Tag Taiwan
Last weekend some of Yini’s old friends had organized a short trip to have a chance to see each other and visit a number of interesting places. We joined but took our own car and made our own hotel booking for convenience.
The trip started with a short drive to Miaoli where the group gathered for lunch and the girls ended up chatting for a long time. Due to my still rather poor Chinese, I was not really able to join the conversation and ended up reading blogs all the while. We left the restaurant and planned to take a … Read the rest
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything because it’s been too cold and wet to really go anywhere. Last weekend however, it was nice and sunny so Yini and I took the opportunity to go out with the motorcycle. We rode east out of the city, passed through the little town of queerly painted houses that we visited last year, and on to the Five Fingers Mountains.
At a small temple we found an fairly steep little walking trail that we followed. It was a bit of a struggle for Yini and I got pretty tired as well but … Read the rest
We have stumbled upon this place more or less at random. We only stopped at the reservoir for a quick rest before going home, but impulsively decided to circumnavigate the lake, just for fun. And here, on the small road around it, we found this place, a Christian graveyard. The steep hillside is terraced in numerous levels, kind of like the spectator gallery at a sports arena but instead of seats, there are walkways lined with graves; rows and rows of what looks like sarcophagi with slab headstones at one end. Then only difference between them is the color of … 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
The smell of fresh pork meat pervades the surprisingly lively street market. Despite the hour, very late, or very early depending on your perspective, vendors are setting up their stalls and preparing their wares for sale. To my right, men are cutting up freshly butchered pork, from which arises that special smell which we buyers of Styrofoam packed meat are not used to. To the left women are sorting various vegetables and putting them up for display. All around, men are unloading boxes of produce from delivery trucks, or zipping around on motorcycles. There are no customers yet, so far … 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
The captain has just made his landing speech over the intercom, announcing that it is raining on the ground. Up here however, above the clouds it is, fair to say that the sunrise is fantastic. The plane’s wing, sweeping backwards, cuts across the blue grey landscape of clouds, forming a constant reference against the soft hills and gently sloping valleys flowing by. The sky above is a rich blue, paling towards the horizon where it is streaked in fiery orange and bright golden yellow, with a few free floating tufts of cloud livening up the otherwise empty sky. The light … Read the rest
We are on a bridge, an arrow straight length of asphalt stretching across the river. We are speeding towards a massive, slate grey wall of clouds in the distance. All around us, the incessant drone of the wind as it buffets our scooter. The young man in front of me is not the most experience scooter driver, neither does he have that solid build that would allow him to move unscathed through a storm, but I, with a few beers in my belly, am not particularly suited for driving either. Here we are, two men equally unfit for driving, heading … Read the rest