Tag Taiwan
Yini and I decided to make this weekend and long one and travel to the small island of Penghu. We both left work early on Thursday then headed to the airport and we arrived here in the evening. Our original plan was that we would go to the even smaller island Qimei today, spend the night there then come back to Penghu the morning after. However, when we learned that the weather forecast was promising high winds and rough seas for Saturday, which might cause the ferry service to stop, we had to change our plans. Instead we joined a … Read the rest
We are driving on a narrow, winding road high in the central Taiwan mountains when the mist around us suddenly becomes thicker. Visibility immediately decreases to just a few meters, it’s like driving through milk. Then, out of the fog, looms the lights of a truck barring down on us. I swerve to the side and it passes by us with space to spare but it’s a heart stopping moment. Driving on this kind of road, in the dark, through thick fog is no child’s play.… Read the rest
There are several places down in the south east I’ve wanted to go to, so we planned to do it this weekend. Since the place we were heading is in the north end of Taidong county, we figured the quickest way would be to approach from Hualien which is just to the north of Taidong. However, there were no train tickets available so we decided to drive.
On Friday evening we packed up our stuff then drove north towards Taipei, followed the road eastward then turned south. About an hour and a half later we had reached Suao in Yilan … Read the rest
This weekend Yini and I were planing to take the motorbike out, stay over for one night, then ride back the next day. However, Yini had some kind of parents day at her school on Saturday and when she came home she was too tired to go out. So, we turned it into a one day trip instead.
We rode into the moutains outside Hsinchu, and after an hour or so, we came to an abandoned house that we had seen during a trip July but never went into. There was a rather poorly constructed gate across the driveway which … Read the rest
I’m lying on a flat rock at the bottom of a big waterfall, gazing at the sky, the canopy of the jungle on two sides, and some fluffy clouds floating leisurely by. I dip my feet in the river, letting the cool water flow over them, and in the background I can hear the swooshing of the fall and the mellow gurgling of the creek among the boulders. Complete peacefulness.… Read the rest
Every time we drive south on the highway we pass a series of cliffs and ridges formed of orange soil, that are commonly called Flame Mountain. Recently Yini found out there is a walking trail there so last weekend we went to check it out. Since my scooter has been feeling tired and slow lately I bought a new one on Friday and to test it out we went there by scooter. It was more or less just a long slog on boring roads but thanks to the new scooter it felt effortless.
The trail itself starts a few paces into the … Read the rest
There are a few more islands that belong to the Matsu archipelago but we never managed to arrange a good schedule for going there. However we still had a day left and had already seen most of the two main islands so we decided to take it easy. We slept till fairly late in the morning then went out and rode around leisurely checking various minor tourist attractions.
The giant Matsu statue 
vegetable gardens in the center of a small village 
A post warning you not to stray from the path because there are still landmines in the area.
Eventually … Read the rest
Whe we woke up this morning the rain had stopped but the sky was still grey. That didn’t matter to us since the goal of the day was to see several of the underground bunkers and tunnels that are no longer in use by the military. The first one was tunnel 88 which used to be for tanks but now acts as a storage place for the local wine. My camera doesn’t capture smells but if it did you could get a whiff of the rather strong wine odor in there.
We thought the wine tunnel would take a bit more … Read the rest
We woke up pretty early this morning and after a quick breakfast on the terrace overlooking the ocean we went for a stroll in the little village where we slept. I really felt like somewhere in Southern Europe, with old style stone houses climbing the cliffs just above the water.
sitting on the wall enjoying the sun 
can you believe this is Taiwan? 
After walking around for a little while we got on the scooter and drove to the War and Peace Memorial Park. Unlike most other military installations on the island there are some here you can get into … Read the rest
Because my wife is awesome, she gave me a trip to the island of Matsu for my birthday. So this morning we took off to the airport for a four day trip. When we got to the airport we learned that the flight was delayed so we ended up waiting for around an hour. We finally got in the air but about half an hour after take off the captain let us know they had some mechanical problems and we had to turn around and go back. Except for a bit of turbulence on the way down everything went well. … Read the rest