This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. Not to mention the fact that I conveniently forgot about this once I started working. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

And so yet after another boring night watching tv in room, we headed back to Hualien on a coach, with me as usual stopping just short of OD-ing on motion sickness medicine. So long as it works. Back at Hualien, we stopped by a muachee 麻署 store. Make it a big store, with the photos and autographs of many celebrities. It’s essentially their factory as well, where they make the daily muachee, which unfortunately can only be kept for a day or so. The pre-packed ones can be kept for 3 mths i think. Bought those, pretty good stuff, which my family and carlin can attest to.

We planned on taking a train back up north to Taipei to complete our circumnavigation of the whole island. There was a thought of going to this town called Su’ao 苏奥 about 50km north of Hualien. This indescript town has the only cold springs in Taiwan, but the train schedule was not favourable since we didnt wanna end up reaching Taipei at 2am with no accommodation. So yet another place got sacrificed.


An often understated delicacy in Taiwan is the railway food 火车便当. (more…)

This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. Not to mention the fact that I conveniently forgot about this once I started working. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

So the prev night saw us staying in yet another budget hotel, though this time more welfare. Separate beds, major major plus point. Sleeping on the same queen-sized bed for the past 4 nights wasn’t good, considering that I’m a big roller on bed.

The day started at 6.30am with a short walk to the bus station directly across the road from the hotel to catch the 7am bus to Taroko Gorge 太鲁阁. Taroko Gorge is rated as the die-die-oso-must-see-if-not-come-taiwan-for-fuck? destination in Taiwan. The past 12 days have made us abit more wise in the sense that we would recce what bus to take, from where and where to get off the night before or @ least a few hours beforehand. Saves us a lot of trouble and from being marked as robertos. Sadly there wasn’t a friendly uncle like back @ Chiahyi. I was all prepared for this bus ride after the Alishan puking debacle and took like 2 motion sickness tablets..heh..

I was prepared for the bus ride but not for the sights as the bus went up the mountainous road.

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This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

Day 12 proved to be a rather sombre day for me, after all the fun and action on the previous day. Ronghua suggested going to the beach at Nanwan in the morning with his friend and the rest of them, but i decided to pass on it. My friend’s wake was leaving at that very moment in Singapore and there was no mood to have fun. Instead I took the time to sit at the lobby, watch some tv, walk ard the town for a while and basically mope. Managed to top up my supply of motion sickness medicine at the local pharmacy, which i found pretty dodgy. An old man was selling all the drugs, he can’t speak english. So if u give him the name of a medicine in english, good luck to you. He sells contact lenses w/o prescription or checking as well. You can just walk in and buy them off the shelf, piece by piece if u want.

The last pic of Kenting was that of the hotel boss’ grand daughter

May she not become like her grandpa..grr!

We left Kenting at 1pm, heading back to Kaohsiung. Took the budget bus again, but this time I was more worried for our safety, and with good reason probably to do so. In taiwan, it’s very common to see ppl, esp. transport workers chewing betel nuts and smoking in order to keep themselves alert on the road. However most ppl buy betel nuts in pre-packaged forms, where the inedible core has been removed, the betel leaf already coated with slaked lime and wrapped around the accacia nut. Some ppl pref to DIY, like our bus driver. Every traffic junction, he would use the long nail on his little finger to remove the core, then another hand grab the leaf and wrap it ard before chewing. And he would proceed to spit it into a metal mug. Repeat the process for all 3 hrs of the journey.

So we got to Kaohsiung @ 4.30pm and went to the train station to find out what time’s the next train to Hualien 花莲. 4.45 for the express and direct train, arriving at 9.30pm(!!). However there were no seats avail. (!!!!) The next train is the 2nd class one, where we would have to take to Tainan 台南 and wait 1 hr for another train to take us to Hualien, and arrive at 1am(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Basically we were stuck, and the ticketing staff, this middle-aged guy offered us another option. There weren’t seats avail for the whole journey to Hualien, but the way to get around this is by sitting together at a pair of seats for the 1st hour, shifting to separate seats for the next 1.5 hrs to Tainan, before sitting together for the final 2 hours. Troublesome, but we didnt have a choice, and time. By the time we settled the tickets, 3 pairs of them, we were running to the platform with our backpacks. Wrong time to be in bloody big station, with at least 11 railroads in the station..

The journey to Hualien was along the southern loop of the rail network. Basically it takes a path of the letter J, starting from the tail. You round the island’s southen tip, before heading northwards up to the middle of the island. I dunno y i never took any pictures, now then start to regret. I saw the sea on my right side for about 1 hour, then the train turns to the west, and u can just spot the Kenting coastline in the distance. The coastline disappears after a while as the train cuts through the mountain range in a long series of tunnels, and after 1 hour, the train turns north and heads to Tainan and the Pacific’s on your right now. It rained all the way, I think that was why i never took pics.

