Food, Parties and Singing. Last post from Taiwan.

I ended up back in Taipei, after a short train trip. I had a few things that I had missed last time I was here and I wanted to see. Also the friends I had made had a few parties lined up and I was keen to join them.

The first day back in Taipei, I revisited Longshan temple. I had previously seen the temple but didn’t spend much time in the surrounding area. I had since heard a rumor that you could eat snake and there was strange night markets there. So I had to see…

I found the snake shop but it was far to early, and it was extremely expensive. I walked past it 3 times then thought I would get a massage… I had pulled my shoulder out when I left Tainan earlier that day.  I found a place and asked for a shoulder only, I left 30 min later more sore than when I went in, I had boiling hot towls and the ball of the masseuse’s elbow. I talked to people at the hostel later that evening and its not uncommon for you to have problems seeing or walking after one. They are very rough.  Anyways I forgot about my shoulder, so I guessed it worked (sort of).

Yummy snake... tastes like chicken.

I walked passed the snake shop another 2 times before I finally said what the hell… and ordered Snake soup, Snake Wine, Snake Venom, Snake Bile, and Snake oil tables to finish it off… 

In order: Soup,
Oil, Wine, Venom, Bile
 (all snake)

All up cost about $5 sooo expensive. The snake itself tasted like chicken no word of a lie, the shots were each different. The wine was weak and almost tasteless, the “venom” had a hint of vodka or spirit in it, and the bile was very sweat which is strange. I’m sure they mixed things into it to make it taste nicer…

Oh, I forgot to mention the snake shop also raises there own snake and featured a few nice massive pythons out the front, as well as a range of other snakes.

Following my feast (literally there was no meat on the snake so was nothing), I headed up the markets that were considered “special” as well. For good reason, the first shop sold dissected frogs, and fish on the same cart, others had crabs with what looked like eyes on the back and other items I have no clue of.  Having had my strange items to eat for the day, I got a few dumplings and called it a night.

The following day, I booked my items to Vietnam (Flights and Accommodation). It was raining very hard outside and I had no intention on getting my shoes or gear wet so close to my next jump.

Happy Birthday Ladies.

That night we had a party at the hostel, it was a surprise party for 2 of the hostel staff (Mimi and Gina), and was masked by a party organized for one of the guest that had stayed there for weeks (Eric) who was leaving that day (till he missed his flight).

Afterwards we headed off to KTV (Karaoke), normally its something that I would never normally partake in… but “when in Rome”.

It was $450 (NTD) ($14 AU) to get in and that was all you could eat and free soft drinks with 4 hours odd worth of songs. The beer was also the cheapest I have seen in Taiwan. Even cheaper than 7-11 which was hard to believe.

We sang and laughed for 4 hours and had a great time. When the machine stopped the one artist that was missing the whole night was Bon Jovi… I had it on my phone and the mic’s still worked so I played it the mic and we rocked out for another song or 2. The night was a lot of fun and I would really do it again if it came up.

How could you miss this...?

The next morning I was up early again and headed to a place in the city called “Elephant Mountain”. It really wasn’t much of a mountain its more of a hill but it has some of the best views over the city. I had all the instructions and map on my phones internet page… only problem was when it came time to use it the phone had dropped the cache and the pages were blank. So I went off my keen sense of direction and memory… and got lost. I ended up walking towards a hill, which I thought was it, and came up to Taipei City Psychiatric Centre Hospital. I’m sure it was gods way of telling me I’m NUTS!.

I was in luck though the road climbed up another 30 meters and there was a trail at the end with a large sign with a elephant on it.. I had found one of the tail entrances.

The hill really wasn’t hard and took all of 10 min to conquer but the view was amazing even on a over cast day.

That night I went with people from the hostel and friends to see the K.G.B. ok well its not the former soviet unions spy agency but a burger shop. It stands for Kiwi Gourmet Burgers. The burgers where nothing on the Bogen burgers in Melbourne but it was nice for a change of pace from Chinese food, and it was nice to be in good company.

