Hey guys,
ok, little summary (I’ll be sorry in advance for any writing mistakes regarding names and places )
When we stepped out at at Taoying Airport (Nov,19th), we felt like being dropped into a sauna.
Finding a bus was very easy, 2 hours later we fell into our (windowless!!! noone told us I’m sure) bed.
Our quarter in Taipeh was - I guess - “old” Taipeh, 2km North from Longshan temple, very busy and a lot of this cookshops (?) outside. I’m honest, my proper German stomach cannot be used to these terrible chinese smells, I tried but always had the feeling of nausea in Taipeh. Being a vegetarian didn’t make it better…so I’m ashamed to tell but I needed a Subway.
We visited Longshan and Taipeh 101 (great view, no fog) and then time to leave.
(Little nice experience, we tried to rent some Youbikes but couldn’t handle with our credit Cards, just 5 minutes and first guy who saw us and wanted to help - in the end it didn’t work cos’ we couldn’t understand that we needed Easy Cards (no Youbike-Cards))
Next stop was Taichung, we stayed with a friend there and just walked one day through the City. Taipeh in smaller version. Even a real asian city. Still not ours.
After that we got with our rental car to Kenting. Got a small Hotel at Sheding Park, 5 km away from the beach and Kenting street. Of course, 4 stars - don’t lets talk about that, but staff was really nice and our view was wonderful. The weather was really likeable (Taipeh and Taichung was just rain at that time), but so stormy. We are from Hamburg, so we are used to wind, but this was … omg . My hopes, having a nice day at a beach, come to an end here. My friend got cycling nevertheless, I went to Kenting Park. And it was so beautiful. I am not the persons who likes to walk for hours and hours but this was fascinating. Maybe because of the storm it was quite epmty on this day and so quite…just amazing. So wonderful. So green. And I’ve been seen apes
Kenting was touristic area…lots of Chinese and even two German tourists. And I got my Pad Thai first asian Food in Taiwan I could eat. We loved the silence at Sheding, calming down after Taipeh and Taichung.
4th stop Sun-Moon-Lake. Tao whatever. Aboriginal village. 8 pm and noone at the street. What we really missed were the bars where you can sit outside. Sun-Moon-Lake is so beautiful, why are there no bars?? We found one in Shueishe, but not at the sea. Is it not common to sit outside, enjoy a drink, feeling the warmth? We missed that in whole Taiwan, wherever we got.
Nevertheless a wonderful place to enjoy. Not so many tourists because of off Season.
We went over Hueheshan (?) to Hualien (my boyfriend got to the top by bike ) and this was real lovely. Thats a real nice City, we loved the night market and to cycle (I got a Giant by rent), not too big city, our B&B was great and we both enjoyed our time there.
Our route back we saw some of Taroko and this was so amazing. Taiwan is really the most beautiful Island I’ve ever seen. People are not able to speak English (but in Hualien, we were surprised), I didn’t expected that, but they were so helpful, even without English Knowledge. Lovely.
Hope, we will come back.
Cheers Nell