We finished work on March 19th. We decided to take a couple of days and travel around Taiwan before we went home to travel around Taiwan. We're kind of operating on the principle that we won't be in Asia again so we want to make the most of it while we can.
We have done a fair few trips down the west coast of Taiwan and have seen a lot of Taipei in our time here. So, we decided to head down the east coast which is much less populated and see what it was like. Everyone told us to see Hualien and Ylan so we booked 3 nights in the former and 1 night in the latter.
Before we went on that trip, we had a night out in Taipei with some of our friends as a kind of farewell night out. The plan was to go up, have a few drinks, eat some dinner, have a few drinks, watch the Ireland v England match, have a few drinks and go to a nightclub. Oh and have a few drinks.
We managed to achieve all of our goals (particularly the few drinks) and I'm pretty sure we had a good night. The next day wasn't so much fun though.
It was a brilliant way to start the trip and we stayed in a class hostel. It cost us less than 30 euro for both of us for two nights with free internet, air con and late check out! What more could you ask for?
We went down to Hualien on Monday after getting our vaccinations for the trip to South East Asia. Now, that was expensive. Bloody health care is a rip off everywhere!
Anyway, the train was OK and took just over three hours. Katie had booked our hostel (as usual) and again it was brilliant. It was 25 euro a night for the two of us and it's NOT a hostel. We have our own private en suite, air con, a flat screen TV, four poster bed and a fridge. I've never stayed in a 'hostel' like this before.
The woman who runs it is really, super nice. She's booked all of our activities for us, made us food one night and brought us to and from the train station. She actually said she'd do 'anything' for us. That was a bit weird but the other stuff was great.
The first thing she booked for us was a morning of white water rafting. Like everything else here, it was really good value.
For 20 euro each we got collected from our hostel, brought to the river (about an hour away), taken out for four hours on a 24km rafting run with just the two of us and dropped back to our hostel. Plus. lunch was thrown in for good measure. I shudder to think what all that would have cost back home.
The rafting itself was really fun. The rapids weren't exactly extreme but for two people who had never done it before they were adequate. There was too many flat parts with just rowing for my liking but that's cos I'm ridiculously lazy.
The scenery was amazing though. It was just so different from anything I'd seen before. It was also fun to do some water based activities.
The next day, out hostel owner booked a tour of Taroko National Park for us. For another 20 euro each we were collected from our hostel, brought for an eight hour tour of the park area, shown good trails to hike on, given various food items and had loads of pictures taken of us at all the spots. The woman also took videos and pictures herself which she is going to compile into a DVD and send to Ireland for us!
Taroko National Park is awesome (emphasis on the 'awe' part). Again, I have never seen anything like it before. It's definitely the most amazing natural wonder I've ever seen. The trails were amazing, the water was intense and the rock formations were completely unique.
It's hard to describe how cool I thought it was. Even the album I put up on Facebook might not fully show off the amazingness of it all but I really, really enjoyed the whole experience.
Other people who have been there might think it was a bit boring and that I'm a bit mental for loving it so much. It's probably because I've never seen anything like it before.
Ireland is beautiful but this had more of a ruggedness than anything I can think of at home. Probably the only thing I could compare it with is the Cliffs of Moher in terms of just pure, awe inspiring beauty.
The biggest thing I noticed about Taiwan while visiting these places as a tourist was how well its set up it is for tourists. The roads going through all of these places are fantastic and there is countless tour buses willing to show you around the whole area - as well as taxis wiling to do it for small groups and couples.
The public transport, as I mentioned before, is impeccable too. So seeing the country is just so easy and there really is loads to do. The other major plus is that infrastructure doesn't really impact on the area too much - which is pretty rare I think.
The only criticism I could level is a really selfish Western one - the level of spoken English in some places is pretty low. For people llke me, Katie and our other friends in Taiwan this isn't much of a problem because we are used to it but I think this would be off putting for older tourists.
I know its a lazy criticism but I genuinely think there is loads to see here and little things like that do make a difference to a country's reputation. Taiwan could be a great tourist destination but I think it needs to marketed more and little things improved because it has great potential I think.
The marketing is possibly improving though because since we've been in Singapore and Malaysia we've seen advertisements for Taiwan EVERYWHERE. They seem to be on a promotion drive and there's posters in most of the train stations we've been in. It's a good start but the ads are a bit crap…..
To finish our trip off we went to a tiny town called Toucheng. It was in Ylan County which people had told us to visit. Our research told us that it was a small surfing town and had a bit to do. It wasn't and it didn't - that's all there is to say about Toucheng.
