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Fulong Beach
Entry 20 of 64 | show all | print this entry |
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You can take the girl out of Jersey, but you can't take the Jersey out of the girl. That means that on a hot, summer Sunday, no matter where in the world she is, this Jersey girl is heading for the beach.
In this case it was Fulong Beach on the North East Coast of Taiwan. It took me about one hour to get there by train from Taipei and cost about six dollars. I wasn't expecting much from the beach, to be honest. Taiwan's East Coast is known for being mountainous and rocky. Fulong Beach, however, was no disappointment. It's a wide beach. It has water, small waves, and white sand. If it weren't for the ornate, Buddhist Temple and rolling, green hills overlooking the bathers, I would have thought I was in Wildwood, NJ.
So I arrived at the beach with bathing suit and sunscreen on, found myself a suitable spot on the sand, and got ready to take a swim. Then I realized that I had come by myself and didn't want to leave my backpack with passport, money, train ticket home, etc., alone on the beach. Sometimes you just don't think of everything, you know? But I HAD to go in the water. I sat there puzzling and puzzling about what I was going to do, when like an answer to prayer, six Westerners appeared out of nowhere and set up camp about fifty yards to my left. Hot dog! I trotted up to them and before I could even ask if I could join them, they greeted me with "Hello foreigner!" So I teamed up with them; they were three Canadians guys, an Australian guy, an Oklahoma-ian guy, and a Japanese girl. The guy from Oklahoma was enjoying his third time at the beach ever and enlisted the Australian, from Brisbane, to teach him how to boogie board. Well, the waves were kind of small, but he got a few good rides by the end of the day. Then he enlisted the Jersey girl to show him how to build a sand castle.
At the end of the day, I decided that there are only two things missing from Fulong Beach. Seagulls and a beach town. It's just not as exciting to be at the beach if you're not on the alert for overhead bombs of avian feces. And it's also kind of cool if you can saunter off the sand and enjoy some shopping, dining, and nightlife. But in Taiwan going to the beach is more about nature. The town consists of the train station, a few noodle shops, an overpriced pizzeria, and the road to the beach. Although I'm told Fulong hosts occasional outdoor music festivals throughout the summer, which must really be cool. The area is also well set-up for camping. So the atmosphere is a little different than I'm used to, but one could get used to it. It's a pretty safe bet to say that this is not the last you will hear of Fulong Beach.
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