Made up in Taiwan

Alishan National Park before the rain came

I was a little concerned when I set my itinerary of 3 full weeks on the Island of Taiwan. I need not have worried I'd have nothing to do, quite the contrary I was having to do some editing of places on my tick list in the last week.

Where my last blog left off I'd just left Tainan, I headed north east inland to Chiayi. I didn't have anything I wanted to see here but it was to prove a great base (location wise) for a couple of day trips.

I left the train station in Chiayi at 12:45 without any accommodation,  I went to the tourist information to pick up a map and location of budget hotels, found one close by, checked in, dropped bag and managed to catch the 13:00 bus to Guanziling.

Guanziling is up in the mountains and has may hot springs which in turn have brought many spa hotels. Getting off the bus too early, despite been told not to, I had a hike up the mountain to the spa of my choice.

Guanziling village where I mistakenly alighted the bus

Kings Garden Villa was located in what looked like a 4* hotel. For the meager fee of 350 NTD (£7) I had an unlimited time in the spa.

There was loads to do, there was a hot spring pool, a very hot pool, a herbal pool which was hot and a bit like sitting in a vat of herbal tea, mud spa where I covered myself head to toe in mud let it dry hard and washed it off, cold pools, a swimming pool, exercise room, fish spa (the fish in here nibbled away at all the mosquito bite scars, did a fine job) an exercise room and finally a facial mask parlour. All that was included in the fee.

I'd planned my bus back to Chiayi, but the heavens opened forcing me to stay in the spa, apply another face mask, and dip in all the pools again.

When I finally got back 'home' I was tired, instead of grabbing street food I went to a Japanese restaurant, and looked for a bar for the following night.

Taiwan but particularly Chiayi teases you when it comes to bars. Every corner you reach you think, mint, there are loads of bars down here, only to find the neon lights are a hairdresser, shoe shop or something else not what I'm looking for.

I walked a good hour, street after street looked promising, but nothing, the best nightlife to be had appeared to be McDonald's which I was never going to go to.

Beautiful scenery from the bus window on my way to Alishan

After an early night the next day was another decent day trip. Alishan National park was about 2 hours away. The journey was winding around mountains and passing many beautiful tea plantations. On the way I read that the weather is great and sunny on a morning, come lunchtime it mists up, the afternoon usually has a heavy downpour of rain. Sure enough that was the case, perhaps I should have got a bus that arrived before 11:30 as the mist was starting to roll in.

Plenty of trees and greenery in the park

I had a decent look around before it rained heavy, was nice to get way from it all into the hills and countryside. I did a few walks before rain cut short my plans.

Decent sized trees

Temple in Alishan

Getting back early I was thirsty and fancied a beer. After grabbing a train lunchbox from a street-side cafe I fancied sitting in a bar with the hope of meeting a few fellow travelers. Chiayi is probably the worst place I've encountered for such a task. Restaurant didn't serve beer and the 3 bars I found were closed. I did find one that opened at 10pm but it looked well dodgy. Google tried to help me out but could only suggest a sandwich bar some 5km away. I had to spend the night with weak beer (shady) in my room. I had 3 flavours, honey, pineapple and a lime beer.

Railway lunchbox, Pork Chop veg and a tea soaked boiled egg

I had hoped to get to Sun Moon Lake the next day but a couple of back to back day trips had taken effect on me and I decided to head back to my comfort zone that is the capital Taipei and staying in a familiar place.

Getting around on trains is easy, there are fast trains (very fast), intercity or slow. The fast train did the journey in less than 2 hours, but the departure or destination station wasn't particularly convenient to me. So plumping for express I headed to the station last minute to find it was full so had to take the cheap slow train (5.5 hours).

Back in Taipei for my final 3 nights. I had plenty of places I wanted to see and I liked the comfortable surroundings and friendly owner. I could feast on the Taiwan pork hamburgers and baked pork buns I'd loved from earlier in the trip. Delicious.

It was Saturday night and I fancied seeing what Taiwan had to offer for nightlife. I didn't want fancy, I didn't want sleaze, I wanted cheap beer in friendly surroundings. Where I went hit the spot. Beers were about £1.80, the clientele was a good mix of locals and adapts. Within minutes I was drinking with a Columbian, Canadian, French and a couple of guys from Holland. All were either teaching English or learning Taiwanese.

