Having had 9 wonderful days in our favourite city for Dani’s 30th we were ready to start the next leg of our adventure. We had a long flight from New York to Taipei including a 4 hour layover in San Francisco and by the time we landed in Taipei we were slightly delirious from lack of sleep. We had arrived back in Asia at last (we spent 9 month backpacking around Southeast Asia in 2013 and had loved every minute of it). Taipei customs was a breeze and after waiting for our bags (neither of us trusted they would arrive from New York) we were off to the city. The connection to main station couldn’t be easier and only costs $160 ($7 AUD/5.40 USD). We would recommend picking up an emoney card as they make life so much easier, can be used around the whole country and can be refunded as you are leaving. They are usable on almost every type of transport option and can be used in convenience stores like 7-Eleven and Family Mart as well. A little after 9pm we were settled into our hostel (4U Taipei Guesthouse - $30.25 AUD/23.20 USD for a double bed in a 2 double bed bunk dorm - yes you did read that right), just a ten minute walk away from the MRT station (exit name?!) which was wonderful and now it was time to sleep! At 11.45pm I woke up to the bed shaking. Still exhausted it took me a while to realise that it wasn’t Dani shaking the bed it was moving due to an earthquake. Not exactly the smooth start to Taiwan we were hoping for and there were a further 2 tremors that night that woke me up (Dani slept like a baby through the other 2). It wasn’t till the morning that we found out that there had been a very significant earthquake in Hualien which had been felt all the way in Taipei. When booking our flights to Taiwan (we booked the cheapest flight to Asia from New York) we hadn’t realised we were going to be there during Chinese New Year. Once we realised and started to research, everything told us that contrary to every other place around the world where it is a big celebration, in Taiwan it’s a home based family affair and everything in the country shuts down. In consultation with Taiwanese friends we had pre booked everything in advance for the trip, meaning we had a lot less flexibility than we would have liked. To fit around the days we had been told not to travel we had made the decision to explore Taipei at the end of the trip but had given ourselves one days grace at the start. This was the day we did the walking tour (Tour Me Away) which was, as usual a brilliant introduction and gave us a better understanding of the culture of Taiwan which has a very interesting history. We also got stuck into eating everything we saw, because having lived on rice and beans for 3 months it was so exciting being back in the world of Asian flavours. Having prebooked all of our transport online before arriving in Taiwan we were both slightly concerned about collecting our tickets and seeing if our attempts to navigate a website in Cantonese using google translate had been successful. As it turned out this was a super smooth process and we were able to collect all our tickets from one machine in one station. If you have prebooked all you need is your booking code at the ticket machine and they will be printed. That being said there really is no need to book as far in advance as we did (or even at all to be honest) unless you are traveling through the New Year period. Our first real stop was Taichung (Train was $16 AUD/12.25 USD) as we were using it as a base for Sun Moon lake. We had booked in to the Harbour Hotel ($37.20 AUD/28.55 USD) which we could highly recommend even just for its superb staff and buffet breakfast alone. Our first day we were heading to the lake. (This was prior to being joined by a Taiwanese friend of ours who would be meeting us the next day to be a local tour guide.) We caught the bus from the Gancheng Station which takes you directly to the lake for $360 ($15.95 AUD/12.20 USD). It’s supposed to be beautiful on a sunny day but unfortunately for us we arrived to grey skies and drizzle. This made the lake fairly unspectacular really so we made the choice not to take the boat trip and opted instead for the cheaper bus trip around the lake ($80/3.55 AUD/2.70 USD). This allowed us to explore at our own pace and discover what was definitely our favourite temple in all of Taiwan Wenwu. It’s absolutely beautiful and the intricate carvings had me mesmerised. Damp and hungry we headed back to Taichung to meet with our friend. Because we had a guide we were lucky enough to see that there are two very distinct sides to Taichung. One is the less modern, older Asian city which is where we stayed and the other is the area around Literary Park which is really modern with an intense hipster vibe. It was an interesting contrast. It was also with or friend that we were able to sample all of Taiwan’s foodie delights (note the sarcasm) there was tofu pudding desert, stinky tofu, mochi cakes with pickled cabbage and other strange not to be repeated items. Our next destination was hailed country wide for its culinary delights and this was the fundamental basis of it’s appeal to us. Tainan is the home of the original night markets and all of Taiwan’s distinctive traditional snacks. Unfortunately for us Tainan didn’t start off well because while we were waiting for check in time in the lobby of our hotel Dani had her camera stolen. The fact that this happened in Taiwan still shocks us both as it is one of the most honest cultures we have come across in our travels and we must have been really unlucky. This did mean that we spent