Set along the Eastern side of Taiwan is the Northerly city of Hualien and the more Southernly city of Taidong. In between there are two main roads which connect the two cities. The inland highway 9 and the coastal highway 11.

Along the highway 11 at the start of July runs a music, arts and craft festival along the coast. I was lucky enough to join the festival in 2017.

After arriving at the festival site late, most campers had taken up the ‘best spots’ in an abandoned, concrete skeleton of a building. Perhaps a hotel that had never been built, I am still yet to discover. However the building was two stories high, connected by a spiral staircase and it was packed full of campers taking up every last inch of space. I can’t imagine it to have been comfortable to sleep upon that cold, hard floor.

I walked around the back to find a small campsite for the more ‘daring’ folk, in which, to my dismay, I found it was also jam-packed and there weren’t any good spaces left. I opened up by bag with my tent inside to see if I could merge my way in between two bushes.

I was horrified when I discovered I had actually brought a tarpaulin, there was no tent in sight. One week with only a tarp?! I looked around and saw someone had made a makeshift shelter from cardboard boxes. It looked like I wasn’t the only one who came unprepared.

I inspected the area around me to find nothing but thick, spiky grass full of bugs. There were barely any trees, only waist high shrubs. Nothing I could lay upon and actually find some respite during the evenings.

After a quick decision, I decided to hike over the small precipice and meander down to the beach, it was only a hop-skip and a jump away over a little grassy mound.  When At the beach I soon noticed not one person had pitched up there. ‘Why on earth not?’ I asked myself.

Luckily, within the tarp bag were two poles, after some deliberation and a couple friends trying to help me on my crazed-but-determined mission. I discovered that the poles could be used to create an army-style, basic tent. My friend gathered washed up bits of rope to use as guide-ropes and I pushed big rocks onto the sides of the tarp to hold them down and also around the poles to keep them sturdy.

Needless to say, I was impressed how well it had turned out. From zero to beach hero. I felt like a queen. I started to gather more things for my tent and quickly found two big squares of foam for a mattress, including rocks and washed up planks of wood for shelves and tables.

After a quick lay down, enjoying the comfort of my new home I went over to the festival to meet friends and get some grub. All of which is cooked by the team of volunteers and is the main source of food for the whole festival. Anyone who forgot a bowl gets a coconut husk or a leaf.

As the night went on my good friend said she had a spare sleeping mat which she gave me as a secondary precaution. Some people were worried about me being washed away on the shoreline as the tides here can be quite strong. I decided to leave it on the first night and suss out the tidal situation in the morning.

I slept under the stars around the back of the concrete building. I saw the milky way which was so bright. I had no sleeping bag, there was no need, it was perfect.

Until, the sun arose at around 5:30am after only a couple hours sleep. Because we were on the Eastern side of Taiwan, the sunrises are so beautiful, absolutely spectacular, jaw dropping and eye opening. I miss those sunrises when living on the West coast as probably many others do too.

I took a shower in the nearby, DIY solar shower, it was amazing. I then pondered down to my spot to see if my tent had been disturbed at all. Luckily not and that night I brought friends and we hung out at my now infamous, lone tent.

That night I saw the most beautiful comet I have ever seen. Magical. It started raining and my friend Rahil came back with me to the tent.  I tried to make a fire but everything was damp. I gave up after throwing the last piece of trash onto it. I went to sleep.

It must’ve been only ten minutes later I opened up the tent flap to see the fire roaring and the sun just coming up! The whole sky was blood-orange red and bright fluorescent pink. We named it the magical fire sunrise. Moments like these aren’t meant to be forgotten.

On the last night some friends and I gathered around the fire to all write a note to put inside a bottle, then to toss away into the ocean.

Then we used big pebbles from the fire to warm our hands. It was beautiful.

I will go back here!