We got to Hualien at 9.45pm and went to the nearest hotel. Bargained for NT$800, instead of 1000, and the hotel was totally deserted, like the corridor lights were semi-working… the level lobby was pretty dim in terms of lighting, and this hotel has the habit of leaving unoccupied rooms open. Weird, and freaky if u ask me. We found a decent place to eat, and realised that the speciality good from Hualien was muah chee! A visit to an internet cafe where we choked on 2nd hand cigarette smoke and came out smelling like tobacco rounded up the day of extensive travelling.

This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

This morning’s happenings reminded us that we were in a tourist trap and all the niceness of the old hotel owner was thrown out of the window. Previously the deal was that for NT$1000, we would get the room and also MacDonalds breakfast, which for 2 persons is probably worth about NT$150. The scooter rental costs NT$400 for 24 hrs. So the prev day, we checked into the room at 3pm, and took over the scooter at about 4.30pm. So we should have the bike till 4.30pm today at least.

Going down to the lobby at 8am, the 1st thing he asked us, “你们今天还要住吗？”. So we said yes, and he immediately demanded that we pay him. I asked about the macs breakfast and guess his reply..

“你们今天就自己去吃吧。。” 1st stunt of the day, until we reminded him of the agreement before he grudgingly gave us 2 vouchers for the nearby macs. I felt that that we were being shortchanged cos i tot it would be delivered breakfast, but i decided not to kick up a fuss. The voucher turned out to be for a mcmuffin only.

Coming back to the hotel later, he wanted us to return the bike @ noon, claiming that he had guests who wanted to use it. This time me n ronghua really dulan, said that we die die wun return before 4pm. Insisting on us returning before the time would mean that we would check out immediately. Actually it was a small gamble that we took, knowing that it’s a friday and rooms might be hard to find. However with us being so mobile, we can fuck care Kenting and go somewhere else instead. The old man blinked and said we could return the scooter by 4pm, and we finally paid the room rate for 1 more night.

The plan was to explore as much of the southern tip as possible and we headed due east, skipping the lighthouse at Erluanbi 鹅卵鼻 since it costs NT$40 each and we have both been there. Eventually we rounded the southeastern tip of Taiwan and came to Fengchuisha 风吹砂 where we stopped for a while. The place supposedly experiences very strong winds from time to time that shapes the sand on the coast into dunes.

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This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

And so we were supposed to wake up by 8am, explore the area to the west of Tainan before coming back by lunch and making our way down to Kenting right at the southernmost tip of Taiwan.

Key phrase: Supposed to

Sleeping in a room that has no windows after a totally boring evening resulted in us sleeping till noon. Yes, wasted half a day. Hurriedly stuffed things back into our packs before going over to the train station to catch the next train to Kaohsiung, which took about an hour or so. We decided to give the city a miss since both of us have been here before and there’s nothing extraordinary here seriously. The bus ride to Kenting cost us like NT$350 each, cheapo us took the 3 hr bus ride as opposed to the 2 hr one since we could save almost NT$100.

Reaching Kenting at about 3pm, we stopped for lunch @ KFC before emerging out onto the main street to get pestered by hotel operators, before eventually settling for a hotel with a fanciful name 旅游之家, ran by this old man. He added in a scooter rental for 24 hrs, and we got a slight discount.

There is a hot spring in the town of Sichongxi 四重溪, 15km away from Kenting and we went to find it. Riding is 2nd nature to me but still it took abit of time getting used to riding on the wrong side of the road, toodling along @ an average speed of 60km/h (Upslopes would mean 30km/h while downslopes meant 90km/h). Of course i have to give ronghua a shock by doing a tight turn which nearly resulted in the 2nd accident of my riding career..but yea close shave..

The cheapo streak resulted in us skipping the hot spring resort and heading straight to the FOC public bathhouse..

No pics inside obviously, there were 2 separate sections, one for guys and the other for ladies, and both are nude baths. There is however no incentive to sneak into the the ladies section after we realised that most of the ppl coming here are the villagers who use this place to bathe. The men’s section had a lot of old men and young kids, and you’re supposed to shower @ the side 1st, scrubbing urself clean before going into the bath. Ronghua and me obviously camed unprepared w/o showering accessories, so we just tried our best to make ourselves clean (read: wayang). The water was hot, but not excessively and it was damn shiok. We didn’t stay for long, after becoming lightheaded after 20 mins and not wanting to ride so long in the dark.

