Hello David,
Thank you for your message. I’m already giving you some feedback while we wait for the return flight.
First of all, thank you for all the discussions we had to prepare for the trip: I really felt that our expectations were well understood and this helped to enrich our stay. We made some exceptional discoveries thanks to these discussions and we returned from this trip richer with wonderful experiences.
Meeting Steph is not the least of these discoveries. He is truly into sharing, and that’s what we were looking for.
We didn’t expect to be accompanied for so long upon our arrival, to be honest. Steph immediately took us on a tour of the flower and jade market. We hadn’t planned this in our first day’s itinerary, but it was a nice surprise. Reading the itinerary, we thought we’d be given a quick briefing over tea at the airport, not that the guided tour would start right away.
As for accommodation, there is only the guesthouse in Xiao Liuqiu, which is very cozy with very friendly hosts, but where we slept badly because of the noise and disturbing lights. The Green World Hotel at Taipei Station for the beginning of our stay was excellent, very well located and not very noisy. The Fushin Hotel in Tainan is exceptional, probably the best of the stay on par with the Hoya Hot Springs, its rooms with tatami mats and its baths are really worth the detour. The Green World Hotel in Taipei Zhongxiao is not as good as the one at the central station, but its more spacious rooms, the record number of konbini in its surroundings and the metro station at the foot of the hotel were exactly what we needed during the typhoon. Finally, the guesthouse in Kenting, without being exceptional, was rather cozy and on a street parallel to the night market which allowed us to enjoy it while being quiet.
Breakfasts were excellent everywhere, but less so at the guesthouses. Special mention goes to the breakfasts at Fushin in Tainan and Hoya Hot Springs in Zhiben. Green World was also very good in this area.
We particularly enjoyed and appreciated Taiwan’s gastronomy, and Steph also helped us a lot with that. We were unaware of the richness of what Taiwan has to offer in this area, but the trip is worth it for that alone.
We also really enjoyed the tea tasting in Jiufen, the walks in Alishan, the baths in the hot springs of Zhiben, and especially the swimming with the turtles in Xiao Liuqiu. This last activity, which we hadn’t planned in the program at first, was one of our favorites. Thank you, David, for allowing us to add it to the itinerary during our discussions.
Finally, another good point for Steph who taught us more about temples and Buddhism than during our two previous trips to Asia.
I’ll probably think of other things later, but here’s a first look. Regardless, and despite the typhoon, Taiwan is a destination we’ll recommend to those around us.
Best regards,
Yohan