Why do we even bother...
22 ottobre 2018, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C
Apart from our excitement for the wedding we have really been looking forward to our trip to the Catskill Mountains to see the Fall. And today the day has come to pick up our booked car and drive into the mountains!
Really excited we got up and ready and began our 1.5 hour journey to the car rental pickup point. Oh and before I carry on, a tip for anyone who wants to rent a car in NYC. If you cross over to NJ then the rental is half the price. We arrived for 12:30pm and all transport ran smoothly. But then things rapidly went downhill. We gave all the relevant documents to the car hire guy and he then asked what insurance we had. We said we don't have any and that the car will have basic insurance. It seems this is not the case. If you are not a US citizen you have to purchase additional insurance for the car and it comes with zero insurance. The guy quoted $45 per day extra for the insurance. This would make the car rental twice the price that we budgeted for it. Apologies for my language but SHIIIIIIT!! Our hearts sank. This did not happen to us last when we rented a car here! We then spent the next hour and a half researching how we can get cheaper insurance or even book the car with an alternative rental company. We came to an absolute dead end. Our two options were to pay $200 extra or cancel our trip to Catskill and stay in NYC. We decided the latter.
It was now gone 2pm and we were both quite miserable as you can probably understand, so we went for a cheer up dunkin donut lunch. We ordered two cheese bagels, a Boston creme donut and 2 hot drinks. I must admit it was pretty good 😂
By the time we turned our frowns upside down it was nearly 4pm so we headed back to the flat to put our luggage back down. It was now nearly 6pm. We both decided the one thing that will make us happy is good old home cooked food so we went to the supermarket and bought ingredients for spaghetti carbonara!! It's my favourite dish that Will makes and honestly it made me super happy once we slurped it up.
Did we make the right decision? Well we saved money by cancelling our accomodation (well we lost 2 nights rent) and car hire, so overall we were winning, but we were both gutted to not see the fall and literally spend a whole day on the subway and buses!
Tomorrow will be a fresh start so let's see what tomorrow brings! They do say bad luck comes in threes...Leggi altro
Bagels and Boats
21 ottobre 2018, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C
We didn't want to make the same mistake we made in Singapore and sleep all day which completely screwed us up so we made lunch plans with Alex. We were utterly exhausted when we woke up but up we got anyway. As we were a bit early we decided to walk from 86th Street to 51st Street where we were meeting. Oh my god, it is bitterly cold here. I don't think we are prepared for this!! I am literally wearing every layer of clothing I have and I'm freezing.
We left with plenty of time and had a really lovely 10 minutes of walking before realising we had walked in completely the wrong direction and were now at 96th street. It's a good job the streets are numbered here. We then power walked in reverse all the way to 51st where we were meeting for good old American bagels at Essa Bagel and we went all out! We got a Rueben bagel (this is a heartattack bagel full of pastrami and cheese, a bit much in my opinion) and a bacon and avocado bagel (super yummy). It was sooo nice to see Alex and Adriana after 2 years. He was at uni with me, lived in London and moved to NY 2 years ago. They are engaged!! So it was even more of an occasion to see them 😊 After lunch we went to a local pub for one and then let them get on with the rest of their day.
Although I have been to NYC a couple of time now there are still a few things I've not done, including the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. We didn't realise it was free, so that was a great relief 🗽😌 It was pretty fun and we decided to stand outside so if I'm honest by the time we returned I was like a frozen snowman, so we had a hot chocolate in in the terminal while watching sunset before heading back home. For dinner we just ate cheerios and then went straight to bed.Leggi altro
It's going to be a long day...LITERALLY!
20 ottobre 2018, Hong Kong ⋅ 🌬 24 °C
Today is our last morning in Hong and to be honest it was good fun. For breakfast we went to a cafe recommended by Tammy. Tammy sent us a list of things we had to try so we just ordered one of each! It was really popular with locals and to be honest the food was a bit odd. We ordered macaroni and ham soup, fried eggs and toast drowned in peanut butter and condensed milk. In addition we ordered the tea and coffee, that is tea And coffee in the same drink... Absolutely stuffed we then headed to Wan Chai Market which is a big wet market but also famous for being in Deus Ex, one of Will's childhood games.
As we were going to be on a flight for the majority of the day we decided we had to get our steps done before, we don't want to break our 28 day streak, so we wandered around and decided to walk to a local jade market on a hunt for a gift. When we got there we found exactly what we wanted but definitely not at the price we needed it! Luckily with our pretty good haggling skills we got it for the exact amount!
With time now ticking till our flight and our steps complete we ran back to the flat, showered, packed, grabbed a quick Mc Donalds (seriously when it's only £2 for a burger and fries you can't really say no!) and then jumped on the bus to the airport.
Our next flight is to NYC! Now I hear you say, are they crazy?! Why on earth are they going there. Well it's one of Will's close friends from High School, Simon, wedding. We are super excited to be able to go and to have been able to find the perfect flights. However, here is more detail about the flights we are about to embark on. Our flight from Hong Kong is at 5:30pm which is 3 hours 45mins. We then have a transfer in Beijing of 1 hour 15 min. Our flight departs Beijing at 10:30pm local time and arrives at JFK 16 hours later around midnight. On the surface, although ridiculously long, the timings seem OK. BUT... this is assuming that all flights are on time and there is no delay,which obviously there was.
Our flight to Beijing was an hour delayed and was able to make up 15 mins, giving us 30 mins to transfer. We mentioned it to the airhostess and she looked at us very troubled. Before the plane landed she moved us to the very front so that we could run!
We were making OK time and could see our gate, however in front of that was immigration and security with a huge line. Luckily we realised we were not alone and there were actually quite a few people doing the same including first class passengers who were also being escorted. We met a lovely lady in the line who was a local and she kept us sane. It took us 20 mins to get through so we ran for our lives to the gate. The lovely lady we met in the line waited for us half way to make sure we didn't get lost finding the gate and made it just in time!! Another moment when I am so glad our bags are pretty light! Let's just say this is not how i wanted to prepare for a 16 hour flight, but gosh I'm glad we made it in time.
The next 16 hours were very uncomfortable. Between Hong Kong and NYC there is a 12 hour time difference. Even thought we set off at 5pm on Saturday 20th (5am NYC) and the flights took 20 hours we still landed on the same day! We try and avoid jet lag as much as we can and therefore set our clocks according to the new timezone, sleep when would be a normal time and eat when a normal time. This meant that technically I shouldn't sleep until maybe the last couple of hours and that I basically have a whole day's of food to eat. I was screwed. I felt horrifically groggy the whole flight and at one point gave up and tried to sleep. I couldn't. I tried to watch films and read to try and send me to sleep and I wasn't reading or sleeping I was just in some weird trance. It was awful. Luckily in the last 2 hours I was able to nap twice for about 20 mins, which really helped.
