Our six weeks adventure in Taiwan has ended. So why did you choose Taiwan? Is there anything to see? Lots of our friends were so surprised of our decision to visit it, since Taiwan is still a Terra incognita for the most of Europeans. However, you would be surprised how much the country has to offer for the travellers. Also for everybody who still associate Taiwan with cheap products and “Made in Taiwan” slogan, we could say that all these days are long in the past and nowadays country is more concentrated in a high-end products. When locals are not happy about something they even tend to compare their country to Japan. So you could often hear that “here is like this BUT in Japan…” 🙂
Let’s start with the food. Taiwan is a food paradise on Earth. Taiwanese greeting even means – Have you eaten? Their food is a mixture of Chinese, Japanese and aboriginal cuisine. People even say that in Taiwan you can get the best sushi outside Tokyo. It doesn’t matter in which city or district or at which time of the day you step on the street, you will always find rows of stalls of street food. Some locals don’t even have the kitchen at their homes since they easily can get round-the-clock street food on every corner. And it seems that vendors are not making food they are making art, by each trying to impress passersby with their cooking skills and extraordinary recipes. Half of the food we tried we didn’t even had a clue what it was made of. If you ever in Taiwan, try thousand year egg, stinky tofu, bread coffin, pig’s blood cake and the famous bubble tea.
We landed in Taiwan during the coldest month of the year, furthermore, it was constantly raining, so we decided to travel around it by public transport. Guess what? Ten days later we came back where we started, rented a motorcycle for the whole month and started our trip from the beginning. After seeing the roads through the towering cliffs we realised that it will be a sin to drive through this country on four-wheels. Our motorbike loop through Taiwan could be easily divided into three major parts: a business centre Taipei, more relaxed smaller cities and mountains mountains mountains.
All in all, Taipei was so different from the rest of Asia we knew. Before it we only saw the chaotic Asia and here we came to a neat capital where drivers actually stop when it is a red traffic light and where the average salary is higher than in our own country. Everybody rushing somewhere, living in their smartphones while walking, eating with friends or being in metro. Everything according to the rules and schedule. Even in a waiting room at a bus station people sit according to their place in a queue. So the first week we were like two dummies constantly obeying the rules and doing something wrong in public places.
While heading South from Taipei not only the climate gets warmer but also the whole atmosphere changes and you see more relaxed people. In some places locals even say that everybody who wanted to earn money left for Taipei and here stayed everyone who just want to enjoy the life. So we were visiting vivid small towns each having it’s own charm and vibe. There were live music villages, villages painted in rainbow colours, art districts made from abandoned warehouses. Whenever we go, there were always a night market where people gather in the evening to get a great street food.
However, the real beauty of Taiwan lies in the mountains. 2/3 part of the country is covered in mountains. Formed by the collision of two major tectonic plates, Taiwan’s mountains are huge, cliffs are enormously steep and they usually didn’t even fit in our camera. We drove through the roads which are 2000-3000 metres above the sea level, saw sunsets and sunrises standing above the sea of clouds, we were walking on a less than 1 meter wide cliff trail 700 meters above the canyon floor, visited mud volcanos and plenty of hot springs. Mountains here are beautiful and frightening at the same time. It’s important to cross mountains before the noon since it gets really foggy, rainy and cold afterwards, thus, we had to plan our trip across the mountains carefully.
Finally, regarding safety it’s such a mixed feelings. It really looks like the safest country in the world. Warning signs and helmet during a light bulb change is a norm here. The majority of people we met have not even locking their homes and we were so relaxed while leaving our stuff in public places. On the other hand, the country experience landslides and earthquakes almost every day. So beeing there you just have to be aware that it could happen anytime, and there is no way to predict it. So you will get a SMS couple seconds before the earthquake. It became quite normal for us to wait for a road to be fixed after a landslide. And the first time in our lifes we asked locals how to act in the event of an earthquake. When taking off by plain we were discussing that we were so lucky not to experience any major one. It was really so, since a week later 6,4 earthquake hit the most touristy place in Taiwan – Hualien.