Does anybody here know an English bloke named Ashley Hines who runs a beach resort on Penghu? I’m supposed to know this guy from years back, but I guess I’m getting old, because I can’t remember him at all.
Anyway, I’m off to Penghu on Sunday and I’d like to hook up with him if I can.
Anyone?
[quote=“sandman”]Does anybody here know an English bloke named Ashley Hines who runs a beach resort on Penghu? I’m supposed to know this guy from years back, but I guess I’m getting old, because I can’t remember him at all.
Anyway, I’m off to Penghu on Sunday and I’d like to hook up with him if I can.
Anyone?[/quote]
I googled him and came up with this:
[quote=“Maoman”][quote=“sandman”]Does anybody here know an English bloke named Ashley Hines who runs a beach resort on Penghu? I’m supposed to know this guy from years back, but I guess I’m getting old, because I can’t remember him at all.
Anyway, I’m off to Penghu on Sunday and I’d like to hook up with him if I can.
Anyone?[/quote]
I googled him and came up with this:
Feck! Assuming that it’s even been completed, it looks kind of out of my price range. Still, I suppose we can always blag our way in, drink beer and pretend to be rich folks.
Can’t recall to have seen a real resort over there but then I was rushing across all the islands in three days. You can find some information here: penghu.phhg.gov.tw/tourism/English/frame.asp
Click on ‘Emaps’ and then on ‘Detail Map’ to find hotels in Makung town or here.
[quote=“Rascal”]Can’t recall to have seen a real resort over there but then I was rushing across all the islands in three days. You can find some information here: penghu.phhg.gov.tw/tourism/English/frame.asp
Click on “Emaps” and then on the map to find hotels in Makung town.[/quote]
Rascal, check out this link
Only artist impressions, no photos, but the site is dated 2001, so maybe it’s actually built now. Looks pretty good, in an “artificial” kind of way, but expensive, if you look at the other ventures they’re involved in – I’ve golfed and flown falcons at Gleneagles in Scotland and it’s VERY fancy-schmancy – I wouldn’t be able to afford a cup of coffee there!
Dream Bay Resort is the name of the project. The last pertinent site I found was dated 2000. Did the idea sink?
[quote]Rascal, check out this link
Only artist impressions, no photos, but the site is dated 2001, so maybe it’s actually built now. Looks pretty good, in an “artificial” kind of way, but expensive, if you look at the other ventures they’re involved in – I’ve golfed and flown falcons at Gleneagles in Scotland and it’s VERY fancy-schmancy – I wouldn’t be able to afford a cup of coffee there![/quote]
Thanks, looks indeed really nice - but pricey. Haven’t been to that part of the island, so I wouldn’t know if the project has been completed.
From what I have seen most hotels are located in downtown Makung (nothing special though) and those outside are usually of the really cheap flavour. The so-called hotels on the other, smaller islands are even worst.
On the map it looks like it’s near Fenggui cave. I don’t recall seeing any construction last time I was there, but again that was a few years ago.
The resort won’t be ready until next year. And I don’t think it’s the one linked above. Ashley’s resort is not a hotel complex but a series of one story dwellings with a serious eco-tourism theme. No jet skis allowed. Sea kayak tours to the outer islands. Low environmental impact, etc.
Hi Sandman,
Ashley here, and quite possible you did indeed know me from years back (but obvously I ondt know you as Sandman). Our project in penghu is still ongoing, and we are now doing quite a few other mini-projects around the islands.
We tried to get the ancient fishing village on Wang An listed as a world heritage site. Taiwan, not being a signatory to the UN, had to apply via Beijing, and the TTB refused to deal with them. In the end we got the American Express Foundation (a charity organisation & the largest private sector world heritage orgainsation) to list the village. Which means they get training, conservsation guidance, and knocking down the buildings is now illegal.
We did this after we saw what they were doing in Makung - which can only be described as Criminal - knocking down a whole part of the old town, including many buildings which would be listed in any another part of the world.
