Ricky + Min Lin Photos

Photos prises par un professionnel dans un studio à Taipei. Pas mal non?

Pictures taken in a studio in Taiwan by a professional photographer. Not bad right?

The place we took Glamor pictures is at a studio in Ximen Taipei (http://www.flower-waves.com.tw/personal/about.asp - website in Chinese only). Min Lin has negotiated the package and scheduled the photo session 3 weeks in advance. The package we paid was around US$400 with 20 photos and a nice album with our 20 photos of 6x8 size, package includes 3 styles, one on one photographer and stylist. The studio also have a selection of cloths, but it's recommended to bring your own cloths.

It took us around 4 hours for the glamor pictures session and after that it took us 2 hours to choose 20 pictures out of 120 pictures (the photographer and his assistants took at least 1 hour trying to convince us to buy extra pictures, US$25/photo for only digital version and US$40/photo with printed + digital version + nicer album). Overall, it was a nice experience, the only drawback was that final pictures and album was done only a month after.

Taiwan: A Fruit Lover's Paradise

If you love tropical fruits, you should definitely visit Taiwan in June-July, it is the best time to taste the most delicious tropical fruits in the world!! You will find lychee, mango, papaya, guava, pineapple, watermelon, sugar cane, carambola, longan, passion fruit, sugar apple, etc... I could eat just fruits all day long ;-)

Other than fruits produced in Taiwan, I also like the exotic taste of durian, imported from Thailand. It's smelly and sweet ;-)

Discover Taiwan - the treasure island

Here's some links for travel in Taiwan:

Taiwan tourism bureau
Taiwan Map
Taiwan Festivals
Tastes of Taiwan

Transportation
Taiwan Railway Administration - train schedule

Places to visit
Green Island
Taroko National Park
Yushan National Park
Shei-Pa National Park
North Coast & Guanyinshan National Scenic Area
Northeast and Yilan Coast National Scenic Area
Maolin National Scenic Area
Siraya National Scenic Area
Orchid Island (Lanyu)
Penghu County
Liji Lunar World
Yehliu Park
Longdong South Ocean Park
Danshuei Old Street
National Palace Museum
Taipei 101

Accommodation recommendation
Accommodations around Hualien and Taroko
Grand Formosa Taroko (Tien-Xian)
Hotel Bayview (Chishingtarn Coast Scenic Area)
Rainbow hotel (Jiben)
Shiacarl B&B - English version coming soon! (Green Island)
Burgary hotel - Chinese (Taipei)

Taiwan May 2009 2 weeks travel Costs for 2 persons

After reading posts about our trip in Taiwan and looking at our nice pictures, I think lots of people are curious to know how much did the trip cost?

Here's the breakdown (Taiwanese dollars, conversion at the end):

Note: we stayed 2 nights at my brother's apartment in Taipei.

The total cost excluding round-trip airfare is US$1725.62 (1901.76$CAD), round trip plane ticket San Fran-Taipei is US$865 per person, so the real total is $3455.62 for 2 persons 2 weeks travel in Taiwan. It is possible to reduce the cost if you travel in low season (probably March-April and October-November), airfare can be 30% to 40% cheaper and if you don't mind staying at cheaper accommodations, you can save another 20% to 30%.

Want to have an unforgettable trip? What are you waiting for? Start planning your trip to Taiwan! ;-)

My Tracks Taiwan

Android My Tracks recorded GPS information for our Taiwan trip:


View Tracks: Taiwan May 2009 in a larger map

Burgary hotel 寶格利時尚旅館, Ximen, Taipei, Taiwan

The Burgary hotel 寶格利時尚旅館 is just next the busy Ximen area on the busy Zhonghua road.

Ximen is ideal for shopping, food an ideal to catch a movie with its numerous movie theaters (we saw Star Trek on a large Imax screen).

The rooms are expensive (3680NT$ or around 120$US), the entrance is unimpressive, the free breakfast is the worse we've had. The bed is so-so, better then the plywood hardness in other hotels, although we would have hoped for better and more sheets.

Where the Burgary really shine is in the bathroom with an enormous bubble bath with colored lighting effect and nice shower with a standard showerhead and a rain type overhead showerhead. Next to the bath is a TV screen.

Overall, a good experience and we would come back for a night or two to be in the happening area.

Olympia bakery, Taipei, Taiwan

Olympia bakery (3 places in Taipei, including one is Ximen) has surprisingly good cream puffs for 30NT$ (1US$) each. They are also very filling so you can't really eat more then one. Another surprise are the dim sum who are tasty and fresh.

Olympia (http://www.olympiafoods.com.tw)

Baiyang trail 白楊步道, Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園, Taiwan

A few minutes walk in the hot sun from the Grand Formosa hotel was the Baiyang trail 白楊步道.

