Taiwan Third Time Lucky
7 November 2019, Taipei M Hotel - Main Station, Taiwan
Arrived here last night from Singapore. The Lion City was steamy and uncomfortable as usual. We stayed in the ‘burbs on the Changi side of the city, near Eunos SMRT station.
Our arrival in Taiwan today was smooth as silk. On our last visit the lines at the immigration hall were snaking out the door and into the corridor. With one of us holding the place in the queue in case it didn’t work, we registered for the E-Gates using the Airport’s free internet. It did, so we slipped out of the line, heading for the vacant E-Gates and escaped the chaos. This time we smugly approached the immigration hall, expecting to strut past the plebs lined hundreds deep at the manual immigration points. But today, immigration was a cavernous space! No queues at all. Deflated, we still used the E-Gates and were out of the terminal within 15 minutes of landing.
One of the few times in many overseas trips, we purchased a local SIM card for one of our phones. For AUD25, we received unlimited high speed internet data and AUD5 worth of free calls for ten days. What a bargain. We tethered our second phone to the Taiwanese SIM and had two phones with constant, fast internet access.
Armed with a couple of indispensable stored-value EZCards, we took the Airport Express into the city and were settled in our hotel within 90 minutes, including finding our way out of the enormous Taipei Main Station.
Next morning, fortified by an excellent hotel breakfast, we took a local train to the town of Ruifang and then a bus (788 or 1062) on to the mountain village of Juifen. Even though we were on the road early, the famous Juifan “Old Street” was packed with local and Japanese tourists. The day was relatively clear and the views out to sea were spectacular. “Old Street” is a long, winding, narrow alley lined with street food shops, craft and souvenir outlets, not many of which interested us greatly, but the local and Japanese tourists were into everything, picking up snacks from the food stalls and all sorts of trinkets from the many souvenir shops. Around the corner from the “Old Street” was the iconic, three-storey tea house, wreathed in red lanterns. It made for a great photo-op, but we decided against waiting in line for the tea service.
Instead, following advice from the Lonely Planet, we caught another bus towards the coast, to the village of Jinguashi. The first stop was the Gold Mining Museum which was mostly closed down. According to the Planet, Golden Waterfall was down from the museum, but after walking close to 2 km on a narrow mountain road, dodging coaches and cars, we came to a sign showing it was a further 1.6km to the waterfall. Looming ahead was an extremely steep hill and, across the road, a bus stop for the return to Taipei. We hightailed it back to Taipei.
Most rural town and villages in Taiwan are more than a little run-down. Infrastructure is crumbling and the rows of apartment blocks that line the hill sides are dilapidated and mould-covered. Comparisons with mainland China immediately spring to mind. On our three visits to China, we have travelled to and through many fairly isolated rural cities and towns. While we have seen some areas that are as run-down as rural Taiwan, such areas are very much the exception. Basically China is new and rapidly changing, while Taiwan is old and seems to be fairly stagnant, at least outside the major cities.
9 November, KKS Hotel, Hualien
Why can’t planes be more like trains? Yes they could still be up in the air, but their interiors could easily be made as comfortable as a standard coach in a train. Yesterday we took a leisurely four and a half hour “express” train from Taipei to Hualien. There was plenty of leg room, space to wander about the carriages, food and drink service and a nice, sleep-inducing rattle and roll. So pleasant!
Hualien is a fairly small city with around 200k inhabitants. Every one of them must have two motor bikes, because the streets are lined with them. But where are their riders? Barely a soul can be seen on the streets; even when we strolled out for our evening meal, the streets were deserted. Eating options were equally thin on the ground, but we came across a Taiwanese Hot Pot restaurant. There was no English menu but we managed to score some very nice lamb, albeit without vegetables. A special note: eat out early in smaller Taiwanese towns; we were the last diners to be served at 7:30 pm.
In 2006 we made our first venture into Asia, venturing into a then fairly “un-touristy” Vietnam. The bell- hop who guided us to our extremely pleasant and outrageously cheap room, offered us a package of “special deals” on day trips out from Saigon. We were a little suspicious and concerned about handing over US$60 for three excursions, but he seemed like a nice lad, so we took a punt. About an hour later, our friend tapped on our hotel door and presented us with a handful of tickets, hand-written in Vietnamese, for the tours we had selected. “Where can we find you in the morning to help us find the place to catch the mini bus?” we asked. “You can’t,” he informed us. “I will be on my way back to my village for the Chinese New Year celebrations.” Oh!
