Taiwan

Taking my parent to Taiwan

2013-05-30T14:45:00.003+08:00

My parent are very young, only mid 70's so I felt it would be great to bring to Taiwan, my second country after marrying Wen. Wen supported the idea 100% as she wanted to present her country for them as they have presented our country to her. To make a long story short, we invited them to Taiwan with us, and we just cam back from a full circle of Taiwan.

After landing in Taipei airport we took the bus shuttle to the High Speed Rail (HSR) station nearby and bought tickets to take us to Taichung. This sounds complicated, but it is not.

As the plane was delayed, we were running out of time on our meeting with Wen's small brother with family and big sister, who all live in Taichung. For this reason we rushed to the restaurant to meet them and to have a lovely dinner with them all. The night was very successful and everybody was getting to know each other despite the small common language we had. My father and mother brought presents fro the kids, and they seem to enjoy this danish tradition.

Next day we took my parent to have breakfast in our local small street breakfast shop. Breakfast habits are hard to break, so the Taiwan style was a bit hard to accept, although after some time, they got to taste everything.

After breakfast we went to Wen's brothers house and later we took off on a half day trip with Wens brother and his young son Yoyo. Unfortunately his lovely daughter Rita had to attend some school activities with her mother, so we were just a small group.

First stop was the old family house which is now a public museum for everybody to visit, this place is described elsewhere in my blog, so I will not tell too much, just say, that visiting the place again was a great pleasure for both me and my parents. I share a few photo;

AS we were leaving the place, Wen's brother pointed at one of the houses and said; "If the house was not taken from us by the government, I would be living over there. How lucky I am!" I am not sure how honest he was, but that is what makes it a great remark.

After this visit we went to a place where people come to meditate and study philosophy. This was not planned but turned out to be a great experience. Very calm atmosphere and nice people there.

After this pause, we went on with our trip and had a great time in Lugang, which I have also presented elsewhere on this blog. This place is fantastic, even we only had time to visit one of the temples this time. For a real visit, plan for a full day there - it is worth it.

After Lugang it was time to drive home and rest for a bit - after all, we are not teenagers.

After resting we had energy to enjoy a great dinner in Taichung all by ourselves.

And then we went to sleep after the first 48 hours in Taiwan.

More later....

Hot TUB

2012-05-09T18:42:00.003+08:00

My Chinese family live a good life, and they understand the true values of life, one of them is HOT TUB.

On several occasions, when we are driving around in Taiwan, all of a sudden, I understand from the conversation, that next item on the agenda is HOT TUB. Then we drive to some luxury hotel and rent 3 private rooms similar to hotel rooms, but with HOT TUB features included. The best places are in the mountain, where the good water is. The pictures below is from one occasion, where the hotel was extra nice!!

New years morning

2012-05-09T14:54:00.001+08:00

New years morning everybody go to the temple to pray for luck in the new year. This year we were in a resort in the mountain to celebrate new year, so our trip to the temple was quite special.

This temple was placed on a tall mountain and the view was fantastic. It had all the normal features that I know so well from other temples, but in addition it offered some special features.

Outside the temple there was a drum that you were allowed to drum. The drum is looked upon as a transmitter of your prayer up to the Gods. That means the higher the better. A fact that especially the children seem to enjoy!

Even more special, they offered to wipe your entire body with a chair. The chair with many charms on it , means symbol of god itself ( god sits on the small chair)... the master used the chair ( foot of chair) to draw some charms on your body to get rid of bad luck from you and give you positive power from god

Behind the temple is a golden money factory, where they prepare all the golden money that people by and burn

The COOL'est car in the world

2012-04-30T16:33:00.000+08:00

My brother in law, or for short, my brother has the cool'est car in the world and it is made in Taiwan.

From the outside it looks just like any other oversized SUV/4WD kind of car, but once you are in the driver seat, you will find features, that I have never seen in any other car.

The car is a cooperation between a Taiwan car company LUXGEN and HTC - known from their mobile phones - and is completely integrated.

The car has 2 monitors, 1 for the backseat passengers mostly used for TV (yes!) and DVD naturally. These functions are also found in the monitor for the driver, but the same screen has many other options.

Naturally there is a complete menu system to setup the car features and a build in telephone reception and GIS application for finding your way in Taiwan. All this is also seen in other high end cars aroiund the world.

