Tag Taiwan
It’s just after lunch and I’m sitting at my desk when I feel that weird sensation I always get when there’s a earthquake, kind of like seasickness on dry land. A moment later I see how our computer screens start wobbling, there’s an uncanny rumbling from somewhere above us and the whole building is shaking. I’m tense, ready to run at any moment, but my colleagues haven’t budged from their seats so I keep calm and remain seated as well. I look up at the girl opposite me, her face is contorted with fear, like a carved wooden mask, it’s … Read the rest
If you go to Alishan you are supposed to see the sunrise but I did it a few years ago, and it’s really not that fantastic. So while the rest of the hotel rose to join the sunrise tour, we slept soundly in our beds and got up at a far more reasonable time.
We spent the morning walking around in the Alishan forest recreation area. Most of the easily accessible trails consist of wooden platforms elevated above the forest floor which let you take in the scenery at leisure. There are plenty of tourists walking about but thanks to … Read the rest
When we go on this kind of short trip we usually don’t do much research or planning before hand. This means we’re always taking a bit of a chance with the places we go to, normally it works out just fine but sometimes It doesn’t; today things didn’t go as well as we hoped. We were planning to hike the Spi Spi trail to a place called Titanic Rock. When we got to the trailhead however, a sign informed us it would take two and a half hours to hike there which we felt would demand better preparation, so we … Read the rest
This weekend is the tomb sweeping day so we got two extra days off. On Saturday it was apparently international pillow fight day, so we joined a pillow fight event in Taipei. It was quite simple, just bring a pillow and show up, but fantastically fun.
We’ve seen most parts of Taiwan but we haven’t really been sightseeing in Jaiyi county so we decided to spend the remainder of the weekend there. … Read the rest
At the end of the Chinese New Year the Taiwanese celebrate the lantern festival. Colorful lanterns in all shapes and sizes are put on display on some suitable piece of land for about a week. People come from all over the country come to admire the creative designs, watch the light show and try some tasty snacks at the night market. It moves to a new city each year, but me and the wife were there a few years ago when it took place here in Hsinchu. This year it takes place in Taoyuan, close to where I work, so … Read the rest
I should have written this last week but I kind of forgot about it for a few days and after that I’ve been too lazy. Anyway, here goes.
When we woke up on Saturday morning it was freezing cold, it must have been some kind of record for Hsinchu city. We went out for lunch and as we were waiting for our food to arrive the restaurant owner started shouting “It’s snowing, it’s snowing” so we went outside to check it out. It turned out it was indeed snowing, although it melted as soon as it hit the ground. Of … Read the rest
It’s just pouring down, heavy drops patter incessantly on the visor of my helmet and although I’m dressed for battle with elements, rain jacket, rain pants, and big floppy shoe covers that are impossible to walk in, there is till considerable discomfort. The drops sting my lips every time I accelerate, my gloves are already wet through and through, and there is a coldness in my crotch which I sincerely hope isn’t water soaking through my pants. Sometimes, on a good road in good weather, riding a motorcycle can be thoroughly enjoyable; swooping smoothly from turn to turn as you carve your way through a … Read the rest
Since it was raining heavily the night before we had started to plan some indoor activities for the day, but when we woke up the rain had subsided and there were some blue patches in the sky so we skipped those plans. Instead we decided to go to the beach, because that’s what you do in Kenting. Yini had ferreted out information on some kind of secret beach so of course we had to go there. It doesn’t really feature on the maps and there are no clear signs but after some searching we found it. It’s between Maobitou beach … Read the rest
Since we had seen most of the really worth while sights on Saturday we took it pretty easy on Sunday. Penghu is supposed to be a good place for snorkeling and diving but all the diving tours seemed to have closed for the winter, so I simply bought a cheap mask and snorkel from a sports store on main street and then we headed out to one of the many beaches.
At the far end, near some tall cliffs I found a nice area to explore. It was by no means as good as a coral reef but I still … Read the rest
The main island of Penghu is actually made up of three islands connected by bridges to form a large horseshoe. We live in the biggest town on one end of the horseshoe, today we decided to go sightseeing on the far end.
We started by heading back out to the little islet connected by the tidal road, and got there just in time to see the tide close over the road. That was kind of neat.
We continued out towards the far end of the island, stopping first … Read the rest