Happy hour finished a couple of hours later which doubled the drink prices so I went elsewhere. I just happened to stumble on a locals cafe/bar. Drinks were even cheaper, and I was the centre of attention. The owners girlfriend could speak perfect English so acted as translator as I fielded questions from all the rest of the bar. I loved that scene, they gave me a free squid also, nice.

Having lots of big ticket items left to see, I rather wasted the following day. I spent it on the balcony catching up on blogs, emails and doing my laundry.

I'd read about a nice day trip in the hills, I had a choice of two, one which everyone said I should take Yangmingshan and another which sounded good to Wulai.

Wulai Waterfall

I choose Wulai, doing it my way, a long ride to the end of the metro line and a connecting bus took around an hour and a half.

Wulai had an 80m waterfall, hot springs, a cable car up the mountain and specialty food. What's not to like? I liked it there, nice and peaceful. It was raining so the waterfall was in good flow. Sadly the log train I'd planned to ride had been wiped out by the typhoon a few years back and was not yet functioning again.

Cable car - made in Taiwan in the 70's? I hoped not.

Getting the cable car over the waterfalls was spectacular. Suspended a couple of hundred meters above the valley, I suddenly remembered the crap toys you got as a child that broke within a day all had "Made in Taiwan" imprinted on them. I was hoping that the cable car was made of stronger stuff.

After walking to the free public hot springs I couldn't really be bothered to get changed and take a dip. My book had a luxury hotel with spa and I thought that would do a better job. I did have quite a lot of Taiwan Dollars to spend in the next 24 hrs. The luxury spa and hotel didn't look up to much. Not having the energy or inclination to walk back to the public springs I jumped back on a bus into Taipei.

The scary view from the cable car

So my last night in Taiwan I went back to the same expat bar I'd been to on the Saturday. It wasn't the same, going back rarely is. I had to listen to an American chatting to me about how well traveled he was (he wasn't). I kept quiet so not to burst his bubble or prolong the conversation. When he said, "You've got to go to Berlin [I have], it is the kind of place you can not sleep for a week or a place you can not leave your hotel for a week" (I guess the same applies for anywhere in the world) I decided to make excuses and head back to the locals bar.

The owner was made up to see me again. I think he was trying to break me when he pulled out a bottle of 73% white spirit. Realising he wasn't going to win this battle he upped the ante and gave me a Taiwanese style bush tucker trial. I dealt with the chicken hearts OK, pigs intestines not too bad, but conceded defeat when he brought out chicken feet. A nice memorable evening in what became one of my favorite countries.

Royal Palace Museum grounds

Before heading to the airport in the evening I went to the very impressive Royal Palace Museum holding the finest collection of ancient Chinese Pottery, Art Work, Jade, Jewellery and ornaments. I didn't really have time to do it complete justice, another one to come back for. It also housed what seemed like the biggest mass of Chinese tour groups.

Royal Palace Museum, Taipei

Cool tiger outside the Museum

So what did I like about Taiwan? I liked the night markets and the food. I think I only want to one restaurant in 3 weeks. I liked the people , very friendly and tried hard to chat even when we had no common language. The scenery is stunning. It is quite a cheap place (almost South East Asia prices) and it is off the beaten track.

What I didn't like about Taiwan. Rubbish bins are virtually non existent in many towns (I think it is the recycling culture - a good thing right - and they don't want bins full of mixed rubbish. I didn't like the teasing streets that looked like they were populated with bars but on closer inspection were tea shops. Finally the thing I liked the least was the tune the bin lorries made each evening, it drove me mad. They blasted out an ice cream van type tune continuously as the drove down the streets and locals would put out their rubbish. I've got that tune in my head again now!

First it was Thailand, then the budget orientated travelers discovered Vietnam Cambodia and Laos. I think anyone who enjoyed these destinations should put Taiwan firmly on their bucket list, I hope it becomes the next one for European travelers, it should be. I'm glad I visited before it does.

Next and final stop is South Korea, Taiwan is firmly on my places to go back to list. If I ever take a teaching English job, then Taiwan would be I place I'd very much consider.