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  • Vera and Tom

Asia

Our super extended honeymoon all around the far east. Lue lisää
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  • Matkan aloitus
    1. syyskuuta 2019
    Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    London to Bangkok

    1. syyskuuta 2019, Englanti ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    The long awaited start to our Asia trip! And 'Long' was definitely the word to describe today. 3 flights with stops in Amsterdam and Guangzhou (China), serious bum ache from sitting down for so long, and completely confused about what time it was and whether our beef noodles were breakfast or dinner.Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Arriving in Bangkok

    2. syyskuuta 2019, Thaimaa ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    We finally arrived in Bangkok, exhausted and jetlagged but excited to be here. Our very friendly but totally useless taxi driver took us from the airport to the wrong hostel (she did provide free weird fruit on the journey though) so we then had to take a tuktuk for an extra few minutes to get to the right place.
    After a brief 5 hour nap we did a small exploration of the area where we are staying. There is a fantastic temple complex around the corner and lots of little street food stands and restaurants which we are excited to try in the next few days. In the evening we had cashew nut chicken rice and pad thai, both delicious!    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
    11112

    Khaosan and Chatuchak

    3. syyskuuta 2019, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    We started off with a breakfast of iced coffees and Thai style fried chicken while it poured with rain outside. Luckily, it had stopped by the time we finished so we could go off exploring.
    First we headed to Phra Sumen Fort which is next to the river not far from us. We stopped for a drink and a sit down on a bench in the park, the humidity had made us very thirsty already.
    We then walked to Khaosan Road, a famous street for backpackers, which was quite calm in early afternoon but the market stalls and street food vendors were getting set up ready for the evening. We also went to Wat Chana on the other side of the main road, this horseshoe shaped road also has lots of hostels and bars and restaurants aimed at tourists but is much more peaceful and pleasant to walk around. It also has a monastery which we could go inside and see all the statues and enormous candles.
    A random man in the street persuaded us to go to visit the temple of the Happy Buddha, or maybe Lucky Buddha, we thought we heard both, in any case he was a nice buddha. Another random man also visiting told us that we were very lucky to get the chance to see him because he was only open to the public on a couple of days of the year. He didn't seem much different to any other buddha we've seen but apparently we have good luck now, so that's a bonus!
    A tuktuk driver took us back to Wat Chana, with a brief detour to a suit factory (we didn't really understand why, if it was supposed to be a scam it was a very half-arsed one), after explaining that we didn't really want a tailor made 3 piece suit we were back on the tuktuk, dodging traffic again.
    In Wat Chana we ate green curry and tom yum soup for dinner before going back to Kaosan Road for a drink. By now the street was packed with everything from musicians to an alligator being roasted on a spit. We had a cocktail and listened to 4 different songs at once from each of the surrounding bars before heading home for a much needed shower.    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
    1

    Wat Arun and Lumphini Park

    5. syyskuuta 2019, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Unfortunately our master plan of getting over the jetlag in Bangkok didn't work out at all, we still go to bed at 4 o'clock in the morning and being spacey for most of the day, anyway we pushed ourselves to see as much as we could and accidently checked out the beautiful Temple of Dawn, Wat Arun (the local boat didn't stop at our station and ended up on the other side of the river). The boat ride was authentic with Buddist monks and other locals, it was in a turbo mode and the passengers only had seconds to jump on and off it, also the only place where you can get some breeze in humid Bangkok (or on the speedy tuktuk). Then we went to Lumphini park where local goes for relaxing, runnning and exercises. Twice a day an openair free aerobic class is available for anyone who would like to join. We think at least a 100 thai joined in, it was super interesting to see. In the evening a quick look around the Patpong night market, red light district and Asiatique market (combined shopping mall and night market place) before heading to our local for more Thai food.
    On our last day we decided to take super easy (also it was pouring) some big sleep, thai massage for Vera, photo taking time for Tom, sesame chicken and Pad See Ew before heading to the airport for our night flight to Japan.    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Arrival in Tokyo, Komagome

