Justin Leaves, Solo in Taiwan

The night of the yacht party was Justin's last in Taiwan, although he wasn't due to fly out until the following evening.  That day we visited Taipei 101, the tallest building in the city, which was completed in 2004 and has become an icon of Taipei.  When completed it was the tallest building in the world, a title it kept until the Burj Dubai (now Burj Khalifa) was finished in 2010.  At the base of the tower is a multi-level shopping mall with hundreds of stores, as well as restaurants and clubs.

Justin and I paid to ride the elevator to the observation deck, which offered 360 degree views of the city and surrounding hills.  If it wasn't for the smog our view would have been spectacular.  Taipei is not nearly as polluted as many cities in mainland China, but the city still suffers from reduced visibility some days, particularly in the winter and spring when the weather is naturally cloudy.  The city only averages 1,400 hours of sunshine a year; compare that to my hometown of Columbus (not exactly the sunniest place) which gets close to 2,200 hours or sunshine, or say to Perth, Australia, which averages over 3,200 hours!  At least the average high never dips below the 60s F (high teens Celsius).

looking up at Taipei 101

If only we had some sun...and less smog!

The mall and food court at Taipei 101 were crawling with tourists, and the (indoor) observation deck was a popular attraction.  The observation floor had several souvenir stores and an ice cream shop. our ticket up the elevator came with a coupon for the ice cream shop - not for a cup or cone, but a beer with mango ice cream!  The scoop of mango treat was dumped in a Taiwan beer.  If you find this an odd combination, you're not alone.  Some things are just better separately, mango ice cream and beer being a perfect example.

mango ice cream with a beer

In the afternoon Justin left for the airport and I moved my things to a hostel.  Justin and I had been spending more than I would have liked on hotels, so when I was on my own again I needed to reign in the spending.  Since we only traveled together for a little over a week it didn't break the bank, but I couldn't afford an extended trip staying at decent hotels and eating out at fancy restaurants (my definition of fancy isn't universal, I know).

I spent one more night in Taipei, a rather uneventful one (there was only one other guest in my hostel room - he checked in at midnight and left by 8 am), before heading south along the west coast of Taiwan.  The majority of Taiwan's population lives along the west coast and lowland areas, stretching from Taipei in the north to Kaohsiung in the south.

population density of Taiwan by district; the darker
 the color, the higher the density. 

My first stop was the city of Taichung, a few hours' south of Taipei by slow train and the third largest city on the island, with some 2.7 million residents.  I had worked out to stay with a host on Couchsurfing, which is a great way to meet someone when traveling alone and save a bit of cash on lodging (Couchsufers frown upon those members who do it primarily to save money, and that's not my main motive.  It's a great cultural exchange, but I can't deny that a secondary benefit is a free place to sleep!)

My host was an English teacher who lived south of downtown in a neighborhood that's quiet but also only a few miles from the central train station.  Well a quiet neighborhood has very different meanings depending on where you live.  I'm not talking about a sleepy surburb - there were plenty of small restaurants, convenient stores, and shops within walking distance of his apartment - it's just that the area didn't get nearly as much foot traffic or have as many late night options as the city center.

I only spent one night in Taichung, arriving in the afternoon the day after Justin left and leaving about 24 hours later.  There were a few interesting spots - downtown was worth a walk around, and I visited a museum outside town commemorating the 1999 earthquake that killed over 2,000 people - but the city was more of a stopover for me.  I'm sure there were more things to see, but I wanted to make a full loop around the island and didn't have lots of time to waste.  Taichung struck me as a decent place to spend a day or two but definitely didn't make my list of Taiwan highlights.

A "quiet" neighborhood in Taichung; most people get around on motorbikes;
there aren't as many as Vietnam, but traffic is still chaotic to the uninitiated.

The 9/21 Earthquake Museum is located on the grounds of a former primary school that was destroyed in the 
quake.  The earthquake, which struck central Taiwan on September 21st 1999, was the second worst in the island's 
history, causing billions in damage and killing approximately 2,400 people.

a section of the school track ripped apart by moving earth

From Taichung I continued south to Tainan, the fourth largest city in the country.  Tainan was the capital of the province of Taiwan during much of imperial Chinese rule, starting in the late 17th century, and the city is known as one of the country's cultural capitals.  I enjoyed Tainan more than Taichung, primarily because of it's historical significance, which can still be seen in the winding streets, temples, and monuments in the old town.

I didn't actually stay in Tainan, but in a small town 40 minutes outside the city where I couchsurfed with a local Taiwanese guy named Jason (well that was his Western name...as you may know lots of Asian people choose Western nicknames for us foreigners who have trouble with their given names).  I've had hosts who give me a key and let me come and go as I please, but Jason expected that I would leave the house with him in the morning and come back after he got off work.  Leaving the house at 7:30 am isn't my typical travel schedule but it was fine for a few days and forced me to get out and maximize my sightseeing time.

