Taiwan

Taiwan hadn`t even been considered when we first set off on our adventure. It came about when we met a young newly wed couple whilst still in Chile. He was from Taiwan, she came from Scotland. We got talking and she mentioned visiting Taiwan and what a beautiful country it was . This took us by surprise as non of us had given Taiwan a second thought, after all we all know that everything is `Made in Taiwan`. So why would she call it beautiful? Willing to take a chance, and wanting to see as much of the world as possible, we decided why not, and booked a bunny hop flight from Hong Kong to Taipei. As soon as the plane started to descend into Taiwan my confusion about this country started. Surely this is a country of high rise, bright lights, factories and industry? Yet our very nearly landed plane was still flying over green fields and residential cul de sacs? Is this really Taipei, the capital of the country?

From the moment we arrived into the airport we knew we had landed somewhere special. Smart, pristine, calm and immaculate are to be words I will be using often. Leaving the airport we had to take an Uber ride to our hotel around 65km away. It was evening when we arrived but our journey was still on a road of low buildings and wide open spaces. Our first hotel was so cosy. A little dated and tired, but still pleasant. At this point I would like to rave about our loo. I kid you not, I used to go and sit on the loo in preference to sitting on my bed! My bed was a brick, no other word will suffice, but the loo had a slightly squishy heated seat. Bliss. A heated loo seat, you have no idea how good that feels. Mr and Mrs Bunny expressed our grrrs frequently about our brick bed, yet little bunny remained suspiciously quiet. Turns out she had the bounciest squishiest bed ever and was loving it. Smug little bunny.

Taipei.

Deciding that a hoho bus was a good place to start to get orientated, we booked ourselves 3 tickets that covered two different routes, and had the most bonkers tour. The bus audio most definitely did not take notice of traffic lights or zebra crossings and therefore the audio commentary of a temple on your right hand side, was just as likely to be a shopping mall or the river. The last tour on the second route took us the National Palace Museum. It mentioned 1000s of unique artifacts. We took a chance and went, but got bored fairly quickly. There are only so many Chinese scrolls you can look at. We also had a giggle when we read them, or rather looked at them, as we would in the UK from L to R, then wondered if we should have seen them R to L, or even up and down. Early days in Taiwan, and far too soon to have learned any useful words. We can just about manage Neehow (forgive the literal spelling) and we will very soon practice shay shay, again very literal spelling, but means thank you. We made use of the cafe, had a very soggy risotto, quite peculiar, of anything I could have eaten I was at least confident the rice would come out sticky not soggy. The following day we headed to the metro of Taipei. Wow, easy or what? absolutely superb transit system. Buy a tap on tap off card, load it up at the super easy to use machines follow the coloured lines on the floor that indicates the various different routes, and walk calmly with every other calm person to the immaculately clean platform, and wait for mere minutes for the metro. There are queuing lines on the floor, and everyone abides by them. No pushing, rushing, barging past, just a peaceful queue of happy bunnies, all letting the bunnies disembark the tram before hopping on board themselves. So dignified. Don`t even think about eating or drinking on the tram, in fact don`t even sniff at your water bottle unless you are prepared to endure the wrath of a local resident. We didn`t but we were told of someone who did. The trams are pristine. When you get off the tram, everyone politely forms a queue to transit the station via the escalator. Stand on the right only, and you may encounter a slightly hurried bunny hopping past you on the left, but generally the exit is peaceful, calm and unhurried. We travelled to the area of Chiang Kai Shek memorial. A huge open space dedicated to their once great leader. In front of the memorial we watched the changing of the guard, hmm, good but not in the class of the Kings Guard at home. Perhaps we do, do something well in the UK. From Chiang Kai Shek we moved onto the Ximen Ding shopping area. A bustling little shopping area, full of cute shops and street vendors. Here we shared our first hot Boba Tea and dumplings. Boba tea is a strange but very pleasant hot (or cold) milk drink, served with sugary balls of goo, that melt in the milk and when sucked up your straw give you a moment of chewy somethingness. One of the more peculiar sights we saw, and not just once either, but cats or dogs in prams. Cats wear clothes, or even glasses, whilst dogs wear nappies. I kid you not. Needless to say, there is no smelly dog pee pillars here. Cats also have their own vending machine devoted to hats for cats....