Dinner was beef noodles at this huge restaurant that had more empty seats than filled ones, probably owing to the fact that it was a Thursday night after all. Pretty good stuff..

I always like the effect of long exposure shots, and i placed my camera on the concrete wall along the coast at Nanwan 南湾 when we stopped for a while after dinner to take in abit of the breeze.

You can make out the domes of the nuclear power plant across the bay

The main street of Kenting transformed into a night market with many games stalls, including mini pachinko machines for kids, talk about starting from young. There was of course the games arcade which was 90% filled with basketball machines and toy-grabbing machines, the current rage all over taiwan.

This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

Sorry this update took sometime coming, was in army and only had the time for short posts.

Warning: Picture Intensive!

Boon Liang was supposed to fly back today, leaving me n Ronghua to go down to Tainan in what can be called the 3rd and final segment of our trip. Staying in Taipei for past 4-5 days made me nuah, waking up like 8.20, when the bus is supposed to leave at 8.45. All thanks to my lazing-on-bed skill, RH’s inability to wake me up. So early morning already must mad scramble to bus station which was a comfortable 10 mins walk away, that wasn’t comfortable carrying a fully-loaded 55l pack and a daypack. Thankfully, we made it on time, even had time to go into the railway station bakery and pick up my fav sandwich..heh..

The bus down to Tainan was not as advanced as the one from Chiahyi, having 6 LCD screens only, but still having the individual sound console. The driver screened the animated version of 梁祝 The Butterfly Lovers which was pretty good. Ride took about 3 hrs plus, and we nearly got fleeced by the bus driver, who conveniently offloaded everyone in an area which was obviously a taxistand and nowhere near Tainan Railway Station. RH saw a taxi driver thanking the bus driver, nabeh.. (more…)

This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

Warning: Pic n vid intensive post

It was only the nite before when BL revealed to us that on his army training trip a few yrs back, he had seen much of Taipei and he only wanted to see Taipei 101 before going out of taipei. And we happily assumed that he’s not seen taipei. So effectively we have wasted 2 days in taipei. Day 8 hence called for a major revamp in plans, more on that later.

The sky was almost as overcast as the previous day but we decided to take our chance with Taipei 101. Luckily this time we were able to see the top of the building. NT$320 for the tickets, and we were all set to go up to the 89th floor (382 metres).

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This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

The bad thing about not having to rush to travel every morning is that you totally have no urgency to wake up early. No more early bird catching the worm, more of lazy bird waiting for hot sun to dry the worms. So we probably left the hostel at about 10am to start on the most impt mission of the day, going Taipei 101 looking for money-changer. By now, me n RH have more or less exhausted our original S$500 and were desperate for a money changer. In Taipei no cash still alright, you can still swipe n swipe. Out of Taipei and into small towns, it’s crucial to have cash on hand.

The thing about Taiwan is that probably due to currency controls, you can only change money at banks. No such thing as going to the nearest indian moneychanger like we are so used to in sg. Walking 1 street away to a Japanese bank’s branch, we got our 1st rejection of the day. They don’t take SGD, and instead directed us to a Bank of Taiwan’s branch 3 streets away. Eschewing the offer, we decided to make our way to Taipei 101 where it’s a financial hub and banks are aplenty. Taipei bank branches, most of them would deploy a junior staff member to stand at the waiting area to answer queries that ppl have, including foreigners like us. She would usually be somewhat attractive and wear this pair of white satin gloves. (more…)

This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

So back in Taipei, means time for me and ronghua to recharge. By now the full itinerary was more or less settled. First 5 days, then come back Taipei for another 4-5 days, before whacking the southern region. Staying in Taipei for so long has a big advantage, we dun need every morning rush to take long dist bus or train. Don’t need to every night pack bag. And for once, we can have decent breakfast like this, instead of pack n go.

Then also got internet to use, share with the hostel’s 2 cats, one of which likes to sleep between the 2 monitors..

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This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

Alishan has 4 wonders: The alpine railway, sunrise, “云海” and pine forest. “云海” occurs in autumn when the heavy cloud cover gets blown in by the winds and they roll, appearing to be like sea waves…hence 云海.. Obviously now not the rite season to see..

