For our trip to taiwan we decided to reduce our usual luggage amounts to only 6/7 kgs each !! Carry on only 👜, not as difficult as I thought. An over night stay in KL then a flight the following morning to Taipei the capital of Taiwan.
January 13th/14th KUALA LUMPA - TAIPEI
We arrived late afternoon and hit the night food market 🍝just around the corner from our hotel Cityinn number 2. There we savoured local food delicacies. 🍢Very different from what we have tasted and seen.
Next morning we caught the subway which was quite easy and visited a few tourist attractions in and around Taipei.To our amazement there were fewer people than expected but we were told that most people were at work in their offices.
Walking to the railway station at 8-8.30am to buy our first train tickets for the following day to find the subway empty was just such a surprise but a huge advantage when we are used to holding the line up behind us when needing extra time for translation.
On our return to Taipai 2 weeks later it was much busier because the Chinese New Year was just around the corner.
In the evening we took an organised night tour ( being the only couple on the tour)
We had a korean BBQ and saw the night sights/lights of Taipei
January 15th TAIPEI - TAICHONG side trip by bus to LUKANG
Made an early start this morning and headed for Taichung 2 hours by train south of Taipei down the west coast.
Taichung train station
Stayed at a not so 5 Star hotel at the rear of the railway station but very handy for carrying the backpacks and walking to the bus station which we did after dumping our bags at the hotel. We took a bus one hour down the road to a old style village called Lukang which trip adviser suggested and had a fabulous day tasting all the snack food delicacies of this quaint town . Many samples of their products were genourously explained to us( in chinese ) and tasted . The speciality for Lukang is an oyster omlette which was very tasty but not so good looking .
After catching the bus back to Taichung we quickly visited the best chocolate store ever just a few streets from the train station before catching a taxi to the night markets which just went on for acres and once again savouring more of the snack food delights of Taiwan.
By the way the weather has been awesome,cool with warm sun.
You know short sleeves if your brave and long sleeves if your are like me.
Oh yeh i needed sun screen the sun was perfect.
January 16th/17th/18th ☀🌙SUN MOON LAKE - MING TAN
The next morning we packed our gear grabbed a sandwich and a drink 🍴each for breakfast on the run and headed for the station for a bus trip to ☀🌙Sun Moon Lake which was just 2 hours away.
We arrived at ☀🌙SML about lunch time and the next trick was to find our pre booked resort haha.
After following the numbers along the street we were greeted on the footpath by the owners running out from behind a fruit stall set up infront of the hotel ,(we probably would have found it eventually). Backpacks left in the foyer till check in time at 3 , we then ventured into unknown territory.
☀🌙Sun moon lake is the largest and the most beautiful Alpine lake in Taiwan.
The mist-laden water and the constant changes of thick and dispersing clouds and the fog creates a mood of a fantasy fairyland. Depending on the season and the time of day,
Perhaps the scenes might remind you of a sketch or colourful water painting . Visitors are often enthralled by the refreshingly beautiful and elegant landscapes ,as were we. 😊
As we went down to the waters edge Wayne spotted one of the many temples ⛪across the lake and we decided to walk with the proviso that I walked to the temple with him but was not interested in climbing half way up the mountain side to get closer to God (not today anyway) and off we went .
The weather was perfect and the stroll gorgeous. As we approached the temple i was sure i had made the right decision because neibouring the temple was a very posh hotel FLuer de China.
So i decided to give Wayne an hour or so to check out the temple and make myself comfy in Fluer de China's foyer with free wifi 📱 and the use of their washroom.
Actually after checking out the foyer i definatly was under dressed and decided to walk down the road a bit to a roadside tea house which lucky for me was closed so i just had to go back to Fluer de China to use the washroom and sneek a look in my purse to check out if i could afford a coffee in such a classy hotel :). After taking in the beautiful sight of the Ladies bathroom ( they are a luxury when backpacking ) I found myself a table with an undisturbed view of ☀🌙lake and i was served with a lovely smile and not desciminated against for being underdressed. The service in Taiwan is amazing especially to foreigners .
Wayne's venture was about an hour and a half and on his return sat with me and i pursuaded him (not hard) to have a coffee and a high tea to share. Which was amazing.
A long stroll back to our cheaper hotel ( actually described on the internet as a resort haha) and a very small room . As we were booked in for 3 nights decided to check out a bigger room and the host said they have one availiable the following night with an outside spa and a glass ceiling situated on the roof. We were shown the room and snapped it up. Still not resort style but much bigger and enjoyable.
After a cold , very interesting but tasty breakfast the next day we hired 2 push bikes and peddled our way to another part of the lake with the most unusual ultra modern visitors centre with spectacular gardens and a to die for view.
