During March, Dan and I were lucky enough to travel to Taiwan. It was an incredible trip, and one I know we both hope to repeat in the future!

We spent five days in the capital of Taipei. We initially planned to travel around more, but later decided that we wanted to soak up this incredible city in detail, so extended our stay here. This meant we had enough time to explore the city in depth, including a trip to the zoo! After this, we ventured slightly south to the divine Taroko national park, where we stayed in an adorable little hut overlooking the mountains.

Taipei was like the live child of Hanoi in Vietnam and Fukuoka in Japan. It was laid back but busy, and a little crazy at times. It was clean in places, and filthy in others. Some smells made us run for the shop and stuff our faces, others made us run for the hills.

Taroko was both peaceful and adventurous. We decided to explore by bicycle, which meant some tough hills, but mainly meant cruising down hill at high speeds whilst surrounded by large dominating cliff walls. It was pretty dramatic from start to finish.

On arriving in Taiwan, the first sign that we had well and truly left Japan behind was the English. It was written everywhere and we only encountered one or two people who didn’t speak it, and even they would spend a lot of time trying. There was a completely different perspective on speaking English; a few people actually squealed with excitement when they were given the chance to speak to us. It was blissfully refreshing and really meant the pressure was off us for trying to speak any Mandarin!

The next sign, our bus was a little late leaving the airport. Nothing crazy, just a minute or two. Japan is famous for it’s transport being punctual and professional. It was an indicator of things to come on what became a very laid back and chilled out holiday. Throughout our time in Taiwan we explored the parks, views, coffee shops (naturally…), food scenes, night markets, shrines, the zoo and a remote tea picking village. All at our own pace and in our own style; it was perfect!

Enjoy these photos of our Taiwan adventures.

Thanks Taiwan!