A Golden Getaway: Part 2 (Taiwan)

After an excellent time in Seoul, I traveled to Taiwan. I flew into Taipei Taoyuan International Airport in the early evening of Friday, April 26 and then caught a bus to the main train station. From there I received wrong directions from a local but eventually found my way to the hostel. It was located in a unique area packed with language cram schools. Despite the unwelcoming entrance tucked away in a dark alley with no signage, it was a nice, clean, and comfortable place.

My planned destination for the night was the Xinyi District, where Taipei 101 is located. I wanted to see the massive skyscraper at night and then check out a famous club nearby. The glowing lights of Taipei 101 shining through a heavy rain that evening seemed to add to the presence of the utterly impressive structure. Seriously, wow. Next, I walked over to Club Myst, considered to be one of Taipei’s premier dance clubs. It consisted of a large central dance floor where electro house music was played, a smaller side room for hip hop, and an outdoor lounge-deck with fantastic views of Taipei 101. I had a few drinks, met some new people, enjoyed the music, and had a great night before returning to the hostel.

Club Myst and view of Taipei 101 from the lounge deck

The next morning I met up with two of my friends from college, a nice Taiwanese couple who are now married. They took me to eat a folksy breakfast of flakey, fried pastries. I especially loved the fresh soymilk, surprising since I usually hate the stuff. Next, we passed through a park where we spotted a middle-aged, deep-voiced man singing opera while doing what appeared to be tai chi. When he saw me walk toward him for a photo, he made a great big smile and posed for me while still singing. He didn’t miss a beat. I clearly remember thinking, “What an awesome guy, he really knows how to love life!” His simple gesture became one of my favorite moments of my trip.

Gentleman singing opera in the park

We continued to a few interesting sightseeing areas, including the Taipei Presidential Office Building and Liberty Square, both in the Zhongzheng District. Although the president doesn’t actually live at the Presidential Office Building, he does work there during the day. So I was surprised by the seemingly minimal security of a few armed guards and barricades present. Next we walked over to Liberty Square. 

Northwest-facing view of Liberty Square

This is an expansive public plaza that consists of several magnificently large structures. It’s my understanding that the area was initially called Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Square but was renamed to celebrate Taiwan’s modern democratic values. 

However, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, a building with a seated statue of the former president inside, still remains as such today despite a supposed past history of cultural suppression by the leader. Lastly, my friends took me to the sky deck of Taipei 101, where I got to see the vast city from above. But time was running out quickly and I had to get back to the train station to catch a specific train. We rushed to the train station, I said farewell to my friends, and I just barely made the train to Taichung, my next stop in Taiwan.

Arriving on Saturday afternoon and leaving Sunday evening, my time in Taichung was completely packed with fun activities. It may have been busy but it was definitely awesome and gave me the chance to see most of my Taiwanese friends. Years ago, I was lucky to meet them when I was attending Southern Illinois University. Back then, I was a graduate assistant studying for my Master’s Degree, teaching regular classes, and working with short-term international groups of students. My job with the groups was basically to take care of them and make sure they had a great time while at the university, thus I spent a lot of time hanging out with them and taking them places. So after several years, I was really happy to see them again.

As soon as I arrived at the train station, one of my friends greeted me warmly. Next I hopped on the back of another friend’s scooter and we zipped through the city to meet a group at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. As I gripped the back seat handle, my friend weaved in and out of traffic, slithering around stopped cars, sometimes slamming on the brakes then accelerating rapidly to catch the light before it turned red. There are scooters everywhere in Taiwan, and while my friend admitted it’s not the safest driving style, he explained that this is just how people drive there. Some time later and still alive, we arrived at the museum where we met up with a bigger group of friends. After catching up with them, we strolled over to a really cool street called Wuquan West 4th, filled with lots of unique restaurants and shops. We stopped to eat at an Italian restaurant called, ‘Le Jardin de Giverny’. There, more friends joined us until we had a nice group of about 15 friends. Tasty good, cold drinks, great company--what more could you ask for? 

Eating dinner at Le Jardin de Giverny, in Taichung

Dancing! As dinner wrapped up and I said farewell to this group, I met with yet another friend who couldn’t make it to the dinner. She and I love dancing, so we headed to a bar for salsa dancing, and then later to a popular dance club called 18TC. We stayed late into the morning and had a super fun time.

Salsa dancing in Taichung, Taiwan

Eating stinky tofu

A few hours of sleep after clubbing, I woke up early because I would meet yet another group of friends and head to the lovely Sun Moon Lake. Once there, we took a short boat ride to a small island where we tried various foods, including ‘stinky tofu’. To put it kindly, I think the stuff is quite unappealing, but Taiwanese people sure do love it. On the contrary, one of my favorite foods there was a deliciously flavorful garlicky sausage. Of course besides eating, we also did a little hiking and took a lot of photos together. By mid-afternoon we completed our adventure and we returned to the city. Timed perfectly, we got back just as I planned to meet one last group of friends in Taichung before I would depart for Hualien in the east of the country. We had a nice casual dinner together and got to chat for a while, then I said goodbye and left for my next destination.

At Sun Moon Lake, Yuchi, Nantou, Taiwan

I reached Hualien at midnight and went straight to the hostel for a desperately needed goodnight’s sleep. It was now the morning of Monday, April 29. I showered and prepared for a day of hiking at Taroko Gorge, a stunningly beautiful and geologically impressive National Park in Taiwan. There are several options for getting around the place but I chose to use the shuttle bus available. On the bus ride I met two other solo travelers and we decided to hike together for the day. There are various trails open to the public, as well as some that are more restricted. The area is an amazing showcase of nature. It consists of rivers that have carved through the rock forming massive walls of marble and other stone with plenty of green throughout. I think one can only understand that scale if seeing it in person, but pictures can provide some idea of the spectacular place.

At Taroko Gorge, Hualien County, Taiwan

I stayed in Hualien for two days. The second day I ventured out on my own and explored a few areas I didn't have time for on the previous day. However, by early afternoon Tuesday, I had to leave for Taipei because I was flying to the Philippines on the following day. Nonetheless, I still had plans for the evening in Taipei. I met up with one more friend whom couldn’t meet in Taichung a few days earlier. We went to a night market where I tried lots of new foods, as well as a small temple decorated for a special holiday. By late evening I had returned to my hostel, did laundry, packed my bags, brushed my teeth, made my final hotel reservations for the Philippines, and went to bed. During my 6 days in Taiwan, I managed to see more than 25 friends as well as make new ones, go salsa dancing, go clubbing twice, go hiking three different times, go to a night market, and more. But I anticipated that, which is why I choose the Philippines for the final part of my trip--to relax. The last morning in Taiwan, I took a bus to the airport and boarded a flight to Manila.