Category Landtravel
It is Moon Festival in Taiwan which means we have five days off. Except for going back to Erlin to celebrate with Yini’s family, we planned to go out to the coast for a few days. However, the weather gods didn’t seem to like our plans because they sent not one, but two typhoons our way. The first one caused floods and lots of chaos down in the south and east parts of the island but Erlin, which is in the middle, was fine and we had two nice days with the family, barbecuing and shooting fireworks in the evening. The second … Read the rest
Today was the day we did the actaul crossing. When we woke up this morning it was raining but by the time we left the hotel it had cleared up. We rode out of Tianxiang, and while the landscape was plenty dramatic I was so happy to be on the road we didn’t really stop to take photos.
Riding a motorcycle on a road like this is a powerful experience. You feel like you are one with the machine and that you and the bike are one with nature. There is only the … Read the rest
Today we set off towards Taroko Gorge which will be our starting point for the actual crossing.
A few kilometers out from Hualien city we went down to a secluded beach. When I was younger I would have jumped into the water directly but now I didn’t feel like it. I still took off my shoes, rolled up my trousers and just stood in the water’s edge, letting the waves wash over my feet. By now this has become a kind of ritual for me.
After that we headed … Read the rest
At the beginning of this year I decided I should ride my motorbike from east Taiwan, across the central mountains to the west. With lots of other things taking up our time it’s not until now the wife and I were able to go.
On Friday evening we took the train to Hualien city on the east coast.We have several days for our trip, so instead of setting off directly on Saturday morning, we stayed in Hualien for some relaxed sightseeing. Among the places we visited were Liyu lake, Lien Cheng lotus garden and Qiqi highlands.
Paddle boating on Liyu
Since Yini and I had to go to work on Monday, our goal for Sunday was mainly just to get back home. We did have all day however, so we decided to take the long way around i.e. the coast road, stopping along the way whenever we felt like it.
Our first stop was rather random, just some large flat cliffs stretching out into the sea where Albin, Oscar and I walked around for a bit looking for crabs.
The beach 
That freak wave looks really evil
Next up was the sandiago lighthouse where the boys could get a bit … Read the rest
A while ago mom told me that the son of her friend was coming to Taiwan. I used to know the kid when I was young, so I suggested the wife and I could take him round to some interesting places. He arrived yesterday afternoon and I met him and his friend up in Taipei. We went to Taipei 101 to take in the view, then met up with my wife in a night market for dinner.
Sunset view from Taipei 101 
The two friends Albin on the left and Oskar on the right 
Having dinner in the night market
Today was our last whole day in Italy, and we spent it in Florence. This is a much bigger city than all the other places we have visited, with lots of things to see. I’m sure you could spend several days there checking out the various churches, palaces and museums but we only had one afternoon, so we focused in on the main goals, the cathedral and the Uffizi art gallery. Because this is such a popular tourist destination, there was of course a lot of people, with massive queues for the biggest attractions; to skip the queue we decided … Read the rest
Today we have taken things easy compared to the other days and focused on a single tourist site, Siena. It is a larger city than all the other places we visited and there were a lot more tourists. It has several well know places to visit like the Cathedral, The Palio horse races on the Piazza del Campo and the hospital Santa Maria della Scala. We strolled around there for several hours and though we didn’t go in to all of them (the tickets for the cathedral, for example, were unreasonably expensive), we saw most of them from the outside.… Read the rest
During most of my business trips my parents and I don’t bother to see each other but this time, since my wife joined, they couldn’t resist. So on Tuesday Yini and I took the train north from Napoli to a small town called Chiusi Chianciano Terme in Toscana where my parents picked us up in their rental car. The hotel is in another town not too far away from Chiusi but there are several picturesque little towns in the area so we stopped by a place called Pienza and strolled around there for an hour or so before going to … Read the rest
Except for Pompeii, one of the most famous places in the area around Napoli is the Amalfi coast. It is basically a coastal road connecting a number of small towns and villages along the south side of the Sorrento peninsula. Since the road was bound to be small, Yini and I decided to rent a scooter – or more precisely a Vespa – and ride from Salerno out to Sorrent then all the way back to Napoli.
I set out in the morning to go collect the scooter from the rental shop, and after picking up Yini back at the … Read the rest