Hualien, just 2.5 hours train ride from Taipei, gives you a great look at the natural beauty of Taiwan. It was a week long trip to Taiwan where I squeezed in 2 nights to travel and explore Hualien.

The most popular transportation from Taipei to Hualien would be by train, which only takes 2.5 hours. TRA releases their tickets online for reservation 14 days prior to the date of travel. We've been advised by our airbnb host to login early to purchase the tickets to ensure we get the good tickets and good timings. It's highly recommended to book your tickets in advance. Even for us, we did not manage to get our ideal tickets despite logging on early.

Upon arrival, we went to get our rented car. We've decided to do road trip for Hualien, exploring the scenic areas, taking on the drive by ourselves. We dropped by the information center to get some ideas on where to visit too since we did not fully finalise our itinerary.

We ended up with this plan for the 2.5 days we had in Hualien.

Day 1:
Taroko Gorge National Park

Day 2:
East Rift Valley National Scenic Area
East Coast National Scenic Area

Day 3:
Qixingtan Beach
Qingshui Cliff Scenic Area

Last December, I visited Philippines for the first time in my life. Was looking for a beach holiday getaway and realised that many of the places have already been explored by either one of us. Krabi, Bali, Phuket, Bintan, Langkawai, Tioman, Redang, etc.

In the end, we settled on Cebu, a place neither of us have been to. Flights were relatively cheap and we flew by Cebu Pacific. Since it was a midnight flight, we managed to reach Cebu early in the morning, ready to start our activities.

One thing to take note is that the traffic is horrible in Cebu and you should expect to spend a lot of time stuck in traffic. And it's always good to arrange for transportation with your accommodation!

Our Moalboal accommodation provided transportation services - an air-conditioned SUV for 3,000 php. It took us 3 hours to get from Cebu to Moalboal.



We had the most amazing guesthouse which we booked directly through them - to avoid airbnb fees. It was a little risky but we did our research thoroughly and decided that this was the safest, nice and cheap accommodation.

Honestly, if I were to ever return to Moalboal, I would definitely return to the guesthouse. The owners have 3 lovely, friendly dogs. They were pretty adorable and when I went on a morning walk alone, one of them even followed me (until a neighbour's dog started barking at it and scared it away).



They even have hammocks in the garden, where we spent every night of our trip lying there, admiring the stars and talking. We even spotted a couple of shooting stars! That's how amazing the visibility of stars were. As we were in the rural part of the country, there was hardly any light pollution which made the nights on the hammock amazing.

Drop a comment with your email if you're interested in the accommodation and I'll share it with you!

Canyoneering

One of the activities you can do in Moalboal is Canyoneering. That was our first stop - Canyoneering at Badian. It is approximately 1,500 php per person and last 2-3 hours long.

Equipments - safety helmets, life vests, and a pair of track shoes are included in the price, along with a simple lunch after your canyoneering adventures. Price also included guides (which we had two)!



Canyoneering involved a lot of waddling in the water, sliding down rapids, and the highlight - jumping off waterfalls and cliffs. If you're an adrenaline junkie, don't miss out on this! Scroll all the way down to look at our adventures in the vlog! :)



See the people behind on the top of the waterfall, that's where you'll jump off. It doesn't look that scary from here but when you're up there, looking down, I suppose it's kind of scary. I opted out of it due to health issues.

We even had a stop inbetween where we danced with the locals and took a swing into the water. Video below!



At the end of the trip, you'll find yourself at Kawasan Falls. There, you wait for your turn to get on the raft where the guides will bring you across the water to the waterfall, and let the waterfall give you a "massage". It's really really painful for the water to hit on your back honestly. But good experience!

Osmena Peak

After a tiring adventure jumping off waterfalls, we washed up and head over to Osmena Peak. We had a lovely guide bring us up, who also doubled as a photographer.



