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Taiwan and Malaysia
  • Sean Plamondon
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  • Sean Plamondon

Taiwan and Malaysia

A 35-day adventure by Sean Read more
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    🇲🇾 George Town, Malaysia
    Sean PlamondonTaiwan and MalaysiaSean Plamondon

    Langkawi

    August 6 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Long travel day to get here. Left my hotel at 530am for the lengthy commute to the airport. 4 hours to kuala lumpur. 2 hour layover and another hour+ to this island. Got in after 5pm with the time zone change.

    Walked the beach for 30 mins and eventually found a great beach bar at the other end and settled in. Met a really nice guy Mo from egypt and chatted for a while. From there, found a pub on the main street for food where i met garrick and phil from australia. They convinced me to come with them to a few other places.. so why not? :)

    A few places later, garrick wanted to play pool somewhere so we headed off to a place the bartender suggested. Poor phil was a mess and didnt make it.

    Played pool for an hour until they closed at 1am. Then continued at the bar next door. I challenged for the pool table there and won. And beat all the challengers for about 2 hours. Met sooo many people in that stretch, including elena from winnipeg who works for united nations. Super fun night!    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonTaiwan and MalaysiaSean Plamondon
    Earthquake stabilizer in the taipei tower

    Taipei again

    August 5 in Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C

    I got up around 1030am and hung out with shane and his son for 30 minutes before my 90 minute drive to yet another waterfall. Descended into a gorgeous valley to an amazing cascades of water off several rocks and took in the moment for a while

    Then got myself and car back to taipei. Before returning the car, i 100% had to see taipei 101 tower. Such amazing architecture! Took some fun shots from below then the elevator to the top.

    Returning the car was a 10 minute drive through the city but one wrong turn made it 40 minutes!! Oh well. Thats an assumed unwanted excursion when half way across the world haha. I got my moneys worth of more tunnels. Rental car place told me my whole trip cost an extra 20 bucks in tolls.. i felt that was a deal :)

    A few late nights in a row plus 12+ hour days of driving did me in. I got to my hotel at 5pm and got up at 5am for my flight. Woweee.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonTaiwan and MalaysiaSean Plamondon
    Sun moon lake
    Trent from michigan. Here for the whole summerThis means Exit. Very important to know!!Shane from high school!Scott and Shane!

    Hsinchu

    August 4 in Taiwan ⋅ 🌬 35 °C

    Slept in until 11am and back on the road to beautiful sun moon lake. While circumnavigating the lake, i saw a tourist coming down from a trail. I stopped and asked him if it was a long hike up and the view from there. He said it was 30 mins. I didnt really have time for that with all the driving ahead of me.

    I asked him where he's going cuz we were in the middle of nowhere. He told me an hours walk to the next town. I told him hop in. We stopped by a lookout point on the way and eventually dropped him off at the town and continued on.

    En route to see my friend Shane in Hsinchu, i found a microbrewery in Taichung so decided to pop by there. Didnt realize how big of a city it was. The restaurant was on the 13th floor of a massive massive mall. Parked in the garage under the building and enjoyed a small break from the road.

    Shortly after, i got back in my car but couldnt find my way out. Not obvious and all the signs were in chinese. After circling around all over the place, i realized these two symbols 出口meant exit. And finally i escaped after following those two symbols everywhere in the labryinth of a parking garage.

    An hour later, arrived in Hsinchu and found my buddys house. Quick hi to his wife and a beer and then off to a night market where his brother scott met us. I didnt know scott was here too! Amazing. Had an awesome reunion and stayed up until 2am catching up. And slept in their spare room    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonTaiwan and MalaysiaSean Plamondon

    Douliou

    August 3 in Taiwan ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    This was a day!

    Knew i had a biiiig day ahead of me so hit the road at 730am. Drove to the southern point of taiwan and finally crossed over to the western side. Its funny how the west side actually has freeways!! That said, still took me 3.5 hours to reach the city of Taitan. Culrure hub of the country.

    Was soooooo hard to navigate my way in and find parking on the street but managed to do it and wander around to find a bunch of famous temples. They were nice but gotta say, not the wow factor i anticipated

    I then marked a waterfall in my gps in the mountains nearby and headed there. Insane drive up and down huge mountains and came across a massive suspension bridge that i of course had to traverse :)

    Couldnt find the waterfall but with the help of some locals on my very wrong locations at their house driveways, finally got guided where i needed to be

    One of my favourite hikes ever!! Through thick jungle, high above the raging river below, the path was bolted into the side of mountains and i was also able to walk behind one of the waterfalls too!

    Finished that hike at 5pm. Fully aware that i am literally on top of a mountain and sun going down soon, and no hotel yet booked, i raced down the other side in 90 minutes to Douliou, almost hitting a bunch of monkeys having supper on the road.