the next few days hunting for a new camera for Dani (luckily for us we were in Asia the home of electronics as this would have been a lot harder in Latin America). Although we did explore quite a few temples we didn’t really get Tainan and even the night markets felt a little lacklustre with just the same (albeit delicious) food as others around the country. We did find a great breakfast spot though which did egg rolls (my new favourite breakfast), dumplings and bao all really cheap. You will never find us complaining about finding a hearty breakfast spot anywhere in the world!! The New Years shutdown was finally starting and this had meant all trains between Tainan and Kaohsiung had been sold out when we’d tried to book leaving us with a weird alternative of taking a 12 minute bullet train half way and then a metro line to the main station. This actually only took an hour door to door and was probably the cheapest bullet train we’d ever catch ($6 AUD/4.60 USD). Not an experience we had wanted to miss out on but one we didn’t really believe we were going to be able to afford! We found our accomodation Hone Lane Buisness Hotel ($43.65 AUD/33.45 USD for a double room) which turned out to be unexpectedly nice and set out to find some food. This hotel also had the advantage of being quite close to a Liuhe night market which had some delicious food including a really cheap exclusively vegetarian stall. It was here that we realised though that as delicious as night markets are they are often three times the price of a decent restaurant meal in Taiwan. Dani had done some research into what to do in Kaohsiung and had discovered Cinjun Island which was really easy to get to and looked like a fun day out so the next morning we set off to the metro station. To get there you just hop on the orange line to Sizihwan and then jump on the ferry. ($25/1.10 AUD/0.85 USD) From here you can hire any number of modes of transport from bicycles to golf buggies. Just come out of the ferry terminal and peruse the options at your leisure until you find the mode you want. All of the prices seemed pretty similar so no need to negotiate or try to haggle. We decided on the tandem bicycle option and set off for the lighthouse. The route on Cinjin island takes you round the lighthouse, beach, fish market, rainbow church and if you’re interested the shell museum (we’re suckers for a weird museum) before rounding you back to the ferry. This can of course all be done on foot but it’s a long day. While not culturally inspiring or breathtakingly beautiful it was one of our favourite days in Taiwan and we would highly recommend it as there’s nothing quite like a bicycle ride in the sunshine next to the sea. (🎵On a bicycle made for two🎵...sorry had to go there!) We had been lucky enough to book our hotel next to the train station so it was nice and easy to get to the train to continue on to Taitung. Neither of us could quite believe that we were already heading back up the country so soon. The train from Kaohsiung to Taitung is quite long in comparison to other journeys but is by far one of the prettiest as you wind through the mountains rather than city scapes. When we arrived Jackson from our hostel (Hostel Who Knows - $540/23.90 AUD/18.30 USD pp for an 8 bed dorm) had provided us with great detailed instructions on getting from the train station to the hostel by bus. It turned out to be straight forward and easy which meant we were quickly settled in. We only had 2 nights at Taitung to avoid catching a train during the busy days of the holiday period but it turns out this was plenty and we probably would have been financially better off to skip it. It really is a town for cyclists and not really anyone else. I’m sure if you’re a cyclist it’s great and very beautiful but the town itself has little to offer and due to the holidays so many of the shops were shut. True to form though we found ourselves a wonderful noodle shop that became our staple for 2 days. Having said Taitung was a little lacking we met some really nice people in that hostel and it was definitely the most social of the hostels we stayed at in Taiwan. Ready for our final location before heading back to Taipei we were (read I was) a little apprehensive about going to Hualien due to the earthquake that had happened the night we had arrived. I had been to visit my family in Christchurch (New Zealand) just weeks after their big earthquake and that’s what I was expecting arriving in Hualien based on the few buildings I’d seen on the news. There was absolutely no visible damage anywhere when we stepped off the train. Cave Hostel (which was fantastic by the way at $27.65 AUD/21.20 USD for another double bed bunk in a 4 bed room) was a 30 minute walk from the train station and we saw nothing to indicate an earthquake the whole way. To be honest if you didn’t see the one majorly damaged building (or hadn’t felt the aftershocks) there is no way you would have known there had been a big earthquake there only 2 weeks beforehand. We were using Hualien as a base to visit Taroko Gorge which became our favourite location in Taiwan. There is a bus ($250/11.05 AUD/8.45 USD) that goes from the train station and a one day pass allows you to hop on and off if you’re wanting to do more than one trail. The only downside to this is the buses aren’t very regular so you need to time your stops well. We chose to do the Shakadang trail which was absolutely beautiful and relatively flat along the river. The views are spectacular and you can walk back to the visitors centre from the start of the trail. If you