A One-Day Trip in Taitung

張貼日期：Jan 31, 2021 6:21:36 PM

Cindy Yen

With its wonderful scenery, Taitung is a tourist destination for Taiwanese and foreign tourists, especially the most popular activity in the summer vacation every year: Taiwan International Balloon Festival which has attracted more tourists than usual. After finding out this event, I hope to go to Balloon Festival every summer vacation. For the past few years, I have been too busy to go. Finally in August of this year, my wish came true.

I go back to Kaohsiung to spend my summer vacation every year. One day a few months ago, my friend and I decided to go to Taitung in order to visit Hot Air Balloon Festival. Since we had to go to work the next day after the trip and we thought that Kaohsiung and Taitung are very close, we planned to challenge a one-day trip in Taitung. The Balloon Festival has two sessions everyday: morning and afternoon; we went to the latter one. The next day, we set off before dawn and took the train at 5 a.m. I have to say that it was very hard to get up so early. After about two hours' drive, we arrived at our destination. After renting a scooter near the train station, we started our trip. In the morning we went to Mr. Brown's Road, Seashore Park, Taitung University, etc. Although our purpose of going to Taitung is the place we will go in the afternoon, we didn't waste time in the morning. We used the daytime to visit other attractions in Taitung. The Balloon Festival was held at Luye Terrace that is also a famous attraction in Taitung City. To avoid traffic jams and grab the best viewing position, we set off to Luye Terrace after lunch. We have been praying a good weather on that day because there are many conditions for hot air balloons to take off, which includes that the wind can’t be too strong, there must be no rain, and the temperature can’t exceed thirty-two degrees Celsius. Fortunately, the weather was suitable for the flight after the pilot's inspection. All the steps from the ballooning, inflation, ignition to lift-off caught the audience’s eye tightly. The Balloons’ lifting into the sky successfully was the most touching moment to me. Then we saw many balloons with various features against the background of clouds and mountains appearing in front of our eyes; we felt like we were in a foreign country. Everyone rushed to record the beautiful scenery with the camera. Of course I was no exception because I took about 500 photos whether they are just landscape or photos of me with balloons. At the end, we didn’t leave immediately but sat on the grassland sharing our experiences and photos. Finally, we reluctantly descended to the train station to leave Taitung before dark.

In my opinion, hot air balloons not only attract tourists but also make Taitung's sky more colorful. Furthermore, according to reports, this is the only hot air balloon event held as usual in the world due to the COVID-19 in this year. I am proud of Taiwan! My friend and I were pleased that everything went so well on our first time to watch hot air balloons. Everything went smoothly on that day even though it was tiring to get up at 4 a.m.; all were worth it. This is an unforgettable journey and an interesting experience for us.