When as arrived in NYC it felt like we were both on drugs we were both so giddy waiting in the immigration line haha For once it actually didn't take that long as we had been before and we're able to use their machines. Well that's what we thought... I was able to go straight through with no problems at all but for some reason we were split up and Will had to go to a different line and he took forever. While waiting on the side I was listening in In to the various immigration officers and they were brutal. There was one old couple of Asian origin and from what I overheard they were citizens of the US. The officer was going ballistic at them and yelling in their faces repeatedly "Just because you're a US citizen I don't have to let you in". They looked terrified and from what I overheard they didn't actually do anything wrong, but they were being interrogated for going to Hong Kong. I watched sooo many people of Asian and Indian origin being taken individually by security guards. Not a single white person was taken. It was really awful and why I could never live in this country. Eventually Will got through and said he had the horrid lady and she just kept yelling at him too. It was now 1am and we got to our friends flat at about 3am. We are so lucky to have friends in in so many different countries! Unfortunately our friends Luke and Ines aren't actually there but fortunately we are able to stay here while they are on holiday.
And wow what an apartment, its just next to Central Park and it is super super swish!! I think we are the luckiest people in the world 😊 Safe and sound we went straight to bed.Leggi altro
A Hike, Great Food & Even Better Company
19 ottobre 2018, Hong Kong ⋅ 🌬 27 °C
Today was jam packed with all our favourite things to do, a hike, amazing food and meeting locals.
In the morning we had Hong Kong's famous Roasted Goose from Yat Lok. Again we were warned about huge queues but luckily we didn't have to wait and walked straight in. It was super tasty! The crisp duck skin was cooked perfectly and melted in your mouth. However, it was a bit pricey so we just got one to share and then went for Shanghai dumplings again.
As the weather was the best we had had so far we did the Dragon Back Trail to Big Wave. This is a popular coastal walk and although some said its not worth, I fully disagree. Its a really lovely walk with really great views of the coast of hong kong. Along the way we saw lots of huge Black Kites which was really amazing. It was super super windy but a fun, picturesque walk which ended at Big Wave where we watched the surfers either being awesome or being taken out by the huge waves.
In the evening we met up with Tammy and Sam who had kindly got in contact with us via Couch Surfing and offered to take us for dinner in the evening. We met them in Sam Shui Po. While waiting we went to the Golden arcade which is a huge electronics store and then found a new backpack. Unfortunately our day pack has seen its end. For dinner they took us to an amazing modern dim sum restaurant. It was such good fun learning about Hong Kong, politics, travelling and of course eating the incredible food. We even tried chicken feet (they were yum). They also ordered Hea which are sweet bao the colour of an orange with a sleeping face drawn on filled with custard. They were called lazy buns. Really yum!!
They then took us through the area and up a local hill known as Garden Hill. It's a viewpoint that only the locals know about and is a well known place for first dates. It was such a cute spot!
For desert we tried 4 different sweet soups, which is a common desert. We had black sesame, red bean and Mandarin peel, snow fungus and lotus hearts and sago. None of them offended me but I don't think I would order them again! Definitely a one time try for me 😂
It was such a lovely evening and I think my favourite day in Hong Kong. At first I wasn't sure if I liked Hong Kong. It wasn't quite what I expected and to be honest I much preferred Singapore or Ho Chị Mình, but the city did grow on me today.Leggi altro
Blitz of Hong Kong
18 ottobre 2018, Hong Kong ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Today we had a lot of making up, so we got up early packed our bags and left to check into our airbnb. The MTR was absolutely chaotic,well it was peak time! 5 trains came and went before we were able to squeeeeze on with our backpacks. After checking in we went for brunch at Tim Ho Wan, a Michelin Star dim sum restaurant. As we went at a super off peak time we were able to get a table instantly. We ordered Baked Bun with Barbecue Pork, Steamed Fresh Shrimp Dumpling, Steamed Pork Dumpling with Shrimp, Vermicelli Roll stuffed with Shrimp, and the Pan Fried Turnip Cake. We drank endless amounts of tea and stuffed our faces with the elegantly made dim sum. Such a great start to the day.
We then wandered to Kowloon Park which had an unexpected aviary with various exotic, macaws, cockatoos and even a great hornbill! Obviously it was chucking down with rain while walking through, but honestly we are beginning to get used to it now. To warm us up we went for a quick snack and got Shanghai dumplings which are baked dumplings filled with pork and boiling hot soup. You eat them by biting a tiny hole out the top and sucking the juice out. They come with a warning sign to prevent burnt mouths but obviously we thought "how hot can they really be". We quickly learnt they are burning hot!
Next we walked to the Garden of Stars which hosts the famous Bruce Lee statue and finally we got on the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island, jumped on a bus and made our way to The Peak to see the views from the top. Just our luck, the clouds lower, it even gets cold and the views aren't the best but we made it to the top and meandered around until it was dark so that we could see the city in daylight and nighttime. To be honest it was so nice to get out in the fresh air as it was quite stuffy in the city!
For dinner we had Clay Pot Rice which was recommended by some local cousurfers we are meeting up with tomorrow. I must admit it wasn't as good as the claypot we had in Malaysia but it was still pretty good and just what you need after a cold walk.Leggi altro
It was a tough day...
17 ottobre 2018, Hong Kong ⋅ 🌧 23 °C
Obviously we didn't get up till later but surprisingly we were up before lunch!
For lunch we went to a local eatery in Tai Wai. No menus were in English and we just pointed at pictures hoping they were what they looked like in the picture. So we thought we ordered battered pork with rice and chicken with rice. We were mistaken! We actually got battered fish with rice and Tofu with rice. Luckily we eat everything and aren't so fussy.
In the afternoon we wandered to the Hong Kong Museum of History. At first I was highly impressed and thought a lot of work had gone into it. However, the more we went round the more we realised, it's great for people that just want to take losts of pictures however there was no structure to it. Everything was scattered here there and everywhere and there wasn't an obvious route/ chronological order to the information being given. Also the history felt quite vague and not very detailed and so actually it was very difficult to take a clear picture of Hong Kongs history. From the face of it the museum is really fun but actually it doesn't really grab your intellectual needs.
By the time we left it was dinner time. We went to the famous temple Street and ladies market which were famous for its street food and night market. It was very disappointing. Unlike in Taiwan which was always full of young locals and hundreds of food stalls this was 100% a tourist trap. Not a single local in sight and all the food was inflated in price. After going round the whole street we decided to leave. Upon leaving we found a hidden entry to an indoor marque and it was full of locals. This is exactly where we wanted to be. We ordered char sui pork, rice and steamed vegetables.
