Category Taiwan
Yini had to go back home and work but us five boys continued our exploration of Taiwan’s east coast. Our train arrived in Hualien on Sunday evening, we found a hotel a stone’s throw from the train station, then went out for dinner and bought a few strange snacks to share in the hotel room.
On Monday morning we rented a couple of scooters, then rode out of town to famous tourist destination Taroko Gorge. Axel and I have been there before, but the spectacular lime stone cliffs, rivers and waterfalls make it well worth another visit.
Collecting a map … Read the rest
A couple of friends have come to visit me during the new year. After a very nice new year celebration, we decided to go explore the rest of the country for a bit. The eastern part being generally nicer, we decided to go there.
On Friday morning, me and my friends Anton, Axel, Marcus and Robert took the high speed rail south to Kaohsiung, then crossed to Taidong in the east by normal train. After we found a hotel, we borrowed a couple of bikes and rode around by the seaside.
Setting out 
BAmboo tunnel 
Biking in the woods 
Group
It has been what I like to call November weather, that is around ten degrees and rain, for the last week or so here in north Taiwan. So this weekend, Yini and I did like the migrating birds and moved south for the winter. On Friday evening, we said screw you to the cold weather and took the high speed rail to kaohsiung. As we left rather late, we stayed the night in Kaohsiung then left for Taiwan’s premier beach town, Kenting in the morning.
I’ve been to Kenting several times before, and I’ve spent most of those times either … Read the rest
Last weekend, me and Yini visited her parents. Since we do this quite often, I normally don’t write about it, but this time was somewhat different. We left home on Saturday afternoon, and headed south along the highway. Around Sanyi we left the highway and followed some fairly small roads out into rural Taiwan. A short while later we came to a place called Zuolan, which does not look like much to the world. However I found it could well be worth a visit, at least if you are passing by the area.
Stopping by the side of a small … Read the rest
A while back, me and Yini rode our motorbike from Tainan on the south west coast, round Taiwans south tip, then up along the east coast to Yilan in the north. I wrote about it here. We also made one trip from Taoyuan in the west, across the mountains to Yilan, then around the northern tip back to Taoyuan, see this post.
Though a bit further inland than those two trips, we have also been between Hsinchu and Taoyuan (both in the north west) several times, and a few weeks ago, we rode from Hsinchu to Erlin in … Read the rest
When I woke up this morning, I felt like going out to do something, but at the same time didn’t really have any plans for where to go. So me and Yini took it easy for a little while, then took the lazy mans option, and drove out in the car instead of with the motorbike. We headed east towards the mountains with a semi clear goal in our minds but no map. We followed road signs in roughly the right direction but took a wrong turn somewhere and ended going more or less the wrong way. Luckily we found … Read the rest
This weekend, me and Yini have done a real land travel journey, the most interesting part of which was the journey itself, not so much the destination. The destination was Erlin and Yini’s parents house. I’ve been there several times before and though it’s nice, I kind of know what to expect by now. Yini’s mom will make lots of food for me, her dad will serve me tea and discuss some topic which is simple enough for my level of Chinese, and her nephews will use me as a sort of toy.
Like I said, getting there was more … Read the rest
Now, I do not condone people pulling up their smartphones and filming the scene of an accident rather than helping the victim (this is a real problem, look it up). However, I do understand people engaging in disaster tourism, such as the people going to see the wreck of the Costa Concordia; destruction is exciting, like an action movie, the problem is that real disasters often entail real loss of life. When there are no people involved however (Mythbusters blowing something up, an abandoned house deteriorating and so on), I enjoy a bit of destruction as much as the net … Read the rest
I have driven up to the north coast of Taiwan several times the last few months, each time thinking to myself “wow, the coast road her is nice, I must drive it one day”. That one day turned into this weekend, and drive became ride a scooter. Starting Friday afternoon, I picked Yini up at Taoyuan train station. We rode through Taoyuan county, passing Anders street in the outskirts of Taipei and up into the mountains. Normally, it is pretty stressful to ride on the mountain road in the dark, but these were surprisingly easy. We stopped by in the … Read the rest
I have been reading a bit about several abandoned amusement parks in Taiwan, and I would dearly like to visit some. The most famous one, katoli world, was taken down some years ago but a place called Encore Gardens was rumored to still exist. Me and Yini managed to find it on the map so we took the car and headed out. We did eventually find the place, but it seemed the owners were planing to do something with it because there were some workers there preventing us from entering. Since we were in the area we decided to check … Read the rest