TWO WEEKS IN TAIWAN Solo Backpacking Adventure
I'm about to travel to Taiwan for the very first time taiwan's a place that gets overlooked sometimes when people are traveling around East Asia but whenever I spoke to people who have been there they've absolutely loved it so I'm just very curious and very excited for what's about to happen I'm going to be traveling by myself and I've got two weeks to do a loop all the way around the island taking in the big cities the bustling night markets the breathtaking mountain ranges and the pristine coastlines just first impression getting off the bus think it's going to be a good couple of days hello keep saying it but this is this is brilliant wow so I am absolutely buzzing for this trip um I'm currently in a hotel room in Vancouver cuz my flight's at 2: a.m. tonight and this is going to be the first solo trip I've done in just over a year and it's going to be the first solo backpacking I've done since the summer 21 trip in Europe so it's been quite a while since I've done some backpacking and I'm not sure what the scene is going to be like in Taiwan I'm not sure what to expect I'm certainly not expected it to be like the party backpacking scene in Southeast Asia and frankly I'm far too old for that anyway but staying at hosts is still the best way to meet people and figure out what things to do and it can be such a good Catalyst for your adventures and your travels so that's what I'm going to be [Music] doing I'm taking off at 2: a.m. on Sunday night so I guess it's technically Monday but then I land at 5:30 in the morning on Tuesday so God knows what the jet lag's going to be like but I'm just going to get there and try my best to hit the ground running and get exploring Tai One landing in Taipei I immediately bought myself an easy card which you can top up and use to pay for public transportation across the country I got it that's go then I borded the MRT which takes about an hour to get into Central Taipei all right so I've made it to my hostel I'm staying at me Ander hostel in the shending neighborhood uh God you're going to have to really bear with me with the pronunciation of the places on this I'm going to try my best though but for now I've got like two full days to explore the city here the biggest struggle today though is just in terms of the time difference in the jet lag because I'm about to head out when normally at this time back at home i' be going to bed so we'll see how we do we'll see how far we get before I Collapse just walking through shim to get to the taipe main station and catch the the Metro out to where I want to go but this place looks like it be pumping in the evening like street performers loads of people out people are eating drinking hanging out it's [Music] [Applause] awesome the first thing I'm going to do is head up to Elephant Hill where I can get an amazing view of taipe including the iconic taipe 101 Building [Music] so it's uh 10 minute walk from the station to the trail head and then from here it says it's just 18 minutes to the top so not too far but I mean I'm sweating already cuz of the humidity so what be like after to go on these steps I don't [Music] know this is a a steep little workout this might not be far but going in this humid little Forest here takes out of [Music] you what a view of the city it's a bit of a bit of a hazy day but considering the forecast was supposed to rain today this is quite an improvement gorgeous City though just I'm loving all the lush green as well as the incredible architecture such a great great combination and uh might have to come back up here like maybe T our evening for Sunset bring a couple of beard I know that's classic but you know it' be rude not to when you're [Music] here all right so now to head to taipe 101 and check out the vs from the top of there taipe 101 used to be the tallest building in the world standing at 500 M or, 1600 ft tall it's an icon of Taiwan and built to withstand earthquakes and high winds with its tuned Mass damper that balances the building [Music] okay so we did 89 floors in 37 seconds there pretty damn fast anyway here's the view here's a hazy view of taipe wow a this is cool [Music] still I've come down to the basement of the food court to try one of the most famous dishes in Taiwan apparently which is the shaolong Bal soup dumplings all right see what all the first is about oh that's T tasty it's quite juicy on the inside yeah I'm saying it's quite juicy obviously that's The Soup part the soup ding all right welcome to day two in Taipei uh yesterday after going up the taipe 101 Building I just hit a wall with a jet lag so today I'm just going to explore around a bit more see some more of the sites and then I really want to check out a night market CU there's so many of them in the city and they're all supposed to be amazing so really just want to get stuck in with own try loads of food get some drinks and just see what happens that's the plan but yeah first impression of the cities is fantastic and it's so easy getting around with the Metro System here so we can very easily see loster City in a short space of time uh so I'm going to do more of that right now my first stop was the Chang Kai Memorial Hall a National Monument opened in 1980 in memory of the former president Taiwanese opinions on the Memorial Hall are diverse and reflect taiwan's complex political and historical landscape but as a tourist it's still worth a visit even just to admire the architecture it looks freaking huge looks amazing so I'm going to have a wand around the grounds here and just you know don't know if it's going be an educational experience or just a really cool place to look at and check [Applause] out so I'm just walking down deow all Street which is like a 19 Century old shopping street and today it's full of just little little shops and Chinese medicine places and little cafes and just a temple it's just cool to have a little wand around and enjoy the [Music] atmosphere just trying out a giant fork or soup I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but all they given me to eat it is like this like Giant cocktails [Applause] B well I've come back up Elephant Mountain for sunset uh it's a lot quicker coming up when you're not filming it but it's still just as tiring I think I was calling it Elephant Hill yesterday but it's actually called Elephant Mountain I mean it's a hill it's not that high up anyway only one thing to do at a Sunset Point [Music] that was really great seeing the city light up like that with the sunset just just spectacular I will say though I'm going to sound like a grumpy old man on a rant which is basically what I am these days but everyone that I was like half the group there were at the Viewpoint and just staring at their phones and I don't mean like taking a picture checking the phone to see if it worked but just literally just there scrolling away rather than looking at the view it's like well why come to a Viewpoint to look at your phone just you can look at your phone at home save yourself a lot of money and a lot of time anyway going to head back down now and go to one of the night [Music] markets all right it's time to check out a night market r street but I am starving so let's see what's in offer and get some food that I this almost feels like a foodie version of Coen Road best way best way I can describe it so far well I've just walked the entire length of the night market and there's so watch an offer in terms of food and all looks so amazing it's kind of hard picking which one to go for I think rather than just worrying about trying to find the perfect dish and let's just start trying everything and see how I do grab a beer along the way and see what happens it's kind of like I'm going to try the first thing I see oh wait not that one starting out nice and simple with some blow torched beef covered in salt right thank you it good all right this next food I'm going to try is a little more adventurous cuz I don't know what it is most of the stands have it like in Mandarin and in English but this one was just IM Mandarin but it looked tasty kind of like a scent was made of egg and bacon and shrimp and then the out of it was like a hash brownie kind of potato which makes it sound like a breakfast treat but it wasn't breakfasty at all it had a kind of a sweeter sauce on the edge uh which is great I think if I was doing it again I would make sure I don't eat like all day so I could just try a bit of everything anyway the jet lag is starting to creep back up me now so going to head back to the hostel and take it easy cuz I got a big day tomorrow but another fun day in Taipei so today I'm going to be doing a day trip from Taipei heading to the popular Old Village of Joe fun but before I explore there I'm going to go a little further out and try and hike up Teapot Mountain which should hopefully give me some fantastic panoramic views yeah it's a very popular tourist spot it's supposed to be really beautiful and the easiest way to get there is your bus goes direct from downtown all the way there so that's what I'm going to do we'll see how the weather holds up you don't know if it's going to be sunny or if the trench and Rain Storm's going to come so we'll see how we do [Music] today I got the last seat on the bus the bus takes about 45 minutes to drive from the center of Taipei out to jofen well I've ended up getting off the bus a little earlier than I planned uh my plan was to go beyond jufen to go do the um Mount teapot Trail but it's it's raining it's been raining pretty hard and if you look up there just kind of heights i' be walking it's all just covered in clouds so going to check out ju and Old Street in that bit first then maybe see if it clears up or maybe go somewhere else um yeah just going to have to improvise today I think because the weather's not behaving [Music] lots of free samplings being offered it's kind of like [Music] Costco so if you want to know where the iconic Instagram spot is this is the arm tea house you can see here the big crowds are getting a photo I got one too I'm not judging you don't have to actually go into the tea house to get a picture the tea house is the [Music] picture you down to the ocean from here oh fantastic would have been really cool doing a hike up and seeing like a good panoramic view around but oh well we'll make do yeah you could easily stay here all day if you wanted and just do like a food crawl you know rather than a pup craw just work your way down and try those different things out this is a pretty nice setup you got like a menu where you can just fill out what you want what to get might just get some more dumplings these are just regular pork dumplings rather than the um soup ons had the other day but so good think I might go check out another old town near here as well and have a bit of explore around this whole area make a sort of random day of it and the public transport is so good here anyway it's a super easy to do on your own I'm boarding the half hour train down to shien which is not only another beautiful town to check out but there supposed to be an amazing waterfall nearby as well that was a beautiful little train ride through like the little Valley like through the rainforest and rivers and waterfalls really cool and the train track actually comes right through the market kind of like Hano beam so yeah let's see what the space got to offer there lots of lanterns in the sky I mean it's the middle of days you can't see them suspension bridge cool things fre food samples it's about a kilometer walk out town to the uh waterfall so go check that out get a little bit of hiking today even if it's not the main one at R [Music] plan oh cool check this out such a hot humid day as well you kind of want to jump in so this is the Yan jinong falls on the way to ship and waterfall but yeah I love it when a plan doesn't come together and you end up in a place like this wow beautiful I think a whole bus side of tourists is just coming as well got to keep moving to beat this massive tour group oh here it is [Music] I mean that is super impressive uh way bigger than I thought it was going to be uh you can see the other waterfall in the background and coming down through here it's quality yeah super glad I came here actually glad I didn't miss [Music] this successful little Excursion h s a beautiful waterfall I grab myself a beer cheers because I enjoy my beers whil I'm traveling I had someone comment my videos recently going like girl do you ever just like drink water and yes yes I do in fact so humid today I've smashed like four bottles of water and had them in just like one gulp each like because of the humidity but showing yourself enjoying a bottle of water is not the same as enjoying a beer so cheers well look say I missed the train another one in an hour it has gotten busy though well time to head back to taipe it's been a good day though I think uh you probably spend longer in doing just cuz there's so many different foods to try and different shops and stuff whilst here there's less of a selection but it's just really cool spot to be like the train going through the street and then the waterfall that end up being a highlight today actually that was fantastic but yeah got to make my way back now all right it's time to hit the road and leave Taipei I'm heading to Sun Moon Lake today I'm going to be spending a couple nights there s of do a few different activities on the lake I haven't really made an effort to get involved with the backpacking scene at the hostel here um just been doing my own thing for the first 3 days and most evenings like the jet lag kicked in and I was just exhausted so I couldn't be bothered putting the effort of making new friends and stuff but we'll see how it goes at the next hostel I'm going to be at at Some Mo Lake cuz I'll be in a dorm room as well so maybe I'll get to meet some people there I jumped on the MRT for one stop to then catch the highspeed train down to tight jump Reserve seat the back of the que so see what Happ here I didn't manage to get a seat but fortunately it was less than a 40-minute journey to travel a third of the way down the country and from here I'll catch a bus in land to Sun Moon Lake okay next step is find the bus station we [Music] are the bus Journey just takes over an hour and the views got better and better as we began weaving our way up into the mountains and I'm going to have two nights here to enjoy Sun Moon Lake well just got here and it's pouring with rain luckily I missed that walking from the bus seems like a cool setup in this hosle though so I'm going to get a bus a minute round the leg get be able to car up I have no idea if I'll be able to see anything in the clouds but let give it a go I took the bus to the other side of the lake which only takes like 15 minutes and then I'm going to get the cable car up and just hope the weather clears up apparently it's like a theme park at the top so see what that's about I don't think I'm going to a gondet to myself CU pretty [Applause] [Music] busy yeah I'm making some friends in the gondola say hello you are handsome Taiwan welcomes you very much thank [Music] you all right need to see if there's anything to do here other than the theme park so apparently there literally is nothing to do here other than the theme park like I thought about paying for it but it's like it's late in the afternoon so I probably have time for like one ride and leave so I'll save my money yeah I'm just going to just going to head [Music] back so I think I'm just going to one around the uh town just here apparently it used to be the original Village on the lake but now it's all just you know big tourist hot spot but have a little Wonder around maybe get a drink somewhere and then get the boat back across the lake to mosal looks like we got a busy little shopping street here so let's go check it out might try some pork [Music] bun pork it's decent it's not the best bit of pork from Ever Had I'd say the meat to bun ratio slightly off well just about to get the boat back but it looks like there's a beer festival on might be shutting up but we'll see if there's anything going on it's called Uh golden beer but it's a it's a okay where did you brew this beer then n it's right here right well looks like I'm getting a later boat it's another one and half an hour it's not bad that the golden beer locally brewed have to around but make the bat anyway so cheers I made my way back and settled in for the evening to have some drinks with some guys at the hostel all right what what are you serving up what are you serving up you went to Ser no no I don't want I don't want TR this taian no taian they say they say it's a for things no the one is nice is nice flavor it tastes a little bit like um yo Meister Sal it's like in a way it's not too bad it's not nice it's not too bad this one is cool Sim this one is local rice wine from bully blary rice red this is the premium version 14.5% It's not that strong it's not that strong but it's really intense flavor so we've been reasonably civilized that's good that's weird it's a weird flavor yeah what does it remind me of either way something not nice not nice not nice it's like it tastes like very very dark coffee yeah it does remind me a bit of a coffee mhm but not I don't drink coffee anyway but but still not in a good way I need one of my spicy Doritos to get rid of the flavor yeah yeah the next day the sun was finally out and so I'm going to be hiring out an ebike and cycling the 30 km route all the way around the lake to joining me here from Germany hi no i' never R Electric B before been good fun but yeah it's a perfect day for it like blue sky very excited looks so stupid wear myet inside just com about to take it off with the camera but we're starting the adventure off like any good Adventure starts with a s toaster the best thing about looking ridiculous wearing this action camera is that thanks to a memory card error it didn't actually record a single frame all day [Music] so the pagota over there we're going to ride around to the base off and walk up to that's kind of our day is looping around all of this but hopefully the weather stays is good cuz it's just perfect so these ebikes like when when you stop pedling thinking you're going to slow down it just keeps going and then going up hills just it's so easy takes a little bit effort but then you start powering up but these views just gorgeous what an incredible day to be cruising around on a bike so you have like a little electric gear thing us have it set to one but if you push it up to five it's like being on a scooter you just go all right put it up to five oh we're going well this bit not as fun never thought I'd say this but I want to get back on the bike to have some rest oh we're at five on the road this is great I love electric bikes [Music] cars all right we've parked up at the pier uh we pretty much halfway around like we started right over there but yeah it's a Saturday so there's lots of locals here just enjoying their [Music] [Applause] time okay so now we're at the pagot all right we got two flights of stairs let's go hey you look up and realize how far we got to go it's [Music] like made [Music] it I'm back at it Tower where I was yesterday and the Street's just way more crowded cu the weekend but got to get some food need to refuel after the biking and Hiking we've done looks interesting so we don't know what we're getting right now we don't know what we're getting but if it's squid or chicken or what so what is it I don't know I guess it's something with rice or from Rice okay was very sticky but it feels like it might not be this but it feels like someone's got rice and just mashed it into like a do a goo and put it on a stick so we decided to come and sit down and one of the little restaurants on the Main Street here and we just basically ordered just a lot of the classics taiese classics so we're going to get stuck in with them I like eggs but this brown egg just looks bit bit off pudding so I'm just going to go straight in for it it's not that great yeah the eggs like quite not chewy but certainly harder than a normal egg has a weird taste to it I guess whatever they cook it it's like tea is it not a fan of that one but the pork really good so okay let's [Music] see yeah it's very hard in very overcooked yeah so so I don't know why you should want this but okay okay so we just filled up on a lot of food really tasty though and now we're going to cycle the other half back around to where we're staying having a great day this is so much fun got one last thing to check out which is wendu Temple right