Fed and shattered we jumped on a bus and headed home.Leggi altro
Country Number 9: Hong Kong!
16 ottobre 2018, Hong Kong ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
Eeek!! We are super psyched for our next destination!! We are only staying for 4 days but its going to be jam packed, which is why we didn't go crazy and cram lots in our last few days of Taiwan.
In the morning we grabbed a taxi to the airport with a couple from Hong Kong also at the hostel (10 mins by taxi, 35 by public transport or an hour walk) and then chilled out in the teeny airport till our flight. So as you know we have a ritual, toilet, fill bottles, get a spritz of perfume and then try and spend our remaining small change currency. When we got past security you won't believe what happened... There's no shop!! So we couldn't spend our remaining TWD! From our estimations we could have bought 6 Chumpos (a chocolate biscuit). The flight was fine and really short. In no time we had the perfect misty view of Hong Kong. I think we've brought the rain from Taiwan!
It's always fun getting to a new country and working through the same routine, wee, pack our 7kg back into the rucksack that we've had to wear, walk miles to go through immigration, get cash, get a Sim card and attempt to work out how to get from the airport to the city. Normally we aren't in a rush and it's quite chilled. However this time we had to rush. As we only had limited time in Hong Kong we decided to do a walking tour and there happened to be one on the day we arrived. The only problem was that it was at 2:30pm and we were expected to land at 12:50pm. I think the stars were aligned perfectly for us. We packed our luggage and had a wee on the flight and arrived at 12:20pm, immigration was super efficient, bought tickets for the HSR into central and was in town by 1:30pm! Perfect. Obviously we didn't want to carry our luggage all day so we headed straight to the luggage store, the price was per item with various time frames. So we decided to clip my small bag to my big one and hope they don't mind as it is small! They did, it was ridiculous... People were bringing suitcases that our entire luggage and a person could have fit in and were paying the same cost! The guy behind the desk said "We follow rules in Hong Kong, if you put all your luggage in one plastic bag then we can take it." Me and Will looked at each other and instantly thought a bin bag! Will found a cleaner asked for a bin bag and we were sorted! The bin bag so big we were able to put all our luggage in instead of just my bag and the small bag. 😂 Luckily even after this palaver we still made it just in time for the tour.
The tour was OK, but I wouldn't recommend it to others as I think you could have just walked to the various places yourself. I think the guide was very new and so he didn't really know anything about the history of Hong Kong and didn't really offer any insider tips. He did take us to a couple of places we wanted to go to including Tai Cheong Bakery for their famous egg tart (really biscuity tart and really egg custard, perfect), Lan Fong Yen for their Stocking Milk Tea (OK for a one time try), and.......
After the tour we went up the Mid-Levels Esculator whicg is the longest outdoor Esculator system spanning 2,600 feet. Part of it was under repairs, which was tiring, but eventually we got to the top. A fun thing to do, but you probably could have just done part of it, mainly because the esculator is only one way and so you walk back down 😊
We quickly ran back down and met Andy, one of Will's colleagues for dinner at Mak's Noodle where we had beef brisket with wonton noodle. It was really yummy!!
Now, a famous saying among locals and expats is “A New York minute is a Hong Kong second,” and I can officially say it is true. The night started by Andy taking us to a bar during happy hour. And I'm so glad it was! Drinks are super expensive here. We just chatted for a while and one obviously became two. We then went to meet some of his friends and this is when the night escalated... two became... more than two and then we realised the station luggage shuts at 1am! It was now 12:30am. We pegged it back to the station and unbeknown to us they only seem to have one entrance open at that time, which was the completely opposite side to our luggage. I couldn't run fast enough so Will just went for it. It was getting very very tight and suddenly we hit a barrier where you would normally pay to get on the train. We needed to get through this to get our luggage, but we didn't need to get the train. Will just went for it and lept over. A minute behind I got to the gate and saw quite an angry lady and I asked her how I can get round to which she replied "Well he lept over it!!" I took this as permission to also do the same. I got to the luggage and Will wasn't there. All I could hear was him yelling upstairs asking people where he needed to go. Eventually he came downstairs and we got our luggage literally with seconds to spare. What followed next was a moment of true testing. We had a huge row. I didn't know whether to omit this from the blog but I decided to keep it in because let's be honest this is normal!! Myself and Will are with each other 24 hours a day, everyday. In the past month we haven't really met other people and it's actually been quite tough compared to our last trip due to the weather and feeling more restricted. So honestly, I'm surprised we hadn't killed each other before! After quite a drama we both calmed down, became more civilised and started walking back to meet the others. To be honest we both really wanted to go back home but the party was moving to someone's flat and as we were guests we were to English to refuse. To be honest it was a good thing, we sat and chatted to the new crowd and it was just nice to meet other people and feel normal again! But... this then went on for way to long. Myself and Will were falling asleep in the corner when eventually we all bundled into a taxi and got to Andy's flat. In the words of How I Met Your Mother, "nothing good happens after 2am" and definitely not at 7am when you are crawling into bed and it's daylight... Tomorrow is going to be painful but what an eventful start to Hong Kong!!!Leggi altro
Setting the world to rights
15 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Unfortunately we decided not to go to to the Taroko Gorge as the clouds over the mountains looked quite low and threatening, so instead we spent the morning setting the world to rights. We had quite an in depth discussion about how we felt with regards to the current pollution crisis and what we feel we can to ourselves to help from vegan ism, transport systems, housing and how we feel the government can and should encourage the population to make the right choices. Obviously us taking so many flights etc is not helpful towards this so we actually looked to see if it was possible to do the shorter journeys by land or sea, but it was interesting to find out that a lot of them you actually can't. 2 coffees and a green tea in we decided we should probably go for a wander.
We wandered to a park to have lunch, Will bought a ring donut from a bakery and then we went along the river towards Pine Garden. It was hot, cloudy and muggy. Along the river we found the perfect spot for watching jumping fish. That entertained us for a while!! No idea what the fish were but they were big, silver and could jump impressively high. We thought they might be salmon but we are unsure. We also spotted a yellow wagtail on the side of the river.
Once we got to the Pine Garden we realised you had to pay. It is literally 5 pine trees in a garden!! There were pine trees outside the park! Seriously why do they make people pay for these things. So needless to say we didn't go in. Instead we walked back to the river walked to the opposite side, watched the fish, saw a grey heron and then walked around the city centre until we could justify it being dinner time.