Oh and sorry about the photos, I didn’t take my camera to the parties as I didn’t know that to expect. I am waiting for photos from others all the images provided are off phones and Facebook.

Im now preparing to leave Taipei and Taiwan. 
I head to ‘Nam tomorrow and looking forward to a change of culture again, but will miss Taiwan. 
Its been fun here, the culture is great, the sights and the people I've met here are so cool. I will miss it for sure.

Till next time, HAVE FUN or whats the point!?

Steffen.

Tainan - Temples and Markets

From Kenting I made my way by bus to my next destination called Tainan. I had heard that it was a old capital and assumed it would have a number of historical items.

Sadly this is going to be a short blog post. I was only in Tainan for 3 days and there was not much to see, a few temples and night markets. None of which really impressed me much, the night markets were fun the first few nights but got very repetitive.

I asked a few of the other backpackers and all said the same thing, not a whole lot to see in Tainan could have cut it down to 1 or 2 days easy.

I used my time in Tainan more to organize my next leg of travel to Vietnam and read up on where I should go to make the most out of my time…

Never the less I did see some nice things in Tainan and meet some nice people.

I rented a bike one of the days and rode around for a few hours visiting the sights, I visited a number of Confucius temples. They featured a lot of colorful and detailed carvings.

I also visited the largest night market area in Taiwan. They had all manner of shops from face masks to handbags, belts, helmets and food of all types and tastes.

I tried my luck at a shooting stand with what looked like real guns but they shot little pellets, and you had to hit the balloons. I managed to hit every one and earned myself a small purple keychain teddy.

Also tried some full deep-fried squid, and an omelet with oyster and prawns in it. Yummy!

Apart from that it was a relaxing stay in Tainan, I went out at night and danced and slept and researched during the day…  

Sun, Sand and National Parks... Kenting!

So from Hualien, I had to head to a place the last hostel owner recommended a place called Kenting. Its basically the furthest south you can possibly get on the main island of Taiwan. Its also known as the Taiwan Bali, a surfing town and area.

To get to Kenting, I had 2 choices from Hualien. I could take a 7 hour slow train to the south or double back all the way to the north in Taipei then take the bullet train down the west side and only take 4 hours… I chose the bullet train option.

I arrived in Kenting later that day and went immediately to the beach, I hadn’t been to the beach since Korea and the water was a warm welcome.

That night I headed into town and checked out the local night markets, the busses don’t run on a set plan so I walked the 4km back to the hostel. On the way there was a scooter accident so I helped out and provided first aid till the ambo’s came.

Next day I went again to the beach but with someone from the hostel, the wind had started to pick up but it was a sunny hot day, perfect for the beach. At around lunchtime I moved from the beach to the hills. I hiked into the hills trying to look for a path the top of a mountain that was on my map, after 2 hours of walking figured I had passed the trail or it no longer existed. 


Not wanting to walk the 5km odd back I put out my thumb. A old couple in a farm truck stopped and I asked them for directions to the trail. 




They drove me for 20 odd minutes on a dirt road to the trail. Only problem was it was closed for quarantine or something.  
So I started my way back to the hostel.

The following day tired of walking and hiking I rented a scooter. I had never ridden a scooter before let alone started one. My license was expired, and I had no international drivers license with me. Perfect mix! I drove around all day seeing lakes and beaches. It was extremely windy so I started to drive inland. I headed up the road I had walked the previous day. To my dismay about 1km further up the road was a national park recreation area.

I stopped in at the recreation area and started walking up the trails. The park had lots of small caves and walking trails. The caves were nothing overly special but the park was laid out nicely so you could walk 1 way and see everything.


There was a lot of very old trees and a number of narrow passages through what looked liked lava formations but apparently it was coral reef thats been pushed up to form the island.

About the middle of the park was a tower 7 story high, it gave a 360 degree view around the national park and it surroundings.

Monkeys!!