We savoured the view with more morning tea. The rest of the day was very cruisy. The evening was spent with a couple we met during the day Mei and Jeff from Australia at a simple taiwanese restaurant, it was very pleasant.
The last day was spent at Ita Thao across the lake by ferry 🚢 followed by a a high tech cable rope to see the lake and forest from a different angle.
The snack foods we consumed were very different and delicious.
19th January
The tickets for the bus were purchased in plenty of time for a 9am pick up from the bus station and we waited and waited being told several times just to wait right where we were.
The Buses from our experience inTaiwan and China are ALWAYS on time this time something was not right.
After much debate and a few phone calls by the visitors centre supervisor he eventually decided to drive us to the next destination which was about 40minutes away. We arrived on the doorstep of a lovely logging museum in Checheng
which was set on a few acres in beautiful surrounding gardens .
We walked around for a few hours very leisurely after leaving our packs in lockers provided , these lockers by the way are conveniently located at railway stations and tourist spots just for tourists like us. Lunch was served in a small cute timber barrel which was given to us as a souvenir. Quite cumbersome but i had to keep it , not sure about customs tho.
We train hopped most of the day visiting shuiili, jiji and ershui for the next few stops getting off and looking around at small towns till we arrived at Chiaye about 5pm. The stop at Ershui was interesting, a quaint little train station where everyone seemed to congregate. There wasa street artist doing his best at a Micheal Jackson impersonation, the crowd seemed to like it. We walked through a amusement park type place adjacent the station, so many stalls crammed into a tiny area, we passed up the many offers to try the local delacies. Across the road was cardboard only shop, a Karton King shop which was really interesting. http://www.roundtaiwanround.com/post/15242098498/carton-king . We decided to wait for our train at a small cafe that was so close to the road that it seemed to be almost in the centre of a busy intersection. Wayne tried the shops special ice coffee and then quickly ran across the intersection to see what people were lining up for at another street stall. Small buckets of deep fried squid, yum.
We were booked into a hotel with Agoda (a booking company from australia) at Chiaye or so we thought!!We thought we had booked a hotel near the station before we left Perth and headed for the taxi to show the appropriate paper work but seemed to be some confusion as to where the hotel was and in true asian style we climbed into a taxi after a whole lot of discussion between maybe 6 or 7 drivers reading our paper work we were dumped at a hotel maybe 20 minutes away.
With confusion on the receptionist face we decided maybe wrong day, wrong date or wrong place.
She was so helpful after a few phone calls 📱and very limited english she handed the phone to wayne to speak to the hotel manager from the paper work we had recieved. Well as it turned out the paper work had two cities on it and the city we wanted to be in we were BUT the city the hotel was in was tomorrows destination which was 2 hours by bus or taxi.
Sooo we came to some arrangement and we were taken back to a gorgeous hotel ( definatly underdressed for this one ) and stayed there for the night . They could'nt have been more friendly and obliging.The next morning a quick walk across the road and we were on a bus heading for Alishan mountain which was a 2 hour VERY winding road with everything going according to our loose schedule.
January 20th. ALISHAN MOUNTAIN
Alishan was quite cool about 10 degrees at 2pm and set on the side of a mountain. To find our hotel we walked down at least 100 steps which we found out later was a reacuring exercise everytime we left the hotel. Great for the legs!!💃! A breather half way helped. We had a look around and decided to catch a logging train to sacred tree hill which was about a 10 minute train trip away, we wandered around there for about an hour until the train returned. It reminded us very much of the forest in beautiful Pemberton in the South of W.A.
A hot lunch was required ordering one of the local specialties -mountain deer hotpot and fried rice 🍱 we then walked the 100 steps again and retired to our room under the doona until the heaters came on at 6pm it was a fresh wait. The temperature guage went up extremly slowly. Wayne went out ( climbing those 100 steps again which were beginnning to look like 200 steps ) and bought take out( Taiwanese) and we ate it in our room.
January 21st ALISHAN - Yuli
The alarm was set for a 5.30am wake up to take an old logging train half an hour up the mountain to see the sun rise. 🌄 Along with about 500 other people. Not sure where everyone came from but the queue of people at the train station went round and round and on forever , mind you this queue was very orderly and patient unlike the queues in China.Although there was a fair amount of pushing to board the train :( We were on the second train of passengers which were squashed in like sardines. After purchasing some amazing french toast on very thick bread which the locals were selling on the mountain side .Our 1st sunrise ( we think) was an antisipated wonder. Tourists from who knows where were holding cameras over their heads clicking shutters from the onset of about 7am for a full 5 minutes. 📷
Very pleased with the shots we clicked. A quick look around we then joined everyone else that raced back to get a seat on the train for the ride down.
