Reflections of Taiwan

Hey ppl (guess I always start like that), just came back a few days back from Taiwan. It‘s a pretty good place to spend your holidays if you are the type of person who likes to see sceneries in other countries.

Well, the first time I stepped out of Taiwan International Airport, the temperature there felt like a air-condition room. The temperature that was about 20-21 Degree Celsius, which was pretty alright for me since it is not much of a different compared to China and Australia, after all it is still autumn right?

Well, my trip was mainly just to explore Taiwan from the north to the south and back to the north again. Which include places like Hua Lian and Ah Li Shan, Kaoshiung, Taipei and Tai Zhong etc. Our tour traveled mainly by bus to visit these places. The only time we traveled by train was when we were heading to Hua Lian, since the mountain roads there were pretty difficult to travel, and also the cruise on Sun Moon Lake (since bus cannot travel on water rite?).

Well, in the roads of Taiwan, you would see lots of motorbikes. These are used because they are convenient and able to travel through alleys and small streets easily when delivering goods like gas. Hence, like some parts of china, you would see lanes for motorcycles and bicycles. However, do be careful especially in crowded places like night markets because the arrival of motorcycles can be hard to predict.

Sometimes, you may also see beggars lying on the streets in the night market. Don’t be trick by them, they may look sympathetic but they are actually not beggars, they are people who work for a certain gang to earn money by acting as a beggar on the street. If you observe them for a while, you would realize that when they grow tired, they will hide in a corner to smoke (cigarettes there are not cheap at all)…

There were many places that I have been in Taiwan; one of them was hua lian which I previously mentioned was by train. The three mountains there, known as Swallow Caves, Nine Turn Grotto and Tien Hsiang, are pretty majestic and refreshing. It can help to relieve stress and sometimes remind people of their hometown too (since they came from places where there are lots of mountains). From there, we learn about the lines formed on the rock and also learn to tell the different types of rocks form its colour. However, you will have to be careful of rock falls for there had been many landslides damaging the mountain roads and bridges. In fact, we also saw a huge rock which was predicted to fall anytime pretty soon, it is just a matter of time…Well, I’m glad the rock did not choose to fall during our trip or otherwise, we will be trapped.

Hua Lian’s people are pretty relaxed they don’t really rush most of the time. Everyday, they would wake up at 3am in the morning (that’s seriously early for me) and go fishing…then at about dawn, they would start going to work and continue working till evening, then get home and sleep at about 8-9pm (as they will have to wake up early again). This is their type of lifestyle which, I myself cannot adapt to it, since I am always sleeping at 1am and waking up at 11am. However, the only problem we faced in hua lian was the roads being too narrow, although they are starting to widen some of the roads there. Overall, hua lian would be one of my favourite places to stay if I don’t have to wake up at 3am…lol.

There was another mountain which I went which was much colder than hua lian’s. That was Ah Li Shan, that place had a temperature of about 8 degrees Celsius. Quite a normal temperature for a tall mountain but because we were too used to the weather in the cities, we felt pretty cold such that even my hands almost went numb. However, despite the cold weather, we enjoy walking through the forest of Ah Li Shan, where get to enjoy fresh oxygen from the trees and examine trees of age 800-2000 years old. It might sound absurd but it’s scientifically proven to be so. We also learn about the generation of trees and how we can tell how many generation has the tree grown.

Well, mountains were not only the places I visited in Taiwan, there are also places in the city which I visited like Kaoshiung, which was a different places as compared to Hua Lian, the people there are pretty much like Singaporeans, busy and anxious…though they are much more developed than Hua Lian. If you would ever go there, you would feel uncomfortable when crossing the roads as the drivers there takes the traffic lights as a reference. They dun really bother whether you are crossing the road at the right time, once there is a chance for them to pass through the crowd, they will do so. Hence, it would be best to follow the crowd when crossing the roads there (so at least you have some ‘protection’).

Still, they were places we visited in Kaoshiung. For example, the Fokuangshang, also known as the “Light of the Buddha” Mountain where we saw a 120 meter tall statue of a Buddha together with 480 standing Buddha statues around it.

The Pearl Culture Centre where we learn how pearl is made and it’s location in Taiwan. We also went to a place known as the Spring and Autumn Pavilions where there are two dragon and tiger statues which you can go into (it somehow reminds me of a bomb shelter). Well, definitely there will be a place to shop which will be the Liuho Night Market where the smell of chow tofu is quite strong (yuck!).

Still, nothing beats Taipei in shopping areas, amusement park and museums. In my opinion, Taipei would be the most developed city in Taiwan (de...it’s the capital city rite?). Well, we went to a place called Martyrs Shrine to observe/ partake the guard’s procession ceremony (that’s what they call it) to pay respect to heroes who died in World War II. We also visited the National Palace Museum where we see many ancient Chinese treasures (though we were not allowed to take pictures). W went to Yeliu Stone Park to examine wonderful formations of rock crafted by nature. We were actually the lucky ones to be able to touch the stones as it would be banned by next year for they do not want sweat to damage the rock formations.

Well, like Kaoshiung there will definitely be a place in Taipei to shop, which is Xi Men Ting...that’s where we bought our Jaw Chow CDs and also eat their KFC chicken popcorn…not forgetting about their popular guo zi, although I didn’t eat that. We also went to Tamshui Old Street to see its well-known iron-eggs (sound weird). We also went to Fisherman’s Wharf, pretty nice place to hang out, but be careful of slippery grounds if it rains…lol. Last of all, we went to visit TAPEI 101!!! Okay, because of bad weather, we couldn’t go up. After all, there are still lots to shop there right?

Taiwan, still have many places which I have yet to talk about…but the best part of the trip was celebrating my birthday and my brother’s too…we had in a restaurant just after lunch as we gathered everyone to participate in this joyful event. It was very nice of our tour guide to buy us a cake to celebrate our birthday with us and I guess that was the most wonderful and special birthday ever for me and probably my bro too..

I guess even though Taiwan may seem to be boring place for those who have not been there but I guess without such a great tour guide to make it entertaining for us, it would have been a really boring trip there…