Our plan for a prolonged travel from Hong Kong to France on a bike led us to think that we need some more training before we can tackle this challenge. Also, we wish to visit most of the island nations in Southeast Asia before we leave this continent for Europe. That is the reason we wish to embark upon a prequel to the long-journey which will be known as the Journey to the West.
My travel partner is my girlfriend Mathilde Bertholon. She is a certified French cook who has been working-travelling for about 10 years by now. She lived on almost all continents and over 20 countries. Her favourite place is Reunion Island, Australia and French Polynesia. I met her in Osaka, Japan, when I travelled on a bike through Japan. We fell in love and settled down in Hong Kong for a few months. But since we started to feel a bit bored and Hong Kong is not our favourite place to live, we decided to get going again.
Our first station of the travel was Taiwan. We bought a flight ticket from Hong Kong on the 14th of May 2018 for $60 USD. We figured that the living and travelling costs of being on this journey for about 2 weeks were cheaper than living in Hong Kong on a budget. Our route was Hualien, Yilan, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Bintan, covering 4 countries in 12 days. We leave Jakarta via a flight to Hong Kong on the 26th of May 2018. This is a vlog about our travel. We shall publish our travel itinerary, maps and essential travel information on D.tube, Steemit and YouTube.
First, we landed in Hualien, a very quiet town with low ceiling houses, narrow streets, handmade shops and a lot of nature. There is the Taroko National Park, access to the sea and lots of vegetation, insects and animals to discover.
The first thing I noticed about this place was that the people were super friendly! They smile at you when you cross them on the street, they speak perfectly Mandarin Chinese and they greet you when you greet them. We tried to hitchhike and after just 2 minutes we got our first ride. This was my first ever hitchhiking experience. My girlfriend did it a lot so for her it was normal. The drivers were two women who worked for the Tzu Chi Foundation, a charity founded by Buddhist monks to give charity to people who were sick or who suffered from natural disasters. Their website is: http://tw.tzuchi.org/en/
Our drivers explained to us a lot about local situations, food, recommended a few sights to visit. They dropped us at a vegetarian restaurant, for which Mathilde was super grateful because she is a devoted vegetarian. Our first meal in Taiwan turned out to be delicious. The location of that restaurant was: https://goo.gl/maps/Q7srfNoocq12
After that, we walked an hour or so alongside the river towards an abandoned temple. It looked so authentic and beautiful, just as what I would have imagined Ancient China would be like.
Our next next ride was offered to us without asking. Another hitchhike within 3 hours. One woman with her friend drove us to the Pine Garden where Japanese soldiers used to live. It was beautiful and the shop has a lot of unusual wooden and glass art crafts. There were also a few rare instruments. Have a look at the Pine Garden here: https://goo.gl/maps/oSXAZkn85FE2
Close to this garden, there was an ancient residence which was now abandoned. We went inside and took a look and it turns out to be very Japanese looking.
Finally, we arrived at our hostel, which has a private double room for us. It was very spacious and we paid $19 USD via Booking.com. I reckon that the prices for rent is quite low and the value you get out of it here is amazing. The room was very well kept and they had a filtered water machine, big shared bathroom and free coffee. We loved our stay there. It is called The Home of Travellers II: https://goo.gl/maps/oSXAZkn85FE2
The final highlight of the day was the street food night market at Dongdamen: https://goo.gl/maps/GXU3wRud8Qz
Amongst lots of exotic food, seafood, grilled meat, we discovered totally newly created food. There was one that was exceptional. It looks like a crepe around the mashed potato, cheese and other veggies. Added to it was honey. It was so delicious, I nearly got a heart attack. This dish was also featured in national news. Celebrities also went there to try it out. Have a look at it inside my video at the end. I have a shot on the name of the restaurant.
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