6) Tainan and some more Taipei

Wendy, the Taiwanese teacher we met in Kenting, even offered us a hotel voucher for Tainan. Unfortunately, we had difficulties to contact her and booked a room in the Tie Dao hotel. Later Wendy told us that she wanted to give us vouchers for exactly this hotel :/. At the evening she picked us up together with her husband. They took us on a sightseeing trip. We started at the beautiful Chihkan Tower. Probably the oldest building I have seen in Taiwan. Then Wendy took us to have dinner at a nearby local seafood restaurant which was absolutely delicious. The tricky part was that Wendy insisted on paying for us... rather unusual in our culture, the Taiwanese/Chinese tradition values guests extraordinarily. After dinner, Wendy and her husband drove us around the city until the beach. On the way back from the beach we saw a lot of people in Halloween costumes near a park. We jumped out of the car and joined the crowd :) Some of these costumes were amazing! Wendy, Danny and I got quite some photos with these guys^^ We then picked up Wendy's son and went to see Hai'an road. A beautiful street filled with bars, old houses and drunken Taiwanese young. Wendy and her family brought us back to our hotel and went back home... we planned to meet again the next day...

Chihkan Tower

Wendy and Danny in the park around Chihkan Tower

Halloween in Tainan

Hai'an road

The next morning (01.11.) Danny and I went sightseeing in Tainan. We started at Confucius Temple where local politicians gave us some badges, we watched funny squirrels in the park and then continued to the Temple of the five Concubines. After two small temples we visited the picturesque Koxinga Ancestral Shrine. After our sightseeing tour we had lunch and took a break before we wanted to meet up with Wendy again. Unfortunately, Danny became sick including fever. So we rested in the hotel until late. At late evening we just went for dinner, had a beer and went for sleep.

Squirrel near Confucius Temple

Garden at Temple of the five Concubines

I and Danny

Dragon fountain in front of Koxinga Ancestral Shrine

inside Koxinga Ancestral Shrine

The next day (02.11.) we took the high famous Taiwan high speed train from Tainan to Taipei. Rather expensive, but truly fast and comfortable. Though, not very different from German ICE which is slightly more comfortable but much more expensive. In Taipei we first had lunch at the central station food court and then checked in at Via Loft hotel, which we can recommend. As Danny had not seen it before, I visited the Taipei101 with him including the observatory and the Din Tai Fung restaurant :) Danny finally understood what can be so special about simple dumplings...
The next morning (03.11.) we changed hotels after breakfast. We had booked the Stay Inn early and it was full when we were to book the earlier day. However, the Via Loft was better... We then visited the National Palace Museum, which we cannot recommend as it was mostly boring. For late afternoon we went to Beitou hot springs. More natural than I expected, but less than I hoped. And as so much in Taiwan - a lot cheaper than I thought. Still, filled with old Asian people, mainly man... but the pools were of different heat and very enjoyable. We were not lucky finding a good restaurant for dinner that evening and ended at some unfriendly and hardly tasty one. After breakfast the next morning (04.11.) we left for central station where we took a bus to the airport and caught our flight to Hongkong.

Taipei101 mirrored in a pond

Impressive Taipei101, not so impressive guys :P

5) Kenting and Little Liouciou Island

The next day (28.10.) we took the train from Hualien to Taitung. We were eager to visit Green Island. Unfortunately, in Taitung we got to know that only one ferry in the morning travels to the island. Thus, we continued by train to Fangliao from where we hopped on a bus to Kenting. An old lady was already waiting at Kenting bus station to bring show us the rooms she had available. Although not too friendly, the room was nice and cheap. We decided to stay for 2 nights. At the evening we enjoyed the huge street market in Kenting. For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant "Amy's", who offered delicious but rather expensive food as well as good, inexpensive drinks. Afterwards we wanted to have some more beers, but most places closed their door. Danny persuaded me to visit a shady gogo-like place. The beer was priced reasonable, while 2 out of 3 dancing girls were nothing but ugly. I disliked the place a lot. Still, Danny persuaded me to have a second beer... when he asked for a third beer I became annoyed and we left.
The next morning (29.10.) I was looking forward to enjoy the famous beach. Unfortunately, swimming was prohibited due to strong currents. Probably due to Taiwan being a volcanic formed island. Notably, the sign seemed to be in place for months or years rather than days. Strong wind blue sand into our faces and made sunbathing unpleasant. We then wanted to rent a motorbike to visit the Kenting National Park. However, almost no one was to rent us a bike as we only had an EU but no international driving license. Luckily, a guy from a shop next to the bus station gave us a bike. We rode to the national park and payed it a visit. Unlike the beach, the park was really nice and we enjoyed it a lot. Good views, I enjoyed the Banyan trees, spider-like looking crabs scared us (mostly me) in the caves and we tried some Tarzan-like swinging at the trees^^ After the park we continued to the light house where we enjoyed some ice cream. The sun was setting and it was already quite dark when we arrived at the famous Sail Rock. There we met Wendy, a super friendly Taiwanese teacher who was doing holiday there too. Back in Kenting we went for dinner where we met Wendy again. She invited us for dinner and also to her home in Tainan. After dinner she had to leave to look after her mother who was traveling with her. And before Tainan, we wanted to visit Little Liouciou Island. Therefore, we took a bus to Dongang in the morning (30.10.).

