Taiwan was a very nice break from China. It was similar to China, but with a few big differences. Taiwan is a developed country, and it was very clear to see when I used the public transport, because that was extremely good. It was a huge change from China, to buy a train ticket without any hassle and to sit in a train on a very comfortable soft seat without anyone next to you. In China you usually have to buy train tickets in advance cause else you have to stand the whole journey and even if you can sit it’s usually a hard seat without any space. In Taiwan however it’s ok just to go to the train station and to buy a ticket without queuing for a nice seat with huge leg space. I would even say that the trains I have been on last week in Taiwan are more comfortable and cleaner than the ones in Holland. Personally I think Holland has one of the best railroads in the world, so I was very surprised to see that Taiwan has better quality trains. Apart from the trains I was very impressed by the public transport, I think it might actually be the best public transport I have experienced.Ok enough about the transport, but it shows that Taiwan is a developed country, which makes travelling in it a lot easier. (Though China has quite good trains and busses as well for a developing country, and it’s amazing that there are public busses going to the most remote corners of China.) Because Taiwan is a developed country it was also a lot more expensive than China, this was most notable when drinking beer, because in Taiwan they pay taxes over alcohol, something which is quite normal, but which doesn’t seem to be the case in China.
Another thing which really hit me when I was in Taipei and actually everywhere in Taiwan, even in the more remote east coast, was how beautiful the people were. The girls are hotter, the guys more handsome and even the old people are looking way better than their counterparts on the mainland. Since the ethnicity of the Taiwanese is the same as the Chinese this difference is quite striking, cause you would think that they look the same or at least very similar. But somehow they don’t. Of course the main reason for this, is that Taiwanese people have more money, so they can spend more money on their clothes, and happily for them it pays off. Another reason for this is that Taiwanese people seem to have developed their own style and rather wear nice clothes without the word ARMANI in big letters, than an obvious fake one.
In one week I went around the whole island and apart from the weather it has been a great week. We were very unfortunate with the weather, cause there was a typhoon in Taiwan and so it was raining a lot. The only souvenir I now have from Taiwan is an umbrella.
For me the highlights were simply seeing a different Asian country with the same or very similar culture but than a lot more developed, and the Tarogo gorge. The Tarogo gorge is a national park in Taiwan and unfortunately I could not do any hiking there, but there were some great views because off the typhoon. The Typhoon was basically only rain and it made some really big waterfalls possible in the gorge, which were quite spectacular to look at. Those waterfalls were also on the road in the gorge and made the wonderful public transport stop, so there was no bus out of the gorge anymore. I was very glad that in only ten minutes I could catch a ride from an American out of the gorge, cause no matter how nice the views where, it would have been a very boring day to stay there the whole day.
Taiwan has been the first place for me to visit which has been part of Holland in the past. I visited one Dutch fort, called fort Zeeburgia and I was surprised to see that the Dutch colonialists where portrayed as intelligent people who have build great ships and had very advanced artillery. Although in Taipei we also visited a Spanish fort, and there the Taiwanese made the mistake of putting up a Luxembourg flag. Telling me that they didn’t had a Dutch one and that most people didn’t notice anyway. Apart from those two forts and Taiwanese people telling me that there is a historic relationship between our countries, there was nothing to see which reminded of Dutch rule in Taiwan.
Finally Taiwan has also been the first country I’ve been to where at the time of leaving they told me, that I would not be able to enter Taiwan again with the same passport. No, I didn’t do anything wrong, but my passport is just expiring within half a year. Since I didn’t know this, I guess I’m very lucky that my holiday was an early one, cause else I would have been at the border being told I could go back to China again.
