Hitchhiking in Taiwan

The absolute best way to truly experience a culture is to hitchhike. You will understand what it is like to travel like the locals, and they will share pieces of their life with you that you wouldn’t find elsewhere. In Taiwan, the main reason I hitchhiked was to meet the locals and learn more about Taiwanese culture, although the price is a huge benefit as well. It doesn’t get any better than $free.99. Many other travelers I met had insisted that was the best method of transportation, so I trusted the system. I was traveling from Dulan to Hualien. This is a 92 mile route, so I was a bit hesitant to travel. I was worried about the language barrier considering the only words I knew in Chinese were “hello,” “thank you,” and “cheers.” But I figured it was the perfect opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone, which is exactly why I went on this trip. So I got one of my Taiwanese friends to help me make a sign on a piece of cardboard and I went out to the street. I stood there with a Dutch friend I had met in Dulan for no longer than five minutes before a car stopped.

Journey There

Car #1 : The first car that stopped for us was a big, beat-up work van. Pan, the man who was driving was an aboriginal apart of the Amis tribe. He was an artist who built houses, furniture, and weapons out of wood. His English was very minimal, but we managed to learn a lot about each other. He drove us to see his house, then invited us in to observe all of the crafts he had made. His entire house was covered in incredible pieces of art he had created. He told us stories (much of which we couldn’t understand) about the tribe, and his life. After the tour of his house and playing with his dogs, he drove us to the beach where he fished. This was extremely special because we drove through his village to this beautiful beach that was empty. He drove us a total of eight miles, but it took over an hour. Pan was so overwhelmingly honored to have shown us his lifestyle and we couldn’t have been more stoked on it. He dropped us off at a stuffed bun shop and went on his way.

We had to try the buns, obviously. The buns were not quite like what you would expect, they were more similar to a thick dumpling. We got sesame, pork, and peanut butter. All were absolutely delicious, but the pork was the best.
Car #2: After waiting outside of the bun shop for about three minutes, another car stops for us. This time three Taiwanese students in a small car wanted to take us. They notice our that sign said we were going all the way up to Hualien, which was the same place they were headed. All three of them were from different parts of Taiwan, studying together in Taipei. They knew enough English to have basic conversations with us, which made the trip really enjoyable. We first made a stop at the beach, where one of the students who was studying film, was able to take some footage on his drone. We spent about thirty minutes there, taking videos of anything we could think of. We hopped back in the car and drove for about an hour before making our next stop. We stopped at the Tropic of Cancer Landmark. For those of you who didn’t pay attention in 7th grade geography, it is located at 23.5 degrees north latitude. I was super stoked when we made the stop for this because latitude and longitude was always something I loved to learn about in school. We got back in the car; we played musical seats and switched up where we were sitting. I moved from the middle seat to the window, score! I managed to fall asleep despite the crammed conditions, for almost the rest of the way, which was about two hours. We finally arrived to the city of Hualien. We drove to the train station, where they were catching the next train back to Taipei. After saying our goodbyes, we headed towards our hostel. The hostel was within walking distance. 

My first hitchhiking attempt in Taiwan was successful. Very successful. After spending three amazing days in Hualien, it was time to head back down south to Dulan. This was going to be much more difficult because it was in a main city with many roads, rather than one road in/ one road out like in Dulan. We walked to a side street and held up our sign and thumbs.

Journey Back

Car #1: After waiting for about ten minutes, a car stops for us. He is a Thai man, who has been living in Taiwan for over twenty years. He owns his own
Thai restaurant in Hualien and makes sure to keep the travels frequent. He informed us that we were standing in the wrong spot and nobody would stop for us if we didn’t move. He drove us over to the main road and showed us the most ideal spot to catch a ride down south.

Car #2: We stood in the preferred hitchhiking spot for about fifteen minutes without one car stopping. We quickly got discouraged and decided to move up the road a little bit. As we are walking, someone stops for us. He rolls down the window and begins to speak in Chinese (this happens every time). After babbling in two very different languages, we get in the car. I am absolutely certain neither of us had a clue what the other was saying, but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I’ve learned to use this method a lot in Taiwan. Seems to always work in my favor. This Taiwanese man spoke some English, enough for us to learn a little bit about him. He was a soccer player who traveled two hours every day to practice. He has played games in many other countries and was a fairly decent player.  This segment of the ride consisted of nothing but western music. Justin Bieber, Shakira, and Red Hot Chili Peppers galore! In his free time, he made jewelry to sell. He gave us both pieces of jewelry that he had made. Towards the end of our trip with him, he stopped to buy us both “colas.” (I don’t think I’ll ever call them cokes again). He then dropped us off in a small little down, where we would wait for our next ride.

Car #3: This part of the trip was the hardest to catch a ride because there simply was not as much traffic coming through the area. Fifteen minutes had passed and this VW bus stops for us. Woo-hoo! Just my kind of transportation. The man, who does not speak or understand a word of English tries to talk with us. You can see the frustration in his facial expressions. He starts to point at his watch very rapidly. We hop in the car, regardless of the fact we had no idea where he was going. Again, crossing my fingers hoping for the best. I pull out my guidebook and flip to the page with the map. I show the driver and point to Dulan. He shakes his head no, and points to a town about thirty miles north of Dulan. I smile and give two thumbs up. Not many words were exchanged during this trip, but I  smelled more smells than my entire time in Taiwan- mostly bad ones. If you had to imagine a Taiwan hippie van, this is the car you would imagine. Flower-print curtains covering every window, big space in the back where a bed would typically be, and bunch of empty beer bottles rolling around. It was really something else. We get dropped off at the same bun place that we got picked up at on the way to Hualien.

Car #4: At this point, it was dark outside so we were slightly hesitant as to if we would catch a ride without people being able to read our sign. There were a few lights where we were at, so we didn’t want to walk much further but we started to after about ten minutes. We were only around twenty-five minutes away from Dulan; we did not give up hope. After walking for another ten minutes, a car full of a Taiwanese family stops for us. There is clearly no room for us in the car, but we squeeze in. The small child is sitting on his mother’s lap in the back seat, in order to make room for us. I keep saying Dulan, but they have no idea where that is. So we drive.  They are talking to us in Chinese the whole time, as if we are understanding and responding in Chinese. I go with it, responding in English. They could be asking me where I am from and I was responding with “Yes, I like pineapples on my pizza.” Seriously, non-stop conversation the entire way, both of us only speaking what we know. Every now and then I would throw in a “cheers” in Chinese, just so I felt like I was keeping up with the conversation. I start to notice where we are, as she pulls over the car. We thank her and the rest of the family as they drive off.

We were about a quarter of a mile from where we needed to go. We are pretty much dancing the whole way back, as we celebrate our long (successful) day of hitchhiking. In six different cars, hearing very little of my native language, and being driven all over the place –I can honestly say I never once felt unsafe. The Taiwanese culture is full of so many caring people who just want to help you, even if they cannot communicate with you using words.  Every person we met along the way made us feel so special, like they were honored to show us around their country. People back home told me I was crazy and lectured me about how unsafe it was to hitchhike. Well I couldn’t disagree with them more. I felt far more safe hitchhiking with Taiwanese people who speak no English
than I did when I was taking the train in New York a few months back, surrounded by people who spoke English yet refused to help me in any way. I learned so much about the culture and was surrounded by people who just wanted to share their life with me. I am so grateful for the abundant amount of generous, helping souls I had the opportunity to encounter during this journey.