Taiwan Travel Part 3 | 環島第三個部分

March 29, 2023

This is the last installment of tales from my January trip.

Day 18: Taipei -> Kenting

If you know anything about Taiwan’s geography, you’re probably asking yourself why we would travel all the way back to Taipei only to head back to the southernmost point of Taiwan two days later. Hannah’s family flew in to spend a week with her and experience Taiwan. It was their first international trip as a family which was very exciting. We went back to Taipei to meet them and bring them to the south for a few days to enjoy the beach. Hannah and I woke up at 4:45am to pick her family up from the airport. We briefly stopped at the dorm to drop off some of their luggage, then got on the high speed rail to Gaoxiong, and then drove two hours south to Kenting. Hannah and I were exhausted, but thankfully we spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach.

While we were sitting on the beach, Hannah ran into a childhood friend attending a j-term trip with Bethel’s nursing program. The professor leading the trip knows one of my Chinese classmates from St. Olaf which was another one of several crazy small world moments I experienced in Taiwan. Hannah and I went with her friend to watch the sunset and get dinner before walking back to the Airbnb with dinner for the family. After a very long day, we relaxed with an episode of our show and went to bed.

Hannah with her parents, Margret and Noel

Beach across the street from our Airbnb, Sail rock can be seen in the distance

At sunset

Happy happy

Front of our Airbnb

Day 19: Kenting

Our Airbnb was a bit far from restaurants and most of the relevant Kenting attractions. We also didn’t have any way to independently get around, so we decided to try and take a bus into Elumbai park to visit some of the landmarks. Unfortunately, we missed the bus and were pretty discouraged until some workers drove up and offered us a ride! We rode in the back of their truck and were dropped off exactly where we wanted to go. We visited the southernmost point of Taiwan and the Elumbai lighthouse. As we were walking around, I was fascinated with the vegetation in Kenting. The area is tropical, so the plant life is very different from the midwest, like nothing I’d seen before. After walking around for quite a while, we enjoyed some shaved ice before catching a bus back to our Airbnb. We made it back in time to throw on swimsuits and enjoy a lovely sunset swim in the ocean before dinner and a movie night.

A very large grasshopper

In the back of the truck

Elumbai lighthouse

Southernmost point of Taiwan

Midday shaved ice

Sign pointing to the southernomost point of Taiwan

Sunset on the beach

Day 20: Kenting

After a relaxed breakfast, we set off on a walk with no particular destination. We visited the Longzipu grasslands, a lovely stretch of open fields with grass shimmering in the wind. We then walked to Sheding Natural Park and enjoyed some of the trails and views within the park. On our walk, we also saw some monkeys which were pretty neat. There were also some really interesting gorges/caves along the trail that were fun to explore. After the long day of walking, we went to a small cafe near our Airbnb. I ordered a yuzu drink (I plan to recreate it as a cocktail sometime soon) and a blueberry crowaffle (croissant waffle) that was excellent, especially after such a long day. Hannah’s mom particularly enjoyed the cafe which was gratifying, especially since the food scene in Kenting is a bit underwhelming. We finished off our evening with another movie night (Kung Fu Panda 2) before heading to bed.

Longzipu grassland

The ocean peaking through the hills

At a rest pavilion

Interesting vegetation

Resting along the road

Pomello spritzer

With Hannah's brother, Nathan after our long hike

Blueberry crowaffle

Day 21: Kenting -> Taipei

Before we knew it, the time had come to return to Taipei. We packed up the Airbnb and got in the car to Gaoxiong to catch the high speed rail. We were a few hours early, so Hannah took her family to go visit the Lotus pond while I went on a boba mission to get one last cup of some of our favorite milk tea, only available in Gaoxiong and Taichung. I also stopped in a small lunch shop and enjoyed a lovely bowl of rice with some grilled meat. It was super simple, but incredibly tasty. I also realized that, despite immensely enjoying the past three weeks, I hadn’t been truly alone at all during that time, so it was nice to be on my own for a bit. We reunited at the train station and arrived back in Taipei a few hours later, concluding our three week trip down the west coast of Taiwan. We rounded out the evening with our last dinner at Salvia, a cafe I frequently visited near my dorm, with my go-to order of caesar salad. After dinner, I went with Hannah to get her family settled into their Airbnb and spent the rest of my evening packing up my dorm room to move out.

Boba run

Simple, yet delicious food

Outside Salvia after our last meal there

One of the best parts about this trip was to spend so much time with Hannah. Throughout our time in Taiwan, and especially on our trip, she has become a great travel companion and dear friend. This was one of the more spontaneous trips I’ve taken in my life. We were working with a loose itinerary, but otherwise didn’t really have much planned (including lodging) until a couple days before we arrived in the various cities. It was really fun to explore together and make up our plans along the way. There was a moment on our trip where we almost scrapped our entire itinerary to go to Korea! Unfortunately, it was a bit too difficult, but we were about 80% ready to change plans.

Our overall trip didn’t make much sense in terms of geography. We went back to Taipei two separate times, first for Allen’s brother’s funeral, and again to pick up Hannah’s family. I’ve drawn our routes onto the map below with different colors for each leg of our trip. It’s been exciting to share the stories and photos from my trip with everyone! I have two more posts coming sometime soon, one about my last week in Taiwan/Chinese New Year, and one with some broader reflections on my time abroad. I can’t wait to share them soon.