What really makes it special is the 8 (eight) cameraes that are placed outside the car which feeds the computer of the car and present options on this monitor. Let me try to list them all down.

Nightvision, which actually let you display the road ahead better on the screen than in reality. You should naturally look out the window, but I am the co driver, and I have compared the 2 ways when driving outside the city, in complete darkness, and the screen shows better what is ahead.

Sideview, whenever you signal left or right, the display will show what is on your left or right side - no dead angles that potentially will kill motor cysclists or bump into smaller cars passing you.

Backview, when parking gives you a full view of what is behind you and imaginary lines shows where you will end up with the current setting of the wheels. This makes it much easier to park, especially in narrow places, where you need to go all the way back, before you go forward in order to get in or out.

Eagleview which gives you a full interpretation of the full 360 degree of the car. Where am I is available to you, without leaving the car.

And as if this is not enough, my brother has installed additional 4 cameraes in the car, which record everything that goes on around the car. These cameraes record constantly to a SD card, and can be used to sort out what really happened during an accident, so you do not end up paying for somebody elses mistake.

This car is better than the BATMOBILE...

TV in your car

Camera in the side mirror

Ekstra 4 cameraes with constant recording

Backview

Eagle View

Sideview

Anping Fort

2012-04-25T10:23:00.000+08:00

During the Chinese new year, our family went on a road trip, and we made a short stop in Anping to have lunch and to visit the old fortress.

The Fortress was build by the dutch in 1624–1634 to serve as a hub for the trade with Asia. Later in 1662 the dutch lost possession of the forttress to General Zheng Chenggong of Ming China and this ended the dutch occupation of Taiwan.

Surrounding the remain of the Fort is a huge marked place where you can follow the preparation of various dishes that you can buy and enjoy in the many restaurents.

The trick is to only eat a little in each place, and then move on to the next. Below you can see my family in one of our many pit stops.

Naturally there is a nice temple next to the Fort, and as I am a huge fan of dragons, most of my pictures comes from the top of the roof of temples.

Below is a picture taken by W, so you can see yours truely in action at the Fort...

The Fort is quite worthy to see, and naturally very important to the Taiwanese, because of the dutch surrendering here. Many of the buildings and wall are still here to see, and quite charming...

Chen Family Abode

2012-04-13T23:13:00.001+08:00

W does not talk much about her family and the history of the family. At a few occasions, she has talked about the family house, which was taken by the goverment at some point and later turned into some kind of museum.

Last year I spent new year in Taiwan and we were at a road trip with the family, celebrating the new year together and with friends. On our way back to Taaaichung, I suddenly realized, that there had been some decision made to make a detour to this house, which I was happy to her. Finally I got to see, from where the family came from, the root of my wife, even she never lived there herself, only her father did.

Once we arrived at the place there was quite a few people standing outside on a big parking place, it just happened to be, that the museum was closed for the holiday. This did not stop my family, who approached the gate and knocked the door. As the door opened, it was clear, that the intention was to tell us that it was closed, but as they saw the face of my wifes broither, the totally changed their attitude and opened the gate and let us all in, allthough only our family. Welcome home....

The inner main yard

During my stay in the house I learned more about the family than I ever knew before. The family came to Taiwan 1792 as business men and settled in this area. Later after the war with England in 1842 they got the emperors official title as the ruler of the area, due to bravery in the war. He was the mayor of the area so to speak at that time and this was when they build the estate, in total 10.000 square meters. The title was inherited through some generations, then later the title went away, but the property remained on the hand of the family.

Official ancestors in their traditional clothing

Later most of the land had to be released to the farmers of the area, due to some laws after arrival of Chiang Kai-shek administration, allthough the main building remained on the hands of the family. Later in 1985 the main building the house was turned into a national historic monument, due to the historic value of the building

One of the many inner yard

Walking in the building complex gave me a extreme feeling, as the history was so present as I looked at the houses.

Entrance to one of the inner yards

Another inner yard

Garden behind the house

Another inner yard

If you read Chinese, you can read more here

Tokyo day THREE

2012-04-07T20:28:00.001+08:00

Today was so nice to us, the weather was fantastic and everything was nice. W and I sat the alarm to wake us up early to go to the local fish marked. This was much fun as expected and one of those must-see thing to do when you are in Tokyo.

