Category Urban Exploration
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
There is lots to see around keelung, but I had set my sights on an island close to the harbor opening called Peace Island. It is densely populated and not much different from the city, but a park out by the sea is famous for it’s beautiful landscape. We went there the first thing we did in the morning, and although the landscape was indeed beautiful, it was a little too small and too touristic for my taste. There was a walkway leading off towards some more secluded cliffs but sadly it had been damaged and was closed. I think … Read the rest
Some years ago me and a few others went to an abandoned copper refinery in Jinguashi near Keelung. That time we were ill prepared so we didn’t see all of it, but I promised myself I would come back one day. This weekend Renegade Wife needed to work but I didn’t feel like staying inside all Saturday. Since she is not all that into urban exploration, I decided this would be the weekend I went back.
On Friday morning I took the motorbike to work instead of the train like normal, and as soon as I got off work Friday … Read the rest
When the wife and I go up in the mountains we often pass through a place called Neiwan. It’s a kind of vacationers paradise with a lively food market, several go cart tracks and a number of hot spring resorts within a short distance. Basically city dwellers can go there to enjoy the mountains without having to forfeit modern amenities.
Every time we drive through the area I see roads that look very inviting but for some reason or other we’ve never really driven on them. Recently however, I’ve been determined to see where they lead and yesterday became the … Read the rest
Renegade Wife is often nice enough to search for interesting places for us to go. A little while ago she found one place which used to be an amusement park but has later been taken over by a Buddhist organisation who have turned it into a kind of temple or monastery. Many of the old amusement park buildings still stand however, but remain unused; in essence, it’s like an abandoned amusement park within the temple grounds. This sounded very interesting to us so we went to check it out.
You don’t have to go to Europe to find castles 
The castle up
Since it was raining heavily the night before we had started to plan some indoor activities for the day, but when we woke up the rain had subsided and there were some blue patches in the sky so we skipped those plans. Instead we decided to go to the beach, because that’s what you do in Kenting. Yini had ferreted out information on some kind of secret beach so of course we had to go there. It doesn’t really feature on the maps and there are no clear signs but after some searching we found it. It’s between Maobitou beach … Read the rest
The thing about driving across Taiwan is, you have to get back somehow, and taking the same road back wasn’t all that interesting, so we decided to go south, round the tip then back north along the west side.
We did a similar trip a couple of months ago but that time we were in more of a hurry, this time we made a couple of stops along the way. First up was an interesting, seemingly abandoned house just on the side of the road. It turned out that all the doors had been padlocked so I couldn’t go inside … Read the rest
Since we had seen most of the really worth while sights on Saturday we took it pretty easy on Sunday. Penghu is supposed to be a good place for snorkeling and diving but all the diving tours seemed to have closed for the winter, so I simply bought a cheap mask and snorkel from a sports store on main street and then we headed out to one of the many beaches.
At the far end, near some tall cliffs I found a nice area to explore. It was by no means as good as a coral reef but I still … Read the rest
The main island of Penghu is actually made up of three islands connected by bridges to form a large horseshoe. We live in the biggest town on one end of the horseshoe, today we decided to go sightseeing on the far end.
We started by heading back out to the little islet connected by the tidal road, and got there just in time to see the tide close over the road. That was kind of neat.
We continued out towards the far end of the island, stopping first … Read the rest