That’s the brief visit to Hualien done. So after a bit of breakfast and packing, I hopped on the train back to Taipei. I had booked back in at JV’s Hostel, mainly because Rice is just so lovely. I got to the hostel to find it locked and no one there, luckily just a few moments later, Rice came running round the corner to let me having remembered what time my train was due into Taipei. Bless. Taipei was really hazy and smoggy and after a shower and a catch up...

I decided rather than spending the full time in Taipei, I’d make a brief visit to Hualien. The 4(ish) hour train journey was really pretty going through the country, but the weather looked very ominous when I arrived. Luckily, the hostel – The Black Bear, was close to the station. The lady was nice but forgot to give me the hostel room’s door key that was a fun trip up and down the stairs in the humidity and with the backpack on. But the hostel was nice and...

Taiwan! I have to admit I was curious about coming here, the only thing I knew about Taiwan was that when I was growing up everything seemed to be ‘Made in Taiwan’. It was really easy to work the metro from Taipei’s domestic airport (Songshan) to my stop; Liuzhangli. And hello humidity!!! It’s been a couple of months since I’ve encountered that and to make it worse, I started walking in the direction of the hostel and noticed a weird loud siren, a bit l...