After going through the whole sale area for quitre some time, where we saw all the strange kind of fish they have out here + all what people can do to fish, to turn them into products, we went to the nearby area full of small restaurents where you can have fish for breakfast.

Being from Denmark, I must admit, that fish is not a natural thing to eat in the morning, and in particulary raw fish. I was very excited how my body would react when putting this to my mouth at 9am but to my surprise, it was quite nice and no problem at all. It just go to show, that you can eat much in the morning than you expect - so go do it.

After returning to our hotel we hooked up with S and went to Ueno park to see the cherry trees. From the cherry web pages we knew, that Ueno park had the best display this day. Once we arrived at the station, W said that it was strange that so few people was there, this being Saturday and high season.

This made us smile later on, once we got to the right exit, as it turned out to be a huge crow in the park. Celebrating cherry blossom is a special thing in Japan, so we are told. All kind of groups (family, clubs, office) gather under the cherry trees and have a party. This involves heavy drinking and eating much food. In Ueno park we saw all this first hand.

Besides the may happy people we also got to enjoy the Cherry Trees that were reallu pretty - all white.

In Ueno park they also have a big Zoo, which have a special feature, as they have Panda bears there. We also went to see them, as we have not yet seen these cute creatures. They were well worth the wait in the long quee.

This night we went back to have a second try of the Kobe meat in the shopp from day one. This day we focused on the things we knew were good and had a great meal.

After dinner S and I went back to Edinburg for coffee and cake. What a place!

Tokyo day ONE

2012-04-07T00:51:00.005+08:00

Tokyo is an imtimidating huge city and you sense the size and the pulse the second you arrive. We had a long journey from Kyoto behind us as we arived at Shinogawa station in the middle (I think!) of Tokyo.

From there we transferred to the metro system and took the green line to Shinjuke station, which is close to our hotel. We planned to take the last 800m by taxa, as we simply did not know which direction to go and that turned out to be a wise decision, as not even the taxa driver knew the location of the hotel.

The hotel was a new Best Western hotel and the room were tiny. I think Sarah will survive, but being 2 adults in this room is the limit. The area is a fun area, where you come to eat and drink and enjoy yourself. Lots of high buildings naturally and all covered with signs in loud colors. Quite a change from Kyoto.

For dinner we decided at random and ended up in a steak house, where the middle of the table had a grill that you used to prepare your own meat. We had a selection of different types and also a special selection of 5 types og Kobe meat. All was fantastic, but the Kobe beef was out of this world.

After dinner we decided for a short stroll around the block and ran into the coffee shoh Edingburg that mhat my friend Mikael from Singapore had recomendded so highly. Naturally we dropped in, and I fully agree with Mikael, that this place of all placess, where I had a cup of coffeee, probably have the best coffeee. It was perfect - but surely also expensive.

This morning we had the oppertunity to check out the restaurent of the hotel, and it was typical Japanese, with many dishes I do not know at all, but Wen really enjoyed. I think her breakfast today was bigger, than all the other breakfast she had in Japan so far all together. We was truely happy :-)

After this celebration of strange food in the morning, we took off to see Tokyo, first stop was imperail Palace. The metro transfer was easy, and people there are very helpfull to point oout the right platform to go to. You just need to ask.

The Palace itself was a bit of a dissapointment, as it was all closed. We asked the guard there if it was closed today, and he asked it is always closed!?! Why people talk to highly of this place is a mystery to me.

On our way to Ueno park to see the cherry trees and the Panda bears in the Zoo, we had the luck to read up on the facts in the book Mikael had borrowed me, and it told us, that the Panda is not on display Fridays...so we diverted into Shibuya which is shopping heaven for teeagers. Sarah enjoyed shopping for 3 hours here while Wen and I felt like grandma and grand father among all the weird Japanese teenagers.

This night we had dinner a real traditionl Japanese sushi bar near the hotel. It was very good, and we really had much fish in our stomach once we decided to stop and head back to the hotel.

Kyoto day 4 - DEPARTURE

2012-04-05T21:25:00.002+08:00

Seems Japan lives in another world, a better world. It seems the live in a world similar to ours, before it went broke. A world where everybody take pride in doing what they are supposed to do, and to do it well. A world where people can be trusted and where it is not ok to cheat people even it is possible. A world where 15 minutes early is better than 5 minutes late. A world that believes in quality instead of quantity. A world we would all like to live in, but only the Japanese manage to maintain. I envy the Japanese for this.

