April 19, 2005
Taiwan Travel Plan: Taipei, Chi-lung, Kaohsiung
Fly to Taipei, Taiwan, Collect your luggage, and head out. Take a city bus to your hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Hotel - Ceaser Park. It was about $300.00 A day. But there are some hotels depending where you are in Taipei that go as low as $100.00 a day.
There’s lots to do in Taipei, but the most popular attractions are probably the Buddhist Temples. There are different types of Buddhist temples around Taipei. It’s customary to light an incense stick and stick it next to one of your favorite statues. We also saw a Buddhist ceremony, where they all came in to the center of the shrine and they sang.
When you finish sightseeing, get lunch and/or dinner in a buffet style restaurant. The prices are cheap, and the food is good. I don’t remember any names but you can ask locals for good cuisine.
Depending on how much time you have, you can leave the city of Taipei and go to Chi-lung (a coastal city very close to Taipei). You can visit another restaurant and eat good seafood cuisine. In Chi-Lung, I don’t quite remember the price of the food, but it was very cheap. I am assuming a maximum of $10.00. That’s cheap, seeing as how it is freshly caught from the sea. We ate tuna, clams (you could pick out your own clams), and mussels. They also had lobsters.
They do have some recreational activities at Chi-Lung, but we just stayed near the beach for 3 days soaking sun. We did take some time to visit the locals and shop around. We bought an Asian dress for only $2.00, and in the USA it was $69.00.
If you are not ready to go home, fly to Kaohsiung on the Southern tip of Taiwan. This place is good for tourism. We went to the Spring & Autumn Pavilion that represented the god of war. The scenery is magnificent.
Again, we asked a local for tips on the best restaurant in town (remember to ask several people and not just one). We also took a boat to the Penghu islands, where they had Ancient Temples and beaches. It was elegant, and we had planned to stay there for only a day, but we ended up staying for 3 days because of its beauty.
This guest article was written by an anonymous writer.
Posted by James Trotta at April 19, 2005 1:42 AM
My older brother is in taiwan working for the State Dept I would like to visit there in the next 2 or 3 years to visit him if I could svae up the money. E-mail me some info on flights if you could thank you.
Posted by: Matt Cavanaugh at April 20, 2005 1:05 AMWas the Hilton $300 US or Taiwan dollars a day...makes a big difference as $300 Taiwan would be close to $100 US?
Posted by: Dave at April 20, 2005 7:49 AMFirst of all, if you are planning to travel to Taiwan, you need to spend at least 2 weeks, if not more. The jetlag will get you for the first week, and I have spent 9 months in Taiwan and still have only seen a small fraction. Also, be careful around the temples, some people get offended when tourists light incense, especially if they do it incorrectly (always light 3 sticks at a time...NEVER just 1). It would be like some tourist going into a beautiful Roman Catholic church during Mass, then taking communion and drinking all of the wine in the cup, burping, then walking out. I am not Catholic, but I imagine this would be quite offensive! Lodging in Taiwan is very expensive, especially in the nicer places like the Hyatt. It would be around $300US...$300 Taiwan is only about $9 US, not $100. Northwest has deals sometimes for $500US roundtrip, but they only offer them a few times a year. This is a great deal, most tickets are well above $1,000US for coach. Check out deals at www.nwa.com. You have to be diligent and keep looking, though. Taiwan is an interesting place, kind of like organized chaos. The people have their own crazy way of doing things, and it seems completely backwards at times, but somehow, it all works out and once you get used to it, it becomes second nature. If you are coming for a visit, expect major culture shock, but also expect to meet some of the friendliest people on the planet.
Posted by: taipeigirl at April 20, 2005 11:46 PMI've never been to Taiwan, but Buddhists should be tolerant people. For example a Korean Buddhist would likely light one stick of incense and make a small donation. Then they would bow to Buddha three times; that's how it works in Korea.
If a local gave a fellow Buddhist a hard time because they were unfamiliar with traditions in Taiwan, that would be pretty bad.
However, I'm not suggesting that non-Buddhists light incense. It's not going to be the highlight of your vacation or anything...
Posted by: James Trotta at April 21, 2005 8:57 PM