Back from Taiwan

Just came back from my holiday with my parents in Taiwan yesterday. It was quite an eventful trip. Our flight to Taiwan was diverted to Hong Kong halfway into the journey due to typhoon Krosa. Too bad we didn't have much time to explore Hong Kong as we reached the hotel in the evening and stayed for a night there.

After wasting a day in Hong Kong, we finally arrived in Taiwan on 7th Oct in the afternoon. On our bus journey to the hotel I spotted electric windmills along the sea coast, and that's something you can't find back in Singapore.

Our main purpose in visiting Taiwan was sight-seeing and it was much to my chagrin when we realized that we were unable to visit Hualien and Taroko Gorge as the roads there were destroyed by the typhoon. The tour guide told us that the best scenery in Taiwan could only be found there but well, unforeseen circumstances do happen and we just have to change our plans. In the end we spent most of our time in Taiwan travelling on the tour bus, visting night markets and temples. The night markets there are similar to the Pasa Malams in Singapore except that they are permanent and sell different stuff. The stuff there are not as cheap as I expected so I didn't buy much. Food was aplenty but I had difficulty finding food in the night market that suited my taste as they mainly sell pig's organ soup and dried squid which I don't eat. I am not so adventurous in trying out exotic food. The melange of smells in the night markets proved to be quite overwhelming to me, especially that of the smelly beancurd or known as "Chou Tou Fu" and the exhaust fumes from the numerous scooters. The crowded night markets and endless jostling of people was a nuisance to me for I dislike crowds. Walking along the streets in Taiwan can be quite dangerous and irritating as scooters and motorcycles zip pass you every few seconds haphazardly. The motorcyclists in Taiwan do not seem to make any distinction between pavements meant for pedestrians and roads. You have to be constantly on the lookout least you get knocked down. I noticed that the percentage of scooters in Taiwan is much higher than that in Singapore, probably because it is more convenient to use a scooter than a car in negotiating narrow alleys and crowded streets illegally.

Our tour bus broke down on the fourth day on the highway en route from Taichung to Taipei. Seated near the back of the bus I detected acrid fumes that smelled burning rubber and the engine made loud rattling noises. Initially I thought the tyres were on fire but it was actually the engine that was emitting those noxious and suffocating fumes. The bus driver continued driving for a few minutes before the engine died and we were left stranded along the shoulder of the highway. The driver should have stopped the bus and opened the doors immediately instead of continuing driving. After trying in vain to start the engine for more than an hour, the driver gave up and another tour bus was sent to pick us up.

We visited Jiu Fen and Yeliu the next day. Yeliu was nice. It was almost surrealistic standing amidst the peculiar natural stone formations caused by weathering and sea erosion over millions of years. When viewed from certain angles, some of those rocklike protrusions bore an uncanny resemblance to the head of a queen wearing a crown or even the head of the alien E.T. in Steven Spielberg's film.

(That's me squatting on an egg-like stone in a ring-like rock outcropping)

(And that's me hugging E.T. the rock)

The second last day of our tour was free-and-easy. Strolling around aimlessly in the streets, we decided to take a MRT train to Taipei 101. However just as we were about to do so, the train service got disrupted due to an earthquake. So we went to Wulai mountain instead and was treated with the sight of a beautiful waterfall. We also got to see the aborginal dance of the Atayal tribe.

Thought not as fun as I expected, my trip to Taiwan was quite an interesting and refreshing experience away from the rigours of army life.