Travel stories and advices from Asia
I couldn’t wait to see my beloved friend Ann again and before I knew it, I was back in Southern Taiwan and back to Kenting.
Northern Taiwan is no doubt neat, but I prefer the weather in Kenting a hundred times more.
Continue reading “Southern Taiwan: Sunny places like Kenting and Kaohsiung”
From Taichung I hitchhiked to the east coast of Taiwan.
The second chapter started with a terrific view out of the car window while I was hitchhiking.
Thank you Wei for giving me a ride and later to invite me to Kaohsiung.
My first impression of the Surf Hostel was actually kind of bad, just because of their bad organization and the shabby facilities.
But when time passed by I got to love WaGaLiGong and didn’t want to leave anymore.
Continue reading “Third Chapter: Volunteering In Dulan And East Coast Of Taiwan”
I was using workaway.info to search for a volunteering work in Taichung in exchange for free accommodation and food.
Where I’ve landed? At one of the the loveliest families in Taiwan.
Shin-ba, Shin-ma, Shin-Chan and Chew-Wei are such a sweet family and I have been considering myself as a very lucky person to be their volunteer. The best thing is, I wasn’t alone.
My co-worker was Amanda, an American girl who left home for world traveling just like me. I admired her right at our first encounter.
While I was volunteering in Taipei, I had loads of freetime after work.
One day Gloria and I decided to travel to Jiufen by bus.
The other day I traveled with Nelson to Jiufen and Shifen on his motorbike. We didn’t know it’s going to be a memorable road trip.
I fell in love with Sun Moon Lake. Twice.
The largest freshwater lake in Taiwan is situated in Nantou country and is divided by the tiny island called Lalu island, a place of ancestral worship of the Thao aboriginal tribe.
The eastern part of the lake is round like a sun, on the other hand the western part is shaped like a crescent. Thus the name “Sun Moon Lake”.
If time was no factor, I would stay in Taiwan for probably a year.
In one of my earlier blog post, I shared the experiences the first time I traveled to Taiwan.
There is so much to see and to do, the locals are incredible and for travelers who want to avoid crowded places – it hasn’t been hit too hard with tourism yet. Taiwan has become my second home. I try to calm down my excitement right now to write about my life of more than 3 months in Taiwan at the beginning of 2017.
Looking through the list of countries of South East Asia, I found this small country called Timor-Leste. What is Timor-Leste, never heard of it before.
Occupying the eastern half of Timor, it was struggling for independence from Portugal in 1975 and then from Indonesia in 2002.
During the Indonesian occupation the country was characterised by an extremely violent long conflict.
After reading this information I decided to do a visa run to Timor-Leste.
The best thing? On your flight to Timor-Leste you can have a
bird’s-eye view from the jungle of Flores or the Rinjani from Lombok.
What do you want more on a short flight?
Many people do a visa run to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore after two months in Indonesia, why shouldn’t I try something new?
You know what, they’ve got as many tourists in a year as Bali might have in an afternoon.
Only the capital, Dili, has good roads. Once you leave it, driving on the roads is a challenge in itself. But a cool one, I promise. Continue reading “The Little Treasure Of South East Asia, Timor-Leste”
Myanmar is the only country which is not an island and still belongs to my top favourite countries.
It is so peaceful and tranquil that every morning I would walk through the streets of Yangon and simply couldn’t deal with the emotions.
Burma is very captivating, that I have fallen utterly in love with the country and my life.
I’d be lying if I said I am not at a point in my life, where I am enjoying my life to the fullest. My god, how much did I grow from my solo travels.
But to leave my comfort zone was one of the best decisions I could have done. And yes, sometimes I feel drained from exploring and making friends with other people, but this is part of life.
With every second I was amazed by the beauty of this country, which has been rejoining the international community in 2011.
Between 1962 and 2010 Burma was ruled by two military regimes and only few tourists were allowed to enter this country. Gratefully, Myanmar is welcoming travelers again.
Burma is the country I was most excited for to visit and it could fulfill certainly all my expectations.
Now I am writing about a country I have no clue where to start with.
Let’s begin like this: Whether you hate or you love India.
Or you are like me, I have a love-hate-relationship to India.
Shoot! India is an own continent in my opinion.
A continent where all your senses get stunned.
Standing on the street, inhaling all the scents of herbs, curries, cow dungs and sweat.
A place on earth where you start to enjoy the beautiful richness of the country and in the next moment somebody approachs you and drives you mad.
Sensory overload from the colourful sarees of the Indian women, whether young, old, skinny or fat.
Losing time in the maze of the streets and chaos on the markets.
Questioning your life when children begging you and seeing slums.
Being persistant and patient when the train arrives at your destination hours later than the actual arrival time.
Who never dreamt of white sandy beaches and swimming in crystal clear turquoise water, while the sun is shining upon your face and you forget for a short time all problems in the world. Floating in the middle of the ocean or chasing after sea turtles while you are snorkeling.
Watching pictures of Maldives always include a huge resort somewhere anchored in the ocean and an enormous traveler’s budget.
I desired to go to the Maldives infinitely and therefore I had to dodge all the expensive resorts.
At the end I chose two islands for myself:
Guraidhoo (Kaafu Atoll) and Maamigilli (Ari Atoll).
You won’t meet nearly any tourists and have the chance to get close to the locals, exchanging stories and laughing together with them. Continue reading “Enchanting Maldives”
