Thank You/Hualian Trip Report

Just wanted to thank everyone for their help. We had a fantastic time in Taiwan. It was really cold, a few days the temp dipped to 6deg!

We engaged Mr Lu for our hualian trip and it was fantastic. Highly recommended! I loved the bento that he brought us to buy for our lunch. Not to mention the onion pancake as well! Super duper yummy! Because it was really cold, he would wrap the bentos in another layer of newspaper so that it will still remain warm. Due to some circumstances, we changed our hualian overnight trip to a day trip instead. However, we are still able to play fireworks at the beach just before heading back to the train station at 7pm. This can only be done if you have sacrificed Baiyang Bu Dao, which in this case our group did that because of the cold weather. We agreed that we don鈥檛 want to be wet and cold on the trip! The wind was really strong in hualian. We felt that it was much colder than Taipei, though the temp there was alil higher, according to Mr Lu. Still, we had a really enjoyable time with Mr Lu and will definitely hire him back again for our next trip! He was also mentioning that his appointments are on a first come first served basis, which is why some people manage to get him to bring them around while some get his tudi. He did emphasize that he will explain to his tudi what to do and where to bring, so that the trip would be like him bringing you around. However, it is still best if you can change your trip to another date when he is free in order to get his service.

Okay. That%26#39;s about all I have to say. Hope that those going to TW will enjoy their trip as much as we did! :D

Thank You/Hualian Trip Report

Thanks for the report. So you got to experience how cold it gets in the winter in Taipei! Thumbs up for doing Taroko and the beach during a 6C cold spell!

Thank You/Hualian Trip Report

It%26#39;s helpful to read your report re:Taroko. Our next Taiwan trip will be in Dec. One of the priority is to revisit the Taroko and all its trails including BaiYang trail. It sounds Dec may not be a good time to go on those trails? Anyone has hiking experience in Taroko during the last two weeks of Dec and early Jan?

TexasViking - We went on Jan 4 and I wouldn%26#39;t say that the weather over in Tarako is any different from the weather in Texas right now. I hiked in a turtleneck with a jacket and midway through the first hike (and for the rest of the day) I no longer needed the jacket. Husband had a long sleeves shirt with a scarf. It was drizzling for a bit at first but not enough to effect our hiking. The drizzle cleared into a beautiful day within the hour. Personally, I%26#39;ve been to Taiwan in the summers and I think their winter weather is perfect for outdoor hiking. If you layer right, it would be just fine.

yep. i agree with wbird. basically if you layer enough you wouldn%26#39;t feel so cold and the trip to taroko would be quite enjoyable. :) when we went there, hualian was cold and really windy, especially the beach, so we couldn%26#39;t quite take it because some of my friends didn%26#39;t layer enough. we didn%26#39;t expect it to be so cold either because taipei was warmer the previous day and mr lu was telling us it would be around the same temperature! lol. but he did offer to loan my friends his extra jacket in the car to keep warm. :) and one gd thing was that there were many toilet breaks in between! which we thought was a good thing! :P

Thank you all for the kind replies. Wbird, you are right about summer. That is the reason we plan to go to Taiwan during winter break next time. Every one told me about the summer heat in Taiwan and I thought I could stand it since I have lived in Texas. I was wrong and I could barely tolerate the heat and humidity there. We had to stop halfway in the Lyushui Trail in Taroko last June because of the humidity.

It seems to me the weather in Taroko in December-January may be unpredictable. I wonder if it is suitable for the longer hiking trails (away from the main road)such as Shakadang or the more than 5km trails into the mountain and even a car trip to Dayuling, Mt Hehuan and Wuling areas.

i think a car trip to Mt Hehuan is possible. Mr Lu did recommend us to go Mt Hehuan when it%26#39;s snowing during dec/jan. he was saying that we can even stay overnight in the lodge that they have there as well. just that we need to prepare for the cold temp. it%26#39;s around -6deg or colder. i think the temp when we were there was alil unpredictable. some days were colder than others. we did hear on the news that this is possibly the coldest winter taiwan has experienced within the past 25 years. so my friends and i have counted ourselves quite fortunate to have had experienced it.

We did the Shakadang %26amp; it was a lovely hike :-). My favorite trail, hands down!

Welcome back, Bigfootedgurl.

Wow, yr Thank you/ Hualien report is a pleasure to read. Easy to read n re-read! :-)

U guys played fireworks on the beach? That%26#39;s cool (pardon the pun hehehe). My nephews too asked if they could play wif fireworks, in our Nov 08 Taiwan visit.. But we didn%26#39;t, sigh..

Thks for sharing!

TA :-)

TaipeiDreams.com

Wbird, U guys are back?

How did U enjoyed yr tour? And not forgetting yr hunt for stinky tofu haha..?

Hope to hear from yr review soon.

TA :-)

grown dutch rabbit