For dinner we went on a bit of a foodie tour. Will had a chicken roll (3 chicken balls wrapped in chicken skin and grilled on a stick, it wasn't great actually), a KFC style chicken drumstick, we tried green bean mochi (still not a fan of mochi), a croissant filled with custard with a meringue on top (this was dessert when we got back) and then xao long bao (sooo yummy, will ate 5!!). Will was then super full so we started to head back, but I was still pretty hungry. On the way back I saw a buffet style restaurant that had looooads of veg so I just had to go in. I just filled the plate with lots of veg and... the thing we have been looking for since we got here... the famous 1000 year egg. Also known as the Pidan it is a Chinese preserved food product and delicacy made by preserving eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several months. I can't describe how God awful this looks,but I will try and describe its textures (see last pic below, bottom left weird eggy thing... ). What would normally be the yellow yolk is still runny, but is a congealed, green, slimey goo, which oozes when you cut up the egg. What would normally be the white of the egg is a brown jelly. The whole thing tastes like a Kippery Egg. If you close your eyes it actually isn't that bad but the look of it is another level. To sum it up, I thought it was fine, but Will was feeling quite queezy after just one bite. Finally we went back to our long await gyoza shop and bought 5 gyoza. All in all we only spent £6.38 on what was actually quite a lot of food 😊
When we got back to the hostel we booked our taxi for the morning, packed for our 7kg handluggage flight and then ate our amazing desert, yum!!Leggi altro
Viaggiatore
I'd describe it as a must try, but not necessarily something you would try again 😂
A Quick Swim Before Hualien
14 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
We have the scooter for the morning and then in the afternoon we are getting the bus and train to Hualien.
To make the most of our day we went for a quick swim in the morning. To be honest the waves were so big that we were more bobbing in the water than swimming. Running a bit late to pick up our bags we quickly raced back to the hostel, pick up our bags and then Will dropped me and the luggage off at the main square in Hengchun next to the bus station. Will then drove to drop off the scooter.
While I was waiting for Will to come back I decided to make use of the time and the sunshine. I draped all our swimwear and towel all over the bench and then made our peanut butter and jam sandwiches. I must have looked like a homeless person 😂 I wish I'd taken a picture! In fact I've realised I've not taken any pictures of our day at all...
For those that can remember Will's pants moment in Cambodia, guess what... We had another! I couldn't find his swim shorts and he realised he left them at the hostel. I had both our backpacks and packed up the drying and walked back to the hostel to pick them up. It was now midday, the burning heat couldn't have been hotter and I was walking for 20 mins with 2 backpacks. I was not impressed! Just as I arrived back at the square, absolutely drenched, Will turned up. Soaked and shattered we then jumped on the bus to to the train station.
Before coming to Kenting we did exactly the same journey in reverse so we knew our way, or we thought we did. When we got to the train station we tried to buy our tickets and it seemed to be the most difficult thing to do, at one point he printed us 6 tickets 4 if which were for the same train and then when we said we need to pay using card he ripped up the tickets and handed us 4 instead of 6. Utterly confused, starving as we hadn't had breakfast and it was now 2pm we went for a brown sugar bubble tea and ate our sandwiches 😊
The journey was long but we eventually got to Hualien at 8pm. Luckily we have been here before so we went straight to the hostel, dropped off our bags and had pork noodle soup for dinner. Yum 😋
As I didn't take many pictures today I've added some of signs we've seen that are interesting...Leggi altro
Just Keep Swimming...
13 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌬 28 °C
Yesterday we were unsure what to do with our final 4 days, but decided to stay in Kenting one more day and then two nights in Hualien (in hope to get into the Taroko Gorge again).
Today we decided to have a free day. The morning was spent finding and booking our accomodation for our last few days and then we jumped on the scooter and headed to South Beach. We went attempted to swim for a while but the waves got quite big so we decided to move on to see Baisha beach, also famous for starring in the Life of Pi. I can understand why, it was so beautiful.
The sun was at its peak when we arrived so we sat amongst the huge coral rocks and ate our lunch in the tiniest bit of shade. Then we went for a cool and refreshing swim. It was a much better swim here as the waves weren't as big! We stayed for a while swimming, reading, swimming, reading and swimming. What a fab day! We decided to stay till sunset. Sunset was OK. Everyone always talks and shows pictures of incredible sunsets. I must admit we have now down a tonne of sunsets and still not had thee sunset that everyone shows in the pictures!
We then went back to the main street in Kenting and picked up our luggage to take to Hengchun which is where we were staying that evening, about 20 mins scooter ride away. Now scooters aren't big and this particular one was pretty teeny. Fitting 2 people and two backpacks was not easy!! Will was on the front driving and I had to hold/ balance two backpacks on me. It was not a comfy journey but we got there in the end.
For dinner I had Soy pork with rice, will had spare rib noodle soup and then we had some dumplings. Yum! As it was a Saturday it was impossible to find accomodation within our budget. The cheapest thing we could find was a dorm room. It was really odd... The room was basically a big shelf with a bed on each shelf... Let's see how we sleep tonight...Leggi altro
Sheding and Cruising Down the Coast
12 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌬 28 °C
It absolutely down poured all night, but luckily by the morning it was dry, crazyily windy but dry. Today the plan is to visit Sheding Nature Reserve and then go for a coastal drive along the east side.
Sheding Nature Reserve was small but pretty, we walked the whole reserve in the morning, through the coral gorges, up the decking to see the coastal views and it was really peaceful. This whole area, in fact the whole of Taiwan, used to be completely under water until an earthquake formed the island. This has resulted in coral reef gorges within the reserve. They were very impressive. It must be butterfly season at the moment because they reserve was full of all kinds. It was really beautiful, unfortunately some of them were struggling in the wind! At the top we had our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before heading back to the bike and beginning our coastal drive.
Luckily it wasn't as windy as yesterday and we were able to go much further round the west coast. We stopped at a couple of view points and ended up in Jialeshui. This must be surfer heaven! The waves are huge here. We sat for a while just watching all the surfers of all levels. In all honesty it was a good laugh and by the end we were really egging them on from the sideline to do well.
After a while we jumped back on the bike and drove to Hengchun to see the old town in daylight. We wandered along the old city walls and along the cobbled streets but to be honest there wasn't much else to do. We sat in the main square and decided to do a bit of planning and booked another flight, super excited but I'll tell you where to when it happens! In celebration we went for an early dinner. Its only 5pm but we are starving, so eat we shall.
We finished the day planning for the next day and drinking brown sugar bubble tea. Going to miss this stuff!Leggi altro
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!
