Talk about last-minute, just two days before the planned trip I whipped out the credit card and purchased a flight to Taipei with KLM. With everything going on in China (Corona virus) I decided to wait until the last moment before deciding to go or not.
The flight was about two-thirds full and I didn't have any neighbours. This gave me the luxury to sleep lying down across a row of 3 chairs.
I've been in Taiwan once before, on my Asia 2016 trip, but that was just a short lay-over in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan.
This time the plan is to circle the island, starting at Taichung, a city south of Taipei.
The next logical step would be Alishan, which is further down the country, but instead I drove (by train) right past it to Tainan, where I visited a Dutch fort.
The reason for bypassing Alishan was timing, I wanted to visit Alishan during a weekday so it would be less crowded. So back north it was, to Alishan.
From Alishan I went back down again to Kaohsiung, a large city in the south of the country.
At this point it was back up north to Taipei, but this time on the east coast of the country, stopping over at the beautiful Taroko Gorge, before reaching Taipei again.
At Taipei airport you had to fill out a health declaration which they check two times and keep. You also pass the, now common in Asia, temperature check and there are plenty of notices telling you to wash your hands and wear a mask if you have a cough.
From the airport I took a 2-hour bus to Taichung where I arrived at about eight in the evening. After a quick 7-Eleven for water it was time for sleep.
