We’ve done so many things today it’s hard to summarize it all without missing anything. From Taidong we drove to Hualien, a distance of some 160 kilometers which should take no more than three hours or so. However, it took us all day thanks to lots of random tourism. There was the beach side park full of installations; there was the detour up a mountain for a birds eye view; there was the old bridge over a river right next to the new one; there was the cave made into a temple and many other short stops at more or less interesting spots. The most memorable parts of the day though deserve a bit more attention.

One of the first things we did was to stop at a road side stall and buy a coconut so we could drink the water inside. We later made another stop, this time to try to crack the thing against the asphalt just for fun. We also made a detour to a small harbor where we found what I believe is the worlds most laid back police station.

The world’s most relaxed police station

Shortly after lunch we came to the high point of the day: a visit to Sanxiantai, a small Rocky island which proved to be a bit of an adventure.

The rainbow bridge out to Sanxiantai
Yini and me on the rainbow bridge

After crossing the eight humped bridge we started the relatively short trek around the island. Just a short while later I got to live up to my moniker by leaving the convenience of a raised boardwalk for some rough terrain. The green vegetation is shot through with rough geological features, cliffs caves and boulders and we climbed around the lot of them and had a good time doing it too.

Looking through a cave out to the sea
Yini on the path through the cave
Posing in front of a cave
The outer tip of the little island

Having seen pretty much everything the small island had to offer we continued on to  the next point of interest which turned out to be more of the same. However, while looking around in the area we found something we really did not expect. The picture below says it all.

Penis rock

We just couldn’t help ourselves from doing some silly poses

Driving on, we suddenly came upon Noah’s Ark. Forget that mountain in Turkey where they say it ran aground, this is where it ended up. Suitably enough it had been converted to a church.

Noah’s Ark church from a couple different angles

Some time later we passed the tropic of cancer and as you can see, the temperature decreased significantly:

  • Just south of the Tropic of Cancer
  • Just north of the Tropic of Cancer

After that it started to grow dark  so we blasted north with only a few short breaks.