    6. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    A 6 hour flight later we arrived to the second destination of our Asia trip: Tokyo. We could only check in at 4pm but we decided to head to our neighbourhood, Komagome with our big luggage and chill out there (also we only slept 2 hours on the plane so we weren't too energetic). After some Japanese curry and Gyudon (beef and rice) in the local cheap place we went to the Kyu-Furukawa Gardens which is a "unique garden of the Taisho-period with a harmonized mixture of Japanese and western taste" - as the leaflet says. It was beautiful and perfect for relaxing/half sleeping, what the leaflet doesn't mention is that there are many invisible mosquitos (well how useful our mosquito repellent would have been if it wasn't taken away from us in China with the 'it is too dangerous' reason).
    When we arrived to check in our street seemed like the most surreal place ever. Light, classical/computer game music was played from speakers and everything seemed tiny, the streets, the cars, no rubbish anywhere - like we were in a computer game or virtual reality.
    As it was 30+ degrees we were looking forward some refreshing shower in our tiny apartment (as big as our two futon beds so they are folded up during the day) followed by instant noodle pots and a big sleep.    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
    1

    Shibuya and Shinjuku

    7. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Our first full day in Japan and finally we managed to get out of bed at a reasonable time to make the most of it!
    First we headed to Shibuya, a famous district of Tokyo where there is a crazy multi-direction zebra crossing, huge station, lots of shopping centres, and a little statue of a dog called Hachiko. He became famous for waiting for his master at the station every evening, even after the master died, poor little Hachiko.
    We explored a huge department store full of weird things including sweet potato flavoured kitkats and hats for cats. Then we went to an arcade which had hundreds of games and grab machines and even a virtual reality bungy jump.
    Next we walked to and around Yoyogi Park, where we stopped for a picnic of mixed bread rolls (quite nice actually) and colourful blobs (not quite nice actually).
    Next to the park is the Meiji shrine, there are big wooden arches, old fashioned japanese buildings and a place to write prayers for peace and prosperity.
    We finished the day in Shinjuku. First we explored Golden Gai, a small area of tiny streets with even tinier pubs. Then we went to the red light district called Kabukicho, home to a robot restaurant, giant Godzilla statue on top of a skyscraper, French maid bars and millions of neon lights.    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Asakusa and Yanaka

    8. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    After discovering some of 'new' Tokyo we decided to see older, more traditional parts.
    In the morning we took a train to Asakusa where we straight away found old fashioned streets and much smaller buildings than the skyscrapers we were surrounded by the day before. The oldest and one of the most significant temples in Tokyo, Senso Ji, can also be found here which is known for its big red lanterns. While we were there we met a Japanese man who spoke a bit of Hungarian and had fried mashed potato sandwiches. In a little shop we bought a postcard with an old painting of the temple and we also bought some souvenir chopsticks from a 100 yen shop which had lots of beautiful bowls and other Japanese cooking stuff.
    Later we walked over to Yanaka, another famously traditional qurater full of temples and shrines. On the way there we saw an amazing drum performance in the street. After a picnic in a Japanese garden style park with some real cheap streetfood (as lack of English signs we accidently but happily ended up with more fried mashed potato), we visited Nezu Shrine. Here there is a long tunnel of red gates which were great for taking photos.
    We headed home not too late with aching feet ready for a rest and to get safely inside before the typhoon arrived!...    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
    11

    Roppongi and Metropolitan Observatory

    9. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Typhoon Faxai threw a spanner in the works of our plan to visit Mount Takoa today, the strong wind and heavy rain in the early hours of the morning messed up the trains for the day so we decided to stay in Tokyo instead.
    Luckily there was still plenty left to see and we started off in Roppongi where we saw a pond full of space fish (the descendents of the first fish born on the International Space Station) and a giant spider standing guard outside a huge skyscraper. Then we visited the Fujifilm photo gallery and camera museum.
    In the evening we went back to Shinjuku for a brilliant dinner, ramen noodles, fried rice, miso soup and gyoza dumplings. Really fincsi and Vera invented a new chopsticks technique. We also found a cool alley full of pubs called Omoide Yokocho.
    After dark we went up to the 45th floor of the Metropolitan Building where there is an observatory with amazing 360° views of Tokyo.    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
    1
    111