Overall though we had a great trip and it was really worth it. The last few weeks have been great and it's been a brilliant way to finish off our time here before we head off on our travels.
We have done a fair few trips down the west coast of Taiwan and have seen a lot of Taipei in our time here. So, we decided to head down the east coast which is much less populated and see what it was like. Everyone told us to see Hualien and Ylan so we booked 3 nights in the former and 1 night in the latter.
Before we went on that trip, we had a night out in Taipei with some of our friends as a kind of farewell night out. The plan was to go up, have a few drinks, eat some dinner, have a few drinks, watch the Ireland v England match, have a few drinks and go to a nightclub. Oh and have a few drinks.
We managed to achieve all of our goals (particularly the few drinks) and I'm pretty sure we had a good night. The next day wasn't so much fun though.
It was a brilliant way to start the trip and we stayed in a class hostel. It cost us less than 30 euro for both of us for two nights with free internet, air con and late check out! What more could you ask for?
We went down to Hualien on Monday after getting our vaccinations for the trip to South East Asia. Now, that was expensive. Bloody health care is a rip off everywhere!
Anyway, the train was OK and took just over three hours. Katie had booked our hostel (as usual) and again it was brilliant. It was 25 euro a night for the two of us and it's NOT a hostel. We have our own private en suite, air con, a flat screen TV, four poster bed and a fridge. I've never stayed in a 'hostel' like this before.
The woman who runs it is really, super nice. She's booked all of our activities for us, made us food one night and brought us to and from the train station. She actually said she'd do 'anything' for us. That was a bit weird but the other stuff was great.
The first thing she booked for us was a morning of white water rafting. Like everything else here, it was really good value.
For 20 euro each we got collected from our hostel, brought to the river (about an hour away), taken out for four hours on a 24km rafting run with just the two of us and dropped back to our hostel. Plus. lunch was thrown in for good measure. I shudder to think what all that would have cost back home.
The rafting itself was really fun. The rapids weren't exactly extreme but for two people who had never done it before they were adequate. There was too many flat parts with just rowing for my liking but that's cos I'm ridiculously lazy.
The scenery was amazing though. It was just so different from anything I'd seen before. It was also fun to do some water based activities.
The next day, out hostel owner booked a tour of Taroko National Park for us. For another 20 euro each we were collected from our hostel, brought for an eight hour tour of the park area, shown good trails to hike on, given various food items and had loads of pictures taken of us at all the spots. The woman also took videos and pictures herself which she is going to compile into a DVD and send to Ireland for us!
Taroko National Park is awesome (emphasis on the 'awe' part). Again, I have never seen anything like it before. It's definitely the most amazing natural wonder I've ever seen. The trails were amazing, the water was intense and the rock formations were completely unique.
It's hard to describe how cool I thought it was. Even the album I put up on Facebook might not fully show off the amazingness of it all but I really, really enjoyed the whole experience.
Other people who have been there might think it was a bit boring and that I'm a bit mental for loving it so much. It's probably because I've never seen anything like it before.
Ireland is beautiful but this had more of a ruggedness than anything I can think of at home. Probably the only thing I could compare it with is the Cliffs of Moher in terms of just pure, awe inspiring beauty.
The biggest thing I noticed about Taiwan while visiting these places as a tourist was how well its set up it is for tourists. The roads going through all of these places are fantastic and there is countless tour buses willing to show you around the whole area - as well as taxis wiling to do it for small groups and couples.
The public transport, as I mentioned before, is impeccable too. So seeing the country is just so easy and there really is loads to do. The other major plus is that infrastructure doesn't really impact on the area too much - which is pretty rare I think.
The only criticism I could level is a really selfish Western one - the level of spoken English in some places is pretty low. For people llke me, Katie and our other friends in Taiwan this isn't much of a problem because we are used to it but I think this would be off putting for older tourists.
I know its a lazy criticism but I genuinely think there is loads to see here and little things like that do make a difference to a country's reputation. Taiwan could be a great tourist destination but I think it needs to marketed more and little things improved because it has great potential I think.
The marketing is possibly improving though because since we've been in Singapore and Malaysia we've seen advertisements for Taiwan EVERYWHERE. They seem to be on a promotion drive and there's posters in most of the train stations we've been in. It's a good start but the ads are a bit crap…..
To finish our trip off we went to a tiny town called Toucheng. It was in Ylan County which people had told us to visit. Our research told us that it was a small surfing town and had a bit to do. It wasn't and it didn't - that's all there is to say about Toucheng.
Overall though we had a great trip and it was really worth it. The last few weeks have been great and it's been a brilliant way to finish off our time here before we head off on our travels.