On the way out of the park the tourist groups had started to arrive, the road leading into the park had 2 forest paths on each side, the tourists were all on 1 so I went to the other side. On the side I was on there happened to be a pack of wild monkeys playing in the tree. I stopped and spent a good 10 min watching them before they disappeared not a single other person sight but I could hear the tourist groups still.

Leaving the park I headed down the coast eventually reaching the southern most point of Taiwan. It was marked by a sculpture and a plank. Both of which was over run by tour groups pushing and shuving each other out of the way... so i bush bashed a bit and walked to the coast line in front of the sculpture and took a picture of them all. :)

That night, I headed on my scooter to the natural fire pits. A area where natural gasses from the ground seep up through cracks and are on fire creating natural fire bowls. Apparently its better in the winter and spring as the rains fill in all the small cracks and leave the large main one raging. I left the pits just on sunset. I didn't want to ride the scooter at night if possible...

My Buddy.

My final day in Kenting I had organized to go scuba diving.

The dive sights were local places just off the coast near a marina. Both sights were within a fish/nature reserve.

The first of the 2-dive sight was nothing special. 

Lots of old coral and very few fish. It was a easy 40 min dive with us following the marina wall along and then doubling back around. 



My guess was my buddy was making sure I knew what to do and didn’t want to do anything to deep.  
As we were doing our decompression stop I noticed another diver below us with a re-breather nitros unit. I had never seen one before other than in movies and it looked very cool.

The second dive was off the beach this one was much more interesting with load of fish. They didn’t seem a bit scared of us either coming right up to my mask and if we stopped they were taking small nibbles at the wet suites. The coral here was also much brighter and full, less damaged. 

That afternoon I spent my last evening on the beach relaxing.

Tomorrow I head to Tainan. Kenting has been fun.
      

Something out of this world! Toroko National Park, Hualien

I enjoyed my last night in Taipei (till my return when I have to fly out) at a Rock and Roll bar, I met some nice people and had a great night. The next day I was up late, I had no rush to get to my next destination or sit on a train for 4 hours…

I arrived in Hualien a small town on the east coast of Taiwan a bit after 3pm and tried to find the hostel. The place was meant to be 10 min walk from the train station but in my normal fashion the instructions I got from the information center and my logic got me lost… so after 45 min of walking around with 35 KG on my back I called the hostel owner to say WTF… I almost fell over with his reply. “Look up” the guy was standing on a balcony on the other side of the road. The hostel had no signs, no number but a big RED door… Great.

The next day I was up at the crack of dawn and out the door. I was going to catch the 6am bus to Toroko National Park. Now I knew where the train station was to the hostel it wasn’t a problem. I boarded the small mini bus and we were away.

The night before the hostel owner had warned me of a lot of the walks being closed and that I should start at the main gate and walk to the 2 places open then walk back out because of rock slides. But he said, normally people start at Tianxiang and walk to the main gate… Stubborn as always I was at Tianxiang at 9am and keen to get the most out of my experience. Real smart Steffen….

At Tianxiang there was a large bridge with orange railings and a temple up on the hill, at this time in the morning it was only just lit as the sun was still not hitting all parts of the gorge. 

I started the walk down the road and having naturally slept the whole way to Tianxiang I had no idea what was ahead of me. The first of many tunnels that day would great me, at first I took a double take.

If people had walked this before surely there would be a path or something, but no. I had to walk though the tunnel in between trucks, busses and cars.

With a grasp of uncertainty I set down the first dark tunnel, no problems.  It had a small walk way on the side I was able to hug and it was semi lit. The next tunnel would prove a bit more of a hazard, there was no walkway and no lights. About ½ way through the tunnel I could hear the roar of a bus coming from behind. I was on its side of the road and it had no lights on.. (Oh crap), I ran to the other side of the road and missed the gutter on the other side, tripped and fell back, and went rolling on the road.

