RtOaNn said:
Hey guys,i'm planning to head to taiwan with 2 of my friends for a holiday,max 7days.
Wanna spend time going to the rural areas like Hualien + visit kaoshiung & taipei.
Any ideas how to do that on a free & easy basis?
What are the nice scenic countryside places we can go? Maybe wanna visit Sun Moon Lake.
What's the preferred order of places to visit? We probably will want to round off with Taipei.
Transport options for us?
Sorry,lots of questions asked but will really appreciate the help rendered!!
Hi Rtoann,
I agree with what mpenza mentioned - SA tours! Just came back from Japan from a tour package by them recently. Well, at least for my package, both my tour guides were damn good! They really know their stuff and they go all the way out to help you if you have any problems. One of them told me he also conduct tours to Taiwan so if you are interested, I can give you the tour guide's email (he's a guide with SA tours).
If you are planning to visit the Sun Moon Lake, you should go and see this area called 九份二山. It is just around the corner. Unfortunately I can't really tell you how to go there because my uncle was the one who did all the driving from Taipei. And if I am not wrong, tour packages wouldn't bring visitors to this area because as the name says, it is on a mountain and quite a drive all the way up. 九份二山 is a site to commenmerate the 921 earthquake that happened there few years back.
The most popular landmark that I saw was the slanted house that miraculously survived after the earthquake. But the most bizarre thing that happened was because of the destruction of the earthquake, somehow the "gravitational pull" or 池场, as they say in Mandarin has totally gone haywire, you feel a sense of nauseous walking around. But my uncle says it is because there was so much death there, it is the "negative energy" that is causing all these nauseous problems.
I remembered when I went there, it was raining and there was absolutely nobody around - just my uncle, aunt, mom and me. The atmosphere was so serene, it became creepy. There was actually other sites even higher up the mountain but my uncle didn't feel comfortable about going there so I didn't manage to see everything.
I took some photos of that area so if you are interested (quality of the photo sux though), I can send them to you or something.
By the way, I was watching Taiwan news just now and I realize they are having typhoon season, so are you sure it is a good time to go there in July?
Later,
{mich}
