A Lookback At My Time in Taiwan

12 January, 2024

Tags: taiwan travel

I’d been all over the island of Taiwan by the end of my trip and it still felt like I barely saw anything. Here are some of the places I visited and what I did there: Taipei

Keelung

This port city is about an hour by bus from Taipei and along with lots of seafood also has some very interesting coastal rock formations as well as fortifications from the Japanese Colonial period. The night market was great, I had a huge crab leg and my favourite: RouJiaMou

Jiufen

This little town is tucked away in the mountains just past Keelung. The town sits on a steep hill and the famous market winds up the mountain with narrow paths illuminated by paper lanterns. It’s quite scenic and has been called the real life town from “Spirited Away”. The steep, narrow streets with shoulder to shoulder people does not stop scooters from pushing their way through though.

Taichung

My main reason for visiting was admittdly coffee stopover, where the coffee was amazing of course. The natural history museum also featured a large bio-dome/aviary which was pretty neat. Otherwise it was difficult to gt around the city as the MRT was not very far reaching and for some reason the YouBikes seemed to be few and far between.

Kaoshiung

Learning my lesson about public transit options in cities that are not Taipei, and on the advice of my roommate - a Kaoshiung native - I rented a scooter for my weekend here. I was able to visit the beach on my first night and on Sunday ride about an hour and a half to Tainan. On the way there I stopped at the Taiwan Sugar Museum. I only stayed for a brief visit but was able to walk through the old factory in which you can wander through the old machinery. On the way back to Kaoshiung I took the long route and ended up riding through hills and pineapple farms, in my pineapple shirt no less. I also randomly stopped at an old railway bridge that has been turned into a boardwalk and the surrounding area into a large eco-park. Lots of families were out enjoying the sun. Th bridge was also built during the Japanese Colonization.

Tainan

Hualien

Renting a Scooter for 550KMs at 40KM/H

My two weekends renting a scooter were probably some of my favourite days in Taiwan. The seemingly endless winding roads through stunning scenery are enough alone to bring me back. It’s maybe a good thing I didn’t discover these roads until later in my trip as I may have spent way over budget renting scooters and motorcycles. This will be a must-do on my next trip! The roads outside the city are not very busy since the freeway system is much faster and pretty cheap. Only cars and heavy motorcycles are allowed on them though which leaves the old backroads and highways for locals and scooters. The traffic is definitely different to North America with lane splitting and roads specifically for scooters, but it did not take much to get used to. You still need a license in Taiwan to ride a scooter, and as long as you keep an eye on your mirrors and think far ahead you tend to flow through no problem. One big difference is hook turns. On many roads scooters are not permitted to turn left and instead must set themselves up in a box on the right of the intersction in front of the traffic waiting to go straight. Essentially you just join the vehicles perpendicular to you on your right and then follow that ligh sraight through. It maybe sounds complicated but it is pretty asy to understand after even just seeing it from the sidewalk. The most confusing part is figuring out whether an intersection uses hook turns as there are not always signs indicating this. When in doubt I would ride over that way and if there was no box on the ground I would just join back in to the left turn traffic. On small roads there usually aren’t signs of any kind (including stop signs) so you just ride through to whre you need to go.

Language and Mostly Getting By Without It

It is not neccessary to know any Chinese/Mandarin to get around in Taiwan. People are generally helpful and even if they don’t speak English you can usually fak-sign your way around. That said I think living there long term without any langauge skills would not be ideal. Beyond just buying things and navigating the city there is a loot you would miss out on. At cafes and bars it can be quite difficult to make conversation or even feel part of any community. People are generally friendly but I felt like my lack of language held me back from really breaking the barrier into social life. I learned some Chinese through my roommates and Duolingo but being such a difficult language I would need at least a year of learning before being comfortable with more than a surface level introduction.

Coffee

I frequented several coffee shops regularly to work and hang out at. My main stays in no particular order were:

Some special mention to shops that were great but I did not get to visit very often: