Right now, I'm traveling around Taiwan, starting from Taipei, going counterclockwise around the whole island and stopping at six different cities:

I've now traveled western Taiwan for a week, I planned to write more frequent blog posts but it didn't work out. There was just too much to do and see. So this post will summarize the first week where I traveled around the western side of Taiwan.

The western side of Taiwan has a much higher population density then the eastern side. High-speed trains run along the western coast, but none go to the eastern side.

What I experienced in the west

All major cities I visited have a similiar layout and features:

• They all feature a grid-like city layout
• Arcades protect you from the sun or rain while walking
• Walkways are blocked a lot of times so you have to walk on the road
• There are so many scooters everywhere, which also make the next point relevant
• The central part of each city is pretty noisy
• So many night markets where you can grab tasty food that are open until midnight or longer
• Lots and lots of plants everywhere

Covered arcade in Taichung, Taiwan with random objects standing in the way, partly blocking it.Typical Taiwanese street corner with surveillance cameras, in the background you can see a covered arcade

Organic decay and plants in Tainan

Because all cities are so similar, I sometimes got confused in which city I was currently in, especially when walking in the central parts of each city.This picture shows a typical side-alley in Taichung city (but this could really be any of the major Taiwanese cities)

Scooters are plenty and luckily, a lot of them are electric these days, which means less noise and sound pollution.

View from a window in Taipei with skyscrapers in the background, scene from Ximen in Taipei city.

Some of the highlights of the trip so far

Coffee Culture

The coffee culture of Taiwan is second to none. I rarely found a country with such a vibrant and lovely coffee scene. It's quite hard to find bad coffee. A lot of cafés offer a variety of different beans for you to chose from. Drinks like "Shakerato" or Orange Coffee, which I never heard before in my life are quite common here. The creativity knows no bounds. In addition to that, the beans are of very high quality here.

This is a signature drink of "Phase Coffee" in Taichung with honey and lemon, not really my thing but I've never seen anyone mix that kind of non-alcoholic drink before.Shakerato on the left, orange coffee on the right. A shakerato, as I learned, is an espresso shot, cooled down with ice, shaken. The orange coffee is an espresso shot mixed with orange juice, cooled down with ice and shaken, delicious and refreshing.

Breakfast Food

Any good day in Taiwan starts with a proper breakfast. Food is so abundant here and it's very cheap too. You rarely spend more than about 10€ per meal (including drinks) and food stalls at the side of the road are even significantly cheaper than that. I was a little surprised that the breakfast food is neither particularily spicy nor very salty. It doesn't have any strong taste at all.A typical selection of breakfast food is show in the picture above. This includes turnip cake, pancakes, fried eggs, various sausages and noodle dishes.Breakfast is served from small food stalls with simple seating arrangements.The picture above shows a breakfast pancake, filled with vegetables and fake meat. Cost: 50 NTD = 1,39€

How you order food in most of Taiwan: They hand out a laminated menu and you mark what you want with wax pens or semi-permanent marker. Never saw this system in use anywhere else around the world.

Sun Moon Lake

Just 2 bus hours away from Taichung city, there's Sun Moon Lake. CNN called it one of the top 5 cycling routes in the world and I can attest to its beauty. There is no shortage of bike-renting opportunities at the base of the lake. Only about a third of the lake is covered with bicycle-tracks, the rest is just regular roads which is a bit more dangerous to ride on.

A highlight in and of itself is the Xiangshan Visitor Center with its concrete beauty. It builds a really great contrast to the natural beauty of the surrounding scenery.

Apart from the visitor center, you can also learn about aboriginal cultures of the Sun Moon Lake area and take a ropeway to see the lake from above.

There's also a ferry that crosses the lake.

Be warned though, if you want to do it all, plan for an early arrival at the lake. It's also advisable to rent a car or scooter because the public buses that connect the different sights run very infrequently and you have to spend a lot of time waiting if you rely on them.

Nightlife

Temperatures during the day in October were usually above 30ºC and significantly higher in direct sunlight. As a result, "fun" activities are mostly done at night.

A restaurant selling Cantonese Dessert dishes in Tainan.

Hiking

Taiwan has quite a few mountains and it's pretty easy to go on beautiful hikes there.Maokong scene, close to Taipei, where they grow tea. You can do an easy hike in the surrounding areas and taste the tea specialities with varying degrees of fermentation. It's an easy 30 minutes metro-ride and 15 minutes ropeway away from Taipei City center.

Hiking in Mount Shushan in Kaohsing City: Almost straight stairs up the mountain. Luckily it's mostly covered by jungle-like trees. Bonus points: You can see monkeys on the trail. I've never been closer to a monkey anywhere in my life. Luckily, those monkeys are very relaxed and mostly leave you alone. I saw a monkey steal a drink from a person, so you should be careful.There's free drinking water and also hot tea (not pictured here) in big containers for anyone to enjoy. Especially nice after hiking in the striking heat.

Interesting/random pictures

Striking red colors at a market in TaichungYou can see happy chairs like this in many Taiwaneses cities. I don't yet know what they signify.

I stumbled upon this red cross being reflected in KaohsiungA view from the Dragon and Tiger Pagoda in Kaohsiung City.