The amazing thing about Osmena Peak is all the tiny little peaks across the area. A great place to watch the sunset. And the hike up was really short, approximately 10 - 15 minutes (depending on how fit you are). Moreover, the hike wasn't that steep so it was a really easy climb for a really amazing view.

Island Hopping & Sardine Run

The next morning, after a lovely breakfast with our hosts, we went on island hopping and sardine run! We booked through our hosts and they managed to bargain the price down for us - telling the operators that it was one of our birthdays, which was true actually.



Honestly, the island hopping was not very memorable. The sea wasn't exceptionally beautiful or clean. One of the guides even showed us a starfish (plenty of starfishes in the sea there). We only managed to catch a glimpse of the sea turtle.

But the best part was the sardine run. The location was a little unexpected as it was really near the shore and the sea wasn't clean at all. But the sardines - they were amazing. It was like watching the northern lights dance, but in this case, watching sardines dance in the sea. And if you try to scare the sardines, they would quickly disperse and make another line.

White Beach

After the island hopping in the morning and a hefty lunch, we went to White Beach to spend the rest of our day chilling and relaxing. There's admission fee for White Beach by the way, and if you want to use any of the shades, it will cost money too.

We even caught the sunset by the beach. The good thing about our accommodation was that they also arranged a motorbike taxi for us whenever we wanted to go somewhere. The driver waited for us for 2 hours as we chilled by the beach, soaking in Vitamin E.



After a long day, out in the sun, we headed over to Panagsama Beach Street for dinner and drinks. Again, our driver waited for us to finish dinner and drinks so whenever we were done, we went over to the carpark and there he was. This made things easier as we did not have to look and hail for a taxi randomly.

Unfortunately, our stay in Moalboal ended the next day as we headed back to Cebu to send our dear friend off first, before we continued the next part of our trip in Cebu. If I could plan this trip again, I would have allocated more time in Moalboal and skip the entire Cebu part of the trip.

Definitely one of the best beach getaway ever, with a good mixture of chill and adrenaline rush.

Last year May, I spent 10 days travelling all around Taiwan. Well, the initial plan was to travel around the entire island but due to unforeseen circumstances (like our driver miscalculating the time to travel to the ferry terminal), we had to make some major changes to our itinerary at the last minute.



Our first stop was Taichung. Upon arrival in Taiwan International Taoyuan Airport, we took the bus to Taichung. Our initial plan was to take the HSR but we realised that travelling by bus has more economic value. The buses can be found at the basement of the airport terminal. It only cost NT240 for the trip and the journey was approximately 2hours long.

When I was in Taipei previously, I made a short trip to JiuFen. The gorgeous JiuFen and ShiFen is easily accessible from Taipei. To get to ShiFen or JiuFen, you can hop on a train at the Taipei Railway Station heading north towards RuiFang. To get to ShiFen, change onto the PingXi Line at RuiFang. One word of advice is to get a train timetable as the train frequency is inconsistent. You can find the train schedule and more details on how to get to the PingXi line here. Our first stop was ShiFen. And we lighted a paper lantern there and explored the streets. Unfortunately, we didn't allocate much time in ShiFen and only spent an hour there. The next stop was JingTong. The last stop on the PingXi Line. The crowd here is significantly lesser as majority just hang around ShiFen. There are a lot of places worthy of photo in JingTong so if you're heading there, drop by the place! And I mailed myself postcards from Taiwan, because I didn't have my address book with me and couldn't send my friends postcards. The sky was getting dark and we decide to leave and head back to RuiFang. Unfortunately, we were too early for our bus to JiuFen so we explored the area and found a nearby market which sells really good sushi. It's like an indoor market that has various sushi stalls. The bus heading towards JiuFen is across the train station. Take the Keelung Transit bus and the journey will bring you up to JiuFen. You can easily find the JiuFen Old Street, which is the main street in JiuFen. There, you can find good food! Yes, I was eating non-stop and never felt happier. Our accommodation was Sunny Room. The host was really nice and I think we got lost while finding the place. But we managed to find our way there after getting directions from the host. The room was beautiful and the view was amazing. I'll definitely recommend Sunny Room. :)

Montigo Resorts Nongsa is a luxurious getaway which boasts beachfront villas, only a 30 minutes ferry ride away from Singapore. It is the perfect short getaway retreat to paradise. Montigo Resorts Nongsa has three variations to their villas and we picked the beachfront villa, thinking there was direct access to the beach. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the perfect view of the ocean that was unobstructed by other villas.

