Taiwan in a Nutshell
After booking my trip, I did a bit of homework to familiarize myself with the country. Taiwan is tropical/subtropical, and there is a hefty mountain range that spans the length of the east coast, making for some amazing natural sights. The island has been controlled by China and Japan throughout history--among other colonizers, and in the recent past, has developed a successful and thriving economy, making it one of the four Asian Tigers. Taiwan has an aboriginal group of people, Yuanzhumin, with ties to people of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Madagascar and Oceania. They also have hotsprings, sheer rock cliffs, adn the remnants of Japanese and Chinese occupation are here and there in the cities or the trails through places like the Taroko Gorge. The east coast is a bit nature-heavy, while the west is more populated. We never made it west, but great cities like Kaoshiung and Hsinchu are over there, and each can be reached via bullet trains that run the perimeter of the island.
Honestly, I had no idea what Taiwan would be like. I knew very few people who had traveled there, and even less who boasted of an amazing vacation upon their return. We figured it wasn't the place that would make the holiday, it would be the company, and we were all excited to be traveling together, so I wasn't worried.
Getting There
Our flight was three to four hours long. It never ceases to amaze me how long the flights are to countries around this area. I have no physical relationship to the geography of Asia--the distances mean nothing to me. When we were served a delicious lunch and free alcohol, and each of us had our own TV with feature length movies, I assumed we'd be flying for awhile.
The flight was quite amazing. I've never flown on a holiday, but flying on Christmas morning was excellent, and I'd recommend it to anyone living abroad. Since I wasn't waking up with family to open gifts, it gave me something to look forward to. It was a quick bus ride to the airport, we got holiday coffees, I listened to Christmas music on my ipod, the flight was nearly empty, holiday movies were playing on our personal TVs, and the interior of the plane was decorated with ornaments! Way to go, China Airlines. :)
We had worn heavy coats and clothes in our 9°F Seoul weather that morning, and by 4pm, we were in sunny, warm, 65°F Taipei! We found a bus area, and managed to find the right line. We bought a cheap ticket and rode for about an hour into the city to Taipei Main Station. Everything in Taipei leaves from that station--buses and trains alike. We got a taxi to our hostel--thank goodness I had printed it in Chinese; English addresses meant nothing to...anyone. We were at our hostel in 5 minutes, and up we went to meet "Jennifer". She's an old, rolling stone from the west coast who may have possibly lived in every single country in the world--certainly many from each continent. She loves to talk, and she loves to tell travel stories. By the end of our stay we kindly referred to her as "The World According to 'Jennifer'". As chatty as she was, she ultimately turned out to be a wealth of information, and didn't skimp on the details. We effortlessly got to our next destination and made the most of our stay in the cities based of her knowledge of each place.
"Jennifer" Stories--Our personal favorites:
*The time she lived in a mountain village in Indonesia and had to barter with the produce man on a blanket for a cabbage, and she wasn't allowed to walk around un-chaperoned.
*The time she got a lethal scuba knife through security, but they wouldn't let her take her nail clippers.
*The time she tried to explain to me how to read Korean, while sounding it out and pointing to something written in Japanese.
Tourist Fun and "Nightlife" in Taipei
We stayed in Taipei for 2 days, and one more on our way back to Seoul. While we were there we went to the Shida Night Market (by National Taiwan Normal University), Roxy 99 (a bar/club in our area), the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the gardens behind it (amaaaazzzzing), Taipei 101 (Taipei's major tower with an observation deck), and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial. Taipei (Taiwan in general, I've heard...) doesn't exactly have a night-life. It's not that people don't like to drink or dance, but according to our Taiwanese friends we met, no one really wants to own a bar. It's not a desirable business venture, so there... aren't any. There are a couple clubs, and maybe a handful of bars. Most restaurants don't serve alcohol either, which makes me think a liquor license is outrageously expensive. Everyone we asked to guide us to their favorite place listed one of the three bars/clubs we had already found! Kind of bizarre, but a really entertaining quest, and you can bet we found a way to enjoy ourselves anyway.
Taipei 101
Many walls throughout the city were covered with a grid of little potted plants. They certainly appreciate a solid dose of nature in their cities, which was a pleasant change from Seoul.
Amber and I spent our first night laughing with our new friends, Katie arrived the second day, and we did most of our sightseeing, and headed to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial and its gardens.
People photographing the changing of the guard.
The ceiling of the memorial hall.
Coi pond behind the memorial.
While in the gardens, we met a bird who tried to evade us by standing perfectly still to blend in to the ground. When he realized it wasn't working, he tried to "run" away in hyper-slow-motion. Watch his feet, they're hilarious:
Then we left on the third morning to take the most scenic train ride to Hualien:
A very large Chia Pet person at the train station.
Hualien is a small city near the famous Taroko Gorge. We stayed there in a hostel behind the train station, and meant to move on to the west coast to Kaoshiung for the rest of our week. Instead, the trains were too expensive and too slow, and we worried about making it to Taipei for our flights, so we scrapped our plans and stayed in sleepy Hualien for four days! It was the best leg of our trip. We met a pair of Scottish girls from Seoul in our hostel who were just hilarious, and we all ended up on the same bus headed to the gorge. Also on that same bus were two Irish guys and a Kiwi who were on holiday from near Kobe, Japan. The eight of us had an amazing time together--a solid evening of rolling laughter--the best.
