台湾！！！

Awhile back in May’08, Audrey and Amelia and I went backpacking around Taiwan for 2 weeks. It was a trip full of ups and downs which is what made it more unforgettable.

It started with the thought of camping overnight on the Great Wall of China and it eventually drifted to become a backpacking trip to Taiwan. Extensive research was done 3 months prior to the day of departure with the help of lonely planet guidebook, wiki travel, tripadvisor.com, youthtravel.tw, Cs friends and many more. Along with sharing what our 2weeks had been like, I would also try to make this as informative as possible for those intending to fly there.

For those intending to travel Taiwan on their own, I recommend this site Youthtravel.tw(http://www.youthtravel.tw/youthtravel/indexMain.jsp). This is the site you definitely have to visit, especially if you are travelling free and easy.

Benefits include:
Free Youth travel card (for discounts on certain admission, tickets, food etc)
Free Digital Tour Buddy (A loaned mobile with sim card with a 200NT of free talktime)
Discounted Taiwan Rail Pass
Free half/full day tours by students of different University
Recommendations for hotel, hostel, Guesthouse (Min Su) and home stay
List of outdoor activities you can do in Taiwan
And many many more information

Of course there are many more sites and resources that are very useful as well but listing them all here would take up the whole day so if anyone wants to know more, feel free to ask. I won’t bite.

The whole 2week trip cost me about S$1300 inclusive of air tickets which is freaking cheap if you ask me. Flight was by Jetstar(www.jetstar.com.sg) which cost about S$350 return. Seats were alright, but the price of the food was as high as the flying plane. Think S$5 for a cup of unknown brand instant noodle.
The trio!
Sky View

Arriving in the evening, we were supposed to meet Kimble from CS (www.couchsurfing.com) at the airport. CS is all about meeting new people and travelers, not just from other countries but also your own. If you would like some company in a new place, you can easily find willing people in the community who would be more than glad to show you their home. It is all about experiencing life in an alternative way and culture exchange between 2 or more different people. Topped with the options of staying over at the host’s place, this site is rendered the ultimate backpacking site. Check it out and if you ever decided to join, remember to add me.

Kimble is a father of 2 and stays at Miaoli with his family. He is a professor at one of the private university (万能科技大学) and also the teacher in charge for the hiking club. He is a very good teacher and friend and it could be clearly seen by the way he interacts with his students.

It wasn’t difficult to spot him at the arrival hall, he looks exactly the same in the picture he posted on CS. We went to pick up our youth travel card and digital tour buddy before setting off in his car to his university for tea. Together with his student Alger, we had lots of questions about each other and we filled the car with lots of laughter.


In Kimble's OfficeIts this size for a private university, imagine how the local 1 would look like

Weeks before, I had arranged to meet kimble and stay over at his house for a few days, unfortunately his daughter fell sick and it was not convenient for his wife as she has to take care of her. He could have just apologies and drop us off at Taipei but instead he went a step further and asked his students to host us. He had asked 2 of his students living at Taoyuan and Taipei respectively and asked us our preference! Alger who came with us was the 1 living at Taoyuan. However due to location and convenience, we choose to stay at Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. We discussed about our plan to travel the island country and he asked his ex students who populate different areas to host us!!

With our plans for the night settled, we head to our first night market in Taiwan. I can’t remember the name however I remember it was populated by the students from the neighboring institutions. Snacks in Taiwan night markets are the most characteristics in the country, I made a mental list of all those I wanted to try before I come. First on my list is Fried Oysters (Oh Ah Jian). Even though Singapore has it as well, the 2 versions were completely different from each other. The one in Taiwan comes with vegetables and a tomato plus soy sauce, unlike Singapore where it goes with chili sauce. There is also more gluey substance inside the Taiwan version which I personally do not really like. However the combination of all these makes the dish really unique, a must try for all.

Oh Ah Jian!

2nd food that we tried was the snake soup. There wasn’t much meat in it and the soup tasted weird but not in an unpleasant way. Audrey however could not stop being bothered by the thought of snake in soup. HAHA

Snake Soup!!I hope they are not endangered

Taiwan sausage was next! Apparently, it is such a popular snack that they even have it here in Singapore. They had many variety of sausages there like cheese, chocolate!, wasabi and many more. And instead of just the meat sausage, their version comes wrapped in a rice sausage cut in half. This makes it more filling, leaving you satisfied.

Famouse Taiwan SausageAmelia Loves her mushroomBread BoyMotocycle, commonly seen thereAlger, Kimble, Kai, Audrey, Amelia

Other food that we had was grilled mushroom, mua chi and fruits on a stick. Before we knew it, it was time to head to Taipei. On our way there, kimble gave us a task. He had lied to his ex-student saying that we do not know any Chinese and we can only communicate in English and he wanted us to play along with him.

After a 40mins drive, we arrive at his student Michael’s place. Michael’s home town is at kinmen, an island off Taiwan but had come to Taipei to work and study. Currently he lives with his roomie Flano and occasionally Michael’s girlfriend Po Po stays over as well. His sister is currently away so we get to have a room all to ourselves. Also present that night is Jimmy, a friend of Michael and also another of Kimble’s ex-student. It was really very funny when they tried to speak English to us, and even more hilarious was that we actually understood what they were trying to say in Chinese. A couple of times, we even blurted out a Chinese word or two, fortunately it went unnoticed. With that we retire for the night to fuel up for a 2nd day of fun filled activities.