Today we have departed Kyoto and as I am writing this text, we are sitting in the Shinkansen, the high speed rail of Japan and are approaching Tokyo with 300 km/h. Our last day was short, and after checkout we stored our luggage in the office of the machia/house rental company IORI (highly recommendable for Kyoto if you can afford it) and went for a walk to Kyoto Imperial Palace and went for your final sightseeing. Kyoto greeted us with both rain and sun for this visit, but the palace is also a nice place and a place to see.

Looking back at Kyoto, all has been good and so pretty. It must be a privilege to live in this historic city and to have all this to look at every day. Below are my favorite views in chronological order.

I dreamed to visit Kyoto for as long as I can remember, but now, as I am leaving, I want it even more than I did before. Put Kyoto on your must-see list – it is still on mine!

Kyoto day THREE - SUN

2012-04-04T16:22:00.005+08:00

Today has been a beautiful day with blue sky and much sun. Exactly the day you wish for when on vacation,the day you need after the day yesterday and the day best suited for visiting the golden temple in Kyoto, which is one (of the many) must see's here.

The golden temple is very beautiful and in the sunshine it shines in analmost supernatural way. It is surrounded by a wonderfull garden, and at the end, you can find a small temple .

In the small temple we re visited all the normal options for prayer. We bought talisman, we saw candles and wodden plates for writing a wish etc.

After the golden temple we went to Shoun castle. Inside you can take photos, but you can enjoy the Shogun interior style, which is very lean. A nice feature is the nightengale floor, which is a wodden floor which makes a sound like a nightengale when somebody walks on it. This is supposed to prevent anybody to sneak up on the Shogun.

The Shogun castle is truely build as a castle with many defense features, and this makes it a nice experience after all the temples. It also features a nice garden with water and big rocks which is very nice.

Kyoto day TWO - RAIN

2012-04-03T20:37:00.006+08:00

Yesterday I got my first comment on this blog from somebody I do not know - at least I think so, as the comment was anonymous. I was so happy, and now even more, because the advice I got turned out to be really got and saved my day.

The rain has been pooring down today, from the eraly morning and it is still raining. It is raining heavy and for a whole day. Nevertheless - fearless we have been touristing.
Today my pictures is not that great, as it rained too much to bring my DSL, so I used my pocket camera.

First item on todays agenda was breakfast, and today the small local cafe next to our house was open. As in most cases, the place was run by a family which of none speaks english much. After some sign language we understood that they has menu A and menu B so we went for 2 A and 1 B, knowing very little what to expect. It turned out, as it always do, to be great both of them and we even managed to sign language us to some coffey.

Again Wen had studied the bus table, and she act as our tourist guide in charge. On to bus 102 which took us to Ginkakuji Temple - the silver pavilion - which is far the best temple we have seen so far - despite it was raining cats and dogs. The temple was a combination of temple and garden, and in the garden, there was much white sand, which is the reason behind the silver pavilion name. It looks like silver. The color composition this place is fantastic. The trees are green, orange and red - the water is dark and the sand is light. It is a 100% wauw, a must see.

After the visit in the temple we took a stroll down philosopher path which was recomended by my reader, and I am so happy (s)he did. The philosopher path is a walk along a small river with many cherry trees. The cherry trees are in blossom, however not 100%, but still a fantastic view on the path.

After the philosophy walk we went to Kiyomizu-dera Temple which is also a combination of much nature and a temple. We were lucky to arrive just as the water ceremony was taking place, so there was a lot of people, many in kimono. The temple has a fantastic seating on the top of a hill and offers many great views.

After departing from the temple, but close by, we luckily took a turn into San-nen-zaka path and Ninen-zaka path which is an area with many old traditional houses. This turned out to be an unexpected high point of our stay in Kyoto so far. The atmosphere was fantastic.

After this we went back to Gion area and went window shopping for a while until we ended up in the Nishi marked, which is a big area without cars with small cars. Many shops for teenage girls and naturally we had too little time here, but we were worn out and are now resting in our house with unhappy feet. We still hope our bodies will take a fast recovery, because tomorrow the golden temple and the emperior castle in on the agenda, and we would not like to miss that!

