It’s been nine years since I’ve set foot on the island and, unlike before, I’ve learned a little more about the island, its history and current struggles. The last time I went was a delay in returning to Canada after having worked and travelled abroad for a year and half. This time, however, I’m working within the boundaries of their northern neighbour and, needless to say, since 2010 when I visited Taipei for a week, a lot has changed.
Only recently have both the Solomon Islands and Kiribati done an about-face and now no longer recognize Taiwanese as a country in its own right, conveniently after they received funding from other interested parties. Even the Lonely Planet Taiwan guidebook expresses its concern about the island’s future efforts to remain apart from the Mainland of China. Moreover, as I can see in Beijing itself, there are quite a few Taiwanese people working on the Mainland in various capacities.
But I wasn’t planning for this to be a political trip, rather, this trip I wanted to get outside of Taipei itself and venture further out into the island.
Some people have recommended that I cycle around the island, but the friend I’m travelling with may have an issue with that idea, so we’ll probably be doing the majority of our travel by way of bus or train, or possibly even private car. Taiwan is a small island and so that makes it quite easy to get around and get to places very quickly. The trip from Taipei City to Jiufen (northeast coast) takes only an hour or so, and the trip down to Hualien County should take 2 hours or so, depending on road conditions. From there, we’re looking to go down to Kenting on the southern tip for a couple of days before moving up the west coast through Kaohsiung City, Tainan, and possibly into the Yushan National Park before returning to Taipei.
I’m looking forward to seeing Taipei itself again, you’ll recall the enthusiasm I had towards the city when I was first there. It was my first exposure to Chinese culture, that is, Chinese signs everywhere, high rises and lots of people. And, as I recall, there was a pulse to the city, and it’s that very thing I want to see if it’s still there.
Unlike Hong Kong a year ago, there are no concerts that I’m aware that I’d like to go see, so this will be an excursion purely for travel purposes. I am also interested in completing my Advanced Open Water SCUBA Diving certificate, which I started in the Philippines a couple of years ago, almost to the day that we’ll be in Taiwan. I’ve read that there are a few spots to go diving but, since I haven’t gone in a while, I’ll need to do one of those “refresher” courses to re-learn some of the things we would’ve covered in the first set of courses. And I have no problem with that. Since I’ll be bringing my own GoPro this time, I’m hoping I’ll be able to capture a few more underwater videos.
I’m still debating whether or not I should bring my drone and whether or not it’ll be easy enough to get registered and easy to use. The amount of travelling that we’ll be doing makes me think twice about the amount of weight I want to carry around for the few shots I’ll be able to get.
I’m also wondering how the craft beer scene is over there? Has it taken over Taipei or other parts as it has around the rest of the world?
What’s the music like? You’ll recall I purchased a few CDs while there last time. This time I’m not sure I’ll be buying any CDs but wouldn’t mind seeing what’s on offer at least.
And what is it like to actually travel the island? Is it difficult?
How useful will my Mainland Mandarin Chinese language skills be? I recall Taiwanese people being rather fluent in English despite the apparent need for English teachers. Further, Taiwan uses the traditional script rather than the simplified script of the Mainland. For example: Taiwan is written as 台湾 in Simplified but 台灣 or 臺灣 in Traditional script. There may also be differences in pronunciation.
And whatever happened to that Canadian guy who was living in a hostel and teaching ESL in Taipei? What would’ve happened had I stayed? I remember being offered three jobs within the week I was there. Let’s see how many offers I get this time!
And apparently I didn’t post many if any photos from my journey ti Taipei. I’m a little bit surprised I didn’t even post to Flickr (remember that?) Anyway, this time I’ll be using Instagram and my own blog (bandwidth and data speeds have dramatically increased in the last decade) so, looking forward, who knows what I’ll be using in ten years time?
Overall, returning to Taiwan marks a bit of a full circle, though I hope the analogy ends there. Why? It seems all of the talk that the 21st century is the century of “China” really has become all-encompassing, especially in the media. Be it the “Mainland”, Hong Kong, Taiwan, trade frictions, or big business across the continents, the Chinese reach is increasing beyond what it was ten years ago.
And with that, time to go a packing and get ready for two weeks in Taiwan!