Penghu is great; we love the place; 64 islands, hundreds of deserted beaches, pristine coral reefs etc. Diving is superb (teeming with fish). When we set up the sailing club we imported 4 hobie cats, abut then found out we wreer not allowed to sail them from island to island becuase they didn’t know what they were (inter-continental ballistic missles carriers?). So the govt. re-classified them as “sports equipment”, and now we can.
Unfortunatley, Penghu suffers from lack of decent information. We live on the islands, and have found some great beaches, nature spots, pubs, restaurants, whale watching areas etc. etc. Lonely Plant cold do a whole book on the place if they wanted. So often people return to Taiwan mainland after 2 or 3 days thinking there’s not much to see. Its all to easy to spend al your time on a scooter driving around the horseshoe, without seeing the beaches.
BTW, last month they opened the first beach side chalets which you can rent. They are mock-ups of tradtional chinese courtyard houses, right by the sea. Rent is less than NT$2,000 per night, could even be close to 1,000, but I’m not sure.
Went to PengHu about 2 months ago now. Only spent a weekend, wish I had a month.
Plus: Lovely island, lovely beaches, lovely people and just great.
Strange: a lot of police and army, but if you are not doing anything wrong, i guess there is no harm in it.
This is a place you can go and chill out … exactly what i need again.
Miss PengHu
[quote=“govt-attache”]
BTW, last month they opened the first beach side chalets which you can rent. They are mock-ups of tradtional Chinese courtyard houses, right by the sea. Rent is less than NT$2,000 per night, could even be close to 1,000, but I’m not sure.[/quote]
Excellent, any contact info for those places?
[quote=“Mr He”][quote=“govt-attache”]
BTW, last month they opened the first beach side chalets which you can rent. They are mock-ups of tradtional Chinese courtyard houses, right by the sea. Rent is less than NT$2,000 per night, could even be close to 1,000, but I’m not sure.[/quote]
Excellent, any contact info for those places?[/quote]
Yes, we saw that place when we were there last year. Looked very clean and nice, but they were all shuttered up, probably because we were there in October. We saw some of those heritage sites, too, which were also quite impressive – a whole village of very old cottages that were being totally renovated and modernized in a very nice way indeed.
We ended up staying in a great little self-catering fisherman’s cottage a few km outside Makung on the way to the wind cave or whatever its called. The cottage came with sea kayaks, bicycles and ADSL and was less than 1km from a gorgeous, totally clean yellow sand beach. The owner is a very cool young Penghu guy who “retired” from teaching in Taiwan and returned to Penghu to teach and work as an aide to the DPP county magistrate, who’s also a very nice guy – he’s a doctor and he treated me for food poisoning and refused any payment.
The cottage owner also picks you up from the airport, sorts out scooter rentals, and takes you to all these super-cool places that you’d never find on your own, and he’s very knowledgable indeed about the wildlife, plants, sea and the ecology of the islands. Beware though – he tends to operate on “island time” which is exactly the same as “island time” on the west coast of Scotland, i.e. we missed our flight home because he insisted there was “plenty of time” to visit some interesting mudflats before the flight.
I have his card at home somewhere, so I’ll dig it out and post his details. The cottage is pretty basic, but its cheap, clean and makes a great base for exploring. Sleeps six in three double rooms.
And this is exactly why it is ‘still’ beautiful!
And this is exactly why it is ‘still’ beautiful![/quote]
exactly! I don’t think ‘suffers’ is the right word. Natural settings do not suffer from lack of development any more than people suffer from a lack of a bullet in the head
How’s Penghu in winter?
Cold and windy. Flights and boats may be delayed or cancelled during that time.
So… not the place to move to permanentaly and open a place for foreign tourists
Hello!! There seems to be collusion amongst the hotel owners from Penghu… …I have posted numerous requests for someone to direct me to any sort of camping information anywhere in the Penghu Islands. I am leaving in a week and would love to camp. I have been told that there is camping on the islands but cannot seem to get any information…
Please Help!!
Thanks