Just like REM sang: "Leaving New York, never easy (it's pulling me apart)"
Yes, leaving Taipei, never easy.
Time came where we needed to say Goodbye and Thank You to Taipei.
It has been a great year. It started a bit in a sense where I saw troubles instead of possibilities.
When my wife arrived in the end of January 2014, right before Chinese New Year, things started becoming much better and easier.
During the summer, I was asked for a contract extension for another year. I was considering a lot.
Weighing pros and cons. Sometimes, I wanted to stay. Sometimes, I thought we'd better go home.
It changed like this for a couple of months and I asked for more time to make a decision.
Finally, in the beginning of September, I announced that I have no intention to extend my contract due to several personal reasons.
2014 has been good to me personally. I believe it was good for my wife to have a longer break from her work too. I didn't become richer. I didn't became more urbane, since I already travelled a lot. I didn't learn much more at work. I didn't get more new friends. I already knew many of the office people before I moved here since I have worked with majority of them for many years.
What has been good is that I have spent my time here with my wife. We saw each other only in the weekends when we lived in Sweden. Another good thing was also my wish to learn Chinese.
I had classes with a tutor who came to office once or twice a week during the whole year. I learned a lot from her, but I still consider that my Chinese is very poor. It's too bad I don't have time to stay here to improve it.
We have seen quite many places both in Taipei and outside Taipei. Of course, I would like to see even more. I would like to go to Kenting, for example. We made it to Taroko Gorge though and that was a nice trip.
What I will miss the most here is all the shopping, nice and cheap food, possibility to get something any time thanks to 24h shops. Yes, we also miss ice skating there.
Taiwanese people are generally nice people. Not very open to speak English, but compared to mainland Chinese, they have better manner. I guess that's why Western people enjoy staying in Taipei because of the people and the easiness to get around the city. It's cleaner and more tidy here as well.
Something I also like is that Taipei has at least two seasons, seeing it from the eyes of someone who lives in Sweden with four seasons. It is either hot or less hot here. During April to Oct, it is hot and very humid. During Nov to Mar, it is colder and very humid. It is so humid that things get mould. My plants and luggages have experienced this.
My dream was fulfilled to move here, but no dream will last forever. Sooner or later, we need to wake up. Moving home is of course not our dream either, but it might open the door to something else. I believe we will for sure come back to Taiwan in the future as a tourist. My heart will beat a bit for Taiwan from now on and I will remember this as one of my homes.
I have not missed Sweden at all except for when important football games or other sports events took place. Well, I miss Sweden when I want a stable internet connection. Even though I paid a lot for the internet here, it was frustrating that it didn't work properly. Most of the time, we needed to disconnect and connect the cable several times a day.
The second last week of our time in Taiwan, the shipping company came to measure our stuff at home. On the agreed moving day (Fri 28 Nov), they came to pack our stuff. We chose to ship both by sea and air, since we had lots of liquid which we didn't want to leave or throw away. We were allowed to ship only 80kg by air.
I first thought that we could make it by air with all our stuff expect for the box with liquid. My estimation of weight and amount seems totally wrong. We ended up with four boxes by air and twenty boxes by sea! Crazy!
We tried to keep number of items down so that we didn't have to ship too many things home. Most importantly, we didn't want to shop too much stuff for the apartment here since we already have the setup in Sweden. Now, lots of stuff will be doubled when we come home. Some of the stuff, we will keep using them. Some others will be kept until any of my siblings will move.
On the moving day (Wed 3 Dec), we brought 5 luggage and 4 hand luggage with us. Since we both had Star Alliance Gold cards, we were allowed to bring one extra luggage (23kg) each. Besides, my company could pay for one more extra bag or 20kg overweight each. Since we didn't go home straight to Sweden, but to Thailand on 3 week's vacation, we found it quite troublesome to bring so many bags, but we had no choice. Check-in went smoothly though.
Ya, everything is now just a memory.
Goodbye and Thank You, Taipei! See you again!
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Shopping in Taipei
Before I moved here and after all my previous visits, I knew that there was not much for me to shop in terms of clothing for a shopaholic like me. I was both right and wrong.
In Taipei, you can actually find all kinds of shopping. What kinds of shopping can you anticipate then? You can find lots of sports fashion, outdoor activity stuff, shoes, toys, bags, cosmetics, watches, sweets, stationary, etc.
Something you will find are cheaper than elsewhere are bikes, often made in Taiwan.
Foldable bikes are very popular in Taiwan and I bought one online.
Where can you go shopping then?
There are big department stores like Shinkong Mitsukoshi, Breeze, Sogo and Eslite. We live just next to Qsquare Mall, which is a quite big mall.
The mall in Taipei 101 is very high end, so we normally don't go there. The shopping areas I can recommend are Ximenting, Zhongshan, Zhongxiao East Rd and Xinyi.
I have been to Wufenpu, but I wouldn't recommend this wholesale area unless you are a looking for low quality, "use-and-throw" kind of clothes.
You can also find night markets like Shilin and Raohe. Other night markets can be considered to focus more on food. Another kind of shopping opportunity you can find are the underground markets. They are very centralized around Taipei Main Station. Don't expect to find anything fancy in the night markets or underground markets. Things are instead very local and cheap.
Speaking about online shopping, it is also very widespread here in Taiwan. There are lots of homepages selling basically everything. It is quite convenient that you can pay in the convenient stores if you don't dare to use your credit card online.
Don't expect to find big outlet villages like the ones in the US. There is a small outlet department store called Leeco, but it is far from what you can expect from something called outlet.
We found two outlet stores, one near Sogo and one in Zhongxiao Dunhua. They sell some kind of defected or no-good items, often quite smelly. You can actually find some bargains there sometimes.
You can also find some short-term sales, so called 特賣會 (temaihui), where they want to clean out some stocks of old season shoes, bags, cloths in some locales that are kept for these kind of purposes.
I have seen some "temaihui" sales where they sold very high end brands and the queue was stretching super long outside from morning to late afternoon. I wonder why they don't have to work...
In Taiwan, there is a normally Anniversary Sales in the department stores where some banks are be involved. You simply can get discount by using the banks' credit cards. Except for some discount (10-20%), the deal is normally: "Buy 5000NTD and receive a 500NTD voucher for your next purchase". This activity will move around the chain stores around Taipei or even nation wide. You will see that the stores will be overcrowded with shopping crazy people.
When it comes to discount, it is opposite to our Western way of thinking because the Chinese way of giving discount is called 打折 (dazhe). Instead of saying "It is 20% discount", they turn it around and say "You pay 80% of the price" instead. I get confused every time I see the sign inside a store.
When there is sales and they say "From 8 折", it means you will get maximum 20% off.
