Good suggestion, but it’s predicated upon 1: good weather; 2: being able to pass the ridiculous driver’s test
Do a search. There is a full list of driver’s license questions and correct answers on this site. I failed my 1st. Studied the questions. No problem. I went in and it asked me if I wanted to do a practice test. I did and blew through it at 100%. It asked me if I wanted to continue, I thought, what the hey, another practice won’t hurt. It was the real test at 100%
Look and study. I printed all the pages and sat at lunch with a tea doing practice tests. After 3 or 4, - - - no problem.
It would be nice to do a poll on how many scooter drivers actually have a current license. I think they changed it last year to last indefinitely. I have one but it is so far out of date . . . . . I sometimes get stopped and nobody has given a crap. You got a license, including international, good to go.
Heh, my mistake. I thought we were talking about cars.
Yeah, the scooter test was no problem. It’s that damnable backwards S-shape for the car test I can’t get down.
The backwards S tripped me up as well, but as far as I understand it, if you do everything else correctly, you won’t fail due to going over the line in the backwards S. They certainly let me pass even though I most obviously crossed the line.
Yangmishshan is technically still Taipei, and it’s downright silent at the top, especially Monday to Friday.
Xiang Shan/Hu Shan etc behind 101 is relatively quiet on weekdays as well.
The operative word is weekdays. On weekends, Xiangshan, a.k.a. elephant mountain, is like a tourist-filled market, especially that first stretch from the trailhead to the boulders. I made the mistake of going there on a Saturday a couple months ago, and I must have heard at least four different languages spoken by camera-toting, high-heels wearing, sunblock-smelling “hikers” who mainly just went up to the lookout platform for the city view.
Exactly. Keyword weekdays (before 5-6PM). I don’t suggest taking the main route either. Explore a bit. It’s a small mt range so you can’t really get lost. Plus lots of maps at a lot of intersections.
You can access if from Muzha/xindian other areas too!
have you considered the area north of the brown mrt line? i’ve found some parks and hiking trails north of there that didn’t seem too crowded on the weekend. probably should be less crowded on the weekdays.
the riverside park is pretty quiet on weekday afternoons as well. find a spot under a tree and you’re all set.
be careful of the homeless people though haha
If you’ve actually gone hiking in and around Taipei, you’ll know that the mountains aren’t quiet at all. I went hiking in Neihu recently, and the sounds of cicadas, crickets, birds were deafening. I would go up a mountain for fresh air, a nice view, a good workout, but definitely not for a silent place.
Hah. I always used to say that too. Taiwanese in the cities just reproduce the noise of the countryside/natural environment.
There are more os less quiet corners in some mountains. I would love to have some time for getting lost in this island…
Not exactly Taipei, but the coast can be peaceful and tranquil.
The most peaceful quiet places are the absolute dumps of old fishing villages on the West coast that everybody has left to go to the city.
Climb up a mountain on the other hand and there will be a welcoming party waiting for you at the top!
I didn’t think of that before I posted. It’s just instinct to think, mountains = quiet, however, it’s pretty noisy up there with the amount of people that go on the weekends.
Keyword is still weekday afternoons!
There’s a few coffee shops near NTU that are dead quiet. Everyone in there is reading and sipping coffee.
earplugs.
Reviving this topic about noise in Taipei to draw attention to this recent study completed at Academia Sinica. Here’s hoping that the Taipei-based forumosans now reading this are not among those 30%! 
Guy
3 Likes
53dB?!
That’s conversation level noise!
From the Liberty Times article linked above (and machine translated into English):
According to the EPA website, everyone has different feelings about noise. Between 50 and 70 decibels, it will cause a little discomfort; if the volume is 70 decibels for a long time, it will make people anxious and cause various symptoms.
I can imagine that no relief for days and weeks and months on end would lead to some of those symptoms. Look around at people in Taipei—yes probably around 30% of them look messed up on any given day. I wonder if the noise issue here is one possible reason why.
Guy
1 Like
I wonder how would those aliens from “A Silent Place” fare in Taiwan?