Next morning, standing on the street outside our hotel on an extremely crowded and very hot footpath, we looked about anxiously for some sign of a mini bus to our first destination. Nothing but streams of motor bikes and kids on push bikes heading off to school greeted us. Then through the crowd came a little guy in black pants and a brilliant white shirt calling out our room number. “Follow,” he said. Off we went through the crowded streets and back alleys of central Saigon until we came upon a small minibus idling in a narrow lane. It was our tour bus to the Mekong Delta. All was right with the world and the next few days we fell into the same routine. Now, after many trips through Asia, we have learned that no matter how confusing or even dodgy it may look, in Asia, it will nearly always work out in the end.
Today was no exception. Taiwan is not one of the “hot spots” for tourists, other than the Japanese or the mainland Chinese but, as always, young European and American backpackers, and a few older travellers like us, are moving in. This morning at the bus stop for the shuttle bus to Taroko Gorge National Park, confusion reigned supreme. The “younger set” arrived late, milled about, tried to converse with the non-English speaking bus station staff and FaceTimed their friends, unwittingly providing entertainment for the few “older set” who had done their research, knew the correct bus stop, arrived early and knew that “It was Asia and it would all work out in the end.”
Having “dumped on” our younger fellow travellers, we did manage to have a few hiccups during the day travelling through the amazing Taroko Gorge. We missed a couple of stops on the shuttle bus route and found ourselves in places we hadn’t planned to visit. Whatever. It was a beautiful day, the scenery was out of this world and as usual ... in Asia it always works out in the end.
10 November, Papo’a Hotel, Kaohsiung
Almost twelve months ago, right here in this very hotel, Janita broke her leg, leading to a dramatic trip to the local hospital by ambulance, an early flight home, surgery and several months of rehab and recovery. We have had a few travel dramas, but as trite as it sounds, they have all been learning experiences and given the number of trips we take and the ways and places we travel to, on the whole we have been lucky.
Southern Taiwan is almost tropical in appearance, although it is technically sub-tropical with palm trees, deep green mountains and open, closely-cultivated coastal plains. Our almost five hour train trip today, on a limited express train, cost about AUD35 each. It was Sunday so, as is usual for a weekend in Taiwan, the train was packed. This was one of the legs of our trip we had pre-booked online, so we had seats. Many locals, and a few travellers, opt to just board the train without reserved seats. This works mid-week and on less popular routes, but on weekends the aisles are full of people scanning the carriage for passengers who are about to vacate their seats. Train travel here is cheap and booking ahead and reserving your seat doesn’t cost a premium as it does in Japan or some lines in Europe, so you have to wonder why they do it.
Kenting National Park, about two hours south of Kaohsiung is on our agenda tomorrow. Unsure of where to get tickets and catch the bus to the park, we dumped our packs at the hotel this afternoon and took the MRT out to the Kaohsiung High Speed Rail Station from where we depart tomorrow. Our short trip on the MRT again highlighted the difference between Taiwanese Chinese and their mainland brothers and sisters. People smile at us, foreigners are still a bit of a novelty down here, especially older ones, boarding a train is not a blood sport as it is on the mainland and children even give up their seats to older travellers.
Tomorrow is likely to be a big day. The bus down to the park is two hours down and back and there is a lot to see.
11 November, Kaohsiung
A few days back, we praised the organisational abilities of Asians involved in the travel business. “In Asia it always works out in the end.” Today, that reputation took a bit of a battering.
Situated on the southern most point of the island, Kenting National Park boasts tropical beaches, mountain and forest scenery and beach culture, a sort of Taiwanese Hawaii. Getting to and around the park, we had read, can be managed by bus, though some commentators suggested a hire car. We chose the bus option.
We started the day well enough, taking the MRT from Kaohsiung Main Station to the High Speed Rail Station and then the bus for the two hour trip to the Park.. The main line buses to the park were supposed to link up with local, colour-coded shuttle buses running on a 15 minute to 30 minute frequency, a fairly normal situation around tourist sites in Taiwan. The only problem was that the buses didn’t run to schedule, sometimes not at all. We made it to the end point of the shuttle line and enjoyed a rather nice sea view from the point where a very nice looking lighthouse was undergoing major repairs. By this time it was just after 12 noon, so we consulted the bus schedules and calculated that we could make a stop at the town of Kenting itself for a bit of a walk about and a stroll on the beach. This was when the wheels started to develop a bit of a wobble. The shuttle bus we were expecting was a total no show, so we decided on a local bus option, which actually did show up, though much later than the scheduled time.