In Western countries, it would be "Sales starts from 20% off" or "At least 20% off". This is also something that conflicts with what we are used to.
Sometimes there are big sales like 50% off, but I find it quite unusual. I guess 10-30% is what they normally can give as a discount when sales seasons come.
Something about casual clothing then. Uniqlo has been established here for some years. Just recently, their sister company GU has also opened its first stores in Taipei. Swedish giant H&M will open here soon. Gap and Zara are already here. I brand I like is Global Work, a Japanese chain.
I would like to mention one brand that the Taiwanese are crazy about: Roots.
This is a Canadian brand and is actually not famous in Europe at all. I have never heard of it before, so I found it very strange that Taiwanese people go crazy when there is sales from this brand. Prices are actually surprisingly high and the design is just average. However, they buy it like it is some fancy brand.
When it comes to shopping high end brands, you can expect to find all the classic high end brands in the upper class department stores. Asian people seek for status, so having a brand name bag, watch, shoes and cloths is still something very important to them.
If you prefer buying used high end items instead, you can also find lots of stores in Taipei selling second hand items.
I would also like to mention that it is not common to find counterfeit products here in Taiwan. It is definitely not like Thailand and China.
What I like about Taiwan are all the convenient stores open 24h. Even Watsons selling cosmetics are open 24h.
What is different here compared to shopping in Bangkok, which I used to like, is that Taiwan has seasons. Not four, but at least two seasons. It means that you can buy jackets, sweaters and boots here.
We have enjoyed shopping here. My wife went crazy about shopping sports clothes and so did I. It's the easiest thing to find here. When it comes to casual apparel, I couldn't find anything worth buying except for Abercrombie & Fitch, which are imported and sold in lots of local stores scattered around the city. Well, I find the Taiwanese brand A Pirate Store quite OK sometimes.
I have instead enjoyed shopping cheaply at the Japanese low price chain Daiso. Everything, except for snacks, costs just 39NTD. There are local variants of low price chains also, but I find Daiso more fun and colorful.
My wife did some nice shopping here. She also thinks that shoes designed and made in Taiwan are quite comfortable at reasonable prices.
Don't forget, as a tourist, you can enjoy a 5% VAT refund (min purchase 3000NTD) if you bring your passport along with you. However, this is mostly just valid in the department stores.
In Taipei, you can actually find all kinds of shopping. What kinds of shopping can you anticipate then? You can find lots of sports fashion, outdoor activity stuff, shoes, toys, bags, cosmetics, watches, sweets, stationary, etc.
Something you will find are cheaper than elsewhere are bikes, often made in Taiwan.
Foldable bikes are very popular in Taiwan and I bought one online.
Where can you go shopping then?
There are big department stores like Shinkong Mitsukoshi, Breeze, Sogo and Eslite. We live just next to Qsquare Mall, which is a quite big mall.
The mall in Taipei 101 is very high end, so we normally don't go there. The shopping areas I can recommend are Ximenting, Zhongshan, Zhongxiao East Rd and Xinyi.
I have been to Wufenpu, but I wouldn't recommend this wholesale area unless you are a looking for low quality, "use-and-throw" kind of clothes.
You can also find night markets like Shilin and Raohe. Other night markets can be considered to focus more on food. Another kind of shopping opportunity you can find are the underground markets. They are very centralized around Taipei Main Station. Don't expect to find anything fancy in the night markets or underground markets. Things are instead very local and cheap.
Speaking about online shopping, it is also very widespread here in Taiwan. There are lots of homepages selling basically everything. It is quite convenient that you can pay in the convenient stores if you don't dare to use your credit card online.
Don't expect to find big outlet villages like the ones in the US. There is a small outlet department store called Leeco, but it is far from what you can expect from something called outlet.
We found two outlet stores, one near Sogo and one in Zhongxiao Dunhua. They sell some kind of defected or no-good items, often quite smelly. You can actually find some bargains there sometimes.
You can also find some short-term sales, so called 特賣會 (temaihui), where they want to clean out some stocks of old season shoes, bags, cloths in some locales that are kept for these kind of purposes.
I have seen some "temaihui" sales where they sold very high end brands and the queue was stretching super long outside from morning to late afternoon. I wonder why they don't have to work...
In Taiwan, there is a normally Anniversary Sales in the department stores where some banks are be involved. You simply can get discount by using the banks' credit cards. Except for some discount (10-20%), the deal is normally: "Buy 5000NTD and receive a 500NTD voucher for your next purchase". This activity will move around the chain stores around Taipei or even nation wide. You will see that the stores will be overcrowded with shopping crazy people.
When it comes to discount, it is opposite to our Western way of thinking because the Chinese way of giving discount is called 打折 (dazhe). Instead of saying "It is 20% discount", they turn it around and say "You pay 80% of the price" instead. I get confused every time I see the sign inside a store.
When there is sales and they say "From 8 折", it means you will get maximum 20% off.
In Western countries, it would be "Sales starts from 20% off" or "At least 20% off". This is also something that conflicts with what we are used to.
Sometimes there are big sales like 50% off, but I find it quite unusual. I guess 10-30% is what they normally can give as a discount when sales seasons come.
Something about casual clothing then. Uniqlo has been established here for some years. Just recently, their sister company GU has also opened its first stores in Taipei. Swedish giant H&M will open here soon. Gap and Zara are already here. I brand I like is Global Work, a Japanese chain.
I would like to mention one brand that the Taiwanese are crazy about: Roots.
This is a Canadian brand and is actually not famous in Europe at all. I have never heard of it before, so I found it very strange that Taiwanese people go crazy when there is sales from this brand. Prices are actually surprisingly high and the design is just average. However, they buy it like it is some fancy brand.
When it comes to shopping high end brands, you can expect to find all the classic high end brands in the upper class department stores. Asian people seek for status, so having a brand name bag, watch, shoes and cloths is still something very important to them.
If you prefer buying used high end items instead, you can also find lots of stores in Taipei selling second hand items.
I would also like to mention that it is not common to find counterfeit products here in Taiwan. It is definitely not like Thailand and China.
What I like about Taiwan are all the convenient stores open 24h. Even Watsons selling cosmetics are open 24h.
What is different here compared to shopping in Bangkok, which I used to like, is that Taiwan has seasons. Not four, but at least two seasons. It means that you can buy jackets, sweaters and boots here.
We have enjoyed shopping here. My wife went crazy about shopping sports clothes and so did I. It's the easiest thing to find here. When it comes to casual apparel, I couldn't find anything worth buying except for Abercrombie & Fitch, which are imported and sold in lots of local stores scattered around the city. Well, I find the Taiwanese brand A Pirate Store quite OK sometimes.