Scariest bus ride... ever. 180 degree switchbacks and one lane roads on cliffs for an hour, with a driver who thought he was Speed Racer.
Getting to the Gorge, Sights
Free buses travel up and down the narrow switchbacks all the way up the gorge. It may have been the scariest bus ride of my life. Picture this: 10-20 mph on one-lane roads, taking 180 degree turns in a tall tour bus, with a one-foot retaining wall being the only barrier between us and the steep plunge down a rock-cliff to the boulder-filled canyon at the bottom. Needless to say, I nearly had a heart-attack. I clung to the seat backs, while Amber, Katie, and the girls sat pressed against the window making "ooooh, ahhhhhh" sounds at the beautiful sights whizzing by. I managed to look up for a lot of it, but we were the only ones on the bus, so the driver thought he'd spice up our trip a bit with his erratic driving. When we got off at the last stop at the top, he was laughing his full head off. I think he enjoyed showing me a good time.
The scary bus ride was totally worth it, and after talking to a sweet, elderly park ranger, we figured out how to go about seeing the sights. Note to travelers, bring a map of the gorge. They have them there, but try to plan out your trip ahead of time. There are stops all the way up, and you can pick and choose where to go, but you have to request each stop from the driver. You can get the free orange buses from the Hualien Train Station out front along the side of the round-about.
Nestled into the mountains are beautiful temples and statues. Some trails were created by the Japanese during their occupation, and their influence is obvious. Some are a bit treacherous, and some are by permit only. Signs were placed regularly along the sheer rock cliff trails to "pass quickly" and "wear a safety helmet" because of rock falls. There was a beautiful Eternal Spring Shrine, which we couldn't figure out how to get to, but Swallow's Grotto was amazing.
We made it to the bottom and took a little loop through the Taroko Gorge path, which ended up being an endless set of shallow stairs that climbed for... ages. If you wanted to hold the railing, it was so low, that you had to bend to the side to grasp it, which was quite awkward. Every once in awhile, there would be a little "deck" to sit, rest, and take in the view. It was spectacular--you could see the ocean far in the distance, and the mountains were all around. We met two Irish guys and a Kiwi up on one of those, and had a nice little comic relief for a few minutes while we all rested and rehydrated. The stairs climbed through a lot of heavy vegetation, which is apparently home to poisonous 'snake'.
One of our funnier/scarier moments was when we girls decided to go back down the mountain and catch a bus back to Hualien. Our 5'11" friend (while looking down at her feet and the endless stairs) was taken by surprise by a large, low tree trunk growing horizontally across our path. I heard a loud *crack* and then saw her tumble back (luckily on a platform, not on the stairs), dazed and confused, with a bit of a bloody lip! The sun blinded her last minute and she never saw it coming, because the girls in front of her struggle to reach a modest 5 feet tall, so they sailed right underneath without a hitch. We sat there awhile to be sure she was alright, and then made the trek back down.
Entertaining Ourselves in Hualien
We spent a night at the Bei Bin Park and Nan Bin Night Market on the beach (which is all rock--sandy beaches are elsewhere). What a GREAT time! It was a weekday, so there weren't many people there, but it was almost better that way. We could walk around, talk to vendors, eat pork buns and wax apples, drink a few (million) beers, and listen to hilarious Chinese Karaoke. We bought some fireworks and had fun with those for awhile. Earlier in the day, we had explored a nearby neighborhood, were chased by guard-dogs, talked to a lady who had a pot-bellied pig, and found an abnoxious turkey and goose duo in an enclosure by someone's house.
Games
Matsu (Mazu) is the goddess of the ocean, who is said to protect sea-farers. There are statues on most coasts of her facing the water. Sometimes she's depicted larger than life, holding a lantern.
Overall, Hualien was a very quiet and relaxed beach area with very little to do. The real reason to visit is for the gorge. That said, we had the most hilarious time drinking at a round table in front of a restaurant on the sidewalk with our new-found friends. Prior to that, we enjoyed Chinese food at a tea house.
The previous day, we found King Tang Cafe--the BEST coffee shop I may have ever been to in my entire life (we found it on "Jennifer's" recommendation).
Bathing suits at Christmas time. Life doesn't get much better than that.
Dinner awaits you on the sidewalk. This is a sunfish.
Big pimpin, Hualien style.
Honestly, we found plenty to do, and it was the perfect way to relax and enjoy ourselves for our Christmas holiday. We were back in Seoul in the afternoon on New Year's Eve. I even ran into a Scottish guy we met on a train in Taiwan the previous day while out ringing in 2011.
What I Would Do Differently, Suggestions
I would certainly start down south at the beaches or on one of the amazing islands. Then I would work my way back to Taipei to fly home. I would also love to do the gorge again; this time with a sherpa, or maybe alone, simply to spend more time there. There are numerous trails we didn't get to see--and I would get to the Eternal Spring Shrine--which I only saw from the bus on the way up the mountain. I want to see a bit of the west coast as well, and I want to ride a bullet train. I'd definitely try and find some hotsprings around Taipei as well, I've heard they're pretty amazing. Ah well, I guess I'll just have to go back and have the second most epic vacation of all time. Friendliest, most helpful people, great weather, and millions of laughs. It was the best.
