Taiwan - Khaosiung

The last city of my month-long trip was Khaosiung, the biggest city in Southern Taiwan, and the second largest city in Taiwan.  I finally was able to get some time away from cheerful girl (OK, I know I’m being mean, but she really started getting on my nerves).  I spent my three days exploring by myself in Khaosiung.  After arriving at my hostel and getting settled in, I ventured out and walked towards the bay, which was only a block or two away.  I ended up walking into a relatively new art district.  This area used to be a train depot, and I’m guessing it was a very run-down area before it was renovated.  Painted on the sides of buildings were beautiful, colorful murals.  Some of the buildings’ interiors had been converted to art exhibition halls, coffee shops, and restaurants.  The rest were on their way to being converted.  Additionally, there were sculptures sporadically placed throughout the area, food stands, and a huge open field of grass and tulips with the train tracks still intact.  Hundreds of people were having picnics, flying kites, taking pictures, and merely enjoying the beautiful weather.  It was around that time that I made my way back to the hostel, because the sun was on its way down.

The following day, I went to a city park area appropriately called “Monkey Mountain”.  This was a mountain populated with – you guessed it – monkeys.  The hostel employee told me to watch my valuables and food, because the monkeys were known to grab anything shiny or anything they could eat.  The monkeys that I saw were actually very relaxed and were weary of my getting too close to humans.  There were multiple paths up and down the mountain, which made for both a variety of scenery, as well as an easy time getting lost.  After Monkey Mountain, I tried walking to Lotus Pond.  From the map, it looked like it was walkable.  After walking for 30-40 minutes, I stopped at a bus station and asked which bus to take.  A man, who I really believe had the best possible intentions, put me on a bus which took me the complete opposite way.  I got off at a spot I was familiar with (the main train station), and asked the information desk there.  Soon after, I was waiting for the correct bus and eventually made it to my destination.  BUT!  Not before making a fool of myself and pressing the emergency stop button instead of the normal stop button.  The bus driver sounded as if he was rather displeased with choice of buttons, so I quickly exited the bus without further fanfare.  Unfortunately, after all that work, the pond wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.  I had read that there were multiple delectable food options in the area, but I didn’t really see any restaurants that particularly stood out.  Furthermore, the pond had some gaudy structures that were surely for canoodling couples.

The next day, I took a ferry to an island, Qijin, just off the coast.  I had rented a city bike and rode it from the subway station next to my hostel to the ferry.  I took the bike with me on the ferry.  The island has an incredibly long beach, which had bike paths along it.  It was wonderfully abandoned while I was there in the middle of the week.  Only a few people were scattered about.  It was wonderfully peaceful to be so alone with my thoughts with the ocean right next to me.  It was a great way to essentially end my month-long trip. 

The next day, I took a train back to Taipei.  Beside a mini-trip out to get a couple magazines for my flight the next day, I spent the entire rainy day inside relaxing.

Taiwan - Hualien

My next stop in Taiwan was the largest city on the east coast, Hualien.  While Hualien itself is not nearly as hopping as a city like Taipei, it is a jumping off point to one Taiwan’s greatest attractions, Taroko Gorge, as well as several other places along the highway that runs up and down the coast. 

The first night in Hualien, we went to rent two scooters for two days.  The owner of the scooter rental place was not happy we were coming so late to rent scooters.  I felt bad about that, but hey! - we were giving him business.  It was only about $20 for each scooter! 

The next day, we drove our scooters north to Taroko Gorge (about 45 minutes).  What’s cool about the highways in Taiwan is that they have a lane dedicated to scooters (such is the prevalence of scooters in Taiwan), so we never felt in danger riding alongside semis and other much larger vehicles.

When Taroko Gorge was transformed into a national park, they designed it so that one could drive through it and check out most if not all the attractions by simply parking your vehicle on the side of the road or in a parking lot.  That made not only for easy access, but also an amazing ride.

We drove all of the way to the end of the park first, riding through tunnels and along cliffs.  We gradually made our way back while checking out all of the sites.  I won’t bother describing all of the places within Taroko Gorge that we saw, but will rather let the pictures speak for themselves.

The next day, we took our scooters south rather than north.  We drove them about 2 or 2.5 hours to an area called Shitiping (it looks like it’s pronounced “shitty ping”, but in fact, since this is Chinese romanization we’re talking about, it’s pronounced “Sure-tee-ping”.  Despite having full knowledge of the correct pronunciation, we elected to call it the former.)  At this site was a beautiful coast line littered with rocks formed by lava ages ago.  There is nothing I like doing better than just finding an isolated spot along a beach, and just watching the ocean.  I’m not sure if there is a place where I feel more reflective and pensive than I do when faced with the ocean. 