I have instead enjoyed shopping cheaply at the Japanese low price chain Daiso. Everything, except for snacks, costs just 39NTD. There are local variants of low price chains also, but I find Daiso more fun and colorful.
My wife did some nice shopping here. She also thinks that shoes designed and made in Taiwan are quite comfortable at reasonable prices.
Don't forget, as a tourist, you can enjoy a 5% VAT refund (min purchase 3000NTD) if you bring your passport along with you. However, this is mostly just valid in the department stores.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Eating out in Taipei
Eating out in Taipei is easy and is mostly cheap. If you want to have a fancy dinner instead, you will find that as well. That is why it is so good with such variations and choices in Taipei.
This is not a food blog, so I will not blog about food or restaurants in detail.
Yes, in Taipei, you don't have to worry about being hungry. Wherever you go, you will find something to satisfy your stomach.
In general, I feel that Taiwan is influenced by Japanese food a lot. It's everywhere. You can of course find pasta, Hong Kong food, Korean food and their local food too. However, European food is more difficult to find.
I might not know much about Taiwanese food, but I notice that almost everywhere you can find Paigufan (pork chops rice), Jituifan (chicken club rice) and NiuRouMian (Beef Noodles). This has then given me the impression that Taiwanese food is Paigufan, Jituifan and Beef Noodles.
When it comes to deserts, tian tang is very popular in Taiwan. It's some kind of sweet soup.
Hong Kong style Dim Sum is also a very popular choice here.
For lunch, a popular meal is the Lunchbox - so called Bin Dang. Easy, cheap and often delicious.
During lunch, I eat around my office, which is near Guang Fu Bei Lu.
I pay around 100NTD for a lunch, which is less than one third of what I pay for a lunch in Sweden.
I have some favorite lunch restaurants of course, but after being there for a year, I got bored of them still. My favorites are the one with steamed dumpling (best in town), the chicken rice called Ji Rou Fan, and the teppanyaki.
When it comes to dinner, we have plenty of choices around the city. I can't name them all and I haven't tried them all either. I will just briefly go thru some.
Pho Hoa - Near Sogo in Zhongxiao Fuxing. One of our favorite restaurants. It's small with a small menu, but their pho is very delicious.
Din Tai Fung - Quite expensive and award-winning Taiwanese chain. Their dumplings are very famous.
Plum Blossom Room at Brother Hotel - Located on the Nanjing E Rd. Dim sum here is good and I like the old-style when they walk around with their carts.
City Star (Jing Xing) - 24H HK style restaurant. Long waiting time, but quite nice food.
How Fun - We found this in Zhongxiao Dunhua. Paella and other latin american influenced food. Not bad.
Calcutta Restaurant - This place in the basement of Ximending Wan Nian Plaza. Delicious Indian food.
Long Du Restaurant - Near Zhongshan Rd, which is near around apartment. Best Beijing duck in town. Must try! Book in advance!
Kai Fun - A chain with great Sichuan food. Can highly recommend.
Emporer Food - Chain with very delicious paigufan.
Lao Wang Ji Beef Noodles - Probably the best beef noodles in town. Our favorite beef noodles restaurant ever. The beef is really tender! You can find this one in Ximen.
Si Hai Yi Jia - One of my favorite business lunch restaurant, because it is really delicious. You pay just 120NTD!
Bao Wu Japanese Restaurant - A small cozy Japanese restaurant only in Shilin station. Very delicious food.
Mushroom Forest - In Chang An W Rd. Nice pasta. Big portions.
Mita - Pasta chain. Nice pasta.
TJB - A chain with delicious pasta and other nice food.
Saizeriya - Japanese chain. One of the cheapest places for pasta, pizza or steak. Cheap doesn't mean it is bad. Actually, it is quite nice quality here, especially the pizzas.
Ippudo - Japanese chain. Their ramen is delicious, but menu has changed a bit.
Hokkaido Ramen Santouka - Japanese chain. Their ramen is not bad, but quite expensive.
Watami - Japanese chain with a big menu. Relatively expensive though.
Yoshinoya - Japanese fast food chain with nice rice bowls.
Ba Fang Yin Ji - A very cheap dumpling chain. You can have them cooked or fried. Very yummy.
Thai Town - An expensive Thai food chain. Delicious though!
Ootoya - Japanese chain with decent food.
Coco Curry House - Japanese chain specialized in curry meals.
McDonald's - Comparing to other western countries, hamburger meals here are cheap. We went there just a couple of times. Why having this kind of food when you can find delicious Asian food here?
MOS Burger - Japanese fast food chain selling burgers. However, we didn't like it. Quality is poor.
Oldie Burger - Next to our apartment building. Very expensive burgers, but delicious.
Some other things worth mentioning:
Food courts - In every mall or department store, you can find food courts with quite OK quality. The price of a set meal is around 150NTD.
Night markets - Shilin, Raohe and Ningxia are the night markets worth mentioning. You can find lots of snacks, drinks and other food here. However, we find them quite greasy and we don't know where the oil came from considering the oil scandal here.
Att 4 Fun in Xinyi - They renovated the eating floor during autumn 2014. Lots of nice and cozy coffee shops. Some of them serving meals. Nice place with decorations of Alice in Wonderland.
Bakeries - There are lots of bakeries in Taipei. It is so convenient to just walk in a buy a bun if you feel like it. After coming to Taipei, and when we travelled to other places in Asia, I really miss the Taiwan bakeries by the time I feel for something sweet. One of the most popular is ChiaTe, which only has one store and it is located on Nanjing E Rd. This store is so popular that people have to line up to go in to the store. Their cakes and other stuff are very delicious at a good price. Tourists from other Asian countries stop by to buy bags of cakes to bring home as gifts.
Bubble tea - You can basically find bubble tea bars everywhere. Whenever I'm away from Taipei, and I feel for a bubble tea immediately, I wish I was in Taipei at that moment instead. There are lots of chains, but I find Come Buy as one of the best.
Teppanyaki - This is quite easy to find and it is cheap. There is one big chain serving for around 130NTD. At night markets, you get two choices of meat for around 250NTD. I like this kind of food.
Hot pots - Hot pots and sukiyaki seem very popular in Taiwan. You can find it everywhere at a nice price. Momo Paradise is one of the chains we have tried.
Grill - You can find lots of all-you-eat places for around 500NTD. It's often very Korean influenced.
Cafés - We have been here for a year, but we only paid a visit to Starbucks once. There are Starbucks everywhere, but we don't find them very interesting. Too pricey and average quality. We rather walk around to find more local coffee shops. For instance, behind Mitsukoshi in Zhongshan are quite many nice coffee shops. In Zhongxiao Dunhua, you can also find many nice ones.
