Taiwan

Taiwan was the best vacation ever, overtaking my trip to the east coast in 2008. The 15 days I stayed there was really fun and a lot of sights amazed me. Taiwan has changed a lot in the 6 years since my last visit but I had a wonderful trip. The trip went too quickly but I still had a lot of fun. I stayed in the city of Yonghe in taipei for 3 days, then took high speed rail train down to Kaohsiung for 7 days, and spent my last four days back in Yonghe. It was FUN!!!


Taiwan is so convienent now in many ways. There are a lot of transportation methods in the city side. You can go by car or motorcycle. Almost everyone has a motorcycle there as it is easy to park and easy to go. Driving cars are a big problem as it is hard to find parking place. There is a taxi on every street you can call (like New York). Also, the subways make it a lot faster and easier to travel to places. The subway station where I stayed in Yonghe was only 3 blocks down. And in Taipei, there is a train every 2 minutes. The subways are clean as they enforce a policy of no eating or drinking. They are still extending the subway. The High Speed Rail Train connecting Kaohsiung and Taipei saves time and it is fast. Instead of flying or driving, you can now take the super fast 1 1/2 hour train. Regular trains are still there. So there are many transportation methods in Taiwan that make it convienet and fast to travel to places you want to go.

Also, Taiwan is convienent in what you want to do. If you want to shop, buy food, or regular living necessities, there is a shop just around the corner. On almost every street, you can see a 7 Eleven, Family Mart, OK, Hi-Life, or any of those convienence store. Taiwan has over 4,000 7 Elevens. Those stores sell water, drinks, food, and all kinds of basic living supplies. Turning the corner from where I stayed in Yonghe, there were shops all on the street on Yonghe Road. The majority is food and they sell them at a good price and it is legit Taiwan food. IT is so delicious.

Taiwan is known for its Night Market and I went to one almost every night. At Yonghe in Taipei, went to Lehua Night Market as it was right next to my aunts house where I stayed. In the night market, you can shop and eat food. They run from sunset til 2 AM every night!!! In the weekend, it is extremely packed. But the food there is again legit and the shopping pretty cool. Went to Lehua, Shilin Night Market, Kenting and one in Kaohsiung, where I forgot the name. But the Night Markets are great to chill at night.


One of the highlights of my trip was going down to Kenting (yes it has my name in it but its pronounced "Kun Ding" in Chinese). Kenting is known for the scene where the movie "Cape No. 7" was filmed. That movie gave Taiwan a big boost in tourism. We rented a big van and drove down from Kaohsiung to Kenting. On our way, we say pieces of wood fragments the result of Typhoon Morakot that hit Taiwan on August 8. That was devasting and the worst storm in taiwan history. So wood fragments and logs were there and people were burning them to get rid of it. Once we got inside Pintung County, we saw the Taiwan Strait. Went to South Bay Beach and chilled there for a while. The water was not cold and it was cool and clean. IT felt so good dipping our feet in there. The sand was also clean. Afterwards, we drove even south and went to the southernmost point of Taiwan. If you look at the map of Taiwan and see those two points sticking out, I went there. The southernmost point was awesome. The view was the best as I saw the Taiwan Strait and Pacific Ocean meeting. It was extremely windy there but I took lots of pictures. It was a great site. We went to Maobitou, the second southermost point of Taiwan the next day. That site was also amazing. From that point, saw the indent and the southermost point of Taiwan. It was the best view I ever saw those two days.

Kaohsiung was also pretty fun. We biked through the improved and new bike paths at Kaohsiung. They took down an old railroad track and converted it to a bike lane. Biking is really popular in Taiwan and we got to explore around town. Kaoshiung also has two pretty big malls. One is next to the subway station called "Mega Mall" and that is 17 stories high of a mall. The other was on the south side of Kaohsiung city and that one is brand new as it just opened recently. It was nice cooling off inside those malls.

At Taipei, I went to a lot of places. One night, went to the Taipei 101 Tower. It actually has 106 towers but 101 sounds better and easier. Didn't get to go up to the top as we came too late. There at Taipei 101, we got rain at night. Taipei is a really clumped city. So they built an Underground Mall at Taipei Main Station. It is like a real mall as you walk out of the train or subway stations. It is pretty cool. Another day, we also rode the subway up to Danshui. Danshui is the near the north west of Taiwan. The Danshui River opens up to the Taiwan Strait over there. We went in the late afternoon and got to go to the San Domingo. That house was built as the Spanish and French used to be in Taiwan. Then, we took a bus up to Fisherman's Wharf. We caught the sun setting at San Domingo but when we got there, the clouds had covered the sun. But it still made a nice view of the sunset on that bridge at Danshui. Anyways caught sunset and then ate over there. When we were all done, took a ferry back to the subway station. Danshui was pretty cool and beautiful.

To sum things up, I like everything about Taiwan except the weather. It is TOO hot there and very humid. So you sweat wherever you go. Going to run an errand, you will sweat in the summertime. It did rain heavily on us for a few days as a Typhoon was coming but luckily, it turned north east and avoided Taiwan. Taiwan is small but there a lot of great attractions you can go to. I like the culture there of people. People are really nice there and are follow a certain order. For example, on the subway esclators, there is a tradition of standing on the right side. The left side is for people who want to walk down the esclators. That's pretty cool. I saw virtually no trash on the streets. It is really clean there. And Taiwan is making money in a smart way. When you go shopping, if you better bring your own bags. They charge 1 dollar in Taiwan dollars (1 dollar = 33 Taiwan dollars) for a bag. Also in Taiwan, they have trash and recycling bins in public places. So that method has been working for Taiwan. Taiwan is growing internationally right now. This summer, they have hosted the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung (July) and the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei(September). So it is making a name to the world. It was fun vacationing the country where I was born. I love Taiwan and will go back there in the future.

I leave you with this. Here is the most funniest thing I saw. They translated this sign wrong....