Taiwan Trip: 欢迎光临

"超级星期天! Super!"

Recalling one of my childhood memories watching their entertainment shows (Super Sunday, Guess, About Romance etc.) and drama series, listening to their songs which are often sung by my peers during our karaoke session and the country becomes more prominent when their tallest building dethrones our dear twin towers. Sharing history with mainland China, Taiwan is in my Oriental countries bucket list to be ticked off, which has been done recently.

Me and the girls at our first pit stop

No visa is required for a visit of 30 days. Currency that is in used is New Taiwan Dollar (NTD) or the locals are more comfortably to call it "yuan" for simplicity. Exchange rate is MYR 14 for 100 NTD and this is valid during my visit back in early September. The notes come in 1000, 500 and 100 whereby coins go by 50, 10, 5 and 1. The weather was rather favourable during our trip: sunny during the day and gets chilly but still bearable as the night falls. No major showers and we were told there were minor earthquakes in which all of us happened to sleep through them. Taiwan shares the same time zone as Malaysia.

There was no shower from the sky but there was this fall we immersed ourselves into.

3 hours flight from Kota Kinabalu, our trip spanned for a total of 11 days and 10 nights: staying at 8 different accommodations, driving for more than 1000km, cruising through almost all the counties (and spending almost all my money). Landed at Taoyuan International Airport, our trip kicked off in Taichung and we went further south to Chia Yi, Kaohsiung and finally Kenting, the most southern part of the country. The journey continued along the east coast, one of my favourite ride, passing by Taitung to Hua Lien, stopping over at Jiufen and went to Hsinchu before concluding our trip at the capital.

Each city offers different experience which shall be narrated in a short while. Our itinerary comprises both indoor and outdoor activities, makes this getaway a rather happening one. To top that, it was my very first experience to drive overseas, other than getting acquaintance with a totally opposite traffic rules (till now I was still confused mistakenly turning my wipers on when I intended to put on light indicators).

Miss this black transporter which accompanied 80% of our journey.

Undoubtedly it is a Mandarin speaking country. Their accent/slang is more comprehensible compared to China. All the signage are in Mandarin but in major cities they do come with English translation. With our proficiency in speaking and reading Mandarin, there is hardly any constraint in communicating with the locals (and talking like locals).

The roadway system in Taiwan has to be one of the best in the region where all the counties are well connected which makes our road trip relatively convenient. The view, on the other hand, is another eyes-pleasing experience. What impresses me the most is their ticketless toll system. There is no toll station at all the entrances and exits of the highways.

Follow us on this incredible 10-day journey:

Taichung → Chia Yi → Kaohsiung/Kenting → Hua Lien → Jiufen/Shifen/Yehliu→ Hsinchu → Taipei