We have brought our books to have some desserts and teas. I recommend reading and eating, I think it's relaxing and a cozy activity.
Final words: I know that, when we move back home, food in Taipei is one of the things we will miss the most for sure. Of course we often miss Western food, but I like the variety of food here much more. One more thing is that I need something lean and clean most of the time. In Taiwan, the food is quite oily and sweet all the time. Therefore, we cook at home 1-3 times a week to avoid unhealthy food. However, we have enjoyed eating out a lot!
This is not a food blog, so I will not blog about food or restaurants in detail.
Yes, in Taipei, you don't have to worry about being hungry. Wherever you go, you will find something to satisfy your stomach.
In general, I feel that Taiwan is influenced by Japanese food a lot. It's everywhere. You can of course find pasta, Hong Kong food, Korean food and their local food too. However, European food is more difficult to find.
I might not know much about Taiwanese food, but I notice that almost everywhere you can find Paigufan (pork chops rice), Jituifan (chicken club rice) and NiuRouMian (Beef Noodles). This has then given me the impression that Taiwanese food is Paigufan, Jituifan and Beef Noodles.
When it comes to deserts, tian tang is very popular in Taiwan. It's some kind of sweet soup.
Hong Kong style Dim Sum is also a very popular choice here.
For lunch, a popular meal is the Lunchbox - so called Bin Dang. Easy, cheap and often delicious.
During lunch, I eat around my office, which is near Guang Fu Bei Lu.
I pay around 100NTD for a lunch, which is less than one third of what I pay for a lunch in Sweden.
I have some favorite lunch restaurants of course, but after being there for a year, I got bored of them still. My favorites are the one with steamed dumpling (best in town), the chicken rice called Ji Rou Fan, and the teppanyaki.
When it comes to dinner, we have plenty of choices around the city. I can't name them all and I haven't tried them all either. I will just briefly go thru some.
Pho Hoa - Near Sogo in Zhongxiao Fuxing. One of our favorite restaurants. It's small with a small menu, but their pho is very delicious.
Din Tai Fung - Quite expensive and award-winning Taiwanese chain. Their dumplings are very famous.
Plum Blossom Room at Brother Hotel - Located on the Nanjing E Rd. Dim sum here is good and I like the old-style when they walk around with their carts.
City Star (Jing Xing) - 24H HK style restaurant. Long waiting time, but quite nice food.
How Fun - We found this in Zhongxiao Dunhua. Paella and other latin american influenced food. Not bad.
Calcutta Restaurant - This place in the basement of Ximending Wan Nian Plaza. Delicious Indian food.
Long Du Restaurant - Near Zhongshan Rd, which is near around apartment. Best Beijing duck in town. Must try! Book in advance!
Kai Fun - A chain with great Sichuan food. Can highly recommend.
Emporer Food - Chain with very delicious paigufan.
Lao Wang Ji Beef Noodles - Probably the best beef noodles in town. Our favorite beef noodles restaurant ever. The beef is really tender! You can find this one in Ximen.
Si Hai Yi Jia - One of my favorite business lunch restaurant, because it is really delicious. You pay just 120NTD!
Bao Wu Japanese Restaurant - A small cozy Japanese restaurant only in Shilin station. Very delicious food.
Mushroom Forest - In Chang An W Rd. Nice pasta. Big portions.
Mita - Pasta chain. Nice pasta.
TJB - A chain with delicious pasta and other nice food.
Saizeriya - Japanese chain. One of the cheapest places for pasta, pizza or steak. Cheap doesn't mean it is bad. Actually, it is quite nice quality here, especially the pizzas.
Ippudo - Japanese chain. Their ramen is delicious, but menu has changed a bit.
Hokkaido Ramen Santouka - Japanese chain. Their ramen is not bad, but quite expensive.
Watami - Japanese chain with a big menu. Relatively expensive though.
Yoshinoya - Japanese fast food chain with nice rice bowls.
Ba Fang Yin Ji - A very cheap dumpling chain. You can have them cooked or fried. Very yummy.
Thai Town - An expensive Thai food chain. Delicious though!
Ootoya - Japanese chain with decent food.
Coco Curry House - Japanese chain specialized in curry meals.
McDonald's - Comparing to other western countries, hamburger meals here are cheap. We went there just a couple of times. Why having this kind of food when you can find delicious Asian food here?
MOS Burger - Japanese fast food chain selling burgers. However, we didn't like it. Quality is poor.
Oldie Burger - Next to our apartment building. Very expensive burgers, but delicious.
Some other things worth mentioning:
Food courts - In every mall or department store, you can find food courts with quite OK quality. The price of a set meal is around 150NTD.
Night markets - Shilin, Raohe and Ningxia are the night markets worth mentioning. You can find lots of snacks, drinks and other food here. However, we find them quite greasy and we don't know where the oil came from considering the oil scandal here.
Att 4 Fun in Xinyi - They renovated the eating floor during autumn 2014. Lots of nice and cozy coffee shops. Some of them serving meals. Nice place with decorations of Alice in Wonderland.
Bakeries - There are lots of bakeries in Taipei. It is so convenient to just walk in a buy a bun if you feel like it. After coming to Taipei, and when we travelled to other places in Asia, I really miss the Taiwan bakeries by the time I feel for something sweet. One of the most popular is ChiaTe, which only has one store and it is located on Nanjing E Rd. This store is so popular that people have to line up to go in to the store. Their cakes and other stuff are very delicious at a good price. Tourists from other Asian countries stop by to buy bags of cakes to bring home as gifts.
Bubble tea - You can basically find bubble tea bars everywhere. Whenever I'm away from Taipei, and I feel for a bubble tea immediately, I wish I was in Taipei at that moment instead. There are lots of chains, but I find Come Buy as one of the best.
Teppanyaki - This is quite easy to find and it is cheap. There is one big chain serving for around 130NTD. At night markets, you get two choices of meat for around 250NTD. I like this kind of food.
Hot pots - Hot pots and sukiyaki seem very popular in Taiwan. You can find it everywhere at a nice price. Momo Paradise is one of the chains we have tried.
Grill - You can find lots of all-you-eat places for around 500NTD. It's often very Korean influenced.
Cafés - We have been here for a year, but we only paid a visit to Starbucks once. There are Starbucks everywhere, but we don't find them very interesting. Too pricey and average quality. We rather walk around to find more local coffee shops. For instance, behind Mitsukoshi in Zhongshan are quite many nice coffee shops. In Zhongxiao Dunhua, you can also find many nice ones.
We have brought our books to have some desserts and teas. I recommend reading and eating, I think it's relaxing and a cozy activity.