here looks impressive from afar when you get closer all these like little carvings so much [Music] detail see putting the papers in and like the the air just sucks them all in they burn straight away apparently it's like fake money so you have a a relative or a Lov one who's died you can buy the fake money put it in the fire and that money goes to them to spend in the afterlife I think that's what I've been told [Music] we're back yep great day out smashed it smashed it what's the time anyway you know uh 3:00 3:00 yeah so we set up about just before 9: 6 hours 6 hours yeah like got to see everything took our time looked at the viewpoints now I just need to freshed up and just get a drink it's all all is left for the day now it's some beers and Sh we settled down in the evening for some drinks at the hostel and then the next morning I was on my way to my next stop heading further up into the mountains to the alishan National Scenic area uh when I was asking for recommendations for Taiwan so many people recommended Al is like the most beautiful place suppos just gorgeous like Forest nature just amazing so really looking forward to next couple of days it's a 2 and 1/2 hour drive up to alishan and the road takes us near Yan the highest mountain in Taiwan which sits just shy of 4,000 M or 13,000 ft above sea [Music] level all right we made it to aland just going to check into the national park I think and then going to find my hotel dump my bags let me start exploring looks beautiful up here though look at these clouds in the mountains over [Music] here o thought I had it there got to the front desk and like do you have a booking it's like yes and then I gave him my passport paid for my room and then he went okay great check-ins at 300 leave your bags there so so I'm going to go to the by the way there's no hosts here or anything like that so if you're backpacking you're going to have to for out for a hotel for a night in order to see Anish Shan but going to go to The Visitor Center get a map figure out what I'm doing try and book my Sunrise train ticket for tomorrow morning and then we go explore right so that didn't go to plan had a chat with them in the visitor center I was like I'm here for 2 days leaving tomorrow evening he was like oh we're shutting the park tomorrow cuz the typhoon is coming in so you'll want to leave first thing and the sunrise train is not going to be running it's like wonderful like I knew this typhoon was coming in I was going to talk about it later but oh there's the train anyway I knew this typhoon was coming in I've been looking at alternate plans as of extend my trip I going to talk about that in a bit more but it's a bit of a shame to tomorrow to not be able to do what we're supposed to do on the highlights to this trip so I'm just going to get some get some lunch get some food and then figure out what to do for the rest of the day and just try and see as much as possible and one afternoon I've got here so the guy at the visitor center told me where to start we just at this other station but rather than waiting for the shuttle bus or the train I'm just walking cuz it's a 20- minute walk and just get on with it you know [Music] got some lovely mountains just peeking through the clouds here I just covered in [Music] rainforest sister's ponds is what I've been instructed to head to First oh wow this is [Music] beautiful look at the roots of this guy it's like the ground underneath is just eroded away or something and then these giant roots are still here the tree still still [Music] working there's like a really peaceful atmosphere to the place except there's busloads of other tourists like I think if you came into these walks first thing the morning it'd be really quite special quite magical but you know make two with what you can it's still incredible just so beautiful so I think there used to be a lot of logging here and then it became a protected forest all these old stumps are the massive trees that used to be [Music] here so I just did the sister Pond Trail and now I'm doing the giant tree Trail this tree here is 26 M High and nearly 1100 years old and here we have the giant tree named for obvious reasons uh this one goes up to 45 M High uh similar age to the other one about 1100 years old really like it here though just has a very Zen quality to the place and especially if you've been in like lots of the big cities before this so come here it's like a nice kind of you know cleanse and and relaxing time [Music] so you got three generations tree here where first generation's like 1500 years old and then that died and then the second one started growing on top of that and then many years later the third one start growing on top of that looks pretty cool though so I think that's it for this end of the park done the big loop around they have the trains to get around here and I haven't explored the park fully so there might be some bits where you do need to get on the transport to get to the further out places like the sunrise spot but for the main bits to wander around takes like 20 minutes to walk over there so you don't need to wait for a train or a bus if you don't want to and you still get to walk through beautiful Forest on the way Bo cool I have three beds I only need the one but [Music] hey well it's an absolutely beautiful evening here uh got kind of mixed emotions really cuz glad I got to come here glad I got to experience it but I kind of wish I could spend longer here cuz I just look at those views now which I couldn't quite get earlier and I want to experience more of that so yeah still loves more to see and enjoy in Taiwan but yeah just seeing how beautiful this place is I kind of I want more [Music] I thought I was traveling to Taiwan just after the typhoon season but apparently I got here in time just for the final onour so um put my trip on hold for 3 Days whilst the typhoon passes and um fortunately I was going to have to change my flight back anyway for reasons um what I'm going to do is just extend my trip so I don't miss out on any of the things that I was planning to do so rather than it's being two weeks in Taiwan it's going to be two and a bit weeks um but yeah originally my plan was to spend another full day in alishan and then in the evening get the bus to Chai and then jump straight on the train to kaung but what I'm doing now since the Park's going to be shutting up in the morning is getting the bus straight to Chai and since that Town's not in the mountains or near the coast I'm just going to wait out the typhoon there for three nights so I head to the Astan bus stop first thing in the morning to try and beat any potential cues if everyone's having to leave the park today but I got there and another Backpacker told me that apparently the buses were delayed or possibly not even running because of the typhoon but there was a minivan going a chai right now and