From the start, Min Lin was worried when we had to walk a few hundreds meters in a straight tunnel where the light at the other end was only a dot.

She got more worried when we got to a curved tunnel where we couldn't see the light until we walked to the curve a few meters in.

But she got really worried when we had to walk a few meters in yet another tunnel in total darkness! That last experience was exactly like being blind even with our eyes wide open, the convenient rail our only guide.

Dragging Min Lin through it all was worth it for the sights of the roaring canyon river on one side of a rope bridge (limit 10 persons) and waterfalls on the other. Absolutely gorgeous!

In addition, the trail ends with the water curtain tunnel, where a river flows fed by water leaking abundantly from the ceiling. If you go through, be ready to get wet and watch out for the frogs.

All of this is framed by vegetation covered cliffs, huge boulders at the bottom of the canyon and mountains peaking through the clouds. It is also an easy trail, apart from the scary tunnels. A flashlight is recommend except if you like to have your significant other hold on tight to yourself...

Grand Formosa Taroko Western Restaurant, Taiwan

The decor is wood and a large slab of rock next to which are placed the various salad dish. Two more islands have most of the meat dishes and a chef speciality area. Tucked in a corner the desserts are layed out.

The staff is very accomodating and prompt, offering us good seats and are quick at picking up the steady stream of dishes.

The desserts are all delicious and include a mango mousse, an angel cake, fruitcake and more. There is also some watermelon and if you want to go French style you can get some of the tasty smoked gouda cheese in addition to a Min Lin's favorite, matcha (green tea) ice cream. The chef was nice enough to bring an extra plate of cheese when we scavenged the last piece.

Wait you'll say, what about the main dishes? Sadly, they are all messed up in their own special way with an uniform abuse of pepper in all dishes. The supposedly French style onion soup is an insult to France and even the spaghetti ranks as the worse I've had.

The buffet food is 590NT$ plus a 10% service charge. We recommend stuffing yourself on the afternoon tea (250NT$) and going for some stinky tofu next door for dinner.

Grand Formosa Taroko 天祥晶華度假酒店, Tien-Xiang 天祥, Taiwan

Ma-Lu-Su? ("How are you?" in the language of the Atayal, a local aboriginal mountain tribe)

Nested in the mountains and only reachable by an half hour drive in the sinuous and narrow roads through the tall mountains is the Grand Formosa Taroko hotel 天祥晶華度假酒店.

Years ago, the Japaneses during the occupation were the first to turn the region from a dangerous mountain path hanging dangerously on the cliff of the mountains to a tourists destination.

Now, tour buses of mostly Taiwaneses and mainlanders with a few westerners and Japaneses sprinkled throughout negotiate a not much larger road, stopping to admire the beautiful sights of the high, jungle covered mountains and bare cliffs that drop to the rivers.

Some, like us, stop at the amazingly affordable five stars hotel Grand Formosa Taroko with all the modern facilities in the middle of it all. Two restaurants (one western style buffet and one chinese style), indoor and outdoor (roof) swimming pools, spa facilities and a gamut of entertainment choices (ping pong, billiards, video games, bowling). The dinner buffet looks delicious although expensive even by the standards in North America.

You can get a room with a view on the courtyard or overlooking the river and cliff outside. We switched to the second choice so we could run naked in the room with the windows opened.

At night, huge insects (including an enormous wasp that made it in the room) are attracted to the light and land on our window. A bat profits of this by flying again and again next to our window to eat them.

The rooms are decorated tastefully with some inspirations from the mountain tribes while the friendly employees wear uniforms with slight additions that reminds us of traditional aboriginal tribes.

Amazing, if not slightly nauseating, that this mountainous and remote area went from tribes getting necessities from nature to hydroelectric dams to the comforts found in any large city of the world in the span of less than 75 years with the help of a few generations of murdered natives or exploited labor.

All of this so that I can make a call sitting on the toilet by using the convenient phone handset there or watch HBO while lounging on the bed...

Thank you doesn't seem enough.

The only thing left to do then is to complain about how hard the bed is, how the hotel corridors are smelly and how few towels there are.

S-Wa-Yai Da Da! (goodbye in Atayal)

Hike in mysterious valley, Shakadang trail 砂卡礑步道, Taroko National park 太魯閣國家公園, Taiwan

The staff at the hotel Taroko warmed up to us and we warmed up to them. We were going to leave for the next hotel but they convinced us to try at least one trail, the Shakadang trail 砂卡礑步道.

So after breakfast (fried egg sandwich) we did a 8 km hike through the 1 km tunnel that goes to the "mysterious valley", then following a trail built into one cliff and finally the mostly dried river bed with just enough water for miniature waterfalls and small fishes.

