Taiwan and Hong Kong - March 2024

 Taiwan and Hong Kong - March 2024

Skyline Hong Kong

In the beginning of march we traveled to the beautiful island Taiwan were we stayed for 2 weeks. Before returning home we stopped in Hong Kong city and the gorgeous surroundings for 1 week.

It was again a amazing trip with lots of hiking, culture sniffing, the best food wherever and whenever you want.....and don't forget the friendly people.

Cathay airways brought us to Taipei in 14 hours with a stopover in...Hong Kong. Very good quality airline in our opinion.

Our trip in Taiwan started and ended in the capital Taipei. We found a small hotel in the Zhongzheng district which is a very busy district....when you come from a small village like us then it's amazing to see how a big city works...and so busy.

The first day we hiked to different neigbourhoods. One of the first stops was the Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall.

After this nice stop it was time to try the famous dumplings Xiaolongbao.

SOOOOO GOOOOOD🙏 👍

After a refreshing shower we spent the evening checking the food stalls around the Ximendeng area.

Second day Taipei we took the metro to the foot of the mountians where we hiked the elephant mountain. I made a 10K hike back home on the Komoot app and worked very well. The hiking paths were well maintained, easy hiking. At the end we arrived on a viewing platform from where you could see the Taipei 101. With it's 508 meters height. Untill 2007 the tallest building in the world.

The weather wasn't perfect but at least we got lucky.

Before leaving Taipei one must try a lot in terms of food...so we did😀

Roasted Goose

              

After Taipei we took the train to Hualien for the famous Taroko NP.

We spent 2 days hiking in the park. Especially the second day when we hiked the Zhuilu old road was spectaculair.

Exit east coast Taiwan after Taroko NP to Kaohsiung. A port city on the west coast with many things to see like the pond with many temples to visit, Pier 2 art area, Dome of light...enz.

The funny thing is that it was about 5 degrees warmer on the west coast....lucky us.🌞🌞

Kaohsiung skyline

Dome of lights

The food we found in Kaohsiung was also amazing......yammie yammie

Pier 2 art area

Foodstall at the nightmarket in Kaohsiung

If you want good food then sometimes you have to be patient.

Waiting line to eat some goose

After a couple of days on the coast it was time to check out the mountains and tea plantations inland.

Fenqihu was our destination. A small mountain village erected during the Japanese time.

The famous train to Alishan stops here.So during the day to busy but the surrounding hikes don't see many people....as usewell.😁

We liked the bamboo and cedar forests. Good hiking.

Fenqihu bento

The bento box from hotel Fenqihu is very famous. First we were thinking that it was a tourist trap but i must say it was worth the money. 

From Fenqihu we travelled for 5.5 hours with bus, train and metro to end up in Beitou, back in the north of Taiwan.

This is a hotspring village and our plan was to visit one but it was to warm there at the time that we didn't need one....

But still it was nice to visit. For example the hotspring museum is worth going.

From Beitou we went to Yangmingshan Nat. park. Very nice park.

From Xiaoyoukeng we hiked the Qixingshan peak to Lenshuikeng, then the Qingtiangang loop and from there to Juansi waterfall where our hike ended at the busstation Yangmingshan. 18K nice hiking.

In Beitou that evening we ate some of the best Japanese ramen noodles we ever had.

pure art

Another day trip we did from Beitou was Tamsui. A small village on the coast and on the Tamsui river which means "fresh water" in chinese.

This place was very important from the 17th century untill.... and was occupied by the spanish, english, dutch, chinese and the japanese.....trading was and is big buisiness.

We hiked along the coast and went to the fort San Domingo, spanish build in 1629. One of the oldest western style fortress in Taiwan build with red bricks.

After our visit we had some noodles at the fisherman's wharf, hiked back through the old street and tryed the Castella cake.

Castella cake

One of our last 2 days in Taiwan we spent on hiking the Maekong tea hike from Taipei. We didn't use the gondola so at the end we hiked 15K around Maekong before getting back to Taipei centre. Very nice hike. I also have to mention the Dadaocheng neigborhood which we visited. Nice old buildings, very good sushi at the market and good atmosphere.

hiking views on our way to Maekong 

For our choice of dinner we went to the Raohe night market😊 

It wasn't the perfect timing to visit this market because it was a saturday.....but we did and it was very very busy.

Raohe night market

This was our favorite. A egg wrap with lot's of ingredients 

Next and last destination of this trip was Hong Kong.

Before we took the express train at the airport to the centre we bought a sim card. We also did in Taiwan and that's an huge succes for navigating or finding something. Using a hiking app in the mountains. First time for us instead of an old school map....still I like a paper city or hiking map in my hand.

We also bought an Octopus card, this one is perfect to use for paying your metro, train, busticket or in a convenience store like 7eleven.

In Hong Kong we stayed in the Kowloon area.....2 meters from the entrance at the Jordan metro. Nice room and good service. 

We couldn't do much the day we arrived so we hiked to the avenue of stars and wachted the symphony of lights. This is a 10 minute light and sound show projecting from the buildings on the other side of the river....must be one of the most beautiful skyline in the world....we think. 

Bruce Lee statue on the avenue of stars

Hong Kong is not only a big city. The thing we also liked about HK is the surrounding nature. And very easy to get to the hiking paths. 

So our first hike went to the peak. Not straight forward but we started our hike at the university and then through the Lung fu shang country park to the viewing point. Well maintained paths....nice hike with few people.

the peak

The other hikes we did:

Dragon's back which start in the south east corner of Hong Kong island. From there we did a 12K hike.

Dragon's back

New day , new hike. The Ngong Ping rescue trail which start at Lantau island. This one goes to the big buddha near the Po Lin monestery. Cool and sometimes heavy hike below the gondola.Very special to see the buddha looming in the distance while hiking.

The buddha is 34m high and about 280 tons of steel was used to build it..Very impressive indeed.

Ngong Ping rescue trail to big buddha

Ramen noodles in Kowloon.....yammie

There are more than 250 islands in the Hong Kong vicinity. One of them is Lamma island. 

Short ferry ride away from the city.

In Lamma there are no cars allowed....very laid back vibe.

Here we did a 13K hike to the other side and back. Beautiful beaches on the way. 

Off course I took a dip in the South China sea....cooling down was needed. 

The week we were in Hong Kong was officially the hottest ever recorded week in march.

Lamma island

Lion's rock hike

Lion's rock hike starting at the north of Kowloon district was a nice 8K hike with great views on top, a beautiful place to eat your lunch.

Violet & Twin peaks hike with Stanley in the back

One of our favorite hikes was the Violet and Twin peaks hike which started in the middle of Hong Kong island and ended in Stanley. It's only 6.5K, but you have to counter many stairs before ending in Stanley.

This hike day was also on a hot day, so after a very tasty sushi lunch it was time to do some swimming.

A bus brought us back to central Hong Kong fromwhere we took the metro to Kowloon.

Every evening we hiked from our apartment to the avenue of stars, had a cold beer and enjoyed the symphony of lights. What a way to end your day🙏👌

So this was our Asia trip. Thank you Taiwan and Hong Kong

Check out the link below for more pictures

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rFEKBpnenPFyiXt49