My host Jason; he's into cycling and has biked the
whole loop around Taiwan twice before.

My train from Taichung arrived in Jason's town at about 7 pm; I had purchased a Taiwan Mobile smartphone in Taipei so fortunately I could map out his address and found it without much difficulty.  The address Jason listed is actually his office where he runs a small business with one other employee.  The three of us went out for dinner and Jason and I had a few 7-11 beers back at the office; instead of driving home we slept in the room above the office, which had sheets and pillows.

Like Korea and Japan, convenient stores are everywhere in
Taiwan; there are over 5,000 on the island!

The second and third night Jason I met Jason at his office but we spent the night at his house, a 10 minute drive into the country.  His place seemed odd to me - no real decorations with the few things he did own stacked up in the living room and kitchen - as if he had just moved in.  I guess that's how a lot of guys might live if they were single and spent most of their time at work.  Jason's English wasn't the best, but he could speak enough for us to have basic conversations, and we got along fine.  I think he enjoyed having me since not many surfers come though his town, and most of those that do aren't Western tourists.

I spent two days exploring Tainan, a city that had a lot of history and architecture to offer.  Some of the highlights included Anping fort, an old Dutch outfit from the 17th century, Fort Provintia, originally Dutch but used by the Chinese as the imperial capital building for the province, and numerous Buddhist and Confucian temples in the old town.  The National Taiwan History Musuem, on the outskirts of Tainan, was a good jumping off point for learning more about the history of Taiwan; I had little idea of what happened on the island before the 20th century.

Fort Anping, once a Dutch fort

Fort Provintia; it was later used by the imperial Chinese, and I can't
see many Dutch architectural elements.

one of the many temples in Tainan

Here's an extremely brief history of the Taiwan: the island was originally inhabited by ethnically Austronesian peoples, similar to native populations of the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.  Today these people, known as Taiwanese Aborigines, constitute about 2% of the population.  Taiwan had occasional contact with the outside world, mostly from Chinese fisherman and small scale traders, until the arrival of Dutch and Spanish colonial forces in the early 17th century.  The Dutch set up colonial outposts along the west coast of the island and Chinese laborers came in greater numbers from the mainland to settle in Taiwan.

In 1662 the Dutch were expelled from Taiwan by Koxinga, a Chinese general loyal to the Ming dynasty which had recently been dethroned on the mainland.  Koxinga established an independent kingdom on the island.  This was short-lived, however, and two decades later the new Qing Dynasty (which had replaced the Ming) conquered the independent kingdom and incorporated Taiwan into the Chinese Empire.  Immigration from mainland China continued, and Aborigines in the lowlands were either assimilated or retreated into the mountainous interior, which was largely free of imperial rule.

The interior and east of Taiwan are mountainous and for most of the island's
history free from any governmental control.

This status quo, Taiwan as a province of China, continued until the First Sino Japanese War (1894-5) when the island was ceded to victorious Japan.  Japan occupied Taiwan until the end of World War Two, when the territory was returned to China.  Despite harsh measures under Japanese colonial rule, which were partly to blame for several failed rebellions, the colonial period was marked by industrialization, improvements in infrastructure, and the establishment of a modern education system.

By 1949 the Chinese Communist Party had defeated the Nationalists, under Chiang Kai-shek, on mainland China.  Chiang and his supports fled to Taiwan where they established the Republic of China, which to this day still claims sovereignty over all of China.  There certainly has been a lot that's happened since 1949, but I'm no expert and if you really want to know you might as well just read a book from someone who is (or just browse Wikipedia, as I tend to do).  Besides, the museum in Tainan focused on earlier historical periods; I usually prefer learning about recent history, but there was a lot I didn't know about Taiwan (basically everything before the 20th century) and it was nice to get an introduction.

outside the history museum

One other highlight from Tainan was the Garden Night Market, a giant outdoor market with street food, clothing, electronics vendors, and games for prizes like you'd see at a carnival or state fair in the U.S.  The market is held only three days a week (Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday) and luckily my last night in Tainan was a Thursday.  I tried an oyster omelette, Korean topokki, Thai papaya salad, and a fruit smoothie, all for less than $7!  Luckily I got there early, because when I left at 8 pm it was packed.  You could barely walk down the aisles of food stalls...the early bird gets the worm, or in this case the opportunity to pig out on delicious street food.

crowds at the Garden night market

fried oyster omelette

Korean topokki; soft rice cake and fish cake with sweet chili sauce