just charging 500 Taiwanese dollars for it which is like 15 bucks and so I was like screw it let's go cuz I don't want to get stuck up here in the mountains [Music] but yeah on that drive down just weaving our way back down the mountains it was just like such a tease of like here's all the things you could have enjoyed but hopefully I should be able to get to enjoy some scenery similar to this later on in the trip well this is my room for the next three nights I figured if I was going to be stuck inside for like 2 to 3 days rather than just stay in a hostel I get like a a decent hotel room so I have my own space and like you know TV and a desk and things like that but this only cost me like 120 quid for three nights it's not bad at all and there's incredible views outside here of another building so yeah it's a little frustrating so I was just kind of getting into the rhythm of this trip and starting to make some friends and things like that but I'll pick up where I left off in a couple of days time and it'll all be fine well it's finally time for me to leave Chay uh the typhoon has pretty much passed uh it didn't hit quite as strong as I was originally feared like it was forecast kind of like ripped through the whole island but it kind of just stayed on the the south coast and died down I'm now heading down to kaong for the next day and a half and this city got hit by the worst of the typhoon just now but hopefully the damage isn't too severe okay time to find a hosle you see some of the damage here from the typhoon like storefronts have come down a car got knocked out by something Fallen some is pretty bad all right I just DED my bags in the hosit can't check in yet like 11:00 a.m. and now I'm just going to go explore the city Ka shung was founded in the 17th century as a small trading Village and has since grown into the main Port City of Taiwan but it's not just known for its industry as bustling night markets Lush Parks iconic temples and a particular focus on the Arts making k shung a captivating blend of culture history and seaside charm well up here's the supposed love Lookout over the city so I'm going to try and walk up to it it seems to be a bit of damage from the typhoon oh that was way deeper than it looked now my toes are soaking wet see if we can get through here turn a little bit of a mini Adventure this oh I think it's up here I think I'm nearly there [Music] we got monkeys we got monkeys up here aggressive little I was like saying hello and he came running straight at me there's a whole family coming through look at him just keep coming and [Music] coming well despite dodging branches getting my feet soaking wet and being nearly attacked by a monkey I say it was worth coming up here it's a lovely view of the city [Music] well I've just got the MRT to the we Ying Village District apparently it's a cool street art and yep it's right here coming straight off the tube that is pretty awesome this one here is like an aquarium come the whole neighborhood's out just helping clean up the mess after the [Music] typhoon it's just like walking around a giant Art Gallery it's really cool wow just keeps going you know I thought this just be a nice thing to come check out for a minute but actually it's brilliant it's amazing how art can transform a neighborhood you know [Music] well that was great that was really really great I'm glad I made the effort to come here you know it's only a few minutes on the MRT anyway all right just heading out for the evening heading to Leo uh Night Market get some food couple of drinks explore around so should be good good is turus roll is that just a a weird way of saying kab seeing a lot of tasty stuff on offer really juicy looking pork ribs over there but I think I'm going to go for seafood cuz we're about to see got to try some going for some Lobster or crayfish or something cheese on looks tasty given a SP and it bar works thank you got full of meal prepped here after this I think I'll be done for food all right let's give this a try it's hot that's good that's a tasty bit squid not two Chey I got it with teriyaki sauce a bit of spices nice little kick to it this is really good so I just popped the 7-Eleven to use the bathroom but they have an actual bar in here with draft beer in a 7-Eleven so not only can you get beer on tap the 7-Eleven it comes in the coffee book you could be a secret out garlic here very easy anyway cheers love my coffee my plan for today is to move on to the beach town of kenting this afternoon but this morning before I get the train I'm going to cycle round Sian Island which is just a 10-minute ferry ride from kaung give you a sense of how far we're going started just there the Island's just here it's nothing [Music] as soon as I got off the ferry there was a whole bunch of bicycle rental stores that could sort me out for the morning not going to lie this bike is a wonky piece of well I've ridden for about 2 minutes now I've parked up already cuz going do a little little walk up to see a fort and a light house and then I'm going to head down on the beach there was just a few minute walk up to this Old Fort here but got a great view of the island and you can see how close the mainland is it's just right there and this is what I'm going to be cycling around the rest of the [Music] morning just stopped at the black Beach here what I read online was this beach was super clean but because of the recent typhoon it's just washed in tons of debris well can't go that way can't go that way either so you have to go to the main road I think then try and get back on the on the cycle [Music] path huh it's not going great this cycle ride so far trying to get round everywhere's just blocked cuz the typhoon down [Music] well this day is turned into a bit of a non-starter really just there's so much of the path that's blocked by damage from the typhoon that trying to ride it anywhere is just just a pain in the ass well this Sunset bar is pretty great it can easy spend all day here you can hire out surf boards got surf lessons stand up panel boarding as well yeah I think if I had all day here and I hadn't just been a typhoon I'd cycle around the bike do a bit of exploring and then set up camp here try it at the surf in and then just watch the sunset come in and enjoy some food and drinks but I'm got to move on to the next town so I'm going to enjoy my drink enjoy this moment to chill for a bit and then make a move I made my way back to the main land to pick up my bags from the hostel and I'm now going to be heading to kenting which is right at the southern tip of Taiwan uh there is a direct bus you get from C on but apparently it's quicker to get the train like the first half then pick up the bus from there so that's what I'm going to going to try and do ticket printing complete Got My Ticket now's going to find the [Music] platforms it's about an hour on the train