As the day dragged on and the sun belted down, we abandoned the shuttle buses altogether - one just drove straight past us at one point - so we decided to catch the next main line bus back to Kaohsiung. Still standing in the blazing sun at a major interchange on the bus line, we signalled to two buses that just drove past. They were not full, just chose not to stop. Eventually, around 2 pm, we managed to flag down a bus.
Our day was broken up like this, five hours on buses, around two hours waiting for buses and thirty minutes looking at the views from the, under renovation, lighthouse area. Makes us question the notion that the journey is more important than the destination.
If you are going to Kenting, hire a car or a motorbike. The roads are good, the traffic is light and you won’t have to spend almost all of your day either waiting for a bus or riding on one. Note to self: read reviews more carefully.
13 November, Dynasty Hotel, Tainan
We have been jinxed on the buses the past few days. Right on the tail of our fairly disastrous day in Kenting National Park, we followed up yesterday by catching the fairly infrequent number 18 bus in the wrong direction while trying to get to the Taiwan National History Museum which is located about an hour from the city centre. We must admit this was our fault not that of the bus system. In fact, Tainan has a very efficient transport App, which we used for the remainder of our stay. In the afternoon, we visited the old trading port area of Anping. Not a lot is left of the Han Chinese, Dutch, Japanese and Portuguese buildings that graced the waterfront during the various periods of control of trade by each of these powers. An old Dutch merchant house has an interesting display demonstrating the history of the city and an amazing “tree house” behind the merchant house has a photo display of frogs. Even if you can take or leave our croaking green friends, the tree house alone is worth the admission. A group of derelict houses and out buildings have been overgrown by some huge strangling figs.
The port area is an active fishing village today. Boats piled high with crab traps and baskets of oysters and other shell fish and large trawlers line the quay side and the smell of fresh seafood had us wishing it was dinner time.
This morning we made a second attempt to get to the National History Museum and this time, with the help of a Taiwanese-American lady, we were successful. Well sort of! At the ticket office we were informed that the main museum was closed for renovations, but we could visit a smaller area for a vastly reduced price, AUD2.50. Not wanting to have wasted the trip, we handed over the $2.50, only to discover that the display was something that you would expect to find in a primary school classroom. One room with charts and photographs of the building’s planned renovations and another very small room with a collection of assorted junk that could have been found in any suburban “old wares” shop at home.
The upside of the trip was that we had some interesting company on the return trip in the form of our Taiwanese-American friend and a young woman who worked in a hotel in the city. The day was still young by the time we got back to the city so we went looking for Chihkan Towers and Fort Proventia. As no buses were involved, we found the towers and the fort, both of which were little more than the foundations of the original buildings. In a final effort to redeem the day we wandered further afield to the original Hayashi Department Store, reputed to have the oldest lift in Taiwan. Yes, by this stage we were fairly desperate to have a win. Perhaps we could do some shopping once we had ridden the famous lift. It was not quite what we’d imagined. Built in 1932 by a Japanese businessman, the store had been abandoned after WWII and was not restored until 2014. Today many limited-edition Hayashi goods are lovingly displayed on the shelves; staff, dressed in period uniforms, hover and there are comfortable chairs for customers to rest and chat. Five floors are individually themed, with a Torii shrine on the top floor. The lift’s floor indicator is the old-style dial type. It was very crowded, so we only circled the ground floor before escaping to the street.
While the past few days may seem like a nightmare, as with many of our past “adventures”, we will look back on these parts of our travels as special times and they will make for stories that are told and retold at home and to fellow travellers we meet on our future journeys.
15 November, Elite Harbour Hotel, Sun Moon Lake
A two hour train trip north from Tainan to Taichung, followed by an hour and a half bus ride found us at Sun Moon Lake. The lake and the few villages that surround it are among Taiwan’s most popular tourist sites. Everything is well organised, with a package deal covering boat, bus and cable car travel all for $460 Taiwanese dollars, about AUD23. The lake would be a wonder to behold on a clear day, but sadly, a heavy haze has hung around for most of our stay.