There are a few aboriginal people still living in the valley and they grow a kind of vegetable consumed for its leafs in addition to raising a few chickens.

We then came back to Taroko village and had lunch, mostly gathered from the local 7 Eleven store.

Hotel Taroko 太魯閣旅店, Taroko village 太魯閣, Taiwan

Taroko village 太魯閣 is the entrance of Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園, but we found that it is a scary and deserted place at night: gangs of 12 years old holding sticks roving at night (we only survived those when we said we were Canadians), mean dogs on leashes that jump at you to push you off the sidewalks, a 7 Eleven kept at freezing temperature and a series of abandoned and probably haunted houses that dot its main street.

The hotel Taroko 太魯閣旅店 staff is unwelcoming this late at night, almost requiring torture to extract tidbits of information while a dog keeps barking menacingly outside.

Our inquiries about using the bicycles are met with veiled threats that we will be run over on the pathless streets of Taroko. We discovered later that this isn't strictly true; there are some bike paths.

We took the most expensive room and ended up with a bed with the firmness of plywood. The shower is so badly designed that the hook to hold the shower head is aligned with and two feets from the sink.

A little sign in the shower warns that we have to let the water run for 5 minutes to get hot water. In actuality, this is more like 15 minutes - I had time enough to brush my teeth and take a full (cold) shower including an hair shampoo before the hot water came on, wasting probably the equivalent of an Olympic size pool. I can assume that the environment won't be an hot issue during the next political elections. Min Lin in the meantime was trying to get the issue resolved with the front desk but only got accusations that we didn't let the water run for long enough...

The restaurant across the street has a good wild (and by wild they mean farm raised) boar dish. However they probably couldn't serve a vegetarian dish if their life depended on it as they gave Min Lin noodles with bits of meat in it.

The next day is a different story. We must admit it is still a good, new, clean hotel well located next to a national park with a view on the nearby river and mountains. And the front desk woman finally cracks a smile while the manager gets up and is actually helpful. Sadly, they still give us misinformation and we end up too early at the visitor center as we were told it opened at 7:30 instead of 8:30.

Départ de Shiacarl 夏卡爾, Green Island, Taiwan

Shiacarl près des montagnes sur l'ile verte attends,
Au large de la côte est de Taiwan dans le vent ,
Pour les petits bateaux de pêche sur l'eau,
Pour les nages parmis poissons colorés et les coraux,
Pour les marches dans les sentiers de randonnées
Pour les baignades dans les eaux thermales salées,
Mais surtout pour l'hospitalité,
De nos hôtes à Shiacarl toujours gaies,
Le savoir de l'ile du grand frère,
Le sourire de la blonde du grand frère,
Et l'attention du petit frère du grand frère,
Nous sers d'un merveilleux pied a terre,
La bouffe est bonne surtout autour du feu de camp,
Pour manger calmars, maïs et poissons volants.

5th day on Green Island, Taiwan

That morning we moved back from the other B&B to Shiacarl, taking our two carry-ons and two backpacks on the scooter for the 1mn ride (they are basically next to each other).

After another delicious breakfast, we went to the "cow head", a rock formation on the north east tip of the island that looks like a cow. I can't say I see it but they've conveniently also added a cow skull to the scenery. There are also remnants there of various abandoned fortifications, although I wonder who built it and why.

We drove back through the town (another shaved ice) back to Shiacarl and I went out for more snorkeling where I got a slight sunburn on my back.

We had lunch in town at the Seaweed Meatball restaurant and the owner (Tino) invited us to come back that night for a neat experience.

So we drove again at 6pm that night. The activity was to walk around the littoral and pick up various form of wildlife: crabs and shellfish. We also saw a big "sea rabbit" that emits a red cloud when disturbed in addition to many sea cucumbers and corals. Pretty neat! We could also see a big thunderstorm over the ocean west of the island but luckily we only got a few drops.

4th day on Green Island

After breakfast at Shiacarl, we went hiking in the ancient across the mountain trail. We saw many lizards taking in the sun in the trail and scurrying into the bushes when we came by, except for two that took an aggressive stance when we were coming down the mountain - probably frustrated at having their sunbathing interrupted all the time. We also saw a deer (a smaller kind then the Sika deer) and a big shiny salamander in addition to many butterflied.

We had to checkout from Shiacarl since they did not have a room for us on Saturday night, so we moved to an hotel in the same village. As most buildings in Taiwan, the exterior looks of older buildings is awful but the actual room was nice, although the mattress was a lot firmer than I'm used to. Still, a very good alternative 20% to 30% less expensive than Shiacarl, although you don't get the same personalized experience and there is no breakfast.

