2019
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Sarikei
Dec 16, 2019 to Dec 26, 2019Throughout our stay in Sarikei, we switched our accommodation back and forth between the house in town and a recently built 4-bedroom house at the nursery. The latter was quieter and cooler in temperature although the mosquitoes were rather voracious in the evening. Typically, after finishing our dinner in town, we packed some necessity items […] Read more…
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Taichung & Taoyuan
Nov 30, 2019 to Dec 1, 2019Waking up in Taichung, we headed out before sunrise in search of breakfast. While the local breakfast meals weren’t necessarily our comfort food, they were very cheap and tasty. Our plan was to spend a full day exploring Taichung — the third largest city in Taiwan after Taipei and Kaohsiung. Perhaps this is the southernmost […] Read more…
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Qingjing Farm & Sun Moon Lake
Nov 29, 2019We started our day at 5 AM. We anticipated a long day as we made our way down from the Central Mountain Range to Taichung, which is located on the west side of the island. Upon checking out from our accommodation, we visited the nearby Qingjing Farm. There are several sheep farms in Taiwan and […] Read more…
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Taroko National Park & Hehuanshan
Nov 28, 2019Although the weather was crummy on the previous day, the beautiful sunrise greeted us in the morning as we embarked on our journey to the most anticipated attraction of our Taiwan trip: Taroko National Park. Originally known as Tsugitaka-Taroko National Park during Japanese Colonial Period, it is the home of the world’s deepest and largest […] Read more…
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Yilan & Hualien
Nov 27, 2019After spending 6 nights in Taipei, we headed east to explore Yilan and Hualien. Dominated by the rugged mountains covered with tropical and subtropical vegetation, the east coast is the last unspoiled land in Taiwan. Throughout the day, we experienced the lingering effects of Tropical Storm Fung-Wong moving north from the east side of the […] Read more…
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Yangmingshan National Park
Nov 26, 2019We made a day-trip to explore Yangmingshan National Park and its vicinity. Yangmingshan National Park was technically the first national park in Taiwan. Back in 1937, it was known as Daiton National Park under Japanese rule. However after Japan withdrew from Taiwan after World War II, there were no national parks until the new national […] Read more…
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Northeastern Taiwan
Nov 25, 2019After spending the first 4 days exploring Taipei on our own, we allocated a full day to explore several attractions on the northeastern side of Taiwan. Typically, most travelers would search for local private drivers on Facebook and engage them through WhatsApp app, but I was a little uncomfortable with this approach. Rather, I stumbled […] Read more…
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Taipei
Nov 21, 2019 to Nov 24, 2019A year ago, standing at a relative’s high-rise apartment balcony in Fuzhou, we looked across the 110-mile wide Taiwan Strait where Taiwan would be located. With the grave possibility of China’s reunification of Taiwan, the prolonging unrest in Hong Kong and the upcoming Taiwan’s Presidential Election in January 2020, we decided to visit Taiwan sooner […] Read more…
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Fall Colors in Minnesota’s North Shore
Oct 10, 2019 to Oct 13, 2019Being Minnesotans, we have a tradition of visiting the Minnesota’s North Shore every few years to catch the fall colors. Prior to this trip, we learned about the potential historic fall snowstorm with frigid temperatures across portions of the north central of the US. We could only hope it wouldn’t derail most of our fall […] Read more…
