Travels in Taiwan - Furthest South

I arrived in Taitung 2 days ago and this morning the train will take me around the southern end of the island and up the west side to Tainan.  Tainan was once the capital of the city and is one of the oldest.  That means it has a history worth exploring.

The east side of the island is quite new so there is nothing particularly compelling about its cities.  It's more about the natural scenery here.

Yesterday, I took a bus north as far as Sanxiatai.  Since the train's route is inland, my ride from Hualien to Taitung showed me nothing of the coast this part of the country is noted for.  So I explored part of that coast by bus.

It was very windy on the coast, with huge breakers rolling in from the Pacific.  My walk at the terminus was out to a small island connected by a rather unusual bridge, one that looks like a dragon swimming out to the island, with 8 humps. 

It has another, more mythical, significance, something about the 8 Immortals. 

Steamed buns in different flavors comprised the meal choices I made during the day.  Two for breakfast and three for lunch.  Pork, red bean, bamboo... They were all good.  One town along the way has earned a reputation for theirs.  And there is always lots of fruit.

A quick trek to the city's Carrefour for supplies and the day was over.

Travels in Taiwan - Early days

I arrived in Taiwan early Wednesday morning after 12 hours on the plane from Vancouver.

It's now Sunday morning and I've spent 2 days in Taipei, took the train over to the east coast and am about to leave Hualien after 2 nights here.

Does this country have infrastructure.  That's a statement, not a question.  And it all seems to work.  Two comfortable hostels so far, hot water, traffic lights that actually work, crosswalks that drivers sometimes pay attention to, traffic rules, advanced bus and train systems...  It's a long list.

Things I've noticed so far, in this country of 23 million, based just on Taipei and now Hualien, a small city of about 100,000:

There are more 7-11 stores here in one small city that in all of BC, possibly.  From the park where I'm sitting, I can see two.  Correction, three. They are, literally, on every block.

Train and metro systems are easy to use.  There is just enough English to make it simple.  And it's cheap.  Metro rides are about 20 to 30 NT$, about $1 or so Canadian.  A 3-hour train ride cost me about $20 CAD. 

It's warm here.  I'm just north of the Tropic of Cancer.  Anything more than shorts and a tee shirt is seriously overdressed.

So far, the place seems clean and well-maintained.  It's not that there's no garbage around, but it does get cleaned up.

Small motor scooters are everywhere.  Thousands and thousands of them.  They carry everything from 1 to 4 people, sacks of produce, bags of recycling, pet dogs...

The SIM card  I got for my phone cost less than $50 for 30 days, although I only need it for 3 weeks.  It has unlimited data, a good credit for voice calls and gives me 4g coverage pretty much everywhere.  And it was all set up for me by a helpful woman at a kiosk in the airport.