Out of the Blue

Taiwan. When the Portuguese “discovered” this island roughly the size of the Netherlands off the coast of China they aptly named it Ilha Formosa: the beautiful island.. Nowadays it's also known as the “other” China. That's Taiwan summed up: beautiful and democratic. And also ignored as a sovereign nation by the world, though paradoxically at the same time being in the spotlight of international relations.


I've been staying with the family of my good friend Wai for the last two weeks in Hong Kong. But we both agreed that staying in the city for such a time would be a bit boring. So, taking a map, we decided to make a little detour to somewhere close and easy.


Taiwan is only on hour and half away from Hong Kong, no visa problems, the weather is good and flights are plenty (it's still difficult to fly directly to or from mainland China – flights get redirected through “neutral” countries first).

I didn't know what to expect when we arrived at Taipei International Airport. I knew I was going to a relatively well-off country. Something akin to South-Korea or Japan; neither country I visited before though. People would have money, skyscrapers, big cars. The electronic consumer good manufacturer of the world. All of this was true, and a bit more. Though less clean and less organized than Hong Kong, but more expensive.


Taiwan is a really unique country in that, apart from two dozen “important” nations such as Tulavu and Benin, it isn't officially recognized by the majority of the world. Also, Taiwan is the only country in the world, apart from Vatican City – but even the priests have a special observer's status –, that doesn't have a seat in the United Nations. One other big surprise were the people. The Taiwanese were the most friendliest, open en genuinely nice people I've met in a long time.


How come? I would have expected otherwise: shunned by the world, isolated, David versus Goliath. But here you have it. Proud, friendly people. They don't consider themselves Chinese anymore, but Taiwanese. They've been apart from China, being de facto a completely different country for close to a hundred years. First as a colony under the Japanese and then after the Second World War and the “reinvasion”by the Kuomintang lost out against the communists in the civil war of 1949, as the Republic of China.


It's a beautiful island with plenty of places to discover and a climate that's surprisingly quite tropic. Taiwan was formed by two continental shelves pushing against each other and upwards. Much in the same way the Himalaya's were formed a plenty many years ago. On one hand this gives the Taiwanese a beautiful mountain range covered in lush jungles through the middle of island. On the other: frequent earthquakes.

Now I do not know how Hong Kong manages to be a lot colder and still lie further west and a bit to the south. Guess it has to do with an island being out of the blue. That beautiful sea, the Pacific Ocean, manages quite impressive to give Taiwan a pretty good climate all your around. For the history buffs there's plenty of old temples and monuments to visit. My personal favorite: the old VOC-forts in Tainan. Though I didn't really the like the giant statue of the Dutch surrendering to the Chinese.


One other thing I noticed where the frequent fly-overs of military aircraft in almost all the cities we visited on the island. F-16's, older generation fighters and AWACS aircraft could be counted on to disrupt the peace and quiet almost every five minutes. Just after we left, there was a training accident and three pilots got killed. And of course a earthquake struck in the south injuring close to a hundred people.


I can honestly say Taiwan was the nicest surprise in Asia. Unfortunately we only time for a very short stay. Wai had to go back to the Netherlands and I had to take care of some business in Hong Kong before heading back into China. Luckily when we came back to the big city the weather had changed favorably. No more rain or cold. The sun started to shine and the people began to smile and let me leave the subway before barging their way in.


Secretly, between you and me, I think it was a bit of that Taiwan spirit that manage to sneak on board the plane before take-off and flew back with us.

Year of the Tiger

It's a special day today. On this day, exactly a year ago, I left for the great unknown, taking a plane and flying half-way around the world to Southeast-Asia. It's been one year on the road. Happy anniversary to myself!

Back then I didn't know what to expect, nor did I know where I would end up in a year's time. There was a real possibility that I would have been home again. When I left, I didn't have that much money on me. But, in the back of my mind, I knew I would try to make it whatever the odds. And I did it.

Two years ago I visited Hong Kong for the first time and you could say it was love at first sight. It took me a while, but I made back to this bustling city. How much I try, I'm still awestruck by the place. It's clean, modern, energetic, busy and the vista's are unbelievable. The second time around the admiration has only deepened.

Driving from the airport to the city you see huge skyscrapers, apartment blocks three times higher then anything you see anywhere else, green mountains, huge suspension bridges and in the waterways and bays countless ships, in all forms and sizes. At night, Hong Kong lights up. The skyline is still the most beautiful I ever seen.

As you may know, it's officially the year of the Tiger. Chinese (and Vietnamese for that matter) don't celebrate the New Year the way the Western world does: on the 1st of January. No, they do it according to the lunar calender. And the new year started in China with a big bang on the 13th of February. The only downside was the weather: unusual cold and rainy for the time of year – though not as freezing as back home, in Europe.


Being fortunate enough to visit Hong Kong for a second time, I was especially lucky to see the city during it's new year celebrations. Together with my old friend Wai (remember him from Vietnam?) and his family we saw the amazing fireworks spectacle in Victoria Harbour, had front line seats during the annual Night Parade and witnessed traditional “lucky” Lion dances on the street and in shopping malls.

I haven't only been in Hong Kong for the last two weeks. I just got back from a little detour to the “other” China: Taiwan. The beautiful island left a lasting impression. But to make things a little bit more manageable, for me and for you, you can read all about that in the next installment.


For the moment I'm staying for a couple of more days in Hong Kong, organizing my onward travels. Not that I mind at all. Big city, bright lights.