down to Fang Leo and from there I'll transfer to a bus which should take about 2 hours to get down to kenting well a sign point to exactly where I want to go coming at the station hope this be played so it's every half an hour and on the hour which means we just put a 12 minute wait back [Music] all right made it to kente just going to find my hostel place is pumping prob a kind of backpacking vibe to it like [Music] it one while the sunset's just hidden by those clouds over there but just first impression getting off the bus and seeing the beach here like I think it's going to be a good couple of [Music] days I haven't even checked in the hostel yet I just came down here to have a look at the beach so I'm staying at the kenting original hostel and within 5 minutes of checking in I made some friends to go explore the night market with [Music] Max here from France got some chicken in start night off and then we're just going to braid around see what food we can get and get some drinks in what are you going for I got like a watermelon juice this is pretty popular here in Taiwan it's like you have this little like shops with like juice how long you spent the Taiwan so I used to live here for 3 years 3 years ago actually you know yeah this place a whole other level what experience so far crazy it's kind of has like southeast Asia Vibes you know got a shot you want sh cocktail sh or whiskey cha or what are you ordering the chocolate one banana pancake one of these guys she say it's very hot so we need to wait we we need to wait we need to wait oh that's that's wash it down kind of want the rest now but it's yours but that was really [Music] good you speak Mandarin as well I can speak a little bit you want something or no cheers that's good all right she got to get 15 out of 15 to get this right so we'll see we'll see how we do nope getting getting the hang of bit but yeah still not very close all right Max you got bro come on you're like Jason bour or something I'm I'm the nightmare because like I can do it like 100% all the time why' you learn a shoot like that I'm a hunter in friends yeah I swear you're fine you good with a gun you can speak all these languages you got 7 Lem you got Family Mart with with Family Mart anytime the door opens it plays a jingle so if you imagine working here you'd want to kill [Music] yourself in the morning we went slightly up the coast to a place called weton which is supposed to be a fantastic spot for [Music] snorkeling it just cost $200 Taiwanese dollars that's like go what like $4 roughly uh to hire out the flippers the snorkle use their shower and the lockers here so yeah you just rock up here they'll sort you straight out and you get straight in the water apparently you can see lots of sea turtles here but I'm worried saying that I'm going to jinx it so we'll see what we can see but such a hot day it's like 30° just D to get in that water [Music] [Music] that water was such a lovely temperature like some of it was quite cool and refreshing and some of it was just genuinely warm like you get these sort of little currents that come through and it's like felt like swimming in a bath uh saw lots of fish different shapes and sizes some really big as well as some cute little Nemos but um sadly we didn't see any Turtles uh it's the way it goes with Wildlife it's a roll of a dice but we're still just beautiful swimming around in the gorgeous ocean here all right so we now come to South Bay to this beautiful white sand beach and we've just set up a camp at Cowboys Beach Bar and Grill to get some food cuz pretty hungry after doing all that swimming the stalking dishes here yeah very classical sometimes you just need a [Music] burger cheers Nelson yeah cheers meet you cheers car you do do the Iron Man I do the Iron Man I have the number oh wow yeah yeah 6 hour 20 minutes so what did you have to do in the Iron Man how how far swimming for for 1.9 km and bike 90 kilom and round 21 wow yeah and that was this morning that was today last was last today be in the morning right yeah wow well you've earned a beer we just having beers cuz it's you know it's a it's a day of the week but you you've earned that so it's Sunday night we should have a [Music] [Music] beer so they have some giant giant o is here I've ordered one costs about $8 or $9 it's the biggest oyster I've ever seen I bought this more out ACC cury I like oysters I'm not the biggest fan but my wife Jamie loves oysters and this is like the biggest oyster I've seen by a long long long way it's like the size of a cow's tongue and it just dripped something [Music] it's quite a once you got the sauce there it's pretty nice but it's a bit too much like I can see why we normally have them small that's way too [Music] much I'm now on the home stretch of the trip as I begin working my way up the east coast of Taiwan back to Taipei and my first stop is the little surf for backpack of Village of d to get there I've got to take the bus back to Fang Leo then the train to taong and then another short bus to D L it's a beautiful train journey like we sort of cut off the southern tip of the island went through the mountains which is gorgeous then we came out on the eastern coast of Taiwan just beautiful but now it's just a half hour bus JY to do that so nearly there [Music] all right I've made it to Dand just find my hostel and get settled in got a nice little private room but first I need to do some laundry some serious laundry and then I'm going to explore around and stuff but [Music] so duan's a bit of a backpack of surfer town I think I used to be or still is like an Aboriginal Village but over the years it's developed this kind of hippie Sur to it and uh had a few people recommend it like it's not necessarily like one of the most popular stops on a Taiwan itinery but it's becoming more and more well known and it just sound like had a Cool vibe to it so I thought I'd come check it out of course I'm by myself right now cuz I've got it this afternoon I have to get some laundry done and all that then I was like I'm going to come to the beach and have a drink at Sunset even though I'm facing East the sunset's behind me I'm not going to see the sunset itself but it's nice to come and just have a look at the sea see people surfing out there way over there is Green Island which if I had a couple more days in Taiwan I probably would have gone to check out cuz apparently there you can do some really good snorkeling and Diving and stuff but yeah I don't think I'm actually going to try surfing here which might seem a bit silly coming to a surf town and not giving it a go but what I'm thinking of doing tomorrow if I can is hiring out a scooter and just going on this big kind of road trip around the area cuz the east coast of Taiwan supposed to be so beautiful so beautiful and far less populated and the reason it's less populated than the west side it's