Final words: I know that, when we move back home, food in Taipei is one of the things we will miss the most for sure. Of course we often miss Western food, but I like the variety of food here much more. One more thing is that I need something lean and clean most of the time. In Taiwan, the food is quite oily and sweet all the time. Therefore, we cook at home 1-3 times a week to avoid unhealthy food. However, we have enjoyed eating out a lot!
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Yangmingshan (陽明山) - Part II (Juansi Waterfall)
In the first weekend of November, we decided to go back to Yangmingshan to hike again.
We found on the internet a trail called Juansi Waterfall 絹絲瀑布 Trail and we wanted to check if the waterfall was impressive or not. Beforehand, we learnt that this trail is quite easy, almost only downhill. Compared to hiking to Mt Qixing, this should be a "walk in the park".
We took Bus No 260 north exit 2 of Taipei Main Station and reached to Yangmingshan terminal station. From there, there is a special queue for Bus 108, which is a small bus, that loops around Yangmingshan. Our target was Lengshuikeng 冷水坑 where we could to start hiking from there to Juansi Waterfall.
There were a lot of people around lunch time and suddenly they used a bigger bus (still Bus No 108) with end station Xiaoyoukeng 小油坑. We didn't know if Lengshuikeng was included in this bus line, so we jumped on the bus together with almost all the other people. It turned out that we were on the wrong bus. The bus reached Xiaoyoukeng and turned back to terminal station. I asked the driver how we should go to Juansi Waterfall and he then stopped at Qixing bus stop so that we could catch the real 108 instead.
I read a forum that we should start from Lengshuikeng Visitor Center, but there was no such bus stop. We passed Lengshuikeng and arrived to Qingtiangang 擎天崗, which was the other end station, not far from Lengshuikeng. It turned out that Lengshuikeng stop was the one we were supposed to go to, not a stop called Lengshuikeng Visitor Center, because that doesn't exist. This was explained by a guy in the Qingtiangang Visitor Center who was kind enough to bring us to a trail so we could hike to Juansi Waterfall anyway. This was not what we planned, but anything goes if we only could reach our target.
Qingtiangang is a nice and quite flat grassland with cows and people go there for picnicking or just to relax. Here used to be a lava terrace! Yes, we passed by a few cows and some cute calves and the visitor center guy told us they are Japanese cows and the farmers don't milk them.
We started hiking from here and arrived to the waterfall after just 1.7km. It took around 1h. The waterfall itself was not very impressive. It was quite small actually. However, a waterfall is a waterfall and it always brings some "magic" to it. It began raining when we reached the waterfall. We stopped here for a small sandwich lunch before hiking 1km for 30min to the end of Juansi Waterfall trail. We arrived to a road with a bus stop for Bus No S15 to Shilin MRT. All the buses which passed by were too crowded. It was nearly 16:00 and we expected to catch a bus sooner or later. However, after 30min with buses that were crowded or didn't come regularly, we decided to take S15 on the other side instead, ie back to the end station on the mountain so that we could remain in the bus which will turn back and go to Shilin MRT. However, the driver told us that we needed to get off the bus at Qingtiangang and line up again. Most of us were pissed. I was already so frustrated about waiting too long for the bus back to the city. It was raining and I was freezing and I just wanted to go back to watch a football game.
We lined up for 1h in Qingtiangang in the rain and the fog before we could catch the bus back to the city. It was a nightmare and I can't believe that they didn't organize to have bigger buses when they knew that everyone wanted to go home in the rain.
However, all in all, the Juansi Waterfall Trail was quite nice and was not tough at all.
We found on the internet a trail called Juansi Waterfall 絹絲瀑布 Trail and we wanted to check if the waterfall was impressive or not. Beforehand, we learnt that this trail is quite easy, almost only downhill. Compared to hiking to Mt Qixing, this should be a "walk in the park".
We took Bus No 260 north exit 2 of Taipei Main Station and reached to Yangmingshan terminal station. From there, there is a special queue for Bus 108, which is a small bus, that loops around Yangmingshan. Our target was Lengshuikeng 冷水坑 where we could to start hiking from there to Juansi Waterfall.
There were a lot of people around lunch time and suddenly they used a bigger bus (still Bus No 108) with end station Xiaoyoukeng 小油坑. We didn't know if Lengshuikeng was included in this bus line, so we jumped on the bus together with almost all the other people. It turned out that we were on the wrong bus. The bus reached Xiaoyoukeng and turned back to terminal station. I asked the driver how we should go to Juansi Waterfall and he then stopped at Qixing bus stop so that we could catch the real 108 instead.
I read a forum that we should start from Lengshuikeng Visitor Center, but there was no such bus stop. We passed Lengshuikeng and arrived to Qingtiangang 擎天崗, which was the other end station, not far from Lengshuikeng. It turned out that Lengshuikeng stop was the one we were supposed to go to, not a stop called Lengshuikeng Visitor Center, because that doesn't exist. This was explained by a guy in the Qingtiangang Visitor Center who was kind enough to bring us to a trail so we could hike to Juansi Waterfall anyway. This was not what we planned, but anything goes if we only could reach our target.
Qingtiangang is a nice and quite flat grassland with cows and people go there for picnicking or just to relax. Here used to be a lava terrace! Yes, we passed by a few cows and some cute calves and the visitor center guy told us they are Japanese cows and the farmers don't milk them.
We started hiking from here and arrived to the waterfall after just 1.7km. It took around 1h. The waterfall itself was not very impressive. It was quite small actually. However, a waterfall is a waterfall and it always brings some "magic" to it. It began raining when we reached the waterfall. We stopped here for a small sandwich lunch before hiking 1km for 30min to the end of Juansi Waterfall trail. We arrived to a road with a bus stop for Bus No S15 to Shilin MRT. All the buses which passed by were too crowded. It was nearly 16:00 and we expected to catch a bus sooner or later. However, after 30min with buses that were crowded or didn't come regularly, we decided to take S15 on the other side instead, ie back to the end station on the mountain so that we could remain in the bus which will turn back and go to Shilin MRT. However, the driver told us that we needed to get off the bus at Qingtiangang and line up again. Most of us were pissed. I was already so frustrated about waiting too long for the bus back to the city. It was raining and I was freezing and I just wanted to go back to watch a football game.
Qingtiangang
Qingtiangang
Qingtiangang
Juansi Waterfall.
We lined up for 1h in Qingtiangang in the rain and the fog before we could catch the bus back to the city. It was a nightmare and I can't believe that they didn't organize to have bigger buses when they knew that everyone wanted to go home in the rain.
Waiting for the bus back to Taipei.
However, all in all, the Juansi Waterfall Trail was quite nice and was not tough at all.
