Nanda & Nathan The Travellers: Ruisui

August 26 - 28, 2013 --- Ruisui is my favorite "the middle of nowhere"! Ruisui Township is located in the valley about 1.5 hours driving south from Hualien City. It's a small town known for hot springs and river rafting.

Day 1 : Biking Around Ruisui

After we got to Ruisui train station, we took a taxi straight to our spa hotel. Nathan and I stayed at Hoya Spa Hotel for a couple of nights while exploring the small town. The hotel is a little far from town, but they have a lot of bicycles for guests to use while staying there. Nathan and I grabbed two and biked straight to the Rafting Center because we wanted to make a reservation for the river rafting the next day. Biking through Ruisui was amazing! The scenery of the rice paddies was gorgeous, and I loved to see how local people or farmers live their peaceful life. We biked past so many fruit groves like pomelo, pineapple, banana, dragon-fruit, papaya, jack fruit and so on, and we saw many dairy farms.

There were two rafting companies located at the Rafting Center, and there was a Visitors' Center. Nathan and I got a lot of good information for our trip here. It seemed like you can set a camp here too!

After biking for 5 hours, we soaked in a hot spring pool at the hotel. The spring water here is rich in iron, so it has a brownish color and tastes salty. Local people believe that women bathing in this spring will increase the chance of having a baby boy.... Well, I love baby girls!

Ruisui Rafting Tourist Center

Jijheng Pasture

Ching Lin Monastery

Hoya Spa Hotel

Day 2 : Xiuguluan River Rafting

The rafting company had a pick-up/drop-off service included in the rafting ticket, so no need to worry about getting to the Rafting Center by yourself. They picked us up at 8 in the morning, but we didn't get to start rafting till 10 a.m. Once we got to the Rafting center, we had to put all of our belongings in a bag, and they would sealed the bag for security and delivered it to the rafting destination. Then they gave each of us a life jacket and fabric helmet and took us to an orientation room to learn about how to properly control the raft and what to do in case of falling off the raft. After all the preliminaries were done, we finally got in the raft.

Nathan and I joined in a group of 8 Taiwanese people. They seemed like 3 families traveling together. There were about two hundred people rafting that day, but none of them seemed to really know how to row the boat. However, the river wasn't that dangerous; it was smooth most of the way with a total of about 10-20 rough spots. Moreover, there were plenty of the rafting guides in motor boats to help or drag our rafts if we were too slow or got stuck somewhere.

Everybody had a lot of fun throwing water at each other. I felt like I was in the middle of the Songkran Festival in Thailand when people throw water at everyone on the street in the hot summer. Nathan seemed to have to most fun since all the kids loved splashing water at him and he wouldn't let them dry off either.

At the half-way point, we stop at a designated spot for lunch. The rafting ticket included a lunch box, but it wasn't much of anything, just rice and a few pieces of meat. Many people just bought drinks or extra food from the local venders. Nathan and I didn't know about this, so we didn't have any cash to buy water, and we had to wait till we got our belongings back at the end of the rafting trip. :-(

The second half of the rafting trip was more of a drag. It was hot and everybody was tired. The destination was where the river meets the ocean at Changhong Bridge. There were showers and restrooms there, and the vans were waiting to take us back to the hotel. It was 24 kilometers total and took about 4 hours.

Day 3 : Tea and Milk

On our last day in Ruisui, the weather wasn't great because there was another typhoon nearby. After we checked out from the hotel, we just left our stuff at the lobby because we had many hours before getting on the train to Yuli in the late afternoon. We hired a taxi to Wuhe Village to visit some tea plantations. The taxi driver took us to a local tea shop where we had our tea testing and bought the famous honey black tea. Nathan was particularly amazed at how smooth and not bitter the black tea was here. Later we walked in the rain to a tea field and just hung around in another tea shop nearby waiting for the rain to stop.

The Tropic of Cancer is located right across the street from the tea field. There were some informative signs along the stair steps on both side, but their English translations didn't make much sense. I just learned that Taiwan is located in two types of climate: temperate and tropical. No wonder it feels different between the north and the south of Taiwan.

Saoba Stone Pillars is within walking distance from the Tropic of Cancer. The pair of stone pillars are dated about 3,000 years old, and they are the only prehistoric remains in Taiwan.

Ruisui Pasture is about 30 minutes walking from the Saoba Stone Pillars. It was free to enter, and there was a really nice cafe where you can buy fresh milk products. Nathan and I each got a set of fresh milk, milk pudding, fried steamed-bun, and cheese cake. They were creamy and delicious! After filling our tummies, we went to feed the cows and the ostrich. They were really cute! In the late afternoon, we called a taxi to pick us up and went to get our belongings at the hotel before going to the train station.

The trip in Ruisui was our favorite of all 10 days in Hualien County. It was kind of in "the middle of nowhere," but their simple, peaceful lifestyle has made an impression on our hearts ever since.