I cradled my SLR camera in my chest and I managed to land on my backpack which took the full force. The bus stopped and I’m sure the people in the bus got some nice pictures of me picking myself up of the roadside. Somehow I managed to only scratch my leg and arm and not get run over by the passing traffic. The next place along had a ranger station I walked to, to get cleaned up and some iodine to clean the scratches… no help from the bus driver.

Moving on, I was determined to not let it phase me. I continued passing the tourist bus and walking down some of the most amazing scenic spots I have seem to date. The trails were closed due to earthquakes and rain that caused landslides. The road was pelted with rocks that had fallen but it didn’t matter, the large number of rope bridges, waterfalls, Road bridges and massive amounts of marble seemed to make it all worth more.

One of the rope bridges took me to the perfect spot to see this huge waterfall crashing over the marble. The entire gorge seemed to be out of marble, all the rocks were smooth and pure white in color. I knew the town had a lot of marble factories but didn’t realize this area was so rich in it.

The walk continued on till I hit the nine bridges trail, it was again closed because of rock falls but I had a problem, this tunnel going around it had a sign clearly stating no walkers.. and the busses had all stopped stopping here because it was closed. 



So I hitchhiked for the first time in Taiwan. A German couple picked me up and took me to the other side, I had to squeeze in the back of there Mercedes Benz in between to toddlers on high chairs, take a mental picture of that, I only just managed to fold my leg in. They were very nice and offered to take me further but I was enjoying the sunny day and the walk. Everyone was waving to me as they drove past, I must be the only person stupid enough to be doing it that day.

They dropped me off at the other end of the tunnel and I was on my way again.

After 3 hours of walking I arrived at the only section that was open that day, the Swallow Grotto. It was marked by a couple if bridges with large swallows on them, it was also where all the tourist busses seemed to stop again, I had not seem a tourist group since the early morning. I found it quite funny that they all walked around with hard hats on. If there was a landslide or one of the boulders that you see on the side of the road was to fall on you a hard hat really wouldn’t help. Guess it would help with small ones but meh.

The Swallows Grotto was named so as it had holes in the wall that looked like nests, we walked through a series of under cliff tunnels to the end of the walk.

The raods seemed to have more and more people on them after this people, mainly with people on bikes not walking though.

A few hours later I arrived at a temple which, the temple was perched on the cliff side with natural water springs spewing water out of the rock wall. 
The path to the temple was a series of tunnels one of which took you to a room with a Buddha statue, it was all lit up with a orange light and magical.

I talked to a old guy walking on the road shortly there after and he told me I was 2KM from the entrance, so I decided to run the last 2km just for extra punishment.

I had beaten the first bus back to the main gate, the first bus was at 2:40 and I had arrived at 1:30. I took a seat on a bench and had no less than 30 people come up to me asking if I walked all the way from Tianxiang and wanting a photo with me, I had not only beaten the first bus but I had leap frogged the tourist busses the entire 22km walk and seemed to become a “where’s wally” moment.

I was stuffed the next day and spent the day at the hostel doing bugger all, was nice to sit still for a change. That night I did go out to a local bar but it was nothing special.

My last day in Hualien, I rented a bike and wanted to see how far I could get. I started and found a nice bike path that followed the coast line. It took me past some ship yards and things but after a few km it took me back to the city. I tried again taking the highway out of town. 


I ended up finding a large river after 12km or so of riding (several hours), I met a group of Taiwanese bike riders and they were heading back to town.

I had to return the bike before 5pm and it was 2pm so I asked if I could join and they were really nice company. I tagged on the back of the group and didn’t realize it but the last 10km had all been up hill, very slight but still. The riders stopped 2km and had to wait for there friends so I sped on, it was downhill but strong headwind. It didn’t take me anywhere near as long to reach town again and about 2km from the train station the bike group rejoined me again, they had taken a shortcut through town where I went around. We rode the last 2km as a group and it was a lot of fun to talk to them, they had started at the south of Taiwan and were riding to the north for charity.

I’m now researching where to head to next, a big city or the beach or another national park… who knows. I do! ;)

Till next time. HAVE FUN!

Steffen.