Monday, November 3, 2014
Keelung (基隆)
Keelung 基隆, actually known as Jilong, is a port city northeast of Taipei. You can either go by bus or train.
We took a train, which leaves every 20min, for about 80NTD for a return ticket per person. It took 40min from Taipei Main Station.
Downtown Keelung, there is not much to see. Even though Keelung Night Market (Miao Kou) is quite famous, there is actually nothing very special. I thought it was like Raohe or Shilin in Taipei, but the market street is actually quite short. Having seafood here is cheaper than in Taipei though. The food market here is opened until 2-3am.
I walked around east of Keelung and found a park called Zhongzheng Park with a quite nice temple on the hill.
In terms of shopping, there is really not much to get from here.
A short visit to Keelung is worthwhile though if you haven't been there before.
We took a train, which leaves every 20min, for about 80NTD for a return ticket per person. It took 40min from Taipei Main Station.
Downtown Keelung, there is not much to see. Even though Keelung Night Market (Miao Kou) is quite famous, there is actually nothing very special. I thought it was like Raohe or Shilin in Taipei, but the market street is actually quite short. Having seafood here is cheaper than in Taipei though. The food market here is opened until 2-3am.
I walked around east of Keelung and found a park called Zhongzheng Park with a quite nice temple on the hill.
In terms of shopping, there is really not much to get from here.
Miao Kou Night Market.
A short visit to Keelung is worthwhile though if you haven't been there before.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園) - Part I (Mt Qixing)
Yangmingshan National Park 陽明山國家公園 is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan. It is located in the north of Taipei and is one of the most popular mountains in Taiwan, both for foreigners and for locals.
We can actually see Yangmingshan every day from our bedroom window. If the sky is clear, we can see the mountain tops. When airplanes land in Songshan Airport, the view is fantastic from where we stand.
The national park offers great hiking, hot springs, lakes, flower blossoms, (stinking) sulfur deposits and several nice sceneries. Since there are so many trails, one must go there several times, because you really can't make them all within one day.
In the mid of October, we took Bus No 260 on the north side of the Taipei Main Station, North Exit 2. You can also consider it as just behind the Main Station opposite to Qsquare Mall. It is in front of a statue called Ai Fu with a kid and a father.
The bus trip took nearly 50min and cost 15NTD + 15NTD and it will pass by for example Jiantan Station (Shilin Night Market). We arrived to the Yangmingshan terminal station which is a big parking lot with lots of other buses and people.
From here, we walked a short trail of about 700m to the visitor center. Already on this short trail I thought it was quite tough. After we asked a couple of questions at the visitor center, we started our hiking on the Mt Qixing 七星山 trail. It says it is 2.4km to the top and takes about 2h. The trail was quite demanding, I must say.
We saw lots of funny things on our way: We met a man carrying an ubike around his neck when he was on his way down from the main peak. That's really impressive, because those bikes, which people can rent for free the first 30min, are not light. We also saw one guy wearing leather shoes, suit pants and a shirt. Furthermore, we saw people with other casual leather shoes, two men without shoes and very small kids hiking with grandparents. What surprised me and impressed me the most are all the old people being so active. Hiking and enjoying the nature is something they really like!
Mt Qixing is a dormant volcano and the main peak is 1120m above sea level. There are two peaks; East and Main. They are only about 300-400m from each other. The main peak is the highest in the whole Yangmingshan National Park. Even though it is just 1120m above sea level, it really took 2h to hike from the visitor center. We didn't even take a break.
On the east peak, there was a small stone indicating the top. We sat down and had some sandwiches that we bought before taking the bus. For two very hungry and weak persons lacking energy, they were very delicious. A lot of other people also took a lunch break there. Although it was not so high up, it was quite chilly up there, just around 18C. We were standing right in the middle of the clouds. Too bad it was too cloudy, because we couldn't really see any nice view from here.
After a short lunch break around 14.00, we walked to the main peak where we saw a big wood pole indicating its height and other stuff. There were a lot of people taking a break on the big benches. I bet most of them felt satisfaction and relief in their bodies after reaching the mountain top. For some of them, maybe it's their first time too. Like us.
After just a short break, we walked the Xiaoyoukeng 小油坑 trail down to the point where we could catch a bus. Our plan was first to walk from that point to Zhuzihu 竹子湖, which should be a nice place in the spring time when flowers blossom. Don't be fooled by the character 湖 (which stands for lake) in the name, because there is no lake there.
Walking down is much easier than walking up of course and this 1.7km went faster. However, we stopped a few times along the road. There is a nice view point here and we could both see the city of Taipei and some other mountain tops. Also, we passed a couple of stinking sulfur deposits on the way down. They really smelled like a bad fart. Not only did they smell like rotten eggs, but they also looked like smashed eggs. It is cool learning that the volcano is still "spitting" out these kinds of stuff. Or rather, these are actually post-volcanic activities.
When we finally came down to Xiaoyoukeng, it was nearly 16.00 and the mini bus (No 108) was just there and about to leave. We didn't even have time for a small recovery, but needed to jump on the overcrowded bus. It was more like a roller coaster than a bus ride. It was basically throwing us from left to right and right to left if you don't hold on too well. We passed a few stops and saw interesting places like a foot hot spring (Lengshuikeng), the Suspension bridge (Lengshuikeng) and some other trails.
We just wanted to go back to the Yangmingshan terminal station to take Bus No 260 back to Taipei Main Station. We didn't want to stop to see the other places at all since we felt exhausted.
Reaching the peaks of Mt Qixing made us feel very satisfied. I believe we will come back to hike some other trails before going back to Sweden.
We can actually see Yangmingshan every day from our bedroom window. If the sky is clear, we can see the mountain tops. When airplanes land in Songshan Airport, the view is fantastic from where we stand.
Yangmingshan view from our bedroom window.
The national park offers great hiking, hot springs, lakes, flower blossoms, (stinking) sulfur deposits and several nice sceneries. Since there are so many trails, one must go there several times, because you really can't make them all within one day.
In the mid of October, we took Bus No 260 on the north side of the Taipei Main Station, North Exit 2. You can also consider it as just behind the Main Station opposite to Qsquare Mall. It is in front of a statue called Ai Fu with a kid and a father.
The bus trip took nearly 50min and cost 15NTD + 15NTD and it will pass by for example Jiantan Station (Shilin Night Market). We arrived to the Yangmingshan terminal station which is a big parking lot with lots of other buses and people.
Yangmingshan terminal station.
The map of Yangmingshan.
The Mt Qixing trail starts from this point.