Kyoto day ONE

2012-04-02T22:20:00.000+08:00

After a long journey and jetlag for my daughter the first day in Kyoto was started late, as we just had to sleep. Sleeping on the Japanese madrasses is quite a challenge for a man my age.

It is on the floor and as Kyoto is quite cold in the night, it is kiind of chilly. Secondly the blanket is very short, so either your shoulders are cold or your feet are cold. Finally I decided to sacrifice my feet. Most important however is the hardness of the madrass - it is hard! Anyway - I think I was the most fortunate of the 3 of us and at 11 I forced the women to wake up...

Breakfast was purchased in a super amrked and was surprisingly good. We had sushi, sandwiches and fried chicken with french fries for breakfast. We ate the food on a public play ground in the sun and it was a nice way to start the day.

Wen had used the night, where she could not sleep to study options for public transportation in Kyoto and realized that a 1 day bus pass was the best option, and it turned out quite well. We went to a bus stop and drove all the way down to the Nishi-Honganji Temple which is UNESCO heritage. The bus ride was a local experience and the Japanese people are extremely helpfull, despite their limited english.

Later we strolled over to Higashi-Honganji Temple, which was quite close by.

After 2 temples we went to Shosei-En garden, which was a very nice experience. I love Japanese gardens, they are so out of this world and relaxes your head and makes you a better person.

One of the good things about this travel is,m that both my daugter and my wife share my passion for photography.

The last stop of the day was Sanjusangen-do Temple and unfortunately we only has short time here before the temple closed which is a 5 pm. This temple is VERY interesting and I could easily have used another hour here.

After darkness we went to Gion which is a place where we need to come back to, as most shops were closed. Still the nightly atmosphere was intriguing.

Tomorrow more temples await us - I cannot wait....

Japan arrival

2012-04-02T10:15:00.000+08:00

I know this blog is about Taiwan, but I am travelling in Japan this week, so please accept, that I put in some comments about Japan. Japan and Taiwan are spo related, or I should say, that Taiwan relates to Japan very much. Taiwan was occupied by the Japanese in the first half of the last century, and this had a great impact on Taiwan and the taiwanese.
My wife loves everything that has to do with Japan, Japan is good, Japan is luxury, Japan works, Japan is the way the world should be. This is how dedicated to Japan that she is. In her childhood home, her parents spoke Japanese, but her generation have English as their second language.

I can understand what she means. I think she is right. japan is still the way the world should be. It is not ruined like much of the west is. You can trust people, people will hekp you and you are safe and service is a natural thing.

After arriving to Narita airport, we picked up our JR rail, which is a cheap good way to get unlimited travel in Japan and went straight to Kyoto. We will stay here for 4 days, and we will live in an old original Kyoto house - Machia

There is a Japanese bath that both my wife and daughter must try first evening.

The house is part of the textile area of Kyoto and have a still working workshop with 4 employee inside the house.

The entrance is breathtaking...

Lu Gang

2012-04-01T05:00:00.000+08:00

Lu Gang is a small, old and romantic town close to Taichung which I recomend everybody to visit, should they have the chance. The architecture is preserved very well in this town and this work continues even today.

The town has a huge marked with all kind of lpocal food, the most famous dish is the oyster omelet, as this city os close to the sea. The city also host a very old temple and a huge collection of small narrow streets.

When we arrived to Lu Gang we first went to the main temple, which was very impressive. Below you will see some details from this temple.

After the temple we took a long walk along the designed path through all the old neighborhood of the town. It was a triue joy to the eye, and you really felt that you were walking a very old street - hundreds of years ago.

Wew ended up in Gentlemens lane, that you can see below. The reason for the odd name is, that all male need to be gentlemen in this lane in order to pass a woman - you are that close...

I several old post from Lu gang - see the video from the marked or the post on my first oyster omelet that I had in Lu Gang. This place is worth your time.

Asking for help to my fathers football team

2012-03-31T05:00:00.000+08:00

My father is a very passionate soccer fan. Last year when I was in Taiwan, I spoke to him over the phone, and mentioned that we were on our way to yet another temple. As his team were in a bad shape with several looses in recent games, he asked me to pray for them, to turn their bad luck into good luck. I was very surprised by this request, as my father in a non religious person - I guess it demonstartes just how passionate he is with soccer?

