Life At Slow-Mo

Last year we went on a holiday to Taiwan. I had visited Taipei four times before that, but never ventured outside of the city. So technically there is very little that we know about the country. To save us from having to do a lot of research and later be disappointed, we decided to take a tour package.

This was a rare occasion where we traveled in a tour group. Usually, even when we traveled to Europe, we prepared everything ourselves. From the choice of cities and attraction to visit, itinerary, hotels selection and reservation, transportation, all we did on our own. Those are time and energy consuming. Understandably when buying the tour, we expected to sit back and enjoy ourselves throughout the trip.

The tour went around the main island, also known as Formosa Island, on a tour bus. Starting from Taoyuan, the journey took us to The Sun Moon Lake, Taichung, Alishan National Park, Kaohsiung, Taitung, Taroko Gorge, Hualien, Jiufen Village, and finally Taipei. All of them were fascinating.

As expected, everything we need were taken care of. We did not have to worry about anything. The only brush with problem was when I ate too much hot sauce and had to spend almost half an hour in the toilet, and nearly got left behind by the group. However, what we did not anticipate was how much time was spent on the road and how little time was left to enjoy the places. Covering all that places in 8 days was truly a tall order. The worst case was when we were given only 20 minutes to explore and try the street food in Feng Jia night market in Taichung. The whole group nearly rioted. Most of us told the tour guide to forget the night market and just go to the hotel.

We concluded that this kind of tour is suitable as a tasting test of a new country, but not to savor it. It is also good for the achiever type of travelers who are more concerned about getting to as many places as possible than knowing them. That is not us, though. We’d rather go and see fewer places but have enough time to just wander around to our hearts’ content before continuing to the next destination.

So, for our next trips to this year, we are doing it the old way: we arrange everything ourselves. It will be exhausting, but it will also be more satisfying.