Lukang. We didn`t want to stay in just one area of Taiwan, so we headed south west to the small town of Lukang. The nicer parts of Taiwan are actually on the east of the Island, but a huge earthquake last year has left the area in a state of managed disrepair. We felt it prudent to stay to the west of the Island. Lukang has one of the oldest areas in Taiwan, and it felt nice to be away from the city. Most definitely a local non tourist area, we were for the most part very much the only western faces. We got to Lukang using the HSR, or High Speed Rail. Awesome. Not the bullet train, but not far off. Mrs Bunny excelled herself with the choice of hotel. I knew it was a spa hotel with a bath, I just wasn`t quite prepared for the huge room, huge. We could play darts at the correct distance and still have room to spare for the audience. We didn`t, but for scale darts was the best example I could think of. As for the bath! Wow, a proper jacuzzi spa bath big enough for two, and still have room to move. Needless to say, three bunnies had our own little bathing session each night. (boo hoo, we miss that bath) We wont miss the breakfast though. Hot food served cold, and peanuts for breakfast? salad? cold rice, cold fried eggs? Thank goodness we spotted a toaster and bread. We spent several days in Lukang. Exploring the old town, the markets, the wonderful street food, and the not so wonderful items that we chose to leave well alone. We very nearly got ourselves some deep fried chicken, the stall smelt awesome, had a huge queue, and we were just about to commit when the owner tipped a whole bowl full of pre battered chicken into the bowl at the side of us. Heads. Wings. Legs, Feet. Breast. We scarpered pdq to the safety of our favourite sausage stall, scrambled egg on a stick, sweet potato chips, honey fried parsnips (we think) and quite possibly the fluffiest lightest cakes we have ever tasted. There were many other food options on the street to be had, but with all the best will in the world, no amount of googling would tell us what these strange offerings were. An older lady with a fine command of English, did try to tell is that the strange reddish flat solid jelly looking tongue thing, was pre cooked fish egg. From a very big fish. We did not try it. Nor did we try squid on a stick. Or caramelised duck tongue, or caramel dipped chicken heart. We did play it safe with Oreo filled waffles, or waffles filled with most delicious chocolate pudding.

Taichung. This was a city around 2 hours from Lukang, and to where we went via bus, lift, taxi, train, and shanks pony. We set off confidently from the hotel, to the bus stop. Stood for half an hour before a friendly local managed to tell us that Taichung was in the opposite direction. We changed sides of the street. Then another local pointed to a pink sheet of paper on the bus stop sign, and gestured no buses today. She then proceeded to phone a friend, who picked her up, and took us all to the bus station and plonked us at the correct bus stop. Not. Once again the bus we knew needed came in on the other side of the street. One we got, and proceeded to drive to the stop where we had originally started over an hour earlier!! Bus to chengua, then train to Taichung. For 3 non mandarin speaking bunnies, I think we did pretty well. Little bunny had her eyes on 3 or 4 very specific areas of Taichung which actually is a highly annoying but utterly appreciated (and needed) bunny trait of hers.

Our main must see sights were a very nice, but crazy expensive chocolate shop with Hogwarts Castle Vibes, think multiple wooden staircases. Then along the riverbank to the artists street where a small number of back alleys were painted in all manner of anime, disney marvel and other characters. To see an area so pristine and painted, with no graffiti was nice, but once again made you realise that this was something that at home would likely be vandalised and spoilt. There is so much nice in the world where we have been to make us appreciate how dirty, rude and ignorant certain members of British society are. So many times we have encountered nice things just sat in gardens, on the street, paintings, live fish, outdoor public paddling pools (referring here to further afield) but how much of what we have seen would we be allowed to have in the UK without some ***** spoiling it just because. Our last stop in Taichung was the Rainbow Village. Just a tiny little cluster of old houses that an old gentleman decided to paint in order to protect his little community from being knocked down. Was so so pretty.

Sun Moon Lake.