    Completly exhausted on arrival, just wanted food, any food, and a cold beer and bed. But things arent always so simple. I couldnt find an open restaurant at 8pm so i broke a rule of mine and ate at mcdonalds! Found a really nics pub that shockingly had guinness after that and caught up on some trip planning as the only person in the bar. Very quiet town in the middle of nowhere

    I wss about to leave at 1030 and go to bed, when this guy from new jersey walks in and sits next to me. We bonded immediately. Cool guy. Long story short, got back to my hotel at 530am after a lot of billiards and some food vendors he introduced me too. "Ace" says he might come meet me in malaysia. Either way, that was quite the day. 😴    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonTaiwan and MalaysiaSean Plamondon
    One of several never ending tunnels in taiwan
    Start of gorge that is closed. BoooNight marketWhat on earth has happened at this sheraton restaurant for this to be in the menu!?

    Taitung

    August 2 in Taiwan ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    Picked up my rental car at 9am and surpringly got out of taipei relatively easily compared to the chaos i was bracing for. Despite not seeing any mountains near or within taipei, as soon as i left the city i was up and down mountains. And through. The engineering in this country is remarkable. Several different driving segments of at least 20 straight minutes each, going through a mountain tunnel. Thats a lot longer than it might sound. Huge tunnels.

    After 3 hours of driving, finally got to world famous taroka gorge. Except it was closed. How devastating! Literally meant to be the highlight of my taiwan trip. But it also messed up my other plans too. The highway through the gorge was the only way i could get across the massive mountain range down the middle of the island. Now i either gotta backtrack to taipei or drive all the way to the southern tip and back up the wrstern side. I haaaate backtracking, so i continued heading down the east coast. Really pretty drive!

    Got to a city called Taitung about 75% of the way down the east coastline around 6pm, so decided to stop there. Found a great downtown hotel for 50 bucks. and then went in search of a nice restaurant. Yikes, lots of restaurants but they all look like cafeterias. All of them. Decided to eat a nice seafood linguini at the sheraton fancy restaurant instead of eating in a cafeteria.

    And by 1030pm, i was done. Sooo tired. Passed out immediately.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonTaiwan and MalaysiaSean Plamondon

    Taipei

    August 1 in Taiwan ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    Got up at 5am to get to the airport for another flight. 4 hours to taipei. Much to my surprise, all the bars outside my hotel were still open at 530am when i stepped outside. Crazy.

    On landing in taipei, customs noticed my passport binding is becoming frayed and sent me to higher officials to chat. Was worried they might not let me enter but they said i really need to get a new passport when i get home. Hopefully not a problem anywhere else.

    Took the subway into the center and took me quite a while to find my hotel. Very confusing city. Mostly chinese signs and ground floor of most buildings are shops and corridors to center where theres an elevator. After a while i ventured into the center of the building and realized my hotel was up an elevator on the 6th floor.

    Rested for a couple of hours then got some food very nearby. The area i was in is quite the scene. Tons of pedestrian streets for blocks and blocks, and every kind of store. Weird coin operated vending machines for entire blocks for toys, shopping items, food etc.

    Found a great small place called beer bar and hung out there for a few hours. Mostly with two guys, one from detroit, the other from england who have both been living there for 5+ years. Might meet up with them again in a few days when i return to taipei.

    Back to the hotel at a reasonable hour as i had a big driving day coming up. Still catching up from jetlag. Looking forward to starting to see the country.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonTaiwan and MalaysiaSean Plamondon
    Hoops sportsbar, torontoView of distant downtown bankkok from my airport area hotelUnderdog breweryThis fish was gigantic!! All the side sauces were too spicy for me until they offered a kids sauceStreet of my downtown hotel

    Toronto and Bangkok

    Jul 31–Aug 3 in Thailand ⋅ 🌧 31 °C

    This trip leg is a long one and i made it even longer by flying out of toronto and taking the train from ottawa to toronto instead of flying.

    Did an overnight in toronto. Made some new friends at a sportsbar near my hotel and had a fun night. Flight wasnt until 7pm the next evening so got a late checkout and hit up a few nice places in the early afternoon for food and craft beers.

    The next 24 hours was all pampering. Three hours in the maple leaf lounge at the airport, then 5 hours to vancouver in a business class pod. Followed by another 2 hours in the vancouver maple leaf lounge and then 17 hours in a business class pod all the way to bangkok. I dont think i have ever eaten so much food in a 24 hour stretch. Yikes

    Got to my bangkok airport-nearby hotel at 5am, and rested on the hardest bed imaginable. Got myself downtown for lunch followed by a few beers at a local brewery i found. Then checked into my downtown hotel and slept a few more hours. Then out for a light supper and in bed by 11 as i had to be up at 5am the next morning's flight.

    Not super eventful but definitely an enjoyable journey to this point    Read more

    Trip start
    July 28, 2026