Taiwan. So fun we came back to see more.

In January of 2023 we came to Taiwan on our way to Bangkok. We were only in Taipei, and just for a week, but we loved it. When we were discussing where to start our 2024 travels Taiwan was top of the list. It’s a long flight from San Francisco to Taipei, but non stop. This time we’re here for three weeks and will circling the island via train.

What is it we love about Taipei? It’s a very easy city to visit. Great transit, amazing food options, such helpful locals. It seems to be an overlooked Asian City. Taiwan has close ties to the US, we know folks in SF who have Taiwanese roots, so it’s one of the many places in the world where locals happily tell us about their connections in the US. Since we landed on Election Day there were even more returned Taiwanese since they must come back to Taiwan to vote. No mail in ballots here.

I could fill an entire blog post with photos of amazing food in Taipei and how incredibly nice and helpful people are, but food isn’t the only thing that brought us back here. We are both big fans of cities, and getting to see and understand what makes a city a good place to live, or a bad place to live, intrigues us. And how a government helps or hinders its citizens. What steps have been taken to make a city more livable? To allow young and old to live safely and happily? What is the temperament of the locals? Do they seem happy or cranky?

We keep saying we want to bike tour in Taiwan, but haven’t gotten it together to get our bikes here. There are places that rent touring bikes, similar to what we did in Korea, but I have a hard time getting a bike that fits correctly and comfortably. Being uncomfortable and eventually in pain on a bike is no fun.

In order to sign up for a UBike account we used the app, our Taiwan phone numbers which came with our SIM cards, and a transit card – which you tap for not only transit, but the UBikes, and to my delight, vending machines. (Hello Gummy candies.) You link your transit card to the app and that is how you pay for the UBikes; super easy.

So we ride the bike share, we walk a lot, and we use the Metro. That’s our Taipei experience. And yes, we go to night markets and stand in line to buy food, and sometimes eat food from one stall while we’re standing in line to buy food from another stall.

With our fondness for Taipei definitely confirmed we’re headed out to explore some more of Taiwan. Where? Anywhere we can get to by train. In a clockwise direction. First stop, Hualien City. Just about two hours by train. More from the rest of Taiwan soon.