Talking about hospitality, our hosts at Shiacarl invited us to BBQ! The food involved is much different than in north America... We had flying fish (salted and whole), sausage, squid, chicken tail, slices of pork, fish soup (I had an entire small fish floating in my bowl) and corn.

That day, we've also tried out the shaved ice downtown which is ice with red beans, tofu, seaweed, condensed milk and a few other ingredients that are very refreshing.

Third day on Green Island

After going to the hot spring, we slept a little and afterward I went snorkeling. I got in my mind to try picking up some of the plastic trash floating around. When I got to what I thought was a blue piece of plastic, I got a strange burning sensation between my fingers... Jellyfish! My whole right arm was numb. I put some vinegar on it but one of the B&B owner told me that pee was more effective so I tried that in the shower. I was worried it would get worse (some jellyfish are so poisonous that they are deadly) but the pain went away by noon.

We went downtown to get some gas for the scooter and taste the shaved ice. We then went back, had a beer and a while later bit returned to the water for some snorkeling together. Among other things, I saw an impressive lion fish.

After dinner, we went to a special night tour of the island with one of the host. We looked at the stars, a family of Sika deer, brown and green stick insects (the later is a protected specie) and the memorial to the five hundreds political prisoners or so during the Kuomingtang dictatorship.

Our last stop was to get some stinky tofu downtown...

Shiacarl Cafe 夏卡爾, Green Island, Taiwan

The B&B also doubles as a small cafe for serving guests and outside customers. The eating area is nicely decorated with relaxing music and a soothing ocean breeze.

Our hosts and hostess Selena all take turn cooking and luckily for us they also make the best food on the island, although they quite humble about it.

While the downtown is bland or excessively bizarre, their food strike the right balance between original and good taste. Of particular note is the fruit salad that is common to most of her dishes. They are also accommodating of their mixed carnivorous and vegetarian guests, serving versions of both for any dishes to me and Min Lin. the vegetarian version is also not an inferior version of the meat dish, but delicious in its own way.

I love the fact that we don't have to choose the dishes; we just tell them when we want to eat and the dishes are served, a pleasant surprise everytime.

Jhaorih saltwater hot spring 朝日溫泉, Green Island, Taiwan

5 minutes drive away from the hotel there is an ocean side hot spring where the saltwater is heated by the underground magma - one of the only three saltwater hot spring in the world where this experience is available.

The resort was called Jhaorih saltwater hot spring (rising sun) 朝日溫泉 during the Japanese occupation, so it is not entirely surprising that rush hour is 5am, just before sunrise. Tradition demands to sit down on the lukewarm water next to the reef where waves crash noisily, although not loud enough to cover the loud discussions of the Taiwanese that made the stop too.

Interestingly, a few hours later the resort is practically empty and me and Min Lin were left almost alone to enjoy the beautiful view and the hot water jets.

Real Snorkeling (2nd day on Green Island), Taiwan

Yesterday, we went out to the small port that is just across the street from the hotel. I dove in while Min Lin was looking and walking on the littoral.

Just there, below the surface, fishes and coral abound. I saw one of those strange tube like trumpet fish and a small moray hunting in the crevisses that took a cobra like pose when it saw me. There were also huge urchins, their spiky exterior sticking to the walls. The most beautiful was a fiery orange fish, but all the rainbows colors were there on fish of all sizes and stripes.

When I came out of the water, Min Lin reported happily that even the small ponds that she walked along were filled with wildlife such as crabs, fishes jumping from one small reservoir to the other, colorful babies of the bigger ones we see in the water.

Around the island (second day), Green Island, Taiwan

We had breakfast at the B&B, Shiacarl. It was pretty tasty although I did not like the sausage so I gave the second piece to the dog mascot (tooto) and he seem to rather enjoy it. That dog is an expert at begging food from guests!

The B&B is owned by a very nice and welcoming family that invested a lot of money in achieving their dream of an island job, quitting their jobs to come here. They have 6 rooms (4 for 2p, 2 for 4p) for rent in addition to rooms for more frequent guests. A sign of their philosophy: no TV in rooms! They find the guests being dismayed at that fact very amusing too...

We then went for a scooter ride to go around the entire 20 km loop around the island from 8am to noon with an half hour stop for lunch in the downtown area.

Of course, this includes a few stops along the way to admire the sights. There is a wonderful observation point perched on top of a rock that looks down on two rock formations; one is called the sleeping beauty and the other the dog and they both look like they are described. We also drove down sea level in the location of an old native village and the largest arch on the island. We then went by a Buddhist temple in an underground cave. We also spent some time in the visitor center getting information and sending postcards.

For lunch, I had Sika deer meat (chewy and gamy) while Min Lin ate some fried rice. We drank ibiscus and prune juice, similar to what we had at the dragon restaurant.