only have time to visit one thing outside of Taipei this should be it. Taroko Gorge is just stunning. Hualien made a great base for Taroko Gorge and we’d highly recommend it as just that. It’s got quite a nice vibe and there is lots of good food available too. At this point it was time to wrap up Taiwan though and head back to Taipei. The train from Hualien took 3hrs and cost ($340/15.05 AUD/11.55 USD). We were soon back where we started (this time at a new hostel) next to main station (the first hostel was far superior) just as the rain started in. Having had many grand plans for our 6 days in Taipei we ended up spending most of them planning our next leg in Japan due to terrible weather. We booked ourselves on to another walking tour which was excellent and on the only sunny day we walked through the palace grounds which were really pretty but overall we didn’t do much other than eat in Taipei (there is so much good food). Overall we really enjoyed Taiwan. We can now understand why it’s not on the backpacking trail around Asia despite not being very expensive as it doesn’t have the pull of other places. It’s not as beautiful or as full of adventures, it’s a little bit further away and it doesn’t have the street cred of it’s neighbours but if you give it a chance you’ll be rewarded. It’s not the prettiest or the most interesting but the food is fantastic and the people are even better. They’re weird and they’re quirky and frighteningly honest but they will go out of their way to help you. I think you only need to give yourself 10 days to 2 weeks to travel this weird and wonderful island but don’t skip it. LGBT: Taiwan is set to be the first Asian nation to recognise same sex marriage and it will come in to effect no later than May 2019. We found that Taiwan was very accepting of us as a couple. We had no issues checking in to hotels or any negative experiences in Taiwan as a couple. We were even on a walking tour in Taipei where not only did the guide openly discuss the changing attitudes in Taiwan towards the LGBT community but the walking tour even ended up in the gay district. This being said there is still a very traditional omponent to Taiwan and from speaking to Taiwanese friends it can still be difficult to gain acceptance from your family in Taiwan. Budget Time $$$What it actually cost:
24 days = $1526.42 (AUD) Accommodation: $729.63 Food: $396.10 Transport: $238.80 Souvenirs: $66.66 Drinks: $61.97 Entertainment: $21.92 Miscellaneous: $11.35 This worked out at a daily budget of $31.80 a day each Planning and organising Taiwan presented an unusual challenge for both of us. It was a fairly significant break from our norm as for the first time in a long time we were forced to have almost everything planned prior to us even arriving in Taiwan. This was down to a slight oversight in the timing of our flights as we had accidentally booked to be there over the whole of the Chinese New Year period where a huge number of Taiwanese people move around the country to be with their families and then take advantage of the extended holiday break. From a budget perspective this was both a dream and a nightmare, let me explain why! As a result of it being CNY we prebooked all of our accommodation and transport around the country (trains) before we went. The good thing about this was that I could account for all of this prior to the trip meaning that our unknowns in terms of spending in the country were much lower - only food and entertainment really! The bad thing was that being in Taiwan over CNY meant that prices for accommodation had risen astronomically. Riv tried her very best to keep us within the 30% bracket in terms of total spent over the course of the trip on accommodation, however, by the end of the trip it turned out to be just under 50%! Probably our highest ever! That being said, our average cost per night was $30AUD for both of us and the percentage would have been lower but we came in under budget for the trip as a whole. Transport prices do not change but had booked up much further in advance than usual so we had many fewer options. In Taiwan the train and bus systems are both extensive and both options are very very affordable on a backpacker budget. The average cost of a 2-3hr train journey was $10-15AUD. Buses are marginally cheaper but do take a lot longer. Food in Taiwan costs absolutely nothing. You’d be hard pushed to spend more than about $5AUD per person per meal. Obviously it is possible and if you want to go to a nicer restaurant and have beers then spending can be done, but it definitely doesn’t need to be. Eating at night markets, while it is fun in terms of variety and having a local experience can be much more expensive! The average stall snack costs anything from $1-4AUD which seems like great value until you realise you probably want to try about 4/5 things in an evening! Activities in Taiwan are very good value for money. Lots of temples are free to enter and National Park fees are nominal. There are planned tours that can be joined but the majority of tourist attractions around the country can be got to very easily independently much cheaper. Overall, Taiwan is not a particularly expensive country to travel around, provided you’re not trying to do it over a major festival period. What is really lovely about Taiwan and it’s eastern Asian neighbours is how honest they are as a people. It is highly unlikely they will ever try to rip you off and they are much more interested in being fair than they are about making extra money off you!
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