However, I did tell my Chinese family about this request, and they went full hearted into helping me to help Brøndby IF. Dare I tell that they also lost the next match, but did finish the season better than they started it. Maybe blessings takes certain time to travel from Taiwan to Denmark?

Kaoshung

2012-03-30T05:00:00.000+08:00

When I am in Taiwan we always visit my wife's little sidster, who lives with her family in Kaoshung in the southern Taiwan. Kaoshung is a new upcoming and very successfull city of Taiwan. Above is a photo from their famous train station Formosa Boulevard Station decorated in glass by Narcissus Quagliata.

The most famous attraction of Kaoshung is the Love River which runs through the inner city. Here you can take your loved one for a romantic walk on the bridges of the river.

Next to the hotel where we live while in Kaoshung is a famous bakery, where the boss won the worlds championship of bread baking several times. We have noticed that his shop has a feature outside to handle the queue, and for a reason, because this bakery has a queue from before it opens in the morning until it closes in the evening. One day I need to try that bread...

Fo Guang Shan Monastery

2012-03-29T05:00:00.000+08:00

A few year back I visited the Fo Guang Shan Monastery ( http://www.fgs.org.tw/english/index.html )with my chinese family. As always the experience was fantastic and I think the picyures speaks for themselves. The temple is huge and reside on a mountain outside Kaoshung in the southern Taiwan.

The building is not very old, and actually the are still building new temples on the place. The plans are very huge.

Inside the maoin temple therte are hundreds of Buddha status.

But also the traditional elements such as drums, bells, bamboo and incense are naturally present.

As all Taiwan temples this temple is very active, and hundreds of people come to pray daily. Due to the size of this particular temple, also many foreigners come to pray here. While we were there a group of monks from overseas came to pray.

On the way out of the temple, we made a stop in the big canteen and had a wonderfull free meal. All vegetarian. This is financed by donation, and naturally we gave a big one.

Chinese new year

2012-03-28T14:42:00.002+08:00

Last year I finally had a chance to participate in a real chinese new year. Living outside Asia, all we ever hear about chinese new year is the transportation chaos when millions of people try to get home for new year. It is not quite like that in Taiwan, but it is still chaotic and much different than the rest of the year.

The central point of the new year, is to no big surprise, the meal that family gather to have. In my family Wens brother was the host of this dinner. Normally it is the responsability of the parents, but when they die, this is passed on to the oldest son.

The whole family gather and go through a number of traditions, much like the x-mas in Denmark. The first thing to do, is to give the meal to the Gods. This is done at the family alter, which is placed at the highest floor.

All dishes are unpacked and placed at the alter. Then the whole family is gathered around the alter and we pray. This is done in much the same way as done in the temple. After the praying, it is time to burn paper money. This is done at the terrase next to the alter. We are talking about millions of paper dollars, a wast donation to the after life.

After this has finished, the food is carried to the dining room and we have a huge dinner. Chinese people are happy about food, but new years dinner is special, and so is the meal.

After the meal, we gathered with other families and had a karaoke event. Naturally all the songs are in chinese, so I only listened. As in Denmark the quality of the singers vary a lot, but the enthusiasm and sound volume is at max for evverybody. I discovered, that Wens brother and his wife are quite good!

Later when children have gone to bed, the Mah Jong starts. Mah Jong is a chinese board game, that is very complicated. It is also very serious gambling, and it is told, that many people have lost their entire estate at the Mah Jong table - in my family, this year, we only play for fun and petty cash. This does however not change the attitude in the game.

All this is going on, to help people stay up all night as this will give your parent a long life. Once the sun is up, you must go to your door, upon up and shout Gong Xi Fa Cai to the world to ensure your own luck as well.

The first day after new year, everybody needs to go to the temple to pray for the luck of the new year. The temples are always full it seems in Taiwan, but this day the temples are packed.

A very important tradition of the Cinese new year is the Hong Bao, red money, which are red envelopes with money that you give to the kids. At least they are very interested in this part...

