Author RenegadeTourist
I’m speeding along towards the high speed rail station, the meter showing 80 kilometers an hour and a cool wind washing over me. Suddenly the buildings on my right give way to a large open space, and I wonder for a moment how that can be, before realizing that it is most likely one of the fish farming ponds. I take a longer look, and sure enough, beyond a low concrete barrier, the perfectly smooth surface of the water spreading out towards the horizon. It reflects the infinity of space above, so dark blue that it’s almost back. At the far … Read the rest
Just as it was getting more and more like spring it seems winter made a comeback because this week has been cold and rainy. Tired of coming home wet and and miserable, I suggested we go south for the weekend. Said and done, as soon as I got off work Friday, we got our bags, hopped on a high speed train south and went to the southern city Kaohsiung.
Yesterday we woke up fairly early, had a tasty breakfast, rented a scooter then headed out to explore the city. When we went to Taidong a few months ago, we spotted … Read the rest
The rope in my hand is taut, pulling me forward. My board skips across the surface of the pond, leaving a wake gurgling and splashing behind it. I’m surfing towards the setting sun, it hangs low over far away green hills, streaking the grey green water with lustrous gold; my right hand stretched out behind me, the fingers forming the rock and roll sign of the devil. I let out a scream of exhilaration, it’s a perfect moment.… Read the rest
Today we went on a small roadtrip up into the mountains. The goal was a newly opened section of road that is supposedly similar to the central belt road, which is the road that snakes across the central mountain range from west to east. We went by various smaller country roads rather than the highway and around two in the afternoon we turned up into the mountains. The road we followed was narrow and bumpy and we wound our way upwards and then, as we came around a bend, a large sloping field of white, blossoming plum trees opened up … Read the rest
The air is cool, not fully cold, just…crisp. The sky is clear, save for a few veils of cloud too thin to catch any of the light pollution from the city. It’ dark enough that I can see a few stars, Orion’s Belt off to the south. A brilliant silver white moon is competing with the street lights. It’s quiet, just the sound of a few cars in the distance and the wind rustling the leaves of a nearby palm tree. It feels wrong, like I’m not in Hsinchu anymore, it feels… like Gotheburg in September.… Read the rest
Twilight, just before dusk, the sky overcast. It doesn’t seem to matter if I have my headlights on or not. I switch them off for a second, I see just fine without them, then turn them back on for safety. There is a continuous drizzle, almost unnoticeable when standing still but speed compacts it, I can feel a constant spray on the lower half of my face and the spattering on my visor blurs my vision and diffuses incoming light into glittering halo’s around its sources. It is cold, my face feels numb and a few moments without gloves is … Read the rest
Taiwan’s government was nice enough to give us a nice long four day weekend to kick off the new year. Me and Renegade Wife spent new years day being lazy at home, which felt really good. The other three days we’ve been travelling around both here and there and had a pretty good time.
We started with a trip up to Xiaowulai in the mountains, where there are plenty of waterfalls and suspension bridges.
view on the way up
First view of the waterfall
A smaller waterfall
Looking down at the big waterfall from above 
The main waterfall from
Yini and I both felt a need for a mini vacation, so this weekend we took Friday off and headed to Taidong on the south east coast. This is about as far away as you can go in Taiwan while still staying on land. If you are taking public transport you can either get a high speed train south along the west side, change to a normal train and cross the southern tip then go north again along the east coast, a process that takes around six or seven hours. Or, you could get on the normal train right from … Read the rest
Doufeng (兜風) is chinese and translates to “to catch the wind” basically to go for a ride in the fresh air. My favourite way to do doufeng is random exploration by motorcycle.
Some weeks ago me and Yini passed by an abandoned house at the outskirts of the city. We had no chance to get in and explore then but today we drove up there, better prepared. I jumped the low wall and started looking around when all of a sudden some kind of alarm went off. I guess the place was less abandoned than I thought (despite being dark … Read the rest
Recently my good friend’s father passed away in cancer (my condolences Kai) so on Saturday me and Yini headed south to meet him up and comfort him in these hard times. We arrived in his hometown of Tianzhong in the evening and spent a couple of hours with him. Knowing that he felt comparatively good, we said good bye and went out to find a hotel. We ended up in a kind of motel where I promptly burned my lip on the what looked like a drinking fountain but turned out to be a hot water dispenser. Not the nicest … Read the rest