    Takayama

    10. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We exchanged our vouchers for our Japan Rail passes and boarded the Shinkansen bullet train to Takayama. Aside from obviously being very fast, the train journey was beautiful and our first look at the Japanese countryside.
    We chose Takayama after reading about its old fashioned style and picturesque location in the Japanese Alps and we weren't disappointed at all. The town is lovely and full of old wooden buildings. We enjoyed exploring the streets and markets and visited a couple of sake breweries where we could do some tasting of traditional Japanese booze (we couldn't actually see the process as it is made in winter time). We also followed a walking route which goes around the outskirts of town in the hills where there are lots of temples, shrines and a big graveyard. Several posters warn you that bears have been spotted lately around the mountains, perhaps it's not so bad after all that we didn't have time for a hike.
    We tried a few new foods in Takayama; Hida beef, steamed dumplings, rice ball skewers with soy and Hida beef croquettes.
    To save money we stayed in a dorm which had a capsule style feeling, only here there were wooden "boxes" to sleep in, quite cosy actually!    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Hida Folk Village

    11. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    Hida Folk Village is a skanzen type place 40 minute walk away from Takayama. It is a place to preserve traditional houses, lifestyles and professions. The buildings have been moved from different parts of the Hida region.
    We spent a few hours wandering around learning about Japanese traditional architecture, silk making, wedding traditions and lifestyles.
    No suprise anymore that even in this place you can find a few vending machines (they are literally everywhere) so Tom tried macha (green tea) ice-cream.    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
    1111

    Kyoto

    13. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We booked 4 nights in Kyoto to give us time to explore the city itself and also use it as a base for seeing some more of west Japan. Kyoto is quite a big city but very different from Tokyo, there are only a few tall buildings here and the style is very much old fashioned Japan rather than the crazy futuristic manga world of Tokyo. On our first day we went to the Imperial palace and its beautiful Japanese style gardens. The palace and other buildings around it are really simply from outside and unfortunately we cannot enter them. For lunch we had our "usual" boxes with unkown content from the supermarket - sometimes it even has some chairs, tables and a microwave to enjoy your meal there. Then we discovered a walking path by the river, an alley full of little pubs and restaurants called Pontocho and the main food market, Nishiki Market. At dusk we went to Gion, the geisha district where lots of people are dressed in traditional clothes (actually all around in Kyoto) kimono with all its accessories such as wooden sandals. There are lots of shops where you can rent a full outfit for the day. We ended the day in the tiniest Thai restaurant where 5 people were already sitting so the the place got full when we sat down too. First time to eat curry/noodles with chopstick only, success!Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Nara Park

    14. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Nara Park is an Unesco world heritage site an hour away from Kyoto, it's famous for its hundreds and hundreds of wild deer living a good life being constantly fed by tourists. We tried some soft icecream (pretty much the same as at home) and melonpan bread which comes with all kinds of different flavours, for us it was caramel.
    On the way home we stopped at a local snack pub for some beer, plum wine (super sweet and nice, more like a liquor), cabbage with some peppery sauce on, and gyoza which is the little dumplings (these were a gift from one of the locals :) )
    At one point we really have to talk about the tolilets in Japan, so here it is:
    - Lucikly they are everywhere, we never stuggled to find one when in need.
    - Some are "normal" called "western style", some are "hole in the floor" called "Japanese" style - this is indicated on the door so you can choose which one you prefer.
    - Many times you can see a manual of how to use the western style toilet (to sum it up: sit down, then throw the paper in the toilet and flush it)
    - Some of these have a sink on top of the cistern, so we use the same water for washing hands and then flushing the toilet.
    - The western style ones are always super fancy (even in the shopping malls) you can find a little keypad on the wall or on the armrest with different buttons (most we don't understand). The most basics seem to be: music and bum wash with different strength water flow.
    - The bidet function is tickly and warm :)    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Bamboo Grove and Lake Biwa