There is a pax limit for Montigo, with the maximum number of occupants at 5, the fifth will be charged at $100/night. Honestly, the price for the stay was a little steep but we truly enjoyed the service. They had a shuttle to pick us up from Nongsa Ferry Terminal and we arrived at the resort slightly after 10. The staff were helpful and quick to explain the facilities in the resort to us. As there were rooms available, we were checked in to our villa by 11am, way earlier than the supposed check in time at 3pm. The villa had a really huge air-conditioned living area with a tiny kitchen at the back. There was a tv and wii game console set. We borrowed two games from the lobby for the wii game console at no cost. However, they only had two wii controllers. There was a tiny bar fridge with complimentary drinks. There was even a induction cooker with all the cooking equipment. However, I felt the refrigerator was a little too tiny. Would be perfect if they had a larger refrigerator. The balcony door from the living area led to the personal plunge pool, what Montigo was known for. It was a really nice place to sit and chill. I spent all my time here. When I was not in the pool, I was sitting by the edge, enjoying the serenity of the area. There are two bedrooms on the second floor. Both rooms are equipped with their own bathrooms. This is the smaller room with twin beds. And this is the master bedroom. The bed was huge and could easily fit three of us comfortably. As we booked the room for 5, they had an additional bed in the room for us. However, the bed was definitely not as comfortable as the king sized bed so we ended up squeezing on the big bed instead. There are a total of three bathrooms in the entire villa and this is the biggest bathroom. There was a rooftop balcony and it was simply amazingly beautiful. We had the staff lay out the cushions for us and we laid there gazing stars at night. However, we could easily see the other hillside villas' plunge pools and it was quite awkward, which was why I preferred our beachfront villa as there was more privacy for our plunge pool. Besides the villa, there are other areas that are accessible to guests. This is the play area for children. There's a mini ball pit on the ground level and on the top level, there are plenty of games that can engage your children. A mini foosball table and lots of other activities to keep your children busy. Montigo Nongsa has a famous landmark, their jetty. You may have seen this on many instagram feeds. Next to the jetty, you can find a small shack that rents out water activities equipments, such as jet ski and banana boat. Besides your own plunge pool, you can always hop into the bigger pool for a swim. Or lay and bask in the sun while watching people play in the water. The only downside of Montigo Nongsa is the availability of food choices. I was not impressed by the food or the price. There were mainly two kinds of choices at Tadd's, either the western or the Indonesian. We didn't go over to the Pantai restaurant as we already had our fair of seafood meal outside of Montigo for lunch. Moreover, the price at Pantai was definitely more expensive than the food we had outside the resort. I guess, the prices are meant to extort Singaporeans. The bill ended up similar to a meal in Singapore and as the food wasn't outstanding, it was a disappointment. Tadd's is where the complimentary breakfast is served. Contrary to the dinner, it was so much better. There is something for everyone for breakfast. Cornflakes. Pastries. Bread. And plenty of cooked food as well. They even serve some Indonesian food for breakfast. No complaints here. Besides Tadd's and Pantai, there's also Tiigo, a beach club that serves drinks and bar bites. We had pizza from here before leaving for our ferry that afternoon. There are also plenty of bar games you can indulge in while overlooking the people splashing in the water not far from the bar. And I really liked the design of the place. Overall, Montigo Nongsa is definitely a paradise a sea away from Singapore. Though they have limited water activities (and basically any activities), it was a nice getaway for the family. I would definitely return.