Another bus ticket was then purchased from the ticket desk at the 7/11 corner shop around 8am for the bus ride down the mountain at 9am. Back down the hundred steps again to pack the backpacks then back up the 100 steps to the bus station for a 2hr bus ride to Chiaye.
The bus terminal was across the road from the train station with 6 minutes to spare Wayne was able to puchase 2xtrain tickets and quickly buy survival food (in chinese) from 7/11and luckily for us platform 1 was just through the turnstyle. We arrived at Kaoshiong within 1.5 hours and purchased more train tickets to our final destination that day but had a transit waiting time of about 4hours.
So two storage lockers were purchased for our backpacks and a walk was in order. Dinner was purchased for the next part of the train journey to the small town of Yuli, which took the train 4 hours. Our host from Wisdom Garden homestay met us at the train station and we settled into our room with a few cups of green tea in our hosts lounge room.
22nd/23rd/24th JANUARY
YULI
Wisdom gardens homestay
Our stay here was very,very peaceful a chinese couple about our age made a living from running a homestay which consisted of a main house which was always open to us and another building at the rear with 3/4 bedroom and a large room up stairs (purpose built) i think maybe for Buddist retreats and yoga .🏠
There was another 2 couples travelling together staying in the main house while we were there from America and Berlize (central America) this meant we had company for breakfast and dinner . It was very pleasant. Another young chinese couple joined us the last morning for breakfast. Very interesting hearing about other Travel stories and to have english speaking conversations that flowed for a few day. The hosts were extremly hospitable and nothing was to much trouble even to the point of doing our washing while we were sight seeing and providing us with snacks to take on our day trips. Yuli is a very small town of only 30,000 people and very beautiful set at the foot of the mountains.
We hired a scooter in Yuli for 24hours and it was a whole $T400 = $A12 and off we went checking out walking trails and the small town centre and once again savouring the local snack foods. We met a few locals who were very interested in our journey and ended up having coffee with them for a few hours in a local coffee shop and having a lot of laughs with limited english and chinese on both sides.
The scooter was loaded up the next morning with ALL our luggage and the scooter returned to the hire shop .
The scooter was loaded up the next morning with ALL our luggage and the scooter returned to the hire shop .
The coffee shop owner we met from the previous day took us to a local noodle restaurant (very famous she said) for lunch with her young daughter. We then boarded a train at 2.30pm for our next stop.
JANUARY 25th/26th
YULI-HUALIEN
After boarding at 2.30 the train ride was only about 11/2 hours arriving just in time to find a hotel (recomended by Lonely Planet )very close to the station. The receptionist was extremely helpful and they soon rang 📱 for a taxi for us to go to the wharf area for a hawkers dinner.
The following morning we bought tourist bus tickets to explore Taroko National Park which was about 40 minutes away.
Hualien is located on the east coast and embraces beautiful nature and remains untouched. On the west lies the grand central mountain range, with pacific ocean on the east. We spent one day exploring the National park known as the Taroko National Park.
Taroko National Park
太魯閣國家公園
Just 15km north of Hualien sits Taroko National Park (Tàilǔgé Gúojiā Gōngyuán), Taiwan’s top tourist destination. With its marble-walled canyons, lush vegeta- tion and mountainous landscape, Taroko really puts the formosa (beautiful) in Ilha Formosa.
The park covers 120,000 hectares and rises from sea level in the east to over 3700m further west. In fact, Taroko is 90% mountainous with 27 peaks over 3000m. Almost all the biogeographical zones in Taiwan are represented here, providing a sanctuary for half the island’s plant and animal species.
The blue-green Liwu River (called Ya- yung Paru – Great River – by the Taroko tribe) cuts through the centre, forging deep slitted valleys and ravines before emptying into the sea. In one stretch it forms Taroko Gorge, an 18km marble- walled canyon that many consider one of Asia’s scenic wonders.
Most activities in the park take place within the gorge. Increasingly, however, people are exploring deeper, especially cy- clists who have discovered a remarkable ride in the 86km from the base to Wuling Pass at 3275m.
You can visit Taroko any time of year, but be warned (with an extra-stern look) that during weekends and holidays the place is a madhouse, especially on the road. At times you may get stuck in traffic for a consider- able time as two tour buses try to figure out a way to get past each other in some nar- row, twisting tunnel. On the other hand, if you go on any of the longer trails, you will soon leave the crowds behind.
Summer is the best time to do any river tracing or swimming; unless a typhoon is coming, the weather is usually clear and warm. Winters are chilly, and there’s often a drizzle, but that keeps the crowds away. May and June bring the monsoon rainy season.
There’s only one road through the park (Hwy 8), and only one real village (Tienh- siang). Food and accommodation are limited here, so many people base themselves at the foot of the park in Taroko village, or even in Hualien.
