Taiwan: Travelling To and Through

A few weeks ago, Christy proposed taking a trip to Taiwan over Thanksgiving weekend. In Palau, Thanksgiving is a national holiday and we had the day off. There are only a few places to which there are direct flights from Palau and Taiwan is one of them. Christy and LB wanted to go, so I figured I might as well go. My vacation interests are centered on Australia and New Zealand, but once I began learning about Taiwan it seemed like an interesting trip with a mix of big city and natural beauty.

Christy, LB, Dave, Ryan, Noah, and I flew out of Palau Wednesday evening after work. The airline agent who booked our tickets for us was nice to us and booked us first-class tickets at no extra charge. The flight took about three and half hours. The Taiwan international airport is outside of Taipei and requires a bus trip, so we arranged for tickets. We also got Taiwanese money called New Taiwanese Dollars. The exchange rate was around 33 NT to a U.S. dollar and the smallest bill was 100 NT about 3 U.S. Dollars. Carrying around a 50 "dollar" coin was a little odd at first, but we got used to doing the math. We boarded the forty-five minute bus ride into Taipei and I slept for most of it.

We arrived in the center of Taipei just after midnight. Christy had made hotel reservations at a "Love Hotel", known for their ideal accommodations for romantic interludes. Despite that reputation, it was a fairly normal hotel and was pretty nice. There were a few interesting aspects, most notably the full view of the bathtub/shower from the bed through a plexiglass window wall. There were curtains, but it was still revealing. The rooms only had a double bed, so I had my own room. At the hotel I was also able to get a wireless high-speed internet connection, something sorely missed in Palau.

The next morning, our goal was to travel to Hua-Lien, a city on the eastern shore of Taiwan where we could then travel to Taroko Gorge, a Taiwanese National Park. From our hotel we took the Taipei subway, called MRT, to the train station to get the train schedule. The MRT is an exceptionally clean and efficient subway system. We never waited more than two minutes for a train and there was plenty of English on the signs so we could easily navigate. We took the noon train out of Taipei and had a scenic rail trip of around three hours. Part of the trip was along the coast, but since we are around ocean all the time in Palau the portions of the trip through towns and mountains were more interesting. We arrived in Hua-Lien just after three and walked around the city for an hour before catching the shuttle to the hotel.

In Taroko Gorge, we stayed at an excellent hotel called the Grand Formosa. It was a resort and included dinner. It was a buffet including many aboriginal dishes. The food was very good, especially the Taiwanese noodle soup. It was Thanksgiving day, but they did not have any Thanksgiving foods like Turkey. With the weather so warm in Palau and Taiwan, it was around 70 the entire weekend, it really didn't feel like Thanksgiving. However, later that evening and early the next day before we left for hiking (which was midday Thursday back home) I utilized the Hotel's fast internet connection to do a video chat with my family in Michigan. I got to experience at least a little bit of Thanksgiving. We had a big day coming up, so we got to bed early in preparation of touring Taroko Gorge.