11 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌬 28 °C
"What a difference a day/ sleep makes". We both slept like there was no tomorrow and fully made the most of our suite. At about 10:30am I popped downstairs to extend our booking, in hope they will let us keep the room for the same price. But I think we had our luck and they were fully booked up! So we quickly packed and found somewhere else to stay that was just a minute walk down the room. Not quite as cheap, beautiful and roomy but still an ensuite with a fridge, kettle and tv. We weren't expecting to check in so early but amazingly we could which was perfect.
For brunch we had sausage and rice bento box from 7-11 and then hired a bike from our old hotel for half the price of everywhere else in the town. Today we planned to do various site seeing spots but to be honest I'm so sick of eating rubbish food so we went to a local town to a supermarket to buy cereal, milk, fruit, snacks and sandwich stuff so we don't have to eat out 3 meals a day for a couple of days. Oh and we bought a couple of different fruity beers which they don't sell at 7-11 so we thought we'd try them. By the time we got back it was around 3pm, so we had a cereal lunch and Will had a noodle pot. We didn't have any bowls or cutlery so let's just say we had to improvise. We had cereal out of plastic water cups and Will ate his noodles using two free toothbrush ends that we got free with the room 🤣
Then we jumped on the bike and went for a coastal drive. It felt about 100 degrees with a gale force wind. The views were really pretty but as usual a few of the must see places had a cost attached so we didn't end up seeing the lighthouse. On our way back we saw a cloud iridescence, which is a rainbow in a cloud!
In the evening we agreed to meet Alex who was now in Kenting at sunset the Guanshan view point. We were running pretty late but arrived just in the nick of time and guess what you had to pay to enter! We decided not to pay as the sunset wasn't great and Alex hadn't made it in time either. It was now getting really windy.
For dinner we met up with Alex and Bianca in Hengchun and went to a veggie buffet (it was OK, but not great), we tried shaved ice which is a huge craze here (again it was OK but probably wouldn't get it again) and our usual fried chicken (yum).
Then came the reason we all came to Kenting, the ground on fire on Chuhuo National Scenic Area. We all joked about how rubbish it was going to be and the flame will probably be the size of a tea light but it was actually really lovely. We sat around, drank beers and chatted about all our travels. It was such a nice evening. The wind suddenly turned up a notch so we got back on our bikes and drove home. The drive home was about half an hour and we were both holding on to dear life the whole way. The wind had really picked up and it was tough but we got home safely. Will treated himself to a bubble wrap waffle when we arrived 😊Leggi altro
Rain, rain, go away and don't come back!
10 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Well the weather has defeated us again. It rained ALL morning. Our plan to see the North East of Taiwan just isn't possible with this bad weather so after a lot of deliberation we decided to head south to a place called Kenting. It wasn't the easiest of places to get to but it's the southern most part of the island and the weather is generally good so we went for it!
After a bit of confusion with buying our ticket we missed our first train but after that it was pretty straight forward, 2 trains and then a bus ride and we arrived for 6:30pm. Let's just say our moods were not great during the travel as we were both so gutted (and soaked) about not going to the North, but ah well. I can hear you say, "Well you could have just sucked it up and and gone in the rain", but it would have just been horribly miserable!! Once we got on the bus the sun was shining and our moods got better. We made the right decision!
When we arrived the bus dropped us off about 20 mins from the hotel and when getting off I saw a small girl carrying a pizza box. It was a sign, tonight was the night for our Taiwanese Pizza. For those that are new to the blog we've had one pizza in each country and its been fun! We ordered a seafood pizza and although not the best or biggest, it was super popular and hit the spot.
We then walked along the main night market strip to our hotel and let's be honest it's a sin to walk through a night market without getting anything so we bought what I can only describe as an open, sweetened beef sandwich with sweet potato crisps covered in molten cheese. We sat on the street with a beer from 7-11, eating our sweetened burger watching everyone passby. I wouldn't get it again but it did fill us up! So one thing we have found bizarre here is although they are crazily safety conscious, they have a really busy night market on the sides of the highway with pedestrians crossing aimlessly and trucks and coaches passing at 60kmph.
Finally we made it to our hotel and upon check-in the owner apologised as she had given our room away, so has upgraded us to a suite. Obviously we were so angry by this... Ugh... not!! WINNING!!! We had a double bed each, a sofa area and ensuite. What a perfect end to a rough day 😊 It was only 9pm but as soon as I put my head down I was fast asleep while Will watched Xmen on the TV haha.Leggi altro
Well you can't have it all!
9 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌧 22 °C
Well after having gorgeous weather yesterday, booking an extra night and booking an extra day with the scooter, we got up early for another exciting day out but obviously it decided to pour it down! Up we got anyway in hope it would stop but we didn't have much luck in the morning. Instead we did our washing, Will got his hair cut and I read more of Anne Frank's diary.
Around 11am it started to just spit and so we jumped on the scooter and drove to Qingshui Cliffs. Even though it was very cloudy the views were really pretty along the coastline with the towering cliffs and the blue crashing waves in the sea. This was spoilt slightly by the number of tunnels in which the road went through which were suffocating and full of maniac trucks that would all of a sudden overtake us on the bike in a narrow 2 lane tunnel! We had a late lunch at the viewpoint along the way.
After a couple more scenic stops we arrived back in town and went to Meilun Sea Shore Park, Beibin Park and Nanbin Park. Nanbin Park was by far the best with its coastal views and enormous rocky beach. Truly calming for the end of the day.
In the evening we ate the famous spring onion pancake with a runny egg in the center (mine burst all over me, I was such an embarrassing mess!), Xia Long bào (soooo tasty) and gyzo dumplings. Good day of food!
The plan for tomorrow is to pack up and hopefully begin working our way northwards.Leggi altro
Yey - Back to normality!
8 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌧 21 °C
We both woke up with a spring in our feet as we knew we were going to have an amazing day. We were finally able to get hold of a scooter and were going to go to the mountains!! Taroko Gorge is the number one place to go in Taiwan. Although very touristy its easy to get off the tourist trail by heading a bit further and not going on the smaller trail roads. To be honest we didn't care, we had sunshine, a scooter and mountains. Perfect.
The drive was soo gorgeous, first along the coast and then through the mountains. Gosh it was good to be back to normality!
First stop was to go to a hidden natural hotspring. Annoyingly I'm a stickler for rules and I just couldn't bring myself to go in as it was actually closed off. Will on the other hand went for it. He said it was very very hot and came out sweating like mad. I definitely had a bit of FOMO on this occasion but ah well.
For lunch we made peanut butter and jam sandwiches from breakfast at the hostel and ate them on our next stop, Baiyang Waterfall. At the moment it's the end of rainy season and you can definitely see it from the fast flowing river! I can see why its the number 1 place to visit in Taiwan.