    15. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We went for quite an early start to be able to fit two little trips into one day. Having our Japan Rail passes has been really great for getting around Japan and was especially good for day trips without worrying about the train costs.
    First up was the bamboo grove a little north west of Kyoto. There is a path to follow through the woods which has a few old buildings and shrines to see along the way. The trees are the most interesting part though, they grow very tightly together in some places and almost all of them are dead straight all the way up.
    For the afternoon we took the train back to Kyoto and changed lines, this time heading east to Lake Biwa. It is the biggest lake in Japan and we had picked a town called Omi Maiko which looked to be a good spot for getting to the beach easily.
    When we arrived it was only a 10 minute walk from the station to the water's edge, where we found a few small food stalls and vending machines (of course) and lots of barbecues sizzling away on the sand.
    It was really interesting to see the Japanese people at play, the mood was so much more laid back than in the city and most groups of people had some beers on the go, music playing and loud conversations while their chicken skewers cooked. The lake is beautiful. Perfect fresh water surrounded by mountains and amazing colours. We were really glad we decided to come here for a nice relaxing day.    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Hiroshima

    16. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    On the way to Fukuoka we stopped in Hiroshima for a few ours to see the Peace Memorial Museum, the park around it, the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, the Children's peace monument and the A-bomb Dome. The museum was really shocking and interesting.
    We then got back on the bullet train for the last journey in Japan. We will be missing the friendly and polite Japanese people. Those who work on the train (controller or security) bow after exiting a carriage towards their passengers out of respect, fantastic!    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Fukuoka

    16. syyskuuta 2019, Japani ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We had a short but brilliant stay in Fukuoka. We arrived in the evening with about an hour to spare for checking in to our hostel before meeting Yusei, an old summer camp friend of Vera's. Yusei is a Fukuoka local and he took us to a really cool local restaurant.
    The type of restaurant is called an izakaya, we sat down on cushions on the tatami floor mats around a low table which already had a couple of bar snacks waiting for us, a shredded radish salad and edamame beans.
    As the expert, we decided to leaveYusei in charge of ordering and he didn't disappoint! We had lots of different types of yakitori, the skewers which are the main feature of the menu in this type of restaurant. Yakitori means chicken skewer but actually there are all sorts available including pork, fish and vegetables. We had chicken thigh, chicken neck, chicken gizzard (!), pork belly and pork rolled with herbs which was probably the favourite. The yakitori are all cooked on a grill in the middle of the bar, in fact all of the food is prepared there which makes a really lively atmosphere in the restaurant. There were people sitting around the bar and also groups and families on the floor like us. Most people were also enjoying plenty of drinks which also adds to the atmosphere. We had Japanese beer and more of the plum wine which Vera had tried a couple of nights before. We also tasted soju and soda which is a bit like watered down pálinka.
    As well as all the meat we had a few vegetable dishes like cabbage and tomato, and also some more unusual things like fried chicken skin and chicken scratchings.
    It was great fun to meet Yusei and hear all about his life in Japan, his travels and his wife who couldn't join us because they have a baby on the way soon. It was definitely our most Japanese experience in Japan and a perfect way to finish our trip!    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
    2

    Busan

    17. syyskuuta 2019, Etelä-Korea ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    A fast but terrifying boat ride from Fukuoka brought us to Busan, South Korea's second city.
    We stayed in an area called Nampo which is packed full of places to eat, both in restaurants and out on the street. As a result, we seemed to spend most of our time eating, which is no bad thing because Korean food is amazing!
    We had topokki (a kind of rice cakes in really spicy sauce) , rolls of fish cake with vegetables and rice (a bit like sushi), dumplings, giant chicken kebabs, fish soup, sweet potato chips, hotteok (a sweet pancake filled with brown sugar syrup and seeds), Korean sticky fried chicken, tornado potato, and kimchi pancake. We could easily have gone on eating all night if we hadn't got full, it's all so good and so cheap.
    When we finally had a break from filling our stomachs we went to another part of Busan called Haeundae where there is a fantastic beach. We also went to a modern art museum with some very strange exhibits and a photography gallery with an exhibition about socialist architecture in eastern Europe.    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Gamcheon Culture Village

    18. syyskuuta 2019, Etelä-Korea ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    In Busan on the top of a hill - not far from our hostel actually - is Gamcheon Culture Village, a place which preserves the cultural traces of Korea. The houses are beautifully colourful and they don't block the front view of the house behind so you can see the ocean. Many coloured pigeon (or other big bird) statues are sitting on some houses and you can try on traditional Korean clothes. Tom tried some orange jelly shaped as a ball and we had some fish shaped pastry with sweet red beans (this is everywhere). We also found the Grand Budapest (doll) house which was unfortunately closed. We ended the day with a Korean BBQ which we have been looking forward to a lot! We entered the local place (no tourists at all) and had no clue what to do. A nice waitress helped us and showed us how and where to put all of the meat and vegatables onto the pan so that the meat juices mix in with everything and it is all delicious! This was one of our best meals ever!Lue lisää

