….. a Kiwi’s flown back to New Zealand – after visiting Kaohsiung, Hualien and Taipei

PLEASE EXCUSE THE NUMBER OF PHOTOS – too many to choose from

In our final day in Kaohsiung we visited a Buddha University at Fo Guang Shan (set 32 km outside the city), where unfortunately Alan found out he could not enrol into becoming a Buddha!!! – not only was he too old, but he is married!! Set within the grounds were a number of buildings, including one that held more than 30,000 Buddhas and also the ‘Land of Budda’s’. Attached to the University was also a massive structure that included 4 pagodas, Museum, 8 towers and of course a massive sitting Buddha.

On the way back we went to Lotus Lake, and were fortunate to meet Steve who showed us around his Tao Temple (for free). He took us all up to the 2nd floor, where visitors don’t usually go, and taught us about symmetry (pairs of artefacts – that the 4 is not used), symbolism (Dragons rule, above Phoenix and fish) and how members interact with their Deity. The Temple was stunning and you could see how much care had been taken by the artisans who constructed it.

For dinner on our last night in Kaohsiung we went to the local market and had spicy chicken, fried rice and a ‘Chinese’ hamburger – yummy.

We left Kaohsiung on 7 July on the train number 423 for the 332 km ride (costing NT$72 each (NZ$38) that stopped at 20 stations, before reaching out next destination – Hualien. This city is on the east cost of Taiwan, all of which is remote, mountainous and non industrialised.  The main reason for visiting was to go to Taroko National Park.  To get to the hiking area we took a #310 bus, which could be used as a ‘hop on/hop off’ ride between hikes – the scenery was absolutely stunning; and we completed 8 hikes (Shakadang, Swallow Grotto, Tunnel of the Nine Turns, Lushui, Bell Tower, Xiaozhuilu, Xiangde and Changchun) over the two days. We all set our alarms at 0700 for our final ‘leg’ of our relative short stay in Taiwan was another train from Hualien to Taipei. However, there was no need, as a 5.1 earthquake hit (9 km deep) lasting 15/20 seconds at 0640 instead, centred in Hualien.

Once we got back in Taipei we had two final things to do. Firstly, we caught a train and bus to Jiufen, which is an old gold mining town in the mountains on the east of Taipei. It’s known for the narrow alleyways in it’s old town, which are packed with teahouses, street-food shacks and souvenir shops – it is very touristy, so we only stayed there for a couple of hours. Secondly, just around the corner from the Hostel where we stayed we managed to visit a local gallery where Love Is In The Bin. By Banksy was being displayed. This picture became famous when in 2018, the then called Girl with Balloon spontaneously shredded after the bidding closed at Sotheby’s – it was so good to see such a famous piece of art, from less than 1 metre away.

After spending 11 days exploring Taiwan; Alan, Helena and Bex had all clocked up over 216.000 steps, covering 146.71 kms – lucky Bex bought over some new shoes for us.

So, Alan and Helena took Bex to the airport for the journey back to New Zealand – knowing the next time they would see her would be for the Christmas Holidays (both loved seeing her so happy and full of life). Then 36 hours later we returned to the airport on the High Speed Rail-(costing NT$150 each (NZ$7.50) to post this update from Teipei Airport, waiting for our flight to Delhi, India.