Going to Taiwan felt different to me. I did not really converse with George about it. I did not waiver. I just decided and organized the tickets with frequent flyer miles. Sometimes I do not know what I want or honestly I do not want to share my preferences but this time I just did it and it felt liberating.
I do like being in a partnership and compromise is required, but sometimes it feels great to say no or to make my own decision.
After our big crowd experience at the International Flower Show and the mind-numbing strangeness of the Wacky Water show in Taipei, it was time for the beach.
Having been to some of the best beaches in the world, like Anguilla in the Caribbean, La Guaijera in Colombia, and Koh Lipe in Thailand, I cannot say I expected too much for Kenting Beach, Taiwan. The photos I had seen looked good but they did not mean it would be a happening hot beach getaway in April.
Fortunately the trip started like a rocket blast, on the High Speed Train. I felt like an astronaut speeding along the rail at 345 km/hr. The whole experience reminded me of a Jetsons cartoon. The ticket-purchase machine worked like an ATM and I could buy the tickets myself easily. I was unsure why locals would stand in a long line to buy tickets when I could figure out the express ticket machine.
George selected a meal-box chicken to eat on the train. I often worry about if there will be food or what will we eat when we travel. Since traveling with him, I am working hard to change from the “it is always something” family to the “it always works out” life style. As usual, events worked out; the food was not great but edible and easy to acquire from the server who walked through the aisles with a cart. We documented our train experience with our new flip video camera.
Upon arrival, my first impression of the area was not so great. The town seemed deserted and a bit dismal, but that feeling was exacerbated by the color of the sky. Kenting Beach has so many hotels that at certain times, the place must be a big busy party scene. We let ourselves be persuaded to stay at Ocean Breeze and had a lesson on Chinese with the owner. “Hun How” means very good. George also mastered some numbers in Chinese but I have a hard time with all the tones.
Our day on the beach was relaxing and the area is pretty but it was not my favorite part of our trip. Maybe we had too many locations on our agenda or maybe the weather was not quite right to fully enjoy the area.
Overall I am glad we went to Kenting, especially as we got to ride the amazing train; we went from Taipei to Kenting in 90 minutes. It really felt like flying. I wish Los Angeles would take a lesson from Taiwan. The Taiwanese capitol has an integrated public transportation system with trains, regional and local buses and is very easy to use. You can find maps and information stations everywhere. I wish there were more transportation options in California.
NEWS: Our blog will be moving to a new address on our new website: http://www.wesaidgotravel.com/blog I believe that you will be redirected once it actually happens, but it is a bit of an experiment. We are in the TOP 100 for Travel at Technorati! As of June 5, #51!
Top 100 for Travel Technorati #51 out of 3808 blogs listed in Travel (photos taken June 5, 2011 9:50am)
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Lisa Ellen Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries and six continents. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on cruise ships for seven years and backpacked for three years in Asia. She is the founder of the website WeSaidGoTravel which is read in 235 countries and was named #3 on Rise Global’s top 1,000 Travel Blogs. Niver is a speaker at the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Dallas Travel and Adventure Shows for 2023. Her podcast, “Make Your Own Map,” has been watched in more than 11 countries on 4 continents. Niver is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, Inc. Look for her memoir in Fall 2023 from Post Hill Press/Simon and Schuster.
You can find Lisa Niver talking travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, Satellite Media Tours, The Jet Set TV and Orbitz travel webisodes as well as her YouTube channel, where her WeSaidGoTravel videos have nearly 2 million views.
With more than 150,000 followers across social media, she has hosted Facebook Live for USA Today 10best, is verified on Twitter and listed on IMDb, and is the Social Media Manager for the Los Angeles Press Club.
As a journalist, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors and been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. She has been a judge for the Gracie Awards for the Alliance of Women in Media, and has run 15 travel competitions on her website, publishing over 2,500 writers and photographers from 75 countries.
For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty times.
Niver has published more than 2000 articles, in more than three dozen magazines and journals
including National Geographic, Wired, Teen Vogue, HuffPost Personal, POPSUGAR, Ms. Magazine, Luxury Magazine, Smithsonian, Sierra Club, Saturday Evening Post, AARP, AAA Explorer Magazine, American Airways, Delta Sky, enRoute (Air Canada), Hemispheres, Jewish Journal, Myanmar Times, BuzzFeed, Robb Report, Scuba Diver Life, Ski Utah, Trivago, Undomesticated, USA Today, TODAY, Wharton Magazine, and Yahoo.
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2021 Finalist: Book Criticism
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2019 Finalist: Broadcast Television Lifestyle Segment for “Ogden Ski Getaway”
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2017 Winner: Print Column “A Journey to Freedom over Three Passovers”
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2 responses to “Taipei to Kenting: Flying on the High Speed Train”
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Hi!
Love your website!
we are also a travel blog but focused on latinamerica!
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I enjoyed my travel to Taiwan last year. But I never got to ride that train. My journey there consisted of watching baseball and sampling the cuisine.