My
first two weeks in Taiwan having been spent in the capital of Taipei, it was
time to leave the big city and start our tour of the country. Spoiler Alert: This ended up being a huge
scheduling mess due to fixed dates for interviews and festivals we had to meet
and a tentative date for leaving that we came no where close to meeting. Our tour of Taiwan was great though and had
its highlights, like the largest temple in Taiwan, the most popular festival in
the world, and me getting the worst rash ever and having to go to the hospital.
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| Houdongkeng Waterfall |
Preparing
to leave Taipei, we had planned to circle around the east coast of the country
and back up the west; making an easy tour of Taiwan. So, itinerary set, we headed out to Yilan for
our first stop at the Houdongkeng Waterfall.
Having finished the hike and planning on how we would get to our next
stop, we realized that we would actually be on Green Island, possibly with no
internet, when we would need internet for an interview. So, we decided to scrap our plan and do the
west coast first and circle around to the east.
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| Large Buddha statue at the Baguashan Buddha Temple |
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| Rainbow Village |
After
packing up our bags we backtracked through Taipei and down to Taichung where we
visited a large Buddha statue and Rainbow village. Rainbow Village was on both of our lists so
we were really excited to go see it. Both
of our excursions were exactly what we were hoping for and did not
disappoint. The only semi-bad part of
this part of our trip was that we managed to book a hotel in what seemed like
the furniture district. There seemed to
be only furniture stores around us which meant we ended up walking 35 minutes
just to find food.
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| A temple wall at the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Temple Complex |
Having
finished Taichung, we boarded a train and headed further south to
Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung was a great city
and we were located near an area lined with restaurants. We ended up spending a few days here, both
for the interview and because of my rash.
At some point I got a rash that overnight had spread across most of my
body. Had it been localized in only one
location I might had been able to put lotion on and ignore it, but as it was,
the itching was so intense I felt like I wanted to just skin myself. Fortunately, the health care system in Taiwan
is great and I was able to visit a doctor and get a shot and medication for
under $8 (with no insurance). This was not
without its own hiccup though. Not
knowing my way around or able to speak Chinese I had to rely on Google Maps to
get me to the doctor. After searching
for a hospital (assuming they would more likely have someone who spoke English)
we walked to the nearest location that Google offered. Though it was a hospital, it turned out to be
a mental hospital and they were entirely surprised as to why I was there. Luckily the doctor there spoke some English
and drew us a map to a Dermatologist.
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| Buddha statue at the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Temple Memorial |
During our time in Kaohsiung, we toured the
town to see some of the creative parks and the Dome of Light, the largest work
of glass in the world. The highlight of
Kaohsiung, and possibly for my trip to Taiwan, was the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Memorial. This temple complex is the
largest in Taiwan and contains the tallest Buddha statue in the world. It was simply stunning and awe
inspiring. We spent the entire evening
there, staying until after nightfall. As
the sun began to set the whole temple complex lit up with lights and was
possibly even more beautiful than during the day. Trying to return home though wasn’t such a
charming experience. I had looked up the
bus route on Google Maps before leaving and saw that we had to take three
different buses to get back to our hotel.
After getting on the first bus I decided to take one last photo of the Buddha
memorial as we drove away only to find that Google Maps had closed my bus
route. Having no clue where to get off
for the next bus or anything after that, we decided to get off and walk back
towards the temple till we found wifi to find our way again. Long story short, we had ridden a
considerable way before getting off the bus, but finally found wifi and were
able to make it home.
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| Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival |
The following day we boarded a train once again
to head back north to Taipei. There were
two festivals going on in Taiwan at the same time; the Beehive Fireworks and
the Sky Lantern Festival. I had heard of
the Sky Lantern Festival before, but the Beehive Festival is what really drew
my attention. It seemed like a festival
of chaos, where fireworks were shot into the crowds themselves. It was something unlike anything I have ever
heard about and I wanted to experience it.
Unfortunately, protective gear is of course needed, which I did not have,
so I decided that it was best to put that off for another time. The Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival was a blast
though. Touted as one of the top must
see festivals in the world, it was truly a sight to see.
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| A look at the second rock pinnacle from the top of the final one during the Pingxi hike |
We started the day with a hike
up three vertical rock pinnacles that were nothing but stairs. Along the way we were able to see a few
lanterns as they flew by on their way into the sky. We then made our way to Shifen to see the
festival and witness hundreds of lanterns as they are simultaneously lifted
into the heavens. After watching two sets
of lanterns fly away, we made our way down the road to send our own lantern floating
away. This affectively finished our tour
of the west coast and we prepare for our final week (so we thought) in
Taiwan touring the east coast.
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