Next we did a bike tour round various photo ops and on our way down hit "total grid lock". It was crazy busy and there was a very narrow road and the traffic was being managed. Luckily we were on a scooter and were able to race to the front 😊 We soon jetted off and as it was beginning to shower we decided to head home before it got dark.
For dinner we went to a really tasty beef noodle soup restaurant and for 25p extra you could order a large, so we did. It was ridiculously big, so I gave half to Will to finish off. Well at least he didn't need a second dinner today!
It was only 6pm when we finished. I went for a much needed haircut and then chilled in the hostel with a hot chocolate.
I'm not sure if I told you about a tune that we keep hearing everywhere? It's driving us bonkers and as I write this blog it's going on repeatedly outside. It's a tune that the bin lorry makes to alert residents it's coming round. All residents have to throw their own rubbish in the wagons so everyday from dawn till dusk this annoying tune is played and it is constantly stuck in our heads! But not going to let that ruin our amazing day 😊
I'm so so so so so so glad we are finally getting back into the swing of things and able to visit the mountains, its made such a big difference on our mood!Leggi altro
"R&R" and Haulien
7 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
As expected the home brew mead and beer were ridiculously strong. We were both up all night unable to get any rest and our hostel was particularly noisy last night. We were so restless we both got up at 7:30am and headed down for some breakfast. I went back for a lie down after and then we got on with our day around 10am. Feeling achy and shattered we decided to get some well deserved R&R with Alex. However, as usual our R&R never works out.
We went in search for the local waterfall. If I'm honest I should stop having high expectations when people say we must visit the waterfalls. First we got completely lost in the baking heat and ended up walking for 1.5 hour and then when we got there it was tiny! It had a small shallow pool of water that we all decided to have a bathe in. It was sooo refreshing after sweating refusly again on our walk there.
After an hour me and Will headed back to the hostel for a quick shower and just made it in time for our bus to our next destination, Hualien, which is on the east of Taiwan and is where everyone stays to visit the Taroko Gorge. (If you are reading this please can you pray for good weather for us?! Much appreciated!)
On arrival we checked into our hostel and ate a delicious bowl of wonton and rice noodle soup for dinner. Will was so hungry he ate two! The ladies were all at the front of the restaurant making the wontons as the orders flew in. It was super impressive.
Finally, we are feeling much better in Taiwan, I think we are starting to get into the swing of things. What a difference being in the countryside has made.Leggi altro
Mount Dulan
6 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
We have finally found a mountain that we can hike!! After an amazing night sleep neither of us rushed to get out of bed as we assumed it would be as cloudy as yesterday. On getting out we realised it was really sunny so we made some peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches and headed out.
Challenge #1 - Getting along the main road (halfway to the trail)
The trail started about a 2 hour walk from where our hostel was and we had no mode of transport. It was time to try and hitch hike. Luckily we saw a Chinese tour bus on the main road so we asked the driver if he would take us along the main road which would take us half way to the trail. He happily agreed!
Challenge #2 - Getting to the start of the trail
The next section was a very steep winding road that ideally we wanted to hitch hike on again. On the way we met Alex, from our hostel, who had attempted to bike up but her chain had completely bust so ended up joining us. Unfortunately the only passing traffic would have been other walkers and as it was quite late we didn't pass any so we ended up walking the whole way up. After over an hour we finally got to the trail head woohoo!
The forest track was really pretty with views over the coast but oh my goodness within about 5 mins of walking we were all soaked to the bone in sweat. The humidity and heat was unbearable! Even our shorts were a darker shade, it was disgusting I must admit. Luckily all 3 of us looked as bad as each other so we just kept going. It was pretty steep the whole way ascending up 1100m from the coast line. It felt like we were making no progress. Every 0.5km marker was more of a disappointment than encouragement, but we got there in the end... It got so foggy when at the top. And there was absolutely no view at the top. Oh how I wish we had a chainsaw and we could have just chopped off the top of the trees!
I began talking to a Taiwanese youngster on the way down who was so lovely and modest about his English. He spoke fantastic English and just kept apologising saying how terrible it was.
On the way down we were really hoping we could find a car to hitch hike, this time with the added difficulty of taking a broken bike too. But our prayers were answered just as we got to the end of the trail a pickup truck pulled up and Jen Jen helped us ask the owner if he would take us back to town. He said yes!!! What an amazing guy! So me and Will jumped in the trailer and we soon arrived back at the hostel.
In desperate need of a shower, we all washed and then headed to the Vietnamese restaurant for a well deserved dinner. In the evening we bought beer from the 7-11 and then went to watch a local band play at the now abandoned sugar factory. It was great fun and we tried the local beer, oh my goodness it felt strong. After the band ended we sat and chatted for a while and then eventually headed home to bed.
I don't know what was in that beer but I've been up all night! Hope I feel OK in the morning.Leggi altro
Dulan - South East Coast
5 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Originally Dulan wasn't in our plans, but after meeting some people yesterday it quickly got on our to do list. So here we are. It's a small town on the coast line and so far it's been great. We are staying in quite a "cool" hostel and for our late lunch we went to a Vietnamese restaurant. Oh my goodness I wish I was back there, the food is just soo yummy and sooo fresh, I really miss it. We both ordered a seafood rice noodle salad and it was just to die for.
Having barely walked today we wandered to find a swimming pool that was recommended. The sea was really rough so I don't think there will be any sea swimming here! When we got to the pool it was quite late and looked pretty dirty so we decided to just chill out on the benches, watched the crashing waves and get some fresh air 😊
After reading our books for a while we wandered back towards the town. Today was a day of grumpiness and not really wanting to make decisions if I'm honest. So when asking Will what he wanted for dinner he didn't say a word and instead walked me straight to a Fish and Chip restaurant. He walked straight in and ordered 2 fish and chips which was 4 time the price of a normal dinner and said "Well if I can't do anything in this place I'll just eat everything!" We had a bit of a giggle while eating our chippy tea and then on our way home we bought a beer from 7-11,went back to the dorm and read our books for a bit.Leggi altro
Tainan
4 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Sometimes it's the little things you miss, a soft towel, a shower that is actually warm and doesn't constantly go cold every 30 secs, a bed that you can lie on without thinking why am I lying on bricks. Well this hotel ticked all the boxes and we even got a free caramel macchiato in the morning from their coffee shop 😊
Today we visited the Anping District which was the original ancient capital of Taiwan during the imperial times. For brunch we ate milk fish skin and fish ball soup and battered shrimp. We then walked along the canal to Anping Fort. Anping Fort, also known as Zeelandia, was excavated in the 17th century by the Dutch as a sea port for sea trading across South East Asia. Due to another typhoon heading towards Japan the winds were very strong, but luckily it stayed sunny! We then visited Anping Tree House, which was originally the warehouse of Tait & Co. During the Japanese Occupation it was the office and warehouse of the Japan Salt Company. After World War II, the salt industry in Anping declined, and this area was abandoned. After about 70 years of abandonment the site is now encased in Banyan Trees. Its absolutely incredible how these trees grow!