  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Seoul Part 1

    20. syyskuuta 2019, Etelä-Korea ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We had a bit of a rough start in Seoul as the hostel we'd booked in advance turned out to be disgusting. But, after only one unpleasant night we had our money back, moved into a nice little studio flat and could get on with enjoying ourselves.
    We had a long walk around starting at the Seoullo 7017 Park, which is a bit like the Skyline in New York, an old overpass converted into a long park with great views of the city. From there we saw our first Korean protest, there were loads of people marching up the road with Korean and American flags shouting a lot. We aren't quite sure what it was all about but we had a great view of it.
    Afterwards we went to a market where you can buy absolutely anything including street food and batteries for your camera.
    We also went to Cheonggyecheon Stream which runs between some of the biggest skyscrapers but is a surprisingly calm and relaxing place to be.    Lue lisää

  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
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    111

    Seoul Part 2

    23. syyskuuta 2019, Etelä-Korea ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We spent some time with relaxing, cooking for ourselves and lot of sleeping in our nice little studio apartmant which was much needed after all the hectic days. In the afternoons we went for walks in the city, visited the Forest Line Park which is built on and around old train tracks which used to go to North Korea. We walked on the old city walls and saw the Modern Design Plaza, a massive weird shape building which is the home of the design museum. We also discovered some parts of the city by the river and checked out some paintings and caligraphy in the Korean National Museum.Lue lisää

  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
    1111

    Gyeongju

    26. syyskuuta 2019, Etelä-Korea ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Two days in Teletubby land, also known as Gyeongju or the Golden City according to the tourist board. This is an old capital city of the Silla Kingdom and is also known as 'the museum without walls', as if it needed any more names.
    The city itself is quite small but full of things to do and we were happy to find that you can walk everywhere easily. We saw a park full of giant grassy mounds which are tombs for the old royal family. Some are still being excavated and there is a small museum inside one of them with gold armour for the horses and their riders. It was very tempting to climb one but the threatened 2 year prison sentence was enough to put us off.
    We also walked around an old town where all the buildings have the old fashioned architecture, visited an amazing bridge over the River, and saw an ancient astrological observatory.
    We spent the evenings in the night market sampling as much of the food as we could, as usual. We've noticed that the Koreans love to add sugar to everything, including cheese and egg toasties and hot dogs. It's a bit strange at first but not as bad as it sounds! Our favourites this time were mung bean pancakes, sweet sticky fried pork and black raspberry wine, well fincsi :)
    One more thing that this city is famous for is Gyeongju bread. There are bakeries all around selling boxes of 10 or 20 of these little buns which are full of sweet red bean paste, not bad, but one was enough.
    For our last night in Korea we headed back to Busan from where we would fly to Taiwan. We escaped a very rainy night in a restaurant where we had budae jjigae another cook-it-yourself dish which was like a giant noodle soup full of different meat and vegetables, another one to remember to try at home!    Lue lisää

  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
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    11111

    Taipei

    29. syyskuuta 2019, Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    The region's 18th named storm has arrived to Taiwan so did we. So, our first couple of days in Taipei were very wet and windy, but also occasionally very hot and sunny, so much that we both got sunburnt! Anyway, that's enough weather update.
    The bus journey from the airport was mostly on an extremely high motorway, the same level as the skyscrapers pretty much, they were less shiny and modern than the ones in Japan and Korea. The city seems to poke out from the jungle and the change in climate is really noticable despite the short flight from Korea.
    Our neighbourhood was a lively market area, full of people and loads of weird really cheap street food stalls, just as we like it! :)
    We walked to Peace Park, where there are lovely gardens with a jungle type feeling and some monuments to various past disasters and successes.
    We also went to Liberty Square, a huuuge square surrounded by amazing buildings on all four sides. On the way home we walked throught the botanic garden before we hit our double bed (in a dorm) for a power nap. The previous night's sleep had been somewhat disturbed by someone's diesel engine snoring in the bunk below us.    Lue lisää

