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Made up in Taiwan

                                                                                      Taiwan

I remember getting up on a Sunday morning still a little bit worse from the night before and turning on my laptop only to discover an email from Wanderlust saying I had won a trip to Taiwan. I couldn't believe it at first, then I showed Trish and we were in shock. Who goes to Taiwan for their holidays, where is it and isn't it a place that makes dodgy toys?

I emailed them straight away and they got in touch on the Monday and said Trailfinders would be in touch to sort everything out. Traifinder got in touch and I said I would like to go in October for my birthday which they kindly arranged, now it was only six months wait. Those six months had us up the wall, we didn't know what to take, what it would be like, so we done some research on the net and still none the wiser. As with most of our trips we over pack and hardly ever wear most of the clothes we take, usually because they are the wrong ones!!

The flight with EvaAir was a long one especially when there was a crying baby that annoyed everyone the whole trip. On arriving at Taipei airport we collected our baggage and made our way to the exit, only for a masked lady to jump out in front of me and stick a thermometer in my ear for ten seconds before I got the all clear; it's a surreal experience when you are still tired. We then came out of the arrivals hall to be met by Mr. Woo (Great name) who ushered us into his minibus and headed towards the metropolis that is Taipei in silence. He dropped us off outside a hotel and pointed inside and was gone (Oh Mr. Woo what shall I do). We checked in and unbeknown to us was our guide Simon Foster in the lobby who we would meet in the morning. Before we went up to the room we went into the adjoining 7-11 which are everywhere in Asia, and got a bottle of wine and a big bag of crisps for a night cap. At the till we looked on puzzled at the "thousand year old eggs" and decided to give it a miss. When we got up to our room we found the bed was like a slab of concrete, and it was one of the best night's sleep we have had abroad.

The next day after a continental breakfast we met Simon who worked for Grasshopper Tours. Grasshopper tours were excellent and made our stay a very memorable one, one of the best thing about it was Trish and I were the only people booked on that tour; so it was a personnel guided tour. The first day we got out of Taipei and headed off into the tea plantations a couple of hours away. We spent an hour or so learning how tea was made then we went into the gift shop were the lady kindly brewed up some wonderful teas in the traditional way for us to try. There were hundreds of different teas on offer but unfortunately we had only just started our journey and didn't want to start buying too many things yet.

It was off to visit the beautiful Taroko gorge next, which involved driving round half of the island. This might sound unappealing but it was a great way to see the country, especially going up and down in the mountains with the terrain changing all the time, one minute you think you are in Asia, next it could be Europe particularly when you go past the cement plant. This is the only blot on this beautiful island, trust me. We even stopped to see the Macaque monkeys picking coconuts at the side of the road, then had our picture taken with one of the most beautiful backdrops you will ever see. After that we had lunch by the beach, were we met some Chinese people. The Chinese were eating sweet potato and we were eating sandwiches, to which the Chinese man started laughing and in broken English said "All foreigners love sam-itch", then disappeared sweet potato in his mouth up the hill. This left the beautiful deserted beach for us to enjoy alone and marvel at how beautiful the surround where.

This only left a drive of about an hour to the gorge, where the weather changed so suddenly, it became black and atmospheric with plenty of rain. Once we arrive at the hotel we checked into our room and it had one of the best and worst showers in the world depending on how you look at it. Right below was a torrent of water tumbling down the gorge and it seemed like you were going to plunge right into out of the full length windows. After the shower we went down had something to eat and a few beers, then decided to call it a night as we had to be up early. Back in our room the noise from the water in the gorge was deafening, and we had to try and get some sleep. It was a strange sleep that night, waking up a few times still half asleep and still deafening. The next morning Simon told us that it was a torrential storm that had passed over and had now washed away the road, the only road in our direction. We hastily ate our breakfast and jumped in the minibus and joined the queue for when the earth movers had removed enough to let us through. Fortunately we were one of the first to get through before we later learned that there had been another collapse and the road was closed for a few more days.