The late afternoon was spent visiting Shennong Street, a hipster coffee street, various temples and then finishing off in Tainan Wu Garden listening to a guy playing complex classical music on his recorder - he actually made the recorder look like a cool instrument!
In the evening we walked to Garden Night Market and tried coffin bread, a chowder in a deep fried bread (unexpectedly sweet!), scallion pancake (yum!), a hell of a lot of fried chicken and brown sugar bubble tea (honestly this stuff is incredible, obviously super bad for you but amazing!). Before coming to Taiwan I was never a fan of bubble tea but actually when you add a tonne of treacle and mask the bitter green tea flavour it's amazing! 😂
Annoyingly buses are pretty unreliable in Tainan so we had to walk back, luckily it was still earlish.
The rest of the evening was spent attempting to plan our next step, but with the weather constantly changing this is now becoming a bit of a chore. We have about 12 days left and have still not done any real hiking so we are thinking of heading northwards to try and get some good weather. We've decided to go to a place called Dulan which is on the south east coast, in hope for some OK weather. Let's see.Leggi altro
Alishan Forest Walk
3 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
We were up and out with plenty of time to walk to the station to begin our journey to Alishan. Our host saw us and gave us some biscuits and then drove us! He's been fantastic!!
The journey to Alishan was pretty windy around the mountains, but luckily the driver stopped a couple of times so we were able to get some fresh air and clear our heads. Upon arrival it was cold and really foggy, so we had a chicken curry and rice from 7-11 with the rest of the local tourists.
As usual upon entering the park there were steps and boardwalks across the whole forest area. It was pleasant and the trees were so lovely but it was a shame to not be able to feel the natural leaves and soil under our feet. Once we got going the fog lifted and the sun was beaming down. It ended up being a really nice walk, very easy but a nice little wander.
After finishing the walk we caught the train to our final stop for the day, Tainan, the old capital city and now known as the City of Snacks. Here we booked the cheapest accomodation yet and its a nice hotel room, luxury. 😊Leggi altro
An early start... Or not
2 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Today is our last day at the sun moon lake. Our alarms went off at 7am as we had planned to go up Mt Shuishe. However my knee was killing after yesterday's cycle and with the high humidity doing a 12km hike was probably not the best idea. So we fell back asleep and then got up a bit later. In the morning we wandered to the top of Mt. Maolan and it was a pleasant walk through forested tracks. It's 85% humidity here so the view is ridiculously hazy. All the same it was nice to get to the top for a late lunch picnic. We sat at the top chatted for a while and then headed down. On the way down we saw some lovely butterflies and heard a woodpecker. After a lot of searching we eventually found a grey capped woodpecker! I can't remember if I've told you about my binoculars that Will got me for my birthday, but they are fab and I'm using them everywhere we go 😍
By the time we got down it was 4pm so we treated ourselves to a salted brown sugar bubble tea along the pier. It wasn't as good as the one we tried in Taichung! Gutted.
For dinner we went to a local restaurant that our airbnb host recommended and we're done for the day by about 6ish, so headed back to the house to pack and plan for tomorrow. When we arrived out host looked ready to go out and had been waiting for us. We didn't get his message but basically he wanted to take us to a local night market with his son. When we got there he asked us if we were full (we were ridiculously full), but we felt too polite to say... We ended up eating a Peppered sirloin steak with noodles, with a sweetcorn soup as a starter and he bought us an oyster omelette as well. We were absolutely stuffed!Leggi altro
Sun Moon Lake
1 ottobre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
Having had a great time in Taichung it's now time to move on and go to Sun Moon Lake a very popular place for Taiwanese at weekends! We ended up getting a much earlier bus so arrived at Sun Moon Lake by 11am. We started walking towards our airbnb when a man in a car pulled over and showed a picture of me on his phone. The owner came to pick us up which was really sweet!
The room was basic but just what we needed. We sat outside with a view of the lake eating our sushi rolls from 7Eleven. I must admit this time we are roughing it a tiny bit more as things are a bit more expensive and we are worried about costs! So you'll probably see that we do eat from 7Eleven quite a lot (equivalent of Tesco express apart from you can heat food in them).
Our plan for the afternoon was to hire bikes and cycle round the 35km lake. Our intentions were high but not as high as the hills around the lake so after 3km we headed back and decided to just do the easy side of the lake 😂 We still cycled around 20km, just not with steep uphills. I'm sure a normal cyclist could do them but I am not a cyclist and ended up just getting off the bike every minute! The other side of the lake was great, still tiring enough. It was a really lovely day with the sun shining the whole time.
On our way back we popped into 7-11 for an ice cream and to top up our travel cards. Annoyingly we couldn't pay by card so we had to come back after getting our bike deposit back! Now exhausted we popped back to 7-11 to pay for our travel cards and after a look round found some bento boxes that would suffice for a cheap and cheerful and, more importantly, instant dinner. Oh and Will purchased his first Taiwanese beer. It's only 6:30pm and we are done!
Unfortunately we haven't done our steps, despite all the cycling, so we went for a little wander before heading home.Leggi altro
Lukang - In a hunt for temples
30 settembre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌬 30 °C
After our attempt at planning yesterday we decided to have a bit more fun and do some more site seeing by going to the village of Lukang around lunchtime. It was quite a small village known for lots of temples. We aren't quite sure if this was a normal Sunday afternoon or if it was a festival but there were hundreds of people in the small village and a couple of small parades that would visit each of the temples.
While eating oyster omelette (It would have been great if it wasn't swimming in weird slime... Not sure what the slime was...) we were entertained by a small girl singing Let it go in very broken English. It was really cute.
After wandering the various market stalls and more temples we headed back to the bus stop in the early evening. Unfortunately the bust was full so we were told we had to wait another half an hour. So I stood in the line while Will went to get us a bubble tea. Annoyingly another bus came 10 mins later and Will came 15 mins later with the bubble tea. Another bus soon came and we headed home.
For dinner we bought some steamed dumplings and cooked a veg noodle soup in the apartment. Taichung has unexpectedly been really fun and has definitely lived up to having amazing food. Next stop Sun Moon Lake tomorrow.Leggi altro
Things don't always go to plan...
29 settembre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
As we pretty much did every must see place in Taichung yesterday we decided to try and hunt out WiFi to plan the next couple of days after Taichung.
