke perfect English and drove us four hours through the mountains, it's was incredibly generous of them to take us and the mountains welcomed our exploration. We drove through the clouds, I've flown through clouds but this was the first time I had driven through them and it was like I was the "Eye's of the World." It was pure tranquility and freedom of any outside influence from the rest of the world.

The Angel sisters dropped us off at a place where we could get picked up by someone headed to Hualien. Several people stopped, but a guy who was headed the entire distance also stopped and drove us to where we were couch surfing for the night. Many people who visit and live in Taiwan visit Hualien because of it's naturalistic energizing effects with bright green mountains and of course Taroko Gorge. I look forward to spending more time in Hualien in the future.

When we woke up the next morning we decided to rent a scooter to the Gorge since we hadn't spent any money on travel at all. We got half way there and our scooter broke down. The shop owner of the scooter met us and couldn't fix the scooter, so we got a refund and hitchhiked right into the Gorge (I guess we weren't meant to spend money on transportation). Once we arrived in Taroko we met two people headed towards Tienhsiang where we planned to stay the night at the Catholic Hostel. The hostel was located in the mountains, with plenty of hiking, waterfalls and the biggest rocks I have ever seen. The hostel was quaint and rustic surrounded by gardens. It was cheap and clean and I would definitely stay there again. We hiked around and met someone who told us we could keep heading west towards Taichung to the other side of the mountains and that was just what we did.

The start of our trek towards Taichung, we met two guys who were driving two hours into the mountains for work and they offered to drive us. We drove through the mountainside where sometimes the road was only big enough for one car, no problem we were always safe. The leaves had changed color and it was like the fall foliage from the US, I felt very at home when going through this area of the mountains. The temperature became brisk as we made our ascend. Once we finished our two hour ride making a pit stop, a nice couple offered to take us the rest of the way to Taichung (this was probably a total of five or six hours we spent with them). We stopped in Wuling, the highest point in all of Taiwan. This was the coldest spot, the air was thin but so clean. After a few pictures at Wuling we began our descend down the mountains seeing little bed and breakfast towns where I would definitely like to stay one day. Unexpectedly we arrived to Aowanda National Forest Recreation Area which is right in the middle of Taiwan. We hiked through the trails for two hours and walked across the newly built suspension bridge, again absolutely gorgeous and worth visiting again as I only saw one section of the park. The happy couple took pictures with us and were nice as can be driving us to Taichung where I caught the train back to Dong Gong (the only money I spent on transportation the entire trip).

I've traveled other places in the world, but hitchhiking in Taiwan gave me a new outlook on how to travel wisely (saving money and communicating) as well as gain new experiences in places I may have not visited. This trip proved to be incredibly cheap. Transportation can be extremely expensive when taking long trips around the island, so I feel thankful I saw so much at a very low price. Hitchhiking has brought out the true adventurer I have in my heart. Kaddy and I agreed it was great to sit in the back seat and listen to our new friends speak Chinese/Taiwanese. I am so blessed to have this experience and I feel a little more independent and a little more brave than I did prior to hitchhiking Taiwan. I recommend this form of travel to anyone who is ready for a thrill as well as to get to know people who live here.

I'll always remember this trip with my friend Kaddy, we shared so many wonderful memories and I'm thankful to have her as a friend. I know we both look forward to seeing more of the world together as well hitchhike through other countries and continents. We proved to ourselves, two women can do anything we set our minds to. I send our thanks to those who looked out for us, you know who you are...