First Stop: Taiwan

So, to Taiwan. Even though it's not a typical backpacker country, definitely the right decision. Never before have I found so much diversity in such a small space.

We started off motivated in Taipei. Three or four days in the big city, walking almost ten kilometers every day. 60-kilometer bike tour to the north of the city on miniature Asian city bikes. Wonderful museums, temples, and breathtaking surroundings. Our hostel was relatively centrally located and delicious food was available everywhere.

Next stop was Taichung on the west coast. Probably the most beautiful museums of modern art in terms of both exhibitions and architecture that I have ever seen. And all for free admission. We also went to Sun Moon Lake, which is rightly the first choice for Taiwanese honeymoons.

Not necessarily a typical tourist spot, but the small city of Tainan north of Kaohsiung was all the more interesting. Lots of small cafes and far less stressful than the big cities, Tainan quickly became one of our hidden favorites.

In Kaohsiung, the second-largest city in the country, we were initially absorbed by the Pier 2 Art District. They turned an older part of Taiwan's largest port into a huge place for young fashion labels, galleries, cafes, and all kinds of other creatives.

We also visited the largest temple complex in Taiwan and (aside from Angkor Wat) in my travels. We stayed in a truly unspectacular hotel, mainly for its location and proximity to what I think are the best restaurants in Taiwan, where we ate three times in three days after discovering it. I probably won't ever get spicy wontons that are even remotely as good again in my life.

But eventually, we had enough of big cities and decided to go to the Kenting National Park in the far south. We stayed in Hengchun, a small town that, apart from the adjacent national park, has absolutely nothing to offer. It's worth mentioning that this was actually the first and last time we had a bad meal in Taiwan and then ended up in a store that had only craft beer, which didn't really help against the rising nausea. But we still tried it.

On the other hand, the national park and the entire surrounding landscape were real highlights. It was Bella's first time on a scooter, so we explored the entire outskirts of Hengchun, defying the 18-degree weather and drizzle. Highly recommended!

After much consideration of whether it was worth the time, we decided to go from Hengchun to Green Island, a small island in southwestern Taiwan. After several hours of train and bus rides, we reached Fugang, a small port town near Taitung, from which we wanted to take the ferry. So far so good.

According to the travel guide, the ferry should run several times a day, at least in the summer. And since the ferry's website was only available in Chinese, we assumed that even in the off-season, at least one ferry would depart in the afternoon. Wrong. So we spent a night in Fugang; overpriced double room in the only hotel in town and several hours in the completely unremarkable port town.

Nevertheless, Green Island was supposed to be worth it. After a very rough ferry ride where about 80% of the passengers made use of the generously distributed vomit bags multiple times, we reached the truly small island that lived up to its name. A personal highlight was definitely our visit to the hot springs, which are one of three in the world fed by seawater.

Back on the mainland, we set off for Hualien to explore the Taroko Gorge from there. Although extremely touristy, the gorge was definitely worth a visit. And we really liked Hualien as well.

In the end, we returned to Taipei for a few days, during which nothing noteworthy happened since it was Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, we painfully discovered that it had very little to do with our New Year's Eve and was much more comparable to Christmas, meaning many shops were closed and the locals were with their families.

So after almost four really nice but also exhausting weeks, during which we experienced a lot, we moved on to Vietnam, specifically Ho Chi Minh City. Spoiler alert: it was a culture shock.