Tag Yilan
As we all know, international travel isn’t possible with a global pandemic going on but domestic travel is still possible, at least here in Taiwan. We’ve been thinking of going back to Yilan and the secret beach for a while now and last weekend we decided to do it. Previous trips with the baby have either been day trips or trips back to Yinis parents house where we already have plenty of baby things. This was the first time staying overnight in hotel with the baby which was an entirely new experience for us but we decided to take on … Read the rest
October 10 is Taiwan’s national day and since it was a Thursday this year, most of the country got a four day weekend. My wife is pregnant and some pregnancy related medical conditions have kept her cooped up at home most of the time. As luck would have it, she was feeling well enough to go out that very weekend, so we decided to take a trip to Yilan in north east Taiwan.
The first day we drove from Hsinchu over to Yilan then spent the afternoon on the beach in Dongao Bay. It’s a beautiful beach with verdant … Read the rest
I thought I could go swimming but it's too dangerous. The beach slopes steeply down towards the water, and when a big wave comes sweeping in it's like a giant trough of water that empties then fills back up in matter of seconds. Though swimming is out of the question I still enjoy the feeling of waves washing over my feet, so I walk a few meters down the slope, let my feet get swallowed up by the pleasantly cool water while the afternoon sun warms my back. I hesitate for a moment, thinking about taking a few steps more, then another big wave comes rolling in and crashing onto the beach with tremendous force; white foam rushing forwards, the water rising from my knees to my chest in an instant, the force pushing me back at least a meter. Just as I recover my balance the water rushes out again, pulling at my legs, threatening to drag me with it. Behind it, a million little rocks come rolling down the beach, filling the air with a rattling, rushing noise against the background booming of the waves.
A couple of Taiwan’s major country roads (road number marked by a blue shield) go through the mountains. Last year, Renegade Wife and I rode across the island on one of them, number 14 – often referred to as the Central Cross-Island Highway – and despite some rather miserable weather, it was a fun little adventure. There are a few more that look very tempting to a motorcyclist studying a map of the country and as it happens, they are connected in a big loop. With Tomb Sweeping day extending the weekend to four days, and the weather finally becoming … 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
There are several places down in the south east I’ve wanted to go to, so we planned to do it this weekend. Since the place we were heading is in the north end of Taidong county, we figured the quickest way would be to approach from Hualien which is just to the north of Taidong. However, there were no train tickets available so we decided to drive.
On Friday evening we packed up our stuff then drove north towards Taipei, followed the road eastward then turned south. About an hour and a half later we had reached Suao in Yilan … Read the rest
Since today was the last day of the weekend we had to get back home. With a few stops along the way it took us the better part of two days to go right across the island. Instead of going back the same way we took the route around the northern tip.
There is a fast highway option that takes a short cut through a long tunnel, but we went for the scenic route along the coast line instead. We have done this route before so there shouldn’t be that much new to see. However, a storm must be brewing … Read the rest
This is part two in a series of posts about crossing Taiwan from west to east. Unfortunately part one has gone missing somewhere in the land where data goes to die. At this point I’m not able to recreate it so a quick summary will have to do. Basically, we took the car and drove through the mountains north of Hsinchu, following the so called Roma Road going eastward, stopping here and there along the way. Here’s my favorite photo from the first day:
That’s it for the summary, now on to the second day of the trip:
We slept … Read the rest
I’ve compiled a couple of notes I made on my map to summarize the trip. Anyone interested can check out the pictures below:
From Hualien to our goal in Yilan it was only a day of driving. We could easily have gone to Taroko gorge, arguably one of the most beautiful parts of the entire island with its rivers sheer cliff faces. However, both me and Yini have been there fairly recently so we opted against it.
Instead we kept driving along the coastal road which turns out to be one of the most beautiful stretches of tarmac in the country with sheer cliff faces rivaling those of Taroko, sloping down into turquoise water.
While riding, storm strength winds suddenly descended upon us … Read the rest