I’ve done it many times on a big motorcycle but always stay the night in Hualien because it’s tiring.
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You can drive the nine by scooter over to Yilan.
Nice. I’ve actually got a large bike license. They said I was the first westerner they had seen do the test.I dont actually have a large bike though (no parking space for it and the import tax is incredibly high). I checked out renting a Harley but they limit the mileage you are allowed to do
Anyway I won’t veer off topic. I was just curious about this part of the events. I feel very sorry for this man. I once got lost on my bike at night in Sansha. I was so tired I had to stop. It was in the mountains at night. I just went into this pagoda and “slept it out” till morning. Then in the morning I got my bearings and found my way.
(I decided to stop riding because my eyes were tired and I nearly ended up in the concrete drainage ditches a few times and my fuel was getting low)
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Flying from Canada to Taiwan, you will almost certainly be flying into Taoyuan Airport (TPE), the main airport in Taiwan. Getting to Taipei is a simple matter of tsking the MRT or bus. From Taipei, it’s easy to take a train or bus to Hualien and Taitung. Avoid holidays.
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You can also fly to Hualien cheaply from Hong Kong
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Not scooter but small and big bikes, alone and with passenger. I also know people who have done it on scooter, and you see lots of people doing it during cny.
The guy was unemployed, had a lot of time and not much money. I don’t see why not to do that ride. It would also distract him from negative thoughts.
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For air tickets, if you want to go non-stop to Taipei (the capital), you can take EVA Air from Toronto Pearson (YYZ) to Taiwan Taoyuan (TPE). This is the fastest point-to-point flight from Toronto to Taiwan.
Another possibility is to avoid going to Taipei and instead fly non-stop from Toronto Pearson (YYZ) to Hong Kong (HKG) using Cathay Pacific or Air Canada, and then transferring to a connecting flight (operated by another airline) from Hong Kong to Hualien (HUN). However I am having trouble finding any direct flights currently operated from HKG to HUN. Perhaps these are seasonal only.
Air Canada also flies from Vancouver to Taipei, but this would involve a very long domestic flight in Canada to get to the west coast. I would not recommend this.
I hope this works out.
Guy
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I totally agree. My (Taiwanese) in-laws are quite wealthy. Two of the step-siblings (in their 40s, btw) don’t really work… my husband and I, if we really wanted to, could also not work, and live in one of the family’s apartments. This would be “okay” but definitely is frowned upon, gossiped about at family gatherings, etc. This disapproval is something a non-Mandarin speaker would be completely oblivious to, as face-to-face it would be all smiles and nods and “ok, ok, no problem.” Also, everything is controlled by the parents (my in-laws) if they are financially responsible for it.
My husband and I prefer our independence, so we do the 9-5 (later, let’s be real) grind, rent an old apartment in Taipei, obediently rent a car when we leave the city because my in-laws think our old car will break down (to be fair, it might), don’t ride scooters because they say it’s too dangerous… etc. But because we provide for ourselves, we have freedom and make our own choices.
I imagine Dave could easily have thought it was acceptable to live off his wife’s family, and may not have picked up on growing tension. Especially after having a child, the family would have an even worse view of him because he wasn’t doing anything to provide for her (that we know of).
Re: wanting to open a B&B, but the family opened a hotel, remember as Omni clarified, a minsu is kind of a blend of B&B and hotel, depending how it’s being run. There may have been some miscommunication on Dave’s part, but to Taiwanese, a minsu is a minsu, and the distinction between B&B vs hotel wouldn’t be important.
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Taipei (TPE) is the main international airport for most itineraries. Taipei is also where you get the most reasonable and sensible itineraries. Also Kaohsiung but no reason identified for you to go there. Songshan (TSA) is the other airport in Taipei for all domestic flights.
Your first stop will probably want to be a Canadian trade office in Taipei to see what they know and what they recommend. There may be other stops for the Taiwan government or police in Taipei.
Then travel towards Qingshui Cliffs. You can drive from Taipei a few hours or travel to Hualien by car or train or plane. You’ll need a vehicle to get to the cliffs. Either a car or scooter and maybe by taxi.
You want to stay at least one maybe two nights in Hualien.
Trip to taitung to meet wife or anything else will be by train or car.
For green island, most people take boat from taitung or you can also fly from a few places including Taipei.
No car needed in Taipei but if you’re comfortable renting a car then that may be the way to go outside of Taipei since you’ll probably visit the cliffs more than once.
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So true. Not working or “doing something” is quite a taboo. Even very wealthy people I know here still work even if they have easily enough money to retire. They might for instance open an aquarium shop, liquor store, coffee shop or anything just so when people ask the family “What does he do” they can answer that he is working. A big face issue for most families here. Additionally if you don’t have much work, which can happen, especially to older foreigners here, then at least don’t hang around the house , got to look busy.
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This woman did not care about him. After she got pregnant their relation got sour and she left him to live with her family. Now all she cared about was how can I make his life miserable. Apparantly she did a pretty good job at that.
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Also a woman going through pregnancy can go through some big hormonal changes. And maybe before getting pregnant they can still be somewhat in control of themselves. But once they got pregnant and deliver their babies, their personality can completely change. Mix that with some Taiwanese temper and anger problems, and you have the perfect cocktail for drama queen episodes…
That is quite a giant leap of assumption based on what? Hearsay.
Everyone is so quick to place blame and judgement on the wife without letting her voice her side of the story. This is quickly turning into a witch hunt.
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Or a perfect cocktail for a happily ever after life… which is more common.
Fuck me. Well done, you win “THE WORST POST IN THE HISTORY OF THE FLOB AWARD”.
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Not even top 10 mate 
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Top 20 maybe? Come on it’s pretty bad.
At the risk of coming across a tad controversial, dabomb_gent isn’t incorrect at any point. Possibly the use of “could” instead of “can” would be better.
On the contrary. You assume it’s because he was drinking, jobless, you didn’t raise any objection about people talking like that , did you… It seemed acceptable to you to put all the blame on this person’s brother. But I don’t see it like that at all.
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