Taichung is the third largest city in Taiwan. It wasn’t our plan to actually go there and see it. It does have some appeal, but as my Lonely Planet guide stated, “Taichung is hardly a must-see.” And for that very reason, our first 12 days in Taiwan avoided this massive smoggy city. That is except…
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Changhua City. Its a big city in Taiwan. I had never heard of it before yet I found myself with some spare time towards the end of our time in Taiwan. We had bunged in a lot, having basically toured the entire island as much as we could in 2 weeks. On a free Friday…
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It was the first time I would ever attempt to watch a Northern Ireland match on the internet, and the first time I would be in Asia when we have a match. I gave up travelling to Northern Ireland away matches back in February 2009, when life changed forever. It is a pleasing aspect in…
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Again you’ll have to bear with the English prononciation of this wee mountain village – signposts read “Guanshiling”, local signs in the village read “Kuan Tzu Ling” and the entrance gate to the mountain road reads “Guanzihling.” Natalja and I did a day trip there, because the mountain village is famous for its “hot springs.”…
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Before we even went to Tailuga, I had read and heard about “Tiansiang”, what appeared to me to be the “heart of Taroko Gorge”, situated bang in the middle of the massive National Park, this enclave put to shame previous wee villages I’d been in. Vaduz, Serravalle and Groomsport won’t last quite as long in…
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It’s a mystery how this place isn’t called “Taroko Gorge” or even “Taroko”, as the signs on the roads clearly say (in English) and as the entrance wall obviously states. But I’m sorry don’t say “Taroko Gorge” to any Taiwanese person. They’ll have a blank look on their faces and they’ll not have a clue…
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It was an early start, or a late start depending on how you look at life. We stayed up all night until a 5 am sleepy bus left the south western city of Kaohsiung for a trek across the island to the eastern city of Taidong. It was part of our trip up the East…
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The day trip to Kenting (Kenn Ding) was planned for our second Sunday in Taiwan. Kenting is a massive national park on the south coast of the island, which includes nature trails, beaches and a small village, called Kenting. Yet pronounced “Kenn Ding”, somehow once again the Chinese Mandarin was slightly lost in translation when…
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The trip to Eluanbi started from the town centre of Kenting. We wanted to go and visit the Lighthouse in Eluanbi and also go to the furthest southern tip of Taiwan while we had the chance. The chance was seized as we hopped on till a 17 or an 88 bus (for 22 dollars), which…
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Friday nights in Shinying became “party nights”, where we would do something a bit different or special, all tied in with the Taiwanese culture and this gave us the opportunity to meet yet more local people. I’ll now comment on our first Friday night in Shinying, where we had a barbecue for dinner, went…
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