cuz it's actually facing out to the ocean so it's a lot more has a lot more risk from the typhoons and things like that which is why the population is on the west side on the other side of the mountains like these mountains right here any who enough of an evening ramble going to enjoy the sort of non-s sunset sunset and as always have a drink on a a drink on a bench by myself like some lonely so [Music] cheers that evening I went for a lovely barbecue dinner then in the morning I was going to go on my big scooter Adventure only to find out that there's nowhere to hire out a scooter in Dand so I was going to spend another night here and then move on to W in but instead I'm going to move on to a town that's in the area area I was going to explore on the bike today anyway and just hire a scooter from there and spend the night there Dand if you're surfing great place to hang out because I'm not surfing and cuz it's like midweek there's not much going on I think on the weekends there's more things open there's like a big music night on Saturdays but I'm here on a Monday and Tuesday and it's just pretty dead and so rather than waste the day just hanging around I'm just going to go explore some more stuff but hey random Adventures though so I've got about half an hour till the bus I got to pack everything up and then um then move on to a town called Uli I hopped on a bus back to taong and then boarded a train to Uli which is located in the beautiful East Rift Valley which is a long and narrow Valley between the central mountain range and the coastal mountain range of Eastern [Music] Taiwan okay couldn't check in yet so I've dump my bags um not quite on the main tourist Trail here so there's only one guy working there who could speak very little English uh which is fine still made it work so I'm going to try and get a bike and head up to this hike that I want to do well this is the the higher place I had good reviews on Google but she used Google Translate to say the boss is not here she's not allowed to hire out the car so all right let's see if there's another way to get to the base of this hike so I'm going to try one more rental place all I want to do is get a scooter why is it so hard fortunately at this last place With a Little Help from Google translate and airdropping my international driver's permit I finally managed to get a scoter let's go ow just riding along and a bee got stuck between my helmet and my head it was stinging me a be or a was or something not fun anyway let's continue this ride's great other than that okay so just quickly parked up my bike the road's getting beautiful lots of little waterfalls but then there's this big one n waterfalls looks amazing so I'm here to to do the wami trail um most of the Big Mountain trails in Taiwan you need to get a permit for which sometimes you have to apply for months in advance but this one you can just do the first like 4 and 1/2k off like their their backs are 9k without a p so that's what I'm doing beware of wasps there a little late for that I got stung driving along anyway we're hiking we're doing this [Music] nice and easy path so far anyway you know just a gentle incline gets me out in nature though all right so I've done. five and
I'm going to 4.5 Lu these views when you get the little clearings gorgeous rainforest oh and there's a monkey oh [Music] sweet got a cool little suspension bridge here [Music] this is [Music] cool good there's bears in this for us as well so we got snakes giant killer wasps bears and monkeys [Music] [Music] beautiful little waterfall here could almost be like a lovely kind of water slide through the jungle this is great though this is so cool wow ah my kind of hike beautiful waterfalls monkeys just gorgeous and there's a suspension bridge up there which I think I'm about to walk over so I'll get to go above the waterf as well this is just great the waterfall powering down right here water looks lovely actually be nice to freshen up in it but it's not going to happen and then just some huge opening into the valley behind me here this is beautiful you know it's kind of getting worse for this trip with like the typhoon the bad weather before it and the earthquake damage and things like that that I wasn't going to get to do any like really cool hikes which Tai one's famous for it had so many great hikes so just doing this today even if it's just a short one more makes up for [Music] it not going to drink it but I can cool off with it feels good it's funny I'm in the thick rainforest but still nowhere near as humid as it was in like Taipei and other places at the start of the trip just come to another clearing in the forest and the other side of the valley just got these giant waterfalls coming down the mountains beneath the clouds keep saying it but this is this is brilliant bit of a drop off right here I go straight down lovely clearing of the valley here just see the scale of what I'm hiking [Music] through so i' made it to the jigan police station so I did that the wami trail for a Perma goes to that but you could keep going for days jigan is a translation of the boonen word Cashin which means gorgeous scenery so this is literally the gorgeous scenery police station let's go have a look not quite a Viewpoint here bit too much tree coverage the best view was just around the corner there but going to send up the Drone [Applause] [Music] [Music] well I'm going to head back down now uh this is actually the best view it's like literally 1 minute before you get to the police station get to see everything you just hiked through what a great hike though this has been fantastic really glad I've done this all right made it back to the bike that took just over 3 hours now it's with lots of stopping and filming and taking it in and stuff so if you try and smash it out you probably do it in two two and a half but that was brilliant that was so great so head back to town now get rid of the bike send it back CU only need it for this check into the hotel and that's me done for the day all right it's the room looks like we got a sweet ass view of the Town hey look at that it's cloudy right now but still that is great I'm coming towards the end of my trip now but before I get the train back towards Taipei I used my hotel's free bicycle hire to go for a ride before at to check out in 3 hours time so this is the Uli biking trail I'm about to join which is like on the end of town but think goes for 10K so let's go check it [Music] out ah this is nice pyed through Rice Field it's like a proper proper good cycle path you know it looks pretty new or heast has been done up recently [Music] what this something I didn't expect right here is a joining of two tectonic plates we have the Eurasian plate and a Philippine Sea plate Taiwan was created by these two plates colliding with each other and pushing the land up which is why you have this longitudinal