When we heard in Seoul that another typhoon would be hitting Taiwan on the day of our flight, we thought of delaying our departure. Fortunately it decided to die out in the China Sea, so we took our 2-hour flight to Taipei early September 7.
Our first impression of Taipei was all those scooters everywhere! Almost more than there are cars... Again it was pretty hot and humid as it is quite tropical with palm trees along the wide avenues. So the traffic is chaotic and
there is little room to walk on the sidewalks, because they are used to park scooters. We checked into a small hotel near the train station and that same evening we visited the Shihlin night market, the largest of at least half a dozen in the city. Again, chaos: a small alley lined with shops of mostly clothing and other "dollar store" type places, many with a noisy fellow shouting in a microphone. It was super crowded with only room for a single
line in each direction (my parents were warned by different people to hang on tight to me...) It got more interesting towards the food section with vendors of all the local snacks: boiled, fried, steamed, grilled, etc., pork, seafood, noodles, fruit drinks, sweets, etc., etc. Near a dark Taoist temple, where worshippers were burning incense, we managed to find seats at a small table to eat oyster soup, dumplings and something else hard to describe. People were very friendly and many spoke some English to help us out. As we were leaving the market we walked past a long line-up where 2 guys from Karachi were making chicken tikka and chapatis.
The next 2 days in Taipei were spent getting organized for our journey through Taiwan, visiting a flower market (the most beautiful orchids), seeing Sun Yat Sen's memorial hall with a changing of the guard ceremony and making paper at the paper museum (this was great as I actually got my hands wet in the pulp made of bark). As it's a big city we had to walk a lot and take the modern subway. One night we had sushi in a restaurant where all the dishes pass by in front of you by a conveyor belt system. As each dish cost the same, to make up the bill they just counted our used dishes. I should also mention Snake Alley, another popular night market. Like Shihlin, very crowded, but here we had a chance to see live snakes being sliced open to catch their blood and bile in a glass. Pretty awful to see, but still interesting...
After a Chinese breakfast of dumplings, sweet soja milk and steamed bread we took a taxi to the railway station where we caught a train to our next destination: the famous Taroko Gorge, one of the best sights in the country.
After a scenic, 3-hour ride along the East coast with steep cliffs, we got off at Shincheng. Not knowing how to go further we asked a group of students from Taipei if we could join their bus. No problem, but first lunch! OK, I was getting hungry. The group had booked a restaurant and with our new friends we were served a wonderful meal of fish, pork, veggies, tofu, etc. Then we boarded the bus and drove inland, soon following the Liwu River over a narrow road literally carved out of the rock. It was a very impressive ride through this very narrow gorge, sometimes less than 100 ft. wide with vertical walls as high as 1000 ft. The bus only went halfway to return back to the coast, so we got off and were lucky to get another ride from a hotel-van with some Americans. They went to the 5-star "Grand Formosa" in the small village of Tienhsiang, right in the gorge. We, though, checked into the Catholic Hostel for an OK room (the French priest seemed to have been there for a very long time...)
On our way to Wenshan Hot Springs we met with another couple from New York (she is Taiwanese) with their 4-year old daughter, Carson, a perfect playmate for me. We had to go down a jungle path to the river, over a narrow cable bridge to reach the hot spring: 3 pools of varying heat built into the rock-face. There were some other people too, so we all changed and soaked right in. The first pool was OK (mixed with cold river water) but the other 2 with almost white water were too hot for me. We also went into the fast flowing river to cool off and to experience some more cold/hot water. We had a great time playing in this beautiful location. After dinner we met with our friends again at the Formosa's recreation center: indoor playground, pool & ping pong tables, slot machines, bowling, karaoke and even an electric scooter rink. Boy, Carson and I were in heaven!
The next day was beautiful and after a healthy Chinese breakfast we explored the area with various hikes. First to the nunnery over a cable bridge and on top of a nearby hill, where Mommy talked with one of the nuns who lived in the US for 15 years and Papa had to climb the 6-story pagoda. Then we got a ride from a local Frenchman and his family down-river to walk down the most dramatic part of the road. Going back we hitched a ride with a friendly policeman. It's quite amazing how easy it is hitch-hiking in Taiwan: we barely stick our thumbs out and a few minutes later we're picked up! Our last hike went first through a long, dark and wet foot tunnel to visit the Payang Falls, which were reached after some more, shorter tunnels: thanks to recent rain we
got a wonderful sight. And on the way back we were lucky spotting a group of monkeys in the trees!
The next day we woke up early (6 am), packed our bags and started hitch-hiking back to the coast. Again, right away 2 friendly & chatty (no English) ladies drove us right to Hualien train station in a luxurious 4x4. After a quick breakfast of eggs and buns we took the train to our next adventure: rafting down the Shiukuluan River. Getting off at Juisui we happened to meet with a group of 7 other rafters from Taipei who suggested we join them. So here we were picked up by the rafting company's van to the river, had a quick, boxed lunch and since I couldn't go, Papa was going for the first half of the 4-hour trip, switching with Mommy for the second half. They told me it was quite exciting and a lot of fun with small to medium strong rapids, warm water and beautiful scenery, a bit like the Taroko Gorge, but not as steep. There were 3 other rafts and all of them had to be towed by the 2 motorized rafts (the lifeguards) at various points along the way .... Not our boat. Mommy was
quite proud of herself and says she is now ready for the French River in our canoe 'Bandaneira'. "Just bring on those class 6 rapids!!" I spent my time wading in the river banks, making all kinds of Chinese looking cakes in the black mud, while waiting at the switching and exit points.
After spending the night on the coast in Chinpu, we took the morning bus further south to Taitung, following the very scenic Pacific coast. There we took another bus to Dawu for more beautiful scenery, although all along this coast they planted huge, concrete typhoon breakers. No bus leaving any time soon, so we just stuck our thumbs out and again a nice gentleman on his way to Kaoshiung with a large empty van, stopped. Now we crossed the southern, mountainous tip of the island to the West coast over quite a few hairpin turns. My tummy did not like that so we had to make a technical stop towards the end after which I was fine again. At the coast a bus took us for the last stretch to Kenting, our final destination.
Wow! This place is a mixture of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Venice Beach in Los Angeles and Snake Alley in Taipei. It seems to be THE domestic weekend destination: the main street is lined with small hotels, trendy boutiques and restaurants (Italian, Malay, Thai, some Chinese...), loads of Gypsy Kings music, the average age probably is 25 and you can do all sorts of fun activities. Unfortunately it rains a lot at the moment, so the restaurants and cafes are full. But I still got a chance to play in the waves on a small, crowded beach.