Happy New Year!

We wanted to spend this New Year holiday away from crowded Taipei. I checked Yahoo Weather forecast for eastern Taiwan. Rainy in Hualien. Cloudy in Taitung. We finally decided to celebrate the New Year in beautiful Taitung, in southeastern Taiwan.

We arrived at Taitung Station on Dec. 30 evening. The guesthouse boss picked us up. We stayed at Little Swallow Guesthouse ($1200 per night, 2 min from the station by car) and rented a 100 c.c. scooter ($300 per day). After breakfast the next morning, we rode north along Route 9 (台九線).

Chulu Pasture→脫線雞場 (The owner was a comedian. We saw him in person!)→Peace Tribe→lunch at 永安農特產品展售中心→鹿野 High Terrace→鹿鳴 Bridge→紅葉 Hot Spring

From the hill top we could see 龍田 Village below. It's a Japanese emigrant village during the period of Japan rule.

On New Year's Day, we woke up at 4:00 to see the first gleams of day in 太麻里. Riding in the quiet countryside in the dark early morning was ghostly but cheerful!