mountain range throughout the island it joins right here that's [Music] cool well this is great so I've done 3K of the cycle route and then it turns out the other 6K is closer reconstruction oh it's just turned into a nice morning so I went back to the hotel dropped off the bike picked up my bags and then caught the train to W in the final stop of my trip before I get back to Taipei I'll have to see what's available to do in juin as the nearby too national park has been shut due to earthquake damage so luck doesn't seem to be on my side here in hin so Taco National Park still shut cuz of the earthquake damage from early in the year that's fine that's okay I was expecting that but then there's like some cool like kayak experiences you can do out sort of on the coast here on the ocean in front of the massive Cliffs which is supposed to be amazing but everything for today and especially tomorrow is either sold out or not running because tomorrow's the national day uh like holiday here in Taiwan but then I was like okay maybe I can just hire out a scooter this afternoon just go on like a random Adventure like I did yesterday but the forecast up in the mountains the countryside is as due to rain anymore so tomorrow I get back to taipe and got like a a really cool fun day lined up for my final day in taipe but also in Taiwan uh so still still lots of good things to look forward to even if this place hasn't gone quite to plan it's a bit of a shame though cuz I kind of wanted to be like hey the national park might be shut but there's still plenty to do in this town if you come here and on the coast here but not on the day that I've come here the next morning I got the train back to Taipei and along the way I got a glimpse of the cliffs that I could have been kaying in front of which is definitely something I'll have to try out another time then in the evening I got to see taipe 101 light up with fireworks to celebrate the national day [Applause] and now for my final day in Taiwan I'm heading out of town to yangshin National Park to do the short hike up to mount chiching and then I'll head to the be District in the north of Taipei to relax in a hot spring all right so I've made it to yaming Shen National Park I've stopped at the langu king Visitor Center and basically what I'm going to do is this hike up to mount shiing the hike is not too long I think it's only like a couple hours or something to go up to the peak up there but you can see these clouds here just moving through so fast so it be interesting to see what it's like up there got OCC casual whis of sulfur around here on a thermal activity which is kind of a lovely smell to hike too oh wow kind of view down to the city here [Music] oh it's getting steeper here right on the edge of it [Music] now sets up Behold The Amazing views of typ so that took an hour and 10 minutes to get up not too bad loads of people in the trail though I think cuz yesterday was a national holiday and it was Thursday so I'm guessing people are taking Friday off to have a long weekend I walk back down a different Side of the Mountain to the yanging chin Visitor Center and then I caught the bus down to beato which is famous for its hot springs and there are some public ones available but since it's the end of my trip I thought I'd treat myself to a private one at guia [Music] hotel so they provide like free water water and tea you can just relax with but being the forward thinker that I am I'm thought of course so beer cheers looking back at my time in Taiwan I had such a fantastic experience but I feel like if I had a little bit better luck with like the weather and you know natural disasters and stuff uh then it would have push the experiences to a whole other level because like that day in Uli was just so fantastic I love that so much and if I gotten a few more days like that it just would have been incredible but there's no point in focusing on what I didn't get to experience in Taiwan I much rather talk about what I did get to experience there and I crammed a hell of a lot into two weeks and what I did get to see and enjoy I absolutely [Music] loved but yeah it's such a beautiful country I mean chat other travels here we're all like surprised more people don't come here because it's so easy to travel around like the infrastructure is just fantastic and then with the language barrier there's enough people that can speak English so it's not like ever a problem for what you want to do it's not that expensive and there's not many Western tourists here overall like there's a few around but I know so many people complain about southeast Asia being like you know it's the Beaten Track and there just too many tourists like well come to Taiwan if you want East Asia without tons of tourists this is where it's at and it's [Music] beautiful before we finish up I just want to thank the taipe representative office in the UK for inviting me to Taiwan they reached out a while back saying they'd seen my Thailand Vietnam and Philippines video and said they'd love for me to make one of those of Taiwan and I said to them the best way to do it is just to let me go do my thing and travel around the country like I normally would because I've been on press trips with tourism boards before where the itinery is very counterproductive for making a film of the trip but also the experiences we had bear absolutely no resemblance to how you the audience would experience traveling around that country but with Taiwan we sat down in a meeting I sort of told them my ideas for the itinerary and then they gave me loads of ideas and suggestions they were like super helpful and then I just went and did the trip by myself I booked every train every hostel every activity and I have complete creative control with a video like no one's telling me to say anything and the result for me was a far better experience a far better video and now I actually know what it's like to travel around Taiwan and I can genuinely recommend it based on my experiences I mean the people are super friendly there's so much to see and do and it's so easy to travel around so you can easily squeeze a lot in to a short space of time plus flights from neighboring countries like Thailand Vietnam and Philippines are super cheap so you can easily add in Taiwan to a trip of that region but anyway I'm going to be doing budget and itinerary videos of this Taiwan trip and then on the way back from Taiwan to the UK I stopped in Bangkok for 24 hours that video is already on the channel I still need to finish off editing the Africa series from the summer hopefully it be done by Christmas but in 3 weeks time Jamie and I are going to be flying out to my favorite country New Zealand so there's loads to look forward to there's a ton of editing I need to get down but thanks for watching as always guys and I'll see you again very soon [Music] [Music]
2024-11-29 22:55