Every visitor to Alishan must see the sunrise, it is famous throughout Taiwan. There are 2 places to see from, one is nearby but not guaranteed to have a good sunrise. We paid a tour guide NT300 each to bring us over to Yushan National Park for the sunrise. (more…)

This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

After deciding not to purchase tickets for the famous train ride up to Alishan as it would only reach at 4pm, we decided to take a 7am bus up Alishan instead which costs NT200 each. However we were waylaid at the bus station by this uncle who offered to take us up for the same price, and that he would refund the bus ticket for us. After the Sun Moon Lake experience, we were slightly sceptical but the worst thing he could do to us is to drive us to some isolated expensive hotel. So we decided to go for it. Before we could board, we were stopped by a lady who offered us accomodation at Alishan for NT1000 which we took lah, save trouble of finding room.

The uncle stopped midway up the mountain at a teahouse ran by his friend. Had great oolong tea to wake us up for the rest of the day…
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This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

I must say that we were pretty jaded by Sun Moon Lake, and continuing the cheapo fashion, we decided not to pay NT600 each for the cab tour ard the lake as they weren’t particularly impressive.

So a visit to 九族文化村, or Formosa Aboriginal Village nearby ensued. The place, is a pretty grand one in terms of its size. It has a European garden that is about the size of 2 football fields, a relatively big pine garden and a pretty decent amusement park with ok rides. There was of course the main attraction, display villages of the 9 aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. Pretty cheesy i must say, but the place proved to be good one-stop station to get all the info about all 9 tribes, w/o having to travel to remote villages.

Dancers in the morning welcome ceremony
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This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

Leaving the hostel @ 7am, we proceeded to Taipei Main Station, and the place looks freaking big.

This was the main atrium and ticketing area, upstairs are the offices of Taiwan Railways. All the tracks in and ard the station are fully underground, they dun emerge @ ground level until the outskirts of the city.

We planned to take a train to Ershui (二水) which is very near to Taichung, before changing to a small train on the Jiji small railway line to this town called Shuili (水里), where we are supposed to find transport to Sun Moon Lake (日月潭). Again, the keyword is supposed, means that we never check in reality, fully trusting the lonely planet guidebook. (more…)

This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

And so it was the start of the Taiwan adventure..special thanks goes out to huixian, shuhua and her fren for coming from the chalet nearby to see us off. At that point of time, we have only booked the accomodation for our 1st nite in Taipei. Whatever happens after that, it’s pretty que sera sera all the way.

The flight was good and we reached Taipei on schedule. Then we took like 10 mins to raid the brochures counter for all the relevant and irrelevant maps and guides. This local mobile company, 台湾大哥大 gives out free sim cards @ the arrival hall to tourists with NT99 value inside, which is a pretty good deal i guess. You can top up as much as u like later. (more…)

Like finally, decided to host them on yahoo! this time round… the blogging is starting as i speak..in meantime, satisfy yourself with the fotos and their pretty descriptive names i hope

Taiwan Trip (3 albums)

And so i’m back home, on a pretty decent flight with a pilot who bothered to come out to the cabin n talk to passengers. I tell u, these australians pilots are too laidback lah.. who noes, mabbe have beer inside cockpit.. Anyway the 1st sms upon landing came from a fren who said that she can’t pick me up (damn…means must pay cabfare). 1st call came from mum, who instructed me to buy red wine for her and stout for pa..

It’s good to be back home, to look right b4 crossing street instead of looking left. To see cars drive on left side of road, and actually obeying traffic lights. It’s always good to talk cock with a chatty taxi driver who was talking about taxi policy in sg. It’s good to see my sis and my parents.

The photo sorting is still going on, i can’t put 450 shots on flickr less i get a paid acct and i’m not too inclined to do so. Will figure out somehow… I want to do a proper travelogue but of cos that depends on how much time, and intertia i have over the next few days…

For those of you who got cards from me, i hope u like them. For those who didn’t, some is because i couldnt get ur address in time..others is er…cos i not enuff cards. Huike’s special case, i forgot to post your card. So you should expect it in the next few days, dun worry it’s still posted from taiwan..heh

I tot that on day 13 of my trip, i would post something here. Just so you ppl would know that i wasn’t swept away by the typhoon

13 days and i dare say that i’ve seen 50% of taiwan? Been to Sun Moon Lake, Chiahyi, Alishan, Taipei, Tainan, Kenting, Hualien and a few other small towns. Been on a few adventures that i would have never expected to happen. Alot of pics, some videos to share with you ppl when i come back.

Gifts have been bought, postcards (which are a..erm..cheapo gift item) have been sent. Just gonna sit back and enjoy my final full day in taiwan tml… Beitou Hot Springs and National Palace Museum..heh..

Something did happen while i was away, my riding club’s staff advisor, Kian Boon passed away in a bike accident in Thailand on the 15th. This guy has been a great mentor to me, and the club would not be here w/o him today. I hope that you’re riding on strong in heaven, KB..

2 more days to home…