Before we left Perth we did our homework and tried to avoid at all costs this national park on the weekend. The weather was a little drizzly ☔on the day but great for exploring this national park and by the afternoon it had cleared up. There were many things we didnt see and places we should have skipped but being the pioneers of exploring Taroko and getting the hang of the hop on hop off buses and following the signs that led to no where we managed with the help of other visitors that looked blank at times as well. The Taoroko Gorge is so worth a visit next time we will get a 2 day pass and maybe a pushbike or stay at the gorge although we have heard it is VERY, VERY expensive. Camping is always an option for those who like camping ⛺
We forgot to buy train tickets for our return to Taipai the next morning, so as soon as could we tried to purchase them. unfortunately we were'nt able to get the train until 4pm and even then wayne and I were'nt sitting together in fact i think we were about 5 carriages apart. We shuttled into Taipai around 6.30pm .No stopping us we had a few things to buy at the night markets before we left for KL the next day so underground we went on the subway a few stops after booking into CityInn for the second time.
We met a guy (Max) from W.A with a bit of a travel story. Max was in the foyer of our hotel when Wayne came across him. He was asking the receptionist questions with great difficulty.
So Wayne helped him out. He was trying to hire a car for his family (2 small children a wife and 2 rather large surf boards ,OH and their luggage, BUT he forgot to get an international drivers license before he left W.A.
They were on a mission to drive to a Taiwan beach not sure how far away to catch a wave or two.
Looking at our drivers license we decided it was to hard to hand it to him so he could forge it. The photo was clearly stamped.
He had already been to a few hire car companies with No luck at all.
So after a chat with us in the foyer he was unsure of his options. Reaching a decision he decided he needed to get 4 train tickets that day to move on. So Wayne offered to walk across the road and help him get the tickets. Wish we got his email address to see how he got on but Just the thought of 2 small children, luggage for 4 and 2 surf boards on a train is just mind blowing.
27th JANUARY
KUALA LUMPUR
Checked out of Taipai the next evening for a flight to KL at 10.35pm after filling in time slowly all day caught a taxi to the airport around 8pm after we walked to the night markets around the corner for dinner this time the night market were packed much ,much busier due to the weekend. The flight was around 5hours arriving in KL at some unearthly hour had aquick cuppa at the airport then took a taxi to our hotel situated in Timesquare. ( great location) Shower and bed after booking in setting the alarm for 9.30am just in time to grab a buffet breakfast before is closed. Delicious,
I love Breakfasts!!! 🍴
We caught the Monorail 3 stops to China town to buy some promised cheap clothes which Bailee and Sharlot had ordered. Sharlot insisted on a PINK dress and Bailee wanted a purple nightie.
Easy , got two dresses and 2 nighties Sooooo pretty and cheap. In the afternoon we checked out a road trip for the next day then walked to the enormous shopping centre across the road for free wifi seeing as the hotel made you pay. Thank-You Starbucks , doing all our electronic business on the IPad for free. . A Krispy Creme or two may have been purchased before we crossed the road back to our hotel.
28th JANUARY
ROAD TRIP TO MELAKA
Picked up from the hotel at 9ish for a 2 hour bus ride to Melaka.
Melaka enjoys a strategic location on the west coast peninsular along the historic straits of Malacca,covering an area of 1650sq km.
Established in 1403 , it was an important trading post in Malaysia's early history and attracted traders from all over the world.
The city invites you to enjoy the old world charm of building and architecture inherited from centuries of Portuguese, Dutch and Britsh rule.
A Chinese Lunch was enjoyed with the other day trippers hearing more stories about world travellers. The day was extremely hot and very interesting and enjoyable. There were far to many sights to take in,in just a few hours so we have promised ourselves we will be back to discover more of Melaka at a later date.
KUALA LUMPUR - PERTH
January 29th- 30th
A Lazy day buying another bag to pack everything we bought in some sort of order for the trip home in the morning after an amazing 18 days doing the backpacking thing. Alarm went off at 5.30am 🔔for the last buffet breakfast for a while and the l o n g taxi drive to the KL airport for a 9.40 flight ✈
I think for a few oldies we did a great job and saw some amazing sights. A few travel hickups which always happens due to communication breakdowns and forgetfulness which happens to everyone. No huge dramas that could'nt be sorted with a bit of tolerance. ( not my strong point) it seems Wayne and I have turns in being tolerant depending on tiedness. It is not the best when we are both tired though. :)
We are now googling other countries with effecient train services for travelling around their country side.
OH by the way our luggage home was around 30kilos ( 4 bags ) we allowed 40kilos 👜👜👜👜
Highs
Waynes Mandarin
The weather
People we met
The food
Lows
Could reduce our luggage more
Lack of wifi
Lower voltage ment longer battery recharge times