view over Kenting National Park

Great light in the national park

Trying to be Tarzan :o

nice setting...

Danny surfing a tree^^

Nicely lighted Banyan tree

In Dongang we walked from the bus station to the ferry terminal and somehow were unable to find the terminal. We asked in some office for the way, but no one was capable of speaking English, so we continued. A minute later a guy from the office ran towards us and led us to the terminal. That is super friendly Taiwan! At the terminal we booked a ferry ticket together with a room that turned out to be small and purple but clean^^ On the island we rent bicycles... however, only e-bikes for small Chinese people were available. Still, riding these bikes was a lot of fun once we got used to it. We had a great lunch in town before we went around the island. I was sad that again we saw no nice beach. At least we could watch the sunset :) At the evening we enjoyed several beers at the 7-Eleven, made friends with a cockroaches, dogs and lots of local people^^
The next day (31.10.) I tried to go for a swim again and found the same sign "swimming prohibited". Sad I went back to the hotel, but the owner told me that I may ignore this sign... so I did and enjoyed finally enjoyed my swim. Not a great beach, rather a harbor feeling, but better than nothing. Even did some sunbathing :) Afterwards we took the ferry back to Donggang, catched the Bus to Kaohsiung and from there the train to Tainan...

great lunch at Liouciou

sunset from Liouciou island

setting sun behind a temple at Liouciou

4) Danny arrives in Taiwan: Taipei, Hualien and Taroko Gorge

On Saturday (25.10.) our conference ended. After the closing ceremony, Danny was already waiting in front of the conference building. He took a flight from Frankfurt via Peking to join me for some traveling in Taiwan after my attendance to the conference. First we took Danny to have dinner at the food court of central station. Then we went to the most famous night market in Taipei: Shilin. It was the first time for Danny in Asia. He was quickly overwhelmed with the huge masses of people. At Shilin night market it was even worse than at central station. Lots of people, neon-ads everywhere, new sounds and smells... especially the disgusting stinky tofu... there was a lot to experience for Danny at the first day. A number of beers plus being accompanied by Simon and me helped to keep him sane^^
The next day (26.10.) we went sightseeing with Danny and visited the Chiang Kai-Sheik memorial hall again. Afterwards Simon took his flight for Slovenia while Danny and I took a train to Hualien. Not easy to travel by train on Sundays in Taiwan... they are packed! We had a seat for half the ride and were required to stay during the second half. In Hualien we stayed at the nice Easttown26 hotel. I was stunned that even this small city was filled with these Chinese neon-ads. Danny and I were looking for dinner and after an hour of searching we went for McDonalds, one of the only places still open after 9pm.
The next morning (27.10.) a shuttle bus from the hotel brought us to the bus station where we caught a bus to Taroko Gorge national park. I was eager to walk and Danny had no choice but to follow me. At the entrance they explained us that instead of walking long distance, we could always hop on the bus, ride to the next short way and walk plus photograph there. I was quite disappointed about that, while Danny was relieved. Still, the canyon of the national park was really nice. Not too special, but worth visiting if you are in Taiwan. Besides the massive canyon, we climbed a pagoda, a hill, Danny explored some jungle-like nature, we saw bats and some small waterfalls. All in all, a pleasant day :)

Entrance to Shilin night market... filled with neon-ads

masses at Shilin night marker

Chian Kai-Sheik memorial

Danny poses with a statue at the park entrance

We went up to this pagoda above the bridge...

