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  • Shahnavaz Mehta

Taiwan

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    Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler
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    Setting the world to rights

    October 15, 2018 in 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!!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    A Quick Swim Before Hualien

    October 14, 2018 in 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...    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Just Keep Swimming...

    October 13, 2018 in 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...    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Sheding and Cruising Down the Coast

    October 12, 2018 in 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!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

    October 11, 2018 in 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 😊    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Rain, rain, go away and don't come back!

    October 10, 2018 in 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.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Well you can't have it all!

    October 9, 2018 in 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.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Yey - Back to normality!

    October 8, 2018 in 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!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    "R&R" and Haulien

    October 7, 2018 in 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.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Mount Dulan

    October 6, 2018 in 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.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Dulan - South East Coast

    October 5, 2018 in 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.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Tainan

    October 4, 2018 in 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.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Alishan Forest Walk

    October 3, 2018 in 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. 😊    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    An early start... Or not

    October 2, 2018 in 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!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Sun Moon Lake

    October 1, 2018 in 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.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Lukang - In a hunt for temples

    September 30, 2018 in 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.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Things don't always go to plan...

    September 29, 2018 in 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 😊    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Taichung - Phew no rain!

    September 28, 2018 in 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!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    World Tourism Day

    September 27, 2018 in 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 😊    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Wandering the streets of a rainy Taipei

    September 26, 2018 in Taiwan ⋅ 🌧 25 °C

    I think my worst nightmare of sleeping in a dorm room is to have someone snore like a foghorn the whole night and guess what that just happened. If people are party animals and being annoying you always have the power to tell them to stop and worse case get the hostel to shut them up. However, if people are horrific snorers you are completely powerless. It's not actually their fault so I can't get angry but at the same time I wanted to die after the first 20 mins never mind the next 8 hours.

    Ah well, after a 20 min nap at 9am when they left I felt refreshed enough to get on with the day. Not sure if you've seen in the news but Japan is taking quite a hit from Typhoon Trami which is creating quite a lot of rain here in Taiwan. Rain coats on and off we go. Today we visited Bo'an Temple, Confusious Temple, Elephant Mountain (why we thought this was a good idea I will never know) and then to Taipei 101 the tallest tower in Taiwan. As the weather was pretty dreary it wasn't really worth going up but we did attempt to get in the highest Starbucks in the world. Well we attempted... Unfortunately we were rather unsuccessful as you have to book a day in advance, so instead we wandered round the mall tried a lot of pineapple cake tasters and then sat down to rest our feet with a Bubble Tea.

    For dinner we went to Tonghua Night Market and ate Stinky Tofu (very stinky but tasted fine) and pork dumpling noodle in a chilli sauce with a green bean/okra side dish. Happily full and a bit sick of the rain we headed back.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTaiwanTraveler

    Bye bye Singapore, Hello Country No. 8!

    September 25, 2018 in Taiwan ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    5am...ring ring ring... Ahhhh!! I've not missed this feeling... Up we get for country number eight, Taiwan! Upon booking our trip we didn't have Taiwan on the cards but after finding very cheap flights it quickly became our top destination and after a bit more research we got more and more excited. Taiwan is an island with great food, beaches, mountains and affordable. Tick, tick, tick.

    Definitely got the hang of our airport efficiency, Grab taxi setup, breakfast (leftover biryani), packed, clothes laid out, all we had to do was roll out of bed, check-in, and find a seat. So, I'm not sure if other people play the game "Let's see what we can get with the leftover currency", but it is always a highlight of our early morning airport trips (we are pretty tired so need some excitement!). Today we were able to get two coffees (£1.50 total) and two mentos tubes (£1.10 total), bargain!! You couldn't even get that in a normal shop in the UK never mind an airport. Singapore is such an affordable, yet established country, we really love it here.

    Now on our flight waiting to jet off. Taipei here we come!

    Of course we do the majority of our research for Taipei on the plane over. First panic... after being in Singapore for a while I forgot that actually everything here will be in Mandarin. Well downloading Google translate offline will be the first job when I get WiFi! Many people have said 2 weeks is more than enough time but from reading more about it I don't think 3 weeks is enough, let's see.

    On arrival everything went pretty smoothly, immigration was straightforward, grabbed a Sim card, got out cash, jumped on the MRT, walked for a bit and checked into our hostel.

    The hostel is very modern inside and seems pretty quiet so far but it is the middle of the day. Our "room" is pretty cute. We booked a double bed in a dorm room. There are 4 doubles and 4 singles each with their own compartment. Of course ours is the tiny hatch in the corner on the bottom, we literally have to crawl in 😂 Inside it is super roomy though so overall its looking good.

    By the time we got in it was dinner time as we hadn't had lunch so we headed to one of the largest night markets in Taiwan, Shilin Night Market. It absolutely chucked it downWe tried Peppered Pork Bun (really yummy), Chargrilled Spring Onions Wrapped in Bacon (way too oniony), King Oyster Mushrooms in a lemon, pepper and seaweed rub(number 1 of the night), Long Xao Bao (tasty) and "Small cake wrapped in large cake" (the lady smashes up a crunchy sugary thing into a pancake and sprinkles coconut on but it was tasteless and a waste of calories). All in all a success 😊    Read more

    Trip start
    September 25, 2018
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