We saw lots of funny things on our way: We met a man carrying an ubike around his neck when he was on his way down from the main peak. That's really impressive, because those bikes, which people can rent for free the first 30min, are not light. We also saw one guy wearing leather shoes, suit pants and a shirt. Furthermore, we saw people with other casual leather shoes, two men without shoes and very small kids hiking with grandparents. What surprised me and impressed me the most are all the old people being so active. Hiking and enjoying the nature is something they really like!
Mt Qixing is a dormant volcano and the main peak is 1120m above sea level. There are two peaks; East and Main. They are only about 300-400m from each other. The main peak is the highest in the whole Yangmingshan National Park. Even though it is just 1120m above sea level, it really took 2h to hike from the visitor center. We didn't even take a break.
On the east peak, there was a small stone indicating the top. We sat down and had some sandwiches that we bought before taking the bus. For two very hungry and weak persons lacking energy, they were very delicious. A lot of other people also took a lunch break there. Although it was not so high up, it was quite chilly up there, just around 18C. We were standing right in the middle of the clouds. Too bad it was too cloudy, because we couldn't really see any nice view from here.
After just a short break, we walked the Xiaoyoukeng 小油坑 trail down to the point where we could catch a bus. Our plan was first to walk from that point to Zhuzihu 竹子湖, which should be a nice place in the spring time when flowers blossom. Don't be fooled by the character 湖 (which stands for lake) in the name, because there is no lake there.
East peak of Mt Qixing.
Main peak of Mt Qixing.
East peak.
Main peak.
One of many sulfur deposits.
View from Xiaoyoukeng view point.
Panorama view from Xiaoyoukeng view point.
Reaching the peaks of Mt Qixing made us feel very satisfied. I believe we will come back to hike some other trails before going back to Sweden.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Hualien (花蓮) Weekend with Taroko Gorge and Dolphin Safari
Hualien 花蓮 is a small city with about 300000 inhabitants on the east coast of Taiwan. It is actually the second largest city on the east side. It faces the Pacific Ocean on the east side and the Central mountain range on the west side.
I have heard about Taroko Gorge 太魯閣 for many years and my taxi driver, whom I usually book when I land in Taipei, asked me to go there since before. I could book him anytime. However, I didn't want to wake up so early and have a full day with him. Also, the price of 4000-5000NTD is quite expensive and you probably don't have time to see other things around the city of Hualien either.
Therefore, we wanted to go there by ourselves and spend a weekend in Hualien just to see what it could offer. It is also good to see something else than Taipei all the time.
My colleague helped me book train tickets online to Hualien. You can only book the tickets two weeks in advance. A return ticket costs about 900NTD/pers.
We booked a hostelry called Lienfook, which was quite cheap. The standard was really bad, but since we just slept there, we could live with it.
We wanted to see more of the city so booking three nights there during a longer weekend was preferred. Moreover, even though there are some hotels or resorts up in the Taroko mountains, it is very isolated and you will have basically nothing to do. If you stroll around in the city, like we like to do, you'd better stay in Hualien.
Taroko National Park was re-established 1986 and is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan. This park is named after the Taroko Gorge, which is the landmark of the park. Did you know Taroko means "magnificent and beautiful" in the so called Truku language? This area is well known for its marble. It was actually the river called Liwu that carved the gorge itself into marble.
The rock you see began over 200 million years ago as sediment on the bottom of the ocean. Did you also know that the region is still being uplifted by approximately 0.5cm every year?
We went there in the mid of September and the weather started becoming milder. The train trip took about 2h in a very comfortable train compartment with spacious seats. You can even put your
luggage before you. The train left and arrived on time. This ride will take you along the northern east coast, then further down south and you will see quite many nice places if you look out of the window. You can even see the famous Turtle Island if the weather is nice.
When we arrived in Hualien, we immediately looked for a taxi to take us to our hostelry Lienfook somewhere more down town. What surprised me were the number of female taxi drivers. That's good, actually. We asked hotel receptionist for a day trip to Taroko Gorge and agreed to pay 1000NTD/pers. We didn't know if they will pick us up with a van or a tour bus. It depends on the number of tour travellers, they said.
We had a quite chill first day there. We went to Nanbin Park near the water and chilled there for a while. In the evening we walked on the shopping street down town.
The next morning around 9:00, a tour guide lady came to pick us up from the lobby and luckily it was a big tour bus. After driving around to pick up another 20 people or so, we were finally on our way to Taroko National Park. This lady was telling a lot of stories and other things, but my mandarin is limited so we didn't understand much. It took nearly 45min to reach to the gate of Taroko National Park, which is located north of Hualien. We stopped there for some pics and drove further up to some kind of headquarter or visitor center. We found a trail and we walked just a little bit before turning back since we had a schedule to follow.
The bus took us to to several other places like Swallow Grotto 燕子口, Tunnels of Nine Turns 九曲洞 and Liufang Bridge 流芳橋. At lunch time, we arrived to a hostel, near Tianxiang 天祥, with a quite big canteen where we had a so-so lunch. Afterwards, they took us to a place called Qingshui Cliff 清水斷崖 where you can see clear distinct blue water if the weather is nice. On that day, it was a quite grey, but the water was still blue enough to make it beautiful. The last location we went to was the beach called Qixingtan Beach 七星潭. We were home around 17.00.
All in all, this tour was neither excellent nor bad. At least, for people like us who have never been there, it was great to "investigate" this place before eventually going there again.
When we arrived to our hostelry after the tour, we booked a Whale & Dolphin Safari for 800NTD/pers on the coming day. Our expectation was of course to see some Killer whales, but they told us the biggest chance is to see dolphins "only". We have been on Dolphin Safari in Bali before and it was quite OK even though it was on a small boat.
The next morning, the organizer came to pick us up in a van and drove us to the harbor 20-30min from our hotel. We embarked a bigger boat here in Hualien (compared to Bali) with around 40-50 people per boat. There were 5-6 boats on the sea that morning. Not far after we left the harbor, we saw quite many dolphins. As my wife says: "Dolphins want to show off. They are show off animals." Yeah, I guess we saw around 10 wild dolphins swimming and jumping near our boats. We stopped there only for a few minutes and took off further out in the Pacific Ocean. However, we never saw any other dolphins or whales despite driving around for 1.5h out there. It was quite disappointing, but at least we saw some dolphins.
When we came back to town, we had nothing to do after our lunch so we decided to rent a motorbike for 500NTD/day. My wife negotiated down the price with 100NTD. I needed to hand in my ARC in return. I guess it is difficult for foreigners to rent a bike elsewhere, so you can go to this place called Pony Rental in the corner next to Chin Yeh hotel near the train station.
We drove to Taroko around 15:00 and arrived 45min later. It was not as dangerous as I thought since there is a dedicated lane for motorbikes and bicycles.
