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Taiwan: Kaohsiung, Tainan and Sun Moon Lake

From Hualien on the East coast I continued to Kaohsiung on the West coast, the second-biggest city in Taiwan. No train crosses the mountain range in the middle of Taiwan so I had two options, backtrack to Taipei and then take the HSR (essentially the Japanese bullet train which they licensed) down the West coast or a slow train down the East coast and around the bottom of the island. I chose the scenic (and cheaper) route which took a leisurely 5 hours but was a nice journey.

Posted by James Antrobus Monday, June 1, 2015

Taiwan: Taroko Gorge

From Taipei I took a train about two hours to Hualien on the East coast. I didn’t see much of the town itself but I took a day trip to Taroko Gorge National Park, one of the biggest tourist destinations in the country. Taroko is about 90 minutes from Hualien and there’s a tourist bus you can hop on and off around the park. I took it out to the furthest stop first, then managed to cover a few trails working back towards the park entrance.

Posted by James Antrobus Thursday, May 28, 2015

Taiwan: Taipei

After my brief stop in Dubai I took a flight to Taiwan’s capital, Taipei. The Emirates flight and Dubai terminal 3 (the world’s largest - this is Dubai after all) were both great but at 4:30am I wasn’t really interested in ether. Taipei is huge but not a megacity like Tokyo or Seoul so it’s still pretty easy to get around using the MRT (metro), though almost every local of driving age has a scooter.

Posted by James Antrobus Tuesday, May 26, 2015