Taroko

2012-03-25T05:00:00.001+08:00

My single best experience as a tourist in Taiwan was visiting Taroko. Taroko is a nature park located on the east coast of Taiwan near to Hualin. We went there by train from Taipei and this is a perfect way to go there, as the train trip is very beautiful. The east coast of Taiwan is fantastic with the sea on one side and the high mountain on the other side.
When we visited Taroko we lived at a small private inn. This type of accommodation is very popular in Taiwan. Typically people who retired sell their apartment in Taipei and buy a big house on the east coast, and they use the extra rooms to maintain their living. The east coast is the scenic part of Taiwan, so here you will find many of these inns.

A private inn is not as expensive as a normal hotel, but that is not why you want to try this. When visiting these inns you become a family member for a short while - especially when coming as a non Asian. They will be very friendly and talkative, so close encounter with Taiwanese people is unavoidable and you will learn many things about their ways and culture. My best memory from such visit was in Hualin, where we were invited to a private concert in the house and also had a lesson in calligraphy. Such nice persons, and this beat Marriott any time!

The inn by Taroko was very close to one entrance to the park, so we got to spend a full day inside the park, very well guided by our private local guide and driver, who spoke good English and knew everything there was to know about the park. If I am not wrong we paid 3000twd for a full day of guide and transportation.

Taroke is one of the magnificent places of earth, top 10 candidate in my book! The park is huge and have a lot of very high mountains. In the early days the area was inhabited by a tribe, and this tribe was very isolated. Nobody knew how to get to them... The mountain area was impossible to get through. At some point it was decided to improve this, and small narrow paths was carved into the mountain. These are the main attraction of the park today. You walk in(side) the mountain, still maintaining a full view.Quite unique feeling that I recommend 100%

Another feature of the Taroko park is the river, who through centuries have carved it's way down the mountain, creating some very narrow shafts, where the river is still running at the bottom. The rocks have a high concentration of marble, which is so hard, that water cannot carve it, so huge rocks of this very fine marble lies in the river, giving the river a fantastic cyan colour.

On top of this water fall, my personal favourite, tunnels, suspension bridges, small temples and pagodas....

If I was forced to ONLY make one recommendation for a day trip in Taiwan I would have no hesitation, Taroko is the place to go - you would remember for the rest of your life, I know I will....

Taiwan temples

2012-03-24T05:00:00.002+08:00

I love Taiwanese temples and for many good reasons. They are beatably and very colourful. Plenty of red and gold, green and blue. No boring brown or beige.Plenty of people come and go, children are running around, shouting and a huge noise level. No misunderstood piousness and yet they take the religious element very serious. They pray, the give presents to god, they talk directly with good and expect and answer. There is a scent of incense and burned paper money. it is ALIVE!

The picture below are all from the temple just in front of Sun Moon Lake.

Lin Mei

2012-03-23T05:00:00.000+08:00

My trip to Ling Mai came as a bonus. After a long trip along the east coast of Taiwan, it was sadly but surely time to go back to Taipei. On the way we drove through the area of Ling Mai and agreed that one more nature walk was what we needed. For sure Ling Mai cannot compete with Taroko, very few things in this world can, but this trip was very nice and surely very recommendable. The trek was along the water, and every now and then you can enjoy big and small waterfall.

Street Kitchen

2012-03-22T05:00:00.000+08:00

The best food experiences for me is from visiting the street kitchens. Here you eat very authentic and local food, and this always act like a third spice for me which beat everything else. This is where the Taiwanese eat their food every day. This is where you pay less than 3$ for an unbeatable experience. I cannot recommend it enough.

Water lilies

2012-03-21T05:00:00.000+08:00

Taiwanese are crazy about water lilies and who can blame them. They are incredible beautiful and you can find them in various colour and shapes. Several places in Taiwan, I have been to small parks, that you can enter at a small fee to see fields of these fantastic flowers.

Theatre

2012-03-20T16:38:00.000+08:00

This theatre troop we meet by coincidence when we visited a museum in Yilan. All of a sudden all visitors of the museum started to walk to the same spot, and naturally we followed the crowd. The troop was very big and the involved the audience in the play which all ended up in a huge parade through the museum.

Sun Moon Lake

2012-03-19T05:00:00.000+08:00

Sun Moon Lake is a big lake near Taichung which is very popular as a place to go in the weekend. We went there on a very hot summer day with the entire family and had a great day together. On trips like this, we always visit at least a couple of temples, and there are plenty to choose from, but this day we also went sailing on the lake.