Taiwan, the place where this trip felt it had properly started. It was nice to be moving to different places within the same country and Taiwan obviously has alot more cultural differences with the UK than Hong Kong or Singapore. For starters, there are aload of street dogs around Taiwan, most of them all black as well. Why do you have so many street dogs Taiwan?! Why? And why don’t they like me? Always barking at me and even chasing me at one point! You’ve also got the bin collections. If you’re walking around a hear a little jingle being played from a van somewhere, it isn’t ice cream, it’s the bin lorry doing the rounds, although people wait out on the street for it, like an ice cream van at home.
Seriously though, there is alot more to Taiwan than just street dogs and musical rubbish collections, it’s an absolute gem of a country. For starters the people are so so friendly and warm. This was shown to me at the start of my time here when an old uni friend, Rachel, came to meet me from the airport, and alongside her family and friends showed me a ridiculous level of hospitality and warmth. The bar has been set for anyone who I now welcome to the UK.
But generally in Taiwan, people go out of their way to help you, regardless of the language barrier. People are happy to walk you 4/5/6 blocks down the street to get you to where you want to be. And the language barrier isn’t too bad, there is a surprising amount of English spoken and in places where you wouldn’t necessarily expect it.
Taiwan is also really safe, I never felt unsafe anywhere or like people were trying to hassle, scam or try it on with me. It just generally feels like a really peaceful country with a nice pace of life. Of course it has it’s issues, but I just felt at complete ease and comfort.
Someone should also let Michael Portillo know that the train system in Taiwan is pretty good. It being such a small country it doesn’t take long getting from North to South, the trains are clean and comfy and on the main trains you will not travel facing backwards. The seats get turnt around at the final stop, so you will always face forwards. They are also cheap. So much cheaper than the shit we have in the UK; Greater Anglia, Southern Rail you are wank.
Then you’ve the Taiwanese food. So so good and I’m not talking about the night markets. Yea the night markets are cool and go and have; oyster omlette, ‘Taiwanese hotdog’, grilled squid, papaya milk, sweet potato balls, stinky tofu etc etc. But the proper food are the local eateries, sometimes down quiet looking side streets; eel noodles, beef noodles, hot pot, milkfish, dumplings, different soups. It’s really hard to eat badly in Taiwan, although if you wanted to you could just pop into the MacDonalds. You’ve also got endless amounts of bubble tea. I knew Taiwan is the home of bubble tea, but there are so many bubble tea shops. Even 7/11 now sell bubble tea. But yea, the food is serious in Taiwan. I put it up there with Mexico in terms of quality and taste. Of course it’s different flavours and Mexico has more variety of flavours, but Mexico is a much bigger country. I also thought that my chopstick technique was getting better, but apparently it isn’t…..
You’ve then got the different cities and landscapes to enjoy. Tainan, cultural hotspot and the home of so many temples. All of Taiwan has alot of temples, but Tainan I don’t even want to guess how many you have! Endless, endless temples. Kaohsiung, the city in the South, although it doesn’t feel like a city. But, for me, the place to go is the East coast, Taitung and Hualien. Beaches, hiking, gorges. It has some seriously beautiful and georgous scenery, as well as some hot springs which are decent! I can’t really talk for Taipei as I only spent one night out of the two weeks there. But I’m planning on coming back at the end of this trip and exploring more what Taiwan has to offer, especially Taipei and the North East corner.
Next stop Vietnam.
Joe From Bow 