As per usual wherever I go in Asia, I found myself in yet another temple. I’m not at all religious so I’m still at a loss to explain why I love temples so much! Generally, I just find them really peaceful and visually beautiful places which have a tonne of interesting history and cultural significance. I think I also love … More Kuala Lumpur: Thean Hou Temple
However much you love travelling, we all need to remember to relax sometimes and not pressure ourselves into doing and seeing everything! Perhaps you don’t need to be told that but my style of travelling is ‘go hard or go home’. I can’t help it. I have this urge to see as much of a place as is humanly possible in a set amount of time. But my travel approach isn’t always ideal. … More ‘Travel burnout’: The importance of knowing when to slow down.
I’d be lying if I said my first impressions of Kuala Lumpur were glorious. It’s not that KL had done anything wrong or it was a bad city but I just didn’t get quite the same feeling of excitement as I did on Day 1 in both Shanghai and Taipei. I know they’re all very different … More Kuala Lumpur: A stroll round Merdeka Square
After a week in yet another new city, it’s wrap-up time again to see how it compared to other places as part of my ‘Can I live here?’ experiment as I travel. (I’ve already done wrap-up posts on Beijing, Shanghai and Yangshuo so check those out too 😉 ). So, city number four, here we go: Can I … More Taipei wrap-up: Can I live here?
Before I’d even arrived in Taiwan, I’d made a overly-detailed list of places to go during my week based there. Flicking through a Lonely Planet book, I came across a beautiful photo of the coastal town Jiufen and that alone had me set on visiting it myself. Jiufen is apparently known as the ‘Santorini of Asia’ which … More Jiufen: Coastal day trip from Taipei
The third and final walking tour I did with Tour Me Away was their evening Longshan Temple Tour. (I’d previously been on their Old Town Taipei tour and Taipei Chill Out tour). If you’ve had a nosey around my blog before then you’ll know I’m kind of obsessed with temples. To be honest, I’m not … More Taipei’s Longshan Temple tour: Buddhism 101
In my last post I talked about Taipei’s difficult past and the things I had learnt in the first part of my ‘Old Town Taipei’ walking tour. Our guides from Tour Me Away really knew their stuff and were excellent in retelling history in an engaging way. After our brief history lesson in 228 Peace Memorial Park … More Old Town Taipei walking tour
The day after going on Tour Me Away’s ‘Taipei Chillout Tour’, and learning about Chiang Kai-Shek and his Memorial Hall, I went on their ‘Old Town Taipei Tour’. My group on the first tour was really big and I met so many interesting people from a German couple on holiday, a group of American teachers who’d just … More Taipei: 228 Peace Memorial Park
My first walking tour of Taipei by Tour Me Away ended at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and I went with another British girl from my tour group to see the changing of the guard inside. The Memorial Hall was also where I began to get a true understanding of Taiwan’s painful modern history. The changing of the guard reminded me of the … More Taipei: Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and learning from history
After 3 rather surreal weeks in China, I headed off to tiny neighbouring Taiwan. This would be my first visit and I was excited to see how Taiwan compared with China. Taiwan was probably the country on my summer itinerary that I had the least preconceptions about. I knew some key Taiwanese history and recent politics but knew little about it’s culture … More Hello Taipei! My first Taiwan visit.
Hi, I'm Emma 