...and enjoyed a great view from it
(and Danny suffered from vertigo)

Danny in jungle feeling

Two nice waterfalls
(one more is behind the wooden building)

3) Taipei Zoo and more

On friday (24.10.) the Ukrainian guy, Simon and I went to the Taipei Zoo. It is incredible that most cultural activities in Taiwan are either for free or incredibly cheap. Entrance to the Zoo was less than 2 EUR per person. While visiting the Zoo, we were lucky that most animals we came across just received their food. The animals are much more easy to spot and fun to photograph when they are eating^^
After the Zoo we took the cable car up to Maokong hill station. The view was so so due to misty weather. Later we had dinner at Taipei101 mall and enjoyed some beer at the bars next to Taipei101. Simon and I decided to go clubbing that night. We were able to convince Svetlana from Serbia and Sesilja from Finland to join us. A huge police raid blocked many clubs... they were looking for someone who shot a policeman in one of the clubs a week earlier. We decided to join an all-you-can-drink party at Room18 club beneath Neo19 shopping mall. All of us were eager to dance and Simon and I were happy about a lot of alcohol too^^ The entrance was about 20 EUR for us guys and like 13 EUR for the girls. The queue at the bar was long, everyone wanted to use the all-you-can-drink option... the club had this typical Asian style looking with sofas at the edges for the pseudo-rich, and a floor in the middle for some dancing. However, the people weren't dancing but cheering for the DJ. The music was RnB with some electronic pimps. Most fun was some kind of girl-competition for some ticket... especially funny when one of the girls dropped her bra and dress accidentally (no, not on purpose;) ).

lazy black bear

otters playing in the water

deer at a waterfall

deer plays hide&seek^^

the famous all-time eating panda bear

butterflies very close :)

Orang Utan mother with baby

Tapir taking a swim

Is the elephant smiling?

love among camels

who are you?

Giraffe eating close up

Tortoise eating close up

Gorilla watching humans

super relaxed :D

colorful chameleon

angry tortoise?

tiny tortoise sharing a leave for meal

A king penguin in Taiwan? come on, that's crazy!

2) Exploring Taipei: Taipei101, Longshan Temple, Chiang Kai-Sheik and Din Tai Fung

On monday (20.10.) evening we arrived at the guesthouse of Academica Sinica in Taipei. Generally, the guesthouse was very good... only compared to the 5 star hotel before it was quite rusty :P Right at the first evening we went to see the famous Taipei101... even if only from outside^^
The next morning (21.10.) Boopathi showed us around Taipei before the main conference started. First the Longshan Temple, which is a really relaxed place in the morning! Next we went to the Chiang Kai-Sheik memorial hall. An impressive place that remembers of the first president of Taiwan. Taiwanese like to see themselves as independent of China, although they are not really.
After the opening ceremony we went to Raohe night market, which is where Simon and I tried "stinky tofu". It doesn't taste as bad as it sounds or smells, still it was disgusting :P

Taipei101 behind a huge shopping mall

relaxed Longshan Temple

Praying at Longshan...

...more praying

simply a charming place :)

massive Chiang Kai-Sheik memorial hall.
the building behind in the middle of the picture is Taipei101 :)

 As this conference was not very exciting nor interesting, most fellows decided to rather explore Taipei^^ Bruno and I had a walk in the morning (22.10.) through the streets. We also visited the Pacific Core or "Living Mall". It is supposed to have a crazy space-ship like look. The look was indeed very unusual, but not too exciting nor like a space ship. At evening a group of us enjoyed dinner at the Din Tai Fung Michelin Star restaurant within Taipei101's mall. After dinner we made a small photo-session in front of Taipei101. Afterwards Simon, Sergej from Russia, Ivan from Spain/Serbia, Ingrid from Taiwan and I went to a real bar in Taipei... one with a crazy name Woolloomooloo. Nice but not special. At thursday (23.10.) I presented my poster at the conference. I joined the group at evening for another Din Tai Fung meal and finally going up the Taipei101 (we were lucky to receive free tickets through the conference). The view was great although it was rather misty. Somehow I love this building, it is really amazing!

YSP fellows after dinner at Din Tai Fung
back: Simon, I, Ivan, Sergej, Engin
front: Ingrid, Yu, Firdaus, Nina, Kyle

Photo-session in front of Taipei101
Simon, me and Sergej

View from Taipei101's observation deck