It is a weekday and so the crowds weren’t too bad, except for the cable car, as we managed to coincide our visit with half the school children of the whole of Taiwan! Not only were they numerous, but they were extremely excited and very loud. Everything worked well for us today, boats arrived almost on time, buses were only fashionably late and even though there was a bit of a queue for the cable car, we were treated to a kid-free ride in our own gondola.
We have had a couple of difficulties with the buses on this trip, but in the end we managed to get to our destinations, if with some difficulty on occasions. Our train experiences on the other hand have been near perfect. Much like Japan, Taiwan Rail Administration, TRA, operates trains at a variety of class and speed levels. At the top of the scale is the THRS, Taiwan High Speed Rail. The THRS is currently just a single line running from Taipei in the north to Kaohsiung in the south. We haven’t used the THRS, but it is very much a clone of the Japanese Shinkansen System.
The TRA runs local and island-wide lines operating trains in five classes: Puyuma Express, Taroko Express, Tze-chiang Express, Limited Express and Local Trains. The Puyuma and Taroko trains are the fastest and best configured. Below these are Express and Limited Express classes that make many more stops. All four of these classes of trains as well as the THRS, allow for seat reservation. The THRS also has non-reservation carriages where seats are on a first-come, first-seated deal. All carriages of the Express trains can be boarded without a seat reservation. If you are lucky and find a vacant seat when you board, you must give up the seat to the passengers with reservations if they board at a later stop. The lowest level of trains are local trains that have no reserved seats. These stop at virtually every station and can take twice as long to reach the same destination as one of the express trains. Having said this, we have found local trains just fine for our purposes. There is no need to book, just rock up. They are more frequent as a rule and in our experience, often not at all crowded. From a cost perspective, Taiwan’s trains are very cheap compared to most other modern networks we have travelled on around the world. As an example, we used the TRA’s excellent web site to calculate the cost of travelling right around the island on local trains at less than AUD100. It is also possible to purchase tickets online and collect them at any station.
One of the greatest things about the Tawain rail network is that the country’s IC Cards, EZCard and iPASS (Koahsiung) can be used on all trains, making travelling between cities just like using the subway/MRT. The IC cards can also be used on most buses and convenience stores throughout the country and on the Taipei and Kaohsiung MRTs. Cards can be topped-up at MRT stations or convenience stores.
17 November, Taipei M Hotel - Main Station
We caught the bus back from Sun Moon Lake to Taichung and after a bit of shopping and an overnighter, we were back on the rails for our final leg back to Taipei. We had booked our seats on the Tze-chiang Express today and, as it turned out, it was a wise move. The train was packed with hundreds of people standing in the aisles and at the end of carriages for most of the two hour trip. Being a weekend, people in Taiwan seem to move about, visiting local tourist attractions or family.
A lazy stroll around Taipei today to prepare us for the long journey home through Singapore.
Our hotel in Taichung was directly opposite the new, flash station. Thousands of young folk streamed into the city all day. Taichung is Taiwan’s third largest city after Taipei and Kaohsiung. We couldn’t find anything much to interest us in the city, choosing to just stop over to break up what could have been a very long day from Sun Moon Lake back to Taipei. We aren’t sure what the attraction was yesterday and this morning, other than a chance for a weekend out, but the city was packed.
Taiwan in Review
After three trips, we consider ourselves experts on independent travel in Taiwan. So what is the verdict? We have a new answer to “What is your favourite country?” Our answer from now on will be, “The country we are in!” So at least for now, Taiwan is our favourite.
We would bill Taiwan as “China Lite.” Having travelled fairly extensively in the Middle Kingdom, such a mantra seems appropriate. Mainland China is not for the faint-hearted. The great press of people, the very different standards of public behaviour in many places and the less than welcoming attitudes of the bulk of people combine to make independent travel in China more than a little challenging. Mind you, if you are up for it, there is no question that China is well worth the effort.
Taiwan has no equivalent of the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Shanghai Bund or the Terracotta Army, but it has its share of cultural attractions, unique scenery and big city life and it is still very Chinese. Getting about is easy, very safe, cheap and people are friendly, English is fairly widely spoken, food is great, overall costs are way cheaper than China and most western countries don’t require a visa. Australians and possibly others, can even use the E-gates at the airports. Scoot flies to Taipei and Kaohsiung from Australia through Singapore.
Westerners who prefer organised tours may find their options fairly restricted, as most tours we have seen are for Japanese or Chinese tourists. In short, give Taiwan a go, you won’t regret it.
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