In the morning we chilled out and admired Kelvin's Art work around the flat and headed out around lunch time. It took a while but through absolute luck and lots of clicking we were able to understand how to sign into the free WiFi on the street with a backup plan of going to McDonald's. We found a popular noodle soup shop and saw people picking up either a pink or yellow slip of paper and then ticking their food choice which was obviously in Chinese. I was perfectly happy to just tick a random box on a random paper but Will was rather hesitant. After a couple of minutes the owner saw that we looked quite lost and helped us out and we had Tofu noodles with veg. It was absolutely gigantic!! We sat there till it closed and ended up taking most of it home. As we were in desperate need of veg we decided to go to the shop and buy some veg to bulk out the soup for dinner.
We then headed back to the street found a couple of chairs and sat attempting to plan. Originally when looking at Taiwan I saw that it is a smallish island but with lots of mountains, therefore plenty of things for us to do. But the more research we are doing the more disheartened we were getting as to climb most of the mountains we have to have a permit and to get a permit it seems you have to apply well in advance. Then when we started looking at more low land options and looking for accomodation it seems there is next to nothing! After about 4 hours of making 0 progress it was time to make an early dinner. It was so nice to have something simple and scummy. In need of a change I decided to read for a bit, I'm currently reading Anne Frank: The diary of a girl.
After an hour it was definitely time to get out the house and get fresh air, and of course do our daily steps (currently on a 9 day streak and don't want to break it). We went back to Feng Chia Night Market again. Not really in search of food but wanting a snack we went in search of the biggest queues ie the most popular food. We had a treacle bubble tea (Wow), a green tea custard tart (yum) , sweet potato balls (meh, it was OK, we only queued because it seemed so popular for 2 days) and pan fried scallops and prawns with pepper and onions (only £2.50 so can't complain!). Our mood was definitely lifted and we even, although it was quite late, decided to walk the 45 mins back home as we needed to get our steps done 😊Leggi altro
Taichung - Phew no rain!
28 settembre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌬 26 °C
When asking about getting to Taichung everyone said don't take the bus and take the train instead. Obviously we decided to ignore this advice and go for it anyway and I'm glad we did! The bus was very empty, comfy and took pretty much the same time as the cheaper train and their was a bus every 15 mins! 2 hours 45 mins on the dot and we arrived in Taichung, blue skies! Unfortunately our host for couch surfing isn't available till 10pm so we needed to stash our bags in lockers. I'm so glad we have such small bags as we were able to fit them into the medium lockers, well with a pretty hard shove!
To be honest we didn't know very much about Taichung until we got here and it actually has quite a few things going for it. It has a lovely park in the middle which is full of various birds, Miyahara which was a bit like walking into a Harry Potter shop selling various posh delicatessens, a small but scenic river walkway, the original bubble tea shop, a street full of animation street art and rainbow village. To sum up Taichung I'd say it's an Instagramers heaven with all the fun photo ops dotted around.
The people have been very lovely so far and understanding of us not speaking Mandarin, but it's not held us back in daring to go into restaurants and point at food or just say 2 and hope for the best. When looking for lunch we wandered through an area that had all its shop signs in Vietnamese, it made me feel so happy. I have such incredible memories from Vietnam 😍 For lunch we went to a very busy looking restaurant and had pork knuckle noodle soup. It was really nice.
In the evening we took a very round about journey (seriously it took us nearly 2 hours in the complete opposite direction to where we need to meet our couchsurfing host later) in hunt of the famous Feng Chia Night Market for its highly rated street food market. Was it worth it, YES! Although some of the stalls were the same it was also ideal for all those instagtamers out there. We had a crispy duck filled bao (Amazing!), the one and only fried chicken (a must eat in Taiwan), what looked like a hotdog but instead of the bread bun it was steamed rice (oddly sweet but had to be tried) and a custard tart (yum).
Drained and tired we headed back to the bus terminal to pick up our bags and then went to meet our couchsurfing host just in the nick of time. Phew... what a crazy day (again)!
As I mentioned this is the first time we have ever couch surfed and to be honest I was a bit nervous, but wow, I'm sure they won't all be this incredible. If they are wow. We are staying in Kevin's art studio which is in a private apartment about half an hour bus ride from the town centre. It is absolutely incredible. We have the whole flat to ourselves for free. We have our own private double room with ensuite, a kitchen, a washing machine and the best part is all his absolutely stunning art work around in every room. He's said we can stay as long as we need! I don't think this is the usual couchsurfing experience but I'm over the moon with it. We've decided to stay till Monday, so that we can cook vegetables!Leggi altro
World Tourism Day
27 settembre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌧 29 °C
Today's plan is to take advantage of being a tourist by going on a free Historic City walking tour and then to the National Palace Museum which is normally around £10 but free today!
After an amazing night sleep we went for our Historic Walking tour. Molly out tour guide spoke fantastic English and really knew her stuff. We saw the Longshan Temple, bought ice cream at the oldest ice cream shop in Taiwan, learnt about the various rulers of Taiwan, saw Taiwan's equivalent of Times Square, learnt why the Chinese design curvy streets (to prevent attackers and the Chinese Zombie), saw and heard about history of the 228 Peace Park and the stories of Chiang kai-shek. During the break me and Will ran to a bakery where we had a voucher for a free tourist gift, a pineapple cake and two nougat bars. Then we saw the Presendital Parliamentary building, the concert hall, theatre Hall and finally the Chiang kai-shek memorial.
For lunch we headed to Nanmen market hall for beef noodle soup and then to the National Palace Museum. By the time we got to the museum it was about 4pm and we had been wandering round since 9:30am so we were quite tired with pretty sore feet. The museum was free so we decided to make the most of it anyway. Overall it was quite interesting and had a few pieces of interest but I was very much looking forward to a proper sit down. At the museum we saw various paintings with calligraphy, a meat shaped stone that looked like pork belly but was actually a mineral known as banded jasper, a jade bokchoy and much much more. The museum was huge, we only got round one section before having to stop due to throbbing feet.
We are now both starving for dinner so it's time to head off in hunt of food. We tried Raohe Night Market and having been to 3 night markets in Taiwan, I'm convinced they are the same with different names and size. We had beef bone soup, pan fried dumplings and a Peppered Pork Bun again and then headed home to plane for our next day.
The original plan was to stay one more day and do a day trip to Jiufen, a neighbouring town. However the hostel tried charging us double as its a Friday and the rain from the passing typhoon is supposed to be worse tomorrow and therefore worse on the north east of the island. So we are going to go to Taichung, famous for its food and on the west of the island. We've also booked in for our very first couchsurfing experience! Bit of an adventure so let's see how it goes 😊Leggi altro
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Gratis
