This gallery contains 15 photos.
We left Cairo in the early morning for a six hour van ride – to leave the African continent behind and tunnel over into Asia (at least technically). We stopped at the Morgenland resort and in close proximity to Mt. … Continue reading
I got into Cairo in the middle of the night. After a short night and a late breakfast, I left the hotel and did head out for the Cairo’s Coptic quarter. After a number of churches and a visit to the Coptic museum (which I had missed on my previous visit), I made my way back to the hotel to meet up with my group.
This gallery contains 16 photos.
My last day in Hualien (and my last full – full day in Taiwan) was a rainy day … I basically had the important item for Hualien kicked off my list (Taroko Gorge) … so I decided for something easy … Continue reading
This gallery contains 28 photos.
Today was probably my earliest day on this Trip. I got up at around 05:45 to leave the hostel shortly past 06:00 to get the 06:30 bus into Taroko NP. I took the bus all the way up to Tienhsiang … Continue reading
I left Taitung in the morning by bus. The bus followed highway 11 along Taiwan’s Pacific Coast. It took the bus around 4.5 hours to cover the 170km and it was easily one of the better and more interesting bus rides, I ever did (and trust me … I have been on many buses) … passing through fabulous landscape, small towns – along an amazing coast line.
I left Kaohsiung by train in the late morning … bound for Taitung at Taiwan’s Pacific Coast. I got into Taitung in the early afternoon – with enough time to spare to discover yet another city.
I first had a quick walk down to the Pacific … just to realize that there was not much to see or do – so headed back into town to the old train station and the nearby Liyu Shan park. In the park I did some walking to enjoy the views over town. Overall however … I have to admit that there is not too much to see in Taitung … it is nice for some hours (and my most comfortable night in Taiwan) after some busy days. I was nevertheless somehow happy to leave Taitung again the next morning.
Below some more impressions from Kaohsiung …
My original plan for the afternoon in Kaoshiung was simply to check out town. Though after looking through my guidebooks in more detail, I changed my plans and decided to take a bus out to Fo Guang Shan.
Fo Guang Shan is the biggest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan and an internationally known Buddhist site of pilgrimage … Being there feels slightly odd … somehow like a Buddhist version of Disneyland.
I started my visit with Pure Land Cave – a walk-through Buddhist version of Disney’s ‘It’s a small world’, then checking out the temple, with Great Buddha Land being my final stop.
This gallery contains 15 photos.
From the description in my guidebooks, Kaohsiung read like yet another big city … however the Lotus Pond area in its north somehow sounded different … so I took the MRT up there and did a walk around the lake … Continue reading
This gallery contains 16 photos.
Today I left Taipei in the early morning to catch a high speed train bound for Taichung. Here I met up with a Taiwan tour bus group for a day trip up to Sun Moon Lake. Our first stop was … Continue reading