I suppose I should write about the ride itself.  I imagine this coastal highway (Highway 10, to be precise) in Taiwan is remarkably similar to Highway 1 in California.  While you’re driving, you have mountains on one side, and the ocean on the other side.  Not only this, but we had an absolutely perfect day for it: sunny and warm without a cloud in the sky. 

Along the way to Shitiping, we stopped once at lookout point and grabbed some coffee.  We stopped on the way back and went on a mini hike up a coastal crag. 

Overall, the second day was probably one of my favorite days of traveling ever.  It was just so perfect! 

Taiwan - Taipei

Many of my friends in Korea visited Taiwan before I did and hyped it as a backpacker’s paradise.  Unfortunately, I think they OVERhyped it, but it certainly didn’t detract from the amazing experience I had there. 

One aspect that my friends certainly didn’t overhype was the absolutely AMAZING food in Taiwan.  It’s as if the Taiwanese people took the best parts of Northern Chinese cuisine, took out the parts that were bad and added to the parts that were good, and then just put in a whole lot more love. I can honestly say that in my two weeks in Taiwan, I was only actually disappointed by a meal once or twice.  The rest was between above average and amazing.  Not only did this apply to well-established local restaurants, but also food vendors on the street.  In fact, one time I ate something so good that I moaned with my mouth full, “Oh my Goooood” as well as other exclamations of ecstasy.  What I was eating was from a street food vendor.  I don’t know what it was called, but it is mantou (which is basically a fluffy rice flour bun) filled with fatty pork meat, cilantro, and peanut powder.  I couldn’t believe the incredible mix of flavors that were dancing around on my tongue! 

There was also some pretty unusual food that I tried.  I had a snack food which consisted of coagulated pig’s blood and rice gelatin, topped with peanut powder and cilantro.  This came on a stick.  Something that I never really thought of before, but which was actually really good, was BBQ mushrooms.  In addition to BBQ sauce, they put a lot of spices (like cumin) on it. 

Roasted duck and goose were also EVERYWHERE in Taiwan, and it was almost always cheap or at least decently priced.  I’ve never eaten so much duck and goose in my life within a two week period.

Besides the excellent food, Taipei reminded me of Seoul in some ways.  Only in the fact that they are both very modern, cosmopolitan and international Asian cities, and have a character and atmosphere remarkably different from the other parts of their respective countries. 

Like Seoul, there are also seemed to be a never-ending list of things to do.

Another great thing about Taipei is that it is geographically close to some points of interest outside of the city.  One day, we went to a town south of Taipei called Wulai.  This area is a common place for city-dwellers to go for hiking and outdoor activities on the weekends.  There were waterfalls, hikes, ponds, and other sources of entertainment.  Plus, the town itself was attractive with an intensely blue river snaking right through the middle of it.  We spent a day here exploring, but we could have easily spent some more time there.

 As luck would have it, I was in Taipei for the nation-wide lantern festival.  Just northwest of Taipei is a small town, Pingxi, which has the most famous lantern festival in all of Taiwan.  Transportation to Pingxi was ultra-convenient and fairly smooth.  They had non-stop (in the sense that the buses didn't make any stops along the way AND in the sense that they were continuous, one right after the other) buses going directly to the festival grounds.  Before nightfall (the time when the real festivities get under way), we were able to hike a bit to a beautiful waterfall called Shifen.  Despite the slightly inclement weather, we watched thousands of giant lanterns float through the night air.  They really looked like really stars.  It was a really great experience, and the crowds and weather only detracted from it slightly.

A third trip was to Yangminshan, which is a mountain just outside of Taipei.  There was somewhat of a flower festival being held at Yangminshan, so it was a nice time to go and visit.  We had a pleasant day just walking around and following some of the shorter trails.  

Some other mini-trips were to Beitou Hot Springs in the north (though connected to Taipei by subway) and the harbor area of Tamsui.  

One of the best experiences I had for my month of travels was finding out that one of my favorite bands, The National, was playing a show on my last full night in Taipei.  I found out via their official Facebook group, and after some thought and some prodding (via texts) from Kate, I decided to go.  And, holy shit, am I glad I went.  Such an incredible show!  Their music is already really emotive, but that was made so much more evident by the intensity of their vocalist who at different points was pacing around the stage like a madman, jumping into the audience, swilling white wine.  Legendary.

My time in Taipei is one of the longest times, maybe the longest, that I've spent in one city during my travels (7 days straight).  I loved Taipei, and I could definitely see myself living there.