A Layover in Taiwan

After 4 months our time in Asia came to an end. We knew the trek from Asia to Central America would be a long one (25 hours of flying plus layover times) so we opted to break it up a bit by stopping in Taiwan for a few days on route.

We hadn’t really given Taiwan much thought as a destination on our itinerary but flight schedule wise it worked and we were able to piece together flights to connect us.

One thing we have learned this year is that the weather really plays a huge part in the impression one gets of a city or a country. While we have tried to maintain a go with the flow and make the best of it attitude, sometimes the weather is just miserable making exploring unpleasant. This was the case in Taiwan.

Oh Taiwan – maybe it was the weather, maybe the location and condition of our hotel, maybe the comparison with other more dynamic cities in Asia we had just visited, maybe we were tired (it’s not you it’s me) but you didn’t wow us. Our impression was just…meh. In our opinion there seemed to be a lack of character or charm, nothing drawing us to want to come back and see more. Perhaps given better weather and more time we would have left with a different opinion.

We had just 2 days to explore so we tried to make the best use of our time. Day one was drizzly and grey but we were able to wander the city.

Stops included the National Taiwan Museum, the oldest museum is Taiwan, and the neighbouring 2-28 Peace Memorial Park. A further stroll took us to Liberty Square, a 240000 square metre public space featuring an impressive gate and surrounding buildings.

For our second day we hired a driver who took us out of the city to see some surrounding sights.

Our day started with a rainy visit to Yehliu Geopark, and a chance to see the famous 4000 year old Queen’s Head formation before it breaks away. It is expected to break by 2025, assuming an earthquake doesn’t fracture it prior. The park felt somewhat like being on Mars with many odd and interesting formations.

Next stop was a hike to Shifen Waterfall, nicknamed Little Niagara. The walk to the falls was beautiful and included two suspension bridges.

We then carried on about 30 minutes more to the famous Shifen Old Street. The quintessential thing to do there is to decorate and then light a paper lantern for good luck and send it off into the sky. The lantern is four sided and each side represents a certain type of wish you’d like to come true (good fortune, health, happiness, success, etc). The boys had fun decorating our lantern and watching it disappear into the sky.

We capped off the day with a visit to Jiufen, a small village in the mountains with beautiful sea views. We strolled the Jiufen Old Street, which is a narrow alleyway lined with food stall and souvenirs. Like most markets in Asia it was jam-packed with people and unfortunately the rain literally put a damper on things. It was still nice to see and we were glad we chose to see more than just Taipei on our Taiwan layover.

We returned to our hotel that evening exhausted but ready to bid adieu to Asia and move on to our next destination and continent. Up next is country number 38…Costa Rica!

With Love,

The Travelling Babins

“Life is only travelled once, today’s moment becomes tomorrow’s memory. Enjoy every moment, good or bad, happy or sad because the gift of life is life itself” – Unknown