Another must see destination is the Sun Moon Lake, situated inland this is a lakeside destination much the same as visiting the Lake District in the UK. With the most favourable weather following us, we arrived for 2 and half days of perfect relaxation. Our room was out of town and situated in the woods. A small group of a cross between Anderson shelters/caravans/oversized glamping pods all immaculate, and so so cosy were to be found among the cement base clearing in the woods. The hospitality from the moment we landed was so lovely. They were so upset we had walked from the station, "why didnt you message and ask us?" The room was perfect, and even had the Disney Channel woo hoo. We walked into the small town of Ita Thao, and wow, we found people, lots and lots of people! We also found one very large and very beautiful blue lake, and a whole host of street foods. There were many different options and ways to ride on the lake, small ferry, larger ferry, taxi boat, tourist boat, stand up paddle board, or electric pedaloes or manual push pedal ones. Naturally Mr Bunny chose the electric pedalo, not.....and so he and little miss bunny had the pleasure of `rowing` me around the Lake. Was so relaxing, lol. I did try, but wonky knees here has great difficulty with anything bike related. Happy to say a work out was had by two out of three bunnies. Street food had to be tried as we had worked up quite the appetite. Potato with spices on sticks, vegetable pancake like rolls, sausages, and so much more. The following day, Mr Bunny and I made it quite clear to little b, that we had no desire to go riding bikes round the lake to see yet another temple, nor were we overly keen to ride the waves on any kind of boat. Little Bunny took herself off on her own adventure, see miss.tiff.travels whilst Mr B and I hired ourselves an electric tandem bike. Oh the fun we had scooting the round the lake edge on an electric powered bike. The following day, with little b having zero inclination to hire yet another push bike, Mr B on our second hired electric bike, ferried little B to the 9 frogs viewpoint, then came back for me. At the lake edge is a frog statue of 9 frogs one on top of the other, they are a very cute depth marker for the lake. This second day was a Monday and all the crowds had vanished. Very much a weekend destination it would seem. Once again we troughed our way around the street food stalls. Very much some of the best food we had in Taiwan.

Taipei part 2.

We ended our Taiwan trip back in Taipei with plans to see all the parts of the city that we didn`t manage to see the first time. Kid bunny fancied the cable car and the tea tasting, whilst animal loving Mr and Mrs B took ourselves off to the Zoo. Gosh it was so expensive, a whole £4.75 each. We saw the panda (sleeping) the red panda (sleeping) the koala (sleeping) the rhino (sleeping) the puma not sleeping, in fact making so much noise with his cat calls I rather hoped he would succeed in waking the snoring animals. Such a lovely zoo.

The next day we wandered an area called Ximending, a touristic yet also cutesy local shopping area. The home I must confess of TGI Fridays, sometimes the call of Western Food shouts too loud. It was in the area of Ximending that we found, but didn`t visit, the retriever cafe. 2 Golden Retrievers who wandered the cafe shaking paws with guests. We didn`t go as we we didn`t think we would ever leave. Our only organised tour was a day trip to Shifen and Jiufen. The trip took in a couple of other places, one was a sea side rock formation called the Queens Head, 2 bunnies had a very distinct meh moment, seriously how many tour buses? little B had a quick shufty but even she was less than impressed. We then followed the tourist buses to Taiwan`s answer to Niagara Falls, more meh....then lastly to the utterly beautiful villages of Shifen and Juifen. Well I presume they would have been beautiful if you could have seen them under the humungous influx of tourists! tiny little meandering cobbled streets strung with red lanterns. If I said the car park had 100 buses at least, you get the idea of how many people were trying to walk the streets. bit of a shame really, but just too crowded for us. Instead we found a tiny artists coffee shop and had the best Hot Chocolate in a long time. I could tell you about the red lanterns, that we bought, wrote our wishes on and lit to rise into the skies, but it felt so impersonal with so many people crowding around. I will hope however that my wishes come true. For all of us. Not just the bunnies abroad.

With our time in Taiwan coming to a close, there was just one thing left to do. Taiwan 101. The biggest building in Taiwan and 11th tallest in the world. For a short time it was the tallest. We bought our tickets to the top and boarded the lift to the 89th floor. the fastest passenger lift in the world it took a mere 40 seconds. (ish) I cannot remember if it was 37 or 47, but it was def the fastest ear popping lift we have ever been in. For a few seconds you actually feel a little light headed. The view of course is second to non.

At the start of my blog I described Taiwan as pristine, smart and clean. Yes, it is. It is also old and weather beaten. The further out of town we got, the more weathered and blackened the buildings got. Did we find the litter, the discarded bags of rubbish, graffiti ? No, we did not. Everywhere we travelled, no matter how, bus, or taxi or train, and the island was pristine. Everywhere is going to have the accidental windblown bits of rubbish, but Taiwan must have very little wind, such was its cleanliness.

Calm, passive, peaceful, tidy organised and respectful. Taiwan, you are quite special.

Good Bye Taiwan, a sleeping giant of calm.