I have two 2 week holidays in August and again in September. Right now it’s blistering hot in Xiamen and WAY overcrowded with busloads of tourists - I can’t ride my bike on the beach road (for exercise, unless it’s at 2am). I want to take a break form the craziness of it all. ‘Idle hands’ too might lead me to the bar street too often…
The heat I can deal with for the most part of the day - I can always hang out in my apartment.
Anyway, I have a 30 day visa for Taiwan. And for the Philippines (21 days landing) and Thailand (30 days landing) a visa isn’t necessary. I reckon Taiwan is freaky deaky hot like here (but everywhere’s air conditioned and I think it might be a bit cooler in the mountains and west coast?). Thailand’s always hot (but you have the beaches down south and the mountains in the north). The Philippines - beaches? my friend lives on Palawan, looks nice.
I’ll be going alone, but have a few friends in Taichung and Taipei, and none in the other two countries.
I’d like to see the west coast of Taiwan - top to bottom, and some more of the mountains. Thailand - I’m a bit bored/spoilt by having been there 8 times. Philippines - I would be a virgin, could be fun, and not too expensive.
I can visit Taiwan in October (national holidays in China) for about ten days. The weather would be much more comfortable methinks…
Ideas and advice please. I’m crap at making decisions :s
All three countries are going to be unbearably hot in August and September, so I would choose a beach destination. The Philippines would be my choice if I were you because 1. you’ve never been there, and 2. you can visit Taiwan in October.
Hokkaido too, especially if you like biking. Haven’t been but have been planning for a while so my research suggests it’s a great place for that activity.
Just want to say too that despite what people have written the peak of the heat in Taiwan is over. At least up north June is the hottest month and now early August there is already a nice difference between day and evening temps. I was out for a 3 hour bike ride two nights ago and didn’t come back drenched in sweat. It was extremely pleasant as the breeze from my motion kept me cool. Of course this is along the river paths which tend to be a couple degress cooler than downtown.
But I’ve cycled the east coast in early July and it was manageable. Unlike Hainan in April which killed me.
If you read cycling blogs lots of people are out doing long trips right now.
Iv always felt jUly was the hottest in taipei. And on sept 1 you can feel the marked difference in the air. Swimmign in FUlung on sept 1st is definitely different.
YOU may be right of course. But i seem to recall june was just heating up but july was the climax. And august is like june with end august being slightly cooler with the sept 1st date being a marked different feel of approaching autumn.
weather does not stay constant thru the millenia. I left the wan in 99. So of course the summers from 89 to 99 say may be different then the summers of 2000 to 2011?
[quote=“tommy525”]YOU may be right of course. But i seem to recall june was just heating up but july was the climax. And august is like june with end august being slightly cooler with the sept 1st date being a marked different feel of approaching autumn.
weather does not stay constant thru the millenia. I left the wan in 99. So of course the summers from 89 to 99 say may be different then the summers of 2000 to 2011?[/quote]
Possibly. It may also be that if you spend all your time in the city the heat effect from concrete and buildings means that the temp difference between day and night doesn’t change much. I used to jog and now bike and it is clear that temps are cooler in late July and certainly August in the evening. Not drastic, but the difference between “I am going to die” and “I can do this”. Actually as I wrote with the rievrside bike lanes it is very comfortable to exercise at night as the air is cooler by the water. It’s really noticeable around Bitan. As soon as you hit Xiao Bitan you feel the air cool and then even more at Bitan.
It’s deffo cooled off a bit in Xiamen - about 31 Celsius today. As you said you don’t feel like you’re going to be overcome by the heat.
Is it possible to ride the Western seaboard of Taiwan? (forgive me if this question has been asked, ans if so redirect me to that thread)[/quote]
I have heard you can now ride from Bali (across from danshui) down to Hsinchu on dedicated bike lanes and from Hsinchu you can definitely ride another 30 km or so along coastal bike routes. There are also plenty of small coastal roads. It’s actually a strange part of Taiwan. No trees, mostly scrubby vegetation, low buildings and rolling topography.
Right now two round the island bike paths are being established. One coastal and one inland.
It’s nice and cool up in the mountains. 18.7 in Wuling this evening. Felt amazing after the 34 in Taipei this afternoon. I see some people cycling up here as well, it must be quite a workout…
Not according to weather charts and my and most people I know perception. It’s very noticeable if you exercise outdoors.[/quote]
maybe you’re 1-2 C off the peak but it’s still really hot until the end of August imo. It takes even longer for Kaohsiung to cool down though.[/quote]
I agree it’s still hot, but the evenings are fine now. What I am stressing is not that day time temps drop but evening and night time ones. Of course there is always a difference but by August it is enough to make it pleasant once the sun goes down.
I mean right now it is 28 degrees in Taipei. That is a lovely temperature. It will be 35 tomorrow afternoon. That is not.
another option that I’ve wanted to do is Mongolia and it won’t be too hot there. You can take the train from Beijing although I’m not sure how many days it is or how much of your trip would be lost in transit.
