After having visited so many places in Asia, we still had missed out on Taiwan. So it was time to remedy this ☺️
Melanie and I flew to Taipei this October and first spent two days in the city to acclimatize. We had to do some light shopping and visited Taipei 101, the famous skyscraper. Were we could also catch a glimpse at the huge tuned mass damper which reduces vibrations and swaying of the whole tower.
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| Ollie guided us to our seats 😊 |
On the second day we took a little hike in the hills around the city. Was funny to see lots of people getting ready for the fireworks in the evening due to the national holiday. Not so funny was that I almost stepped on a fat snake 😲
And then in the night we obviously had to see the fireworks, famously fired FROM the Taipei 101. Seems like huge fire hazard 🤷♂️ As it is 2025, it had to be augmented with a drone show.
Traveling south the next day we took a detour to Sun Moon lake, according to the internet one of the top three sights in Taiwan 😅 Turns out it is „just“ a lake, with lots of boats and even more (local?) tourists and not much to do. Besides eating, you can always and everywhere find something to eat in this country.
Next was some beach days in Kenting, all the way in the south of the island. I went diving, was good and felt great to be in the water again.
To get around we rented a scooter and drove all the way to the southern most point of the island with its fortified lighthouse. Apparently the natives did not like it and attacked it multiple times.
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| Visited Kenting National Forest Recreation Area |
And of course, eating all kind of different things.
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| Giant Oyster |
Out in the east are two islands, Orchid and Green Island. Sadly Orchid island isn't easily accessible anymore in October as the waves get too choppy. Also it is used to store radioactive waste now… but must be really beautiful and exceptional for diving.
So we decided to go to Green Island, where during the times of martial law dissidents got incarcerated… Besides that, also lovely to dive 😅
Rented again a scooter, drove around the island, went on a short hike and I went diving again. Crazy good visibility!
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| We had a lovely bath in these tide pools |
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| There was another holiday which involved lots of fireworks |
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Colorful fireworks, so you can set it off during the day 😂
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| Sadly we didn’t see any land crabs |
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| No snake this time |
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| And another light house, no walls this time |
After two nights it was time to head back to the main island. From where we took a bus up further north to Donghe. A famous surf spot where for many years the Japan Open surf competition is held. Sadly due to a typhoon further south in the Philippines, the waves (and weather) were not up for it. So we took a stroll around and chilled a bit.
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| The selection of drinks is just bonkers, and that is only one of many fridges… |
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| Traditional boat, you can see the Polynesian roots |
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| 7-Eleven mascot, because everything has a mascot |
Due to the rain we felt like some more island time was necessary. We took a bus, train and then a ferry out to Liuqiu island.
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| Trainspotting seems to be a thing |
Once more we rented a scooter, this time we couldn‘t convince them to give us a „proper“ one and ended up with an electric one which struggled uphill. Also we had to swap the battery every day, and its a tiny island! All over Taiwan you need an International Drivers license to rent a car or motorbike. Sadly we didn‘t bring ours but by showing off my big bike at home and pointing to the A on my license could get past it, usually…
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| Erm, beautiful I guess? There are soooo many temples on the island. |
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| Melanie for scale |
I went diving, otherwise we chilled and had great Japanese dinner, twice! All over Taiwan there are great Japanese restaurants and everywhere Japanese beer is served. Together with Budweiser and Corona 🤷♂️ I guess because the only two Taiwanese ones aren't that great 😂
As there was another national holiday the weekend tourist started to pour in and it was time to leave.
There are 16 official recognized native tribes (left) in Taiwan. They are mostly up in the mountains nowadays, so we headed to Wulai. Or at least tried to, as due to the holiday no more busses were running up the mountain. Thankfully the guy working in the bus station could organize a private transport (an elderly lady, must be a former race car champion 😅) to take us to our home stay. Turned out it is quite a bit outside of Wulai and we could never have reached it on our own 😂.
The host called her daughter to help translate, which resulted in a funny conversation, like „Did you bring food?“ (as it was a campground) and „How the hell did you get here?“ (without a car) 🤣. In the morning the mother reluctantly loaned us a scooter (she was really afraid we might get hurt?) and we rode 20 minutes into town, actually up into town a really steep street.
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| The narrow bridge connecting thr campground, trucks need to drive through the river below |
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| Little coffee shop |
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| Lots of boar related stuff everywhere, one house was full of skulls and d bones |
The town was deserted until a huuuuge crowd of Asian tourists appeared, touching everything, taking selfies on private property, babbling and then luckily disappeared again. The little lady of our coffee shop actually put up a fence to prevent them from entering the little shop 😂
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| Nobody |
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| Mayhem |
Two nights in the middle of nowhere were enough and we continued on to Tainan, the old capital. Here the Dutch built a port and a fort (Zeelandia) in the early 17th century to bolster trade and to easier prey on the Spanish and Portuguese ships.
The day we arrived there was a huge Halloween (?) parade and lots of little stalls, selling mostly food, obviously.
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| The Capybara obsession is actually quite absurd… |
Being an older city it had lots off little streets, full of little places to eat 😆
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| Backdrop in a photo booth |
There is also an old battle ship, built during WW2 in the US and then in service in Taiwan. The exhibition was weirdly augmented with advertisement for some cute mobile game?!
As the weather was getting worse we thought a day in the hot springs of Wulai (not to be confused with Wutai!) would cheer us up. The onsen was beautiful and super relaxing!
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| Our fancy hotel |
And then it was Taipei time again, with more shopping and eating 😅
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| Famous Din Tai Fung dumpling restaurant, we went twice 😅 |
We did a day trip out to Shifen and Jifen. Shifens stick with the tourist is that you can start a hot air balloon with your wishes on it. The colors also have a meaning, health, wealth, love, etc. The sky is full of them and the surrounding countryside littered with the remains… 🫠
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| Simple 🤑 |
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| The girl taking the pictures told us exactly how to pose etc 😂 |
Shifen used to be a gold mining town but nowadays is more like a theme park for tourists.
But there was a lovely tea house which apparently started the whole tourist thing.
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| Amazing view |
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| Nice ceramics, tea was also fine |
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| They teached us the proper tea ceremony |
In Taipei we visited more night markets, museum and toured the city.
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| Foooood! |
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| High tech! |
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| Christmas also starts in November in Taiwan |
We passed by the Chiang Kai-Shek mausoleum and happened to see the changing of the guards doing their weird TikTok dance 🤷♂️
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| Mausoleum of the first President/Dictator of Taiwan, a bit weird |
And that was it, time to fly home...
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| Bye Bye Taiwan |
Some tips and tricks for all which want to visit Taiwan:
- Get an Easy Card as soon as possible. Just like the Suica card in Japan you use it to tap in on all busses and the metro.
- Get cash! Credit cards aren't commonly accepted. Especially the little restaurants and stalls are cash only but also many of the hotels and dive shops. Alternative would be the Line app, sadly not available on the Swiss AppStore and not sure it works with foreign credit cards
- Get a data plan. Taiwan has widely embraced the QR code menus. Many places you even have to order online and then pay at the counter or a machine.
- Keep Google Translate ready. English isn't spoken everywhere, especially in rural areas and with older people
- Bring your international drivers license. Renting a car without is impossible and for scooters you need to argue or end up with the weak electric ones.
- Take the train. In less than 3h you can reach the southern most point all the way from Taipei in the north. Public transport is great and on time.
