Mad In Taiwan

29/1/15

 

Ni Hao to all you funky monkeys and secret squirrels

So we are currently up at Cingjing which is farm area high up in the mountains of Taiwan freezing our butts off in a cheapo B&B with no heating… but MAN are we HAPPY  to be here… alive… and in one piece… after driving our arses off on treacherous mountain roads at night since we misjudged our driving times today…

 

 

Holy shit dudes, Taiwan is 50% mountainous and we’ve spent the whole day driving through slippery wet windy mountain roads which in itself is a bit scary considering they have hairpin turns and blind corners almost every 100 meters… …but not only that, the weather has been so shitty that we’ve been driving on the inside of a cloud for most of the day with visibility of only  couple of meters in front of our car… which again is a sphincter clenching experience…

 

 

But once you factor in how truck drivers in Taiwan will often overtake on blind corners so you can literally be coming around a corner and have a truck appear and hurtle towards you in your lane… man my sphincter is so ripped I’m going to need a car jack up my butt to unclench it.

My defensive driving skills are now TOTALLY awesome… umm… but that didn’t stop me from reversing into a bollard today… FECK!!! Actually other than the truck drivers, Taiwan drivers are probably the best we’ve encountered out of all the Asian countries we’ve been to, so actually it’s been pretty good getting around by car. We read a lot about Taiwan driving being scary but those bloggers mustn’t have driven anywhere else in Asia because we found Taiwan driving to be easy comparatively.

So what do we reckon about Taiwan? Well I have to say when we first arrived we thought it sucked a bit. The weather was shitty and grey, and in the northern coastal areas it just made all the dilapidated crappy pollution streaked communist concrete buildings look even more shitty than usual.

And Taipei is so similar to Hong Kong in so many ways that we weren’t overly dazzled by it considering how many times we’ve been to Hong Kong.

Taiwan’s most famous tourist attraction is Taroko gorge which is one of the modern natural wonders of the world and was a fantastic drive through tunnels and roads carved into the gorge walls.

 

 

We also checked out Yeliu Geographic park in the north which is an unusual lunar landscape carved from coastal erosions where fossilised urchins are everywhere.

 

From there we took a car down the east coast of Taiwan where we soaked in thermal hot spring hotels, and  drove down through rugged coastlines with roads carved into towering cliffs that just drop into the sea. But the most beautiful area of Taiwan is what we’ve just driven through in the last couple of days. There is a spine of mountains down the centre of the country where the townships of Alishan and Cingjng are, and where we have done some stunning walks in cloud misted subtropical rain forests with elevated walkways and suspension bridges that fade like ghosts into the mists.

But now here we are in Cingjing and we’ve driven on some truly scary-arsed roads to get here with mountains protruding up through a sea of clouds below where there’s a holy -shit-stop-the-car-for-a-photo moment around every corner.

But the best part of Taiwan was actually the people. I know it is a bit wanky to say it but Taiwan people and culture is what really makes this place awesome.

It’s the most perfect blend between Chinese and Japanese and Western cultures that we’ve seen in any country.It’s like they’ve taken the best of all those cultures and built a country around it, and in actual fact we found getting around even more efficient and easier than even getting around Japan.

And of course most of our trip Kitson has once again been a Rock star in Asia especially with Taiwan girls who love all things cute.We’ve gotten over our hesitations now and we now just send her off to charm people so we get better deals and upgrades in hotel etc.

We are such pimps!