We came to the Taroko National Park entrance and took another road to see the Eternal Spring Shrine 長春祠. There were a lot of tourists buses already. We missed this place the day before since the tour bus just passed by without mentioning it too much. It was disappointing since this was one of the places I've seen on pictures before and we wanted to stop by and have a look. This place is really beautiful.
So, since we had a motorbike, this was perfect to make up for it. We also hiked the 2.2km long Changchun Trail 長春祠步道 up to the temple and bell tower. From up there, the canyon view was great and it was worth the sweat. It started becoming dark and on our way out of the park, we stopped by at a small creek for a short while.
We ended our last night in Hualien with bowling and games (baseball, mini-bowling, basketball, darts, pool, table tennis, etc) at Giraffe Park, which is quite near the train station.
Overall, this weekend trip was nice and it was perfect with just 3 nights there. The city of Hualien is not so impressive and is rather small. More people move out of the city than in to the it and that is understandable. The shore is not so nice and the coastline is very steep, so it is not suitable for swimming. The waves are also too strong.
What really made this trip memorable was when we rented the motorbike to drive to Taroko and around the city. I filled the tank completely before going, but I still had maybe 80% left even though we drove Taroko back and forth and drove around the city.
This place is also one of the must-go places in Taiwan. Plan a couple of days here if you have a longer stay in Taiwan.
I have heard about Taroko Gorge 太魯閣 for many years and my taxi driver, whom I usually book when I land in Taipei, asked me to go there since before. I could book him anytime. However, I didn't want to wake up so early and have a full day with him. Also, the price of 4000-5000NTD is quite expensive and you probably don't have time to see other things around the city of Hualien either.
Therefore, we wanted to go there by ourselves and spend a weekend in Hualien just to see what it could offer. It is also good to see something else than Taipei all the time.
My colleague helped me book train tickets online to Hualien. You can only book the tickets two weeks in advance. A return ticket costs about 900NTD/pers.
Train to Hualien.
We wanted to see more of the city so booking three nights there during a longer weekend was preferred. Moreover, even though there are some hotels or resorts up in the Taroko mountains, it is very isolated and you will have basically nothing to do. If you stroll around in the city, like we like to do, you'd better stay in Hualien.
Taroko National Park was re-established 1986 and is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan. This park is named after the Taroko Gorge, which is the landmark of the park. Did you know Taroko means "magnificent and beautiful" in the so called Truku language? This area is well known for its marble. It was actually the river called Liwu that carved the gorge itself into marble.
The rock you see began over 200 million years ago as sediment on the bottom of the ocean. Did you also know that the region is still being uplifted by approximately 0.5cm every year?
We went there in the mid of September and the weather started becoming milder. The train trip took about 2h in a very comfortable train compartment with spacious seats. You can even put your
luggage before you. The train left and arrived on time. This ride will take you along the northern east coast, then further down south and you will see quite many nice places if you look out of the window. You can even see the famous Turtle Island if the weather is nice.
When we arrived in Hualien, we immediately looked for a taxi to take us to our hostelry Lienfook somewhere more down town. What surprised me were the number of female taxi drivers. That's good, actually. We asked hotel receptionist for a day trip to Taroko Gorge and agreed to pay 1000NTD/pers. We didn't know if they will pick us up with a van or a tour bus. It depends on the number of tour travellers, they said.
We had a quite chill first day there. We went to Nanbin Park near the water and chilled there for a while. In the evening we walked on the shopping street down town.
Nanbin Park.
Nanbin Park.
The main shopping street of Hualien.
The bus took us to to several other places like Swallow Grotto 燕子口, Tunnels of Nine Turns 九曲洞 and Liufang Bridge 流芳橋. At lunch time, we arrived to a hostel, near Tianxiang 天祥, with a quite big canteen where we had a so-so lunch. Afterwards, they took us to a place called Qingshui Cliff 清水斷崖 where you can see clear distinct blue water if the weather is nice. On that day, it was a quite grey, but the water was still blue enough to make it beautiful. The last location we went to was the beach called Qixingtan Beach 七星潭. We were home around 17.00.
The gate of Taroko National Park.
Liufang Bridge.
Liufang Bridge.
Tianxiang.
Qingshui Cliff.
Qixingtan Beach.
All in all, this tour was neither excellent nor bad. At least, for people like us who have never been there, it was great to "investigate" this place before eventually going there again.
When we arrived to our hostelry after the tour, we booked a Whale & Dolphin Safari for 800NTD/pers on the coming day. Our expectation was of course to see some Killer whales, but they told us the biggest chance is to see dolphins "only". We have been on Dolphin Safari in Bali before and it was quite OK even though it was on a small boat.
The next morning, the organizer came to pick us up in a van and drove us to the harbor 20-30min from our hotel. We embarked a bigger boat here in Hualien (compared to Bali) with around 40-50 people per boat. There were 5-6 boats on the sea that morning. Not far after we left the harbor, we saw quite many dolphins. As my wife says: "Dolphins want to show off. They are show off animals." Yeah, I guess we saw around 10 wild dolphins swimming and jumping near our boats. We stopped there only for a few minutes and took off further out in the Pacific Ocean. However, we never saw any other dolphins or whales despite driving around for 1.5h out there. It was quite disappointing, but at least we saw some dolphins.
Going out on Whale & Dolphin Safari!
We drove to Taroko around 15:00 and arrived 45min later. It was not as dangerous as I thought since there is a dedicated lane for motorbikes and bicycles.
We came to the Taroko National Park entrance and took another road to see the Eternal Spring Shrine 長春祠. There were a lot of tourists buses already. We missed this place the day before since the tour bus just passed by without mentioning it too much. It was disappointing since this was one of the places I've seen on pictures before and we wanted to stop by and have a look. This place is really beautiful.
So, since we had a motorbike, this was perfect to make up for it. We also hiked the 2.2km long Changchun Trail 長春祠步道 up to the temple and bell tower. From up there, the canyon view was great and it was worth the sweat. It started becoming dark and on our way out of the park, we stopped by at a small creek for a short while.
The gate of Taroko National Park again.
Eternal Spring Shrine.
The bell tower.
Panorama view from the bell tower.
We ended our last night in Hualien with bowling and games (baseball, mini-bowling, basketball, darts, pool, table tennis, etc) at Giraffe Park, which is quite near the train station.
Giraffe Park.
Hualien Train Station.
What really made this trip memorable was when we rented the motorbike to drive to Taroko and around the city. I filled the tank completely before going, but I still had maybe 80% left even though we drove Taroko back and forth and drove around the city.
This place is also one of the must-go places in Taiwan. Plan a couple of days here if you have a longer stay in Taiwan.
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