  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
    1

    Sun Moon Lake

    1. lokakuuta 2019, Taiwan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    A special trip to celebrate Vera's birthday! Jupii :)
    We took a bus for a couple of hours into the mountains in the middle of Taiwan to Sun Moon Lake. After a slight hiccup (where we had to get off the bus early for a toilet break and then wait around at a university in the middle of nowhere for an hour until the next bus arrived) we made it to Shuishe. It is a small town by the lake which seems to be almost entirely made up of restaurants and bike rental shops. We got ourselves some wheels and set off on the cycleway which follows around the edge of the lake.
    There are amazing views all along the route and some sections where the path becomes a kind of wooden boardwalk on stilts so you are cycling over the water.
    We stopped off at the giant concrete spaceship building which was the Visitor Centre and had a great lunch with chicken noodle soup, sausage, iced tea and tea jelly.
    We also visited an amazing temple which was decorated with giant dragons, a phoenix, and loads of tiny figures and details. It was easily the most over-the-top decorations we've seen, in a good way!
    We returned to Taichung in the evening and had some great fried rice and black pepper noodles with a giant ice cream dessert to finish off the birthday celebrations.    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Gaomei Wetland

    2. lokakuuta 2019, Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    We decided to join an organised half day tour to the Gaomei Wetland as it is difficult to get there from Taichung by public transport. Our guide was super enthusiastic, trying to speak three different languages at the same time - so mostly we didn't understand him. The wetland is the west side of Taiwan by the sea with a dozen wind mills sticking out from the water. A long wooden walkway leads in a km or so, from there you can watch different crabs and tiny mudskipper fish. At the end of the walkway you take off your shoes to go in the 3cm deep sea which feels like you walk on the top of the water. The sun was so red and big as it went down, a beautiful sunset.Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom

    Dakeng

    3. lokakuuta 2019, Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Dakeng mountains area is only 45 minutes away from Taichung, where we based ourselves for 4 days for easy access to fantastic nature places (like Sun Moon Lake and Wetland). Dekung has many trails, due to very hot and humid weather we picked a shorter one. Locals must have been suprised seeing us there as they were all smiling, greetings us and one of them even gave us some honey straight from the hive to try. It was sooo delicious! The trail was leading us all the way to the top for some great but foggy view. The way down was mostly on stairs, at the bottom a farmers market was selling all kinds of fruits, drinks, sport gear and pottery. We hopped back on the bus for our next stop, a spa and wellness centre! For a few pounds we could enjoy the outdoor pools with fantastic jungle views around. Bath culture became popular in Taiwan under the Japanese occupation (mostly fist half of the 20th century) therefore it had an 'onsen", taditional Japanese style feeling with its naked - separated by gender, of course - inside pool areas.
    Outside there were many pools, one with extremely hot and the other with extremely cold water. A group of older local ladies explained it (without using any english) that we need to be moving between the two pools, they had great fun looking at our reactions as we sank in.
    The music was relaxing, mostly classical music. It was a rather surreal and funny moment when 'Lilly Allen: F*** you' song suddenly started being played. Brilliant and weird day!    Lue lisää

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  • Vera and TomAsiaVera and Tom
    2

    Taroko Gorge

    5. lokakuuta 2019, Taiwan ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Taroko is Taiwan's most famous national park and the gorge is the main attraction. Taroko means 'magnificent' and the landscape here really is.
    There is a bus which goes from Hualien, where we were staying, into the park and stops at different hiking trails and scenic spots so you can hop on and hop off. We started with the Tunnel of Nine Turns where we could walk along a path on the side of the gorge and look down to the river at the bottom. This part of the park was quite busy, we had arrived at the same time as a couple of tour buses, but the views were amazing and we were impressed with how well the Taiwanese look after their national parks. The information is really good and the trails are all really well maintained, quite different to some of the ones we visited in Europe.
    Next we went to Tianxiang to start a longer trail which wound around the mountain. Along the way we came across some pretty terrifying bridges, huuuuge waterfalls, long dark tunnels and a few cheeky monkeys stealing food from tourists. Fortunately, we didn't encounter any of the venemous snakes which the signs were warning about!    Lue lisää

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