As my friend and fellow Nomadic Adventurer Matt Gibson has been kind enough to allow me to hijack his blog for a few hundred words to tell his readers about my new venture, I suppose an introduction is in order.

I’m Joshua Samuel Brown, author of 13 Lonely Planet guides, and like Matt, a long-time wanderer, writer and global adventurer. The place I’ve lived the longest is Taiwan (It’s a great place for an extended adolescence, as Matt I’m sure will attest), becoming an expert on the land, its people and culture. After a few years away from my beloved island, I’m heading back next month for a new adventure.

Earlier this year I was contacted by a company called Bicycle Adventures that does luxury bicycle trips around North America and a few international locations as well. Bicycle Adventures was launching a Taiwan tour and having read an article I did a few years back for Bicycle Times Magazine about riding in Taiwan, they thought there might be some synergy between us.

I visited their office, checked out their impressive track record (they’ve been around for 30+ years) and, most importantly, their plans for creating a Taiwan trip, and accepted a gig acting as planner, guide and liaison for their Taiwan tour. It’s a unique trip, mixing luxury, culture, culinary excellence and bicycling through the most beautiful spots on an island so noted for beauty that the first Portuguese sailors to set eyes on its coast said “Isla Formosa!” – Beautiful Island, a name which sticks to this day.

And that’s where you come in. Because I’d like you, dear readers, to come along on said aforementioned adventure. And not in the “follow me on Twitter” way (though feel free – I’m @josambro), but literally.

The tours are going to be epic, even – dare I say? – life changing in the way that only exotic and challenging experiences can be. Over eleven days we’ll be riding on some of East Asia’s most awe inspiring roads, including the road leading from Taipei to the sea over volcanic Yaming Mountain, the winding east coast highway (considered one of the loveliest roads for cycling in the world), and through dramatic Taroko Gorge and beyond into the Central Mountain range.

The route has been picked specifically to appeal to cyclists of all levels, and of course, as with all Bicycle Adventures tours, our air conditioned van is always close by for riders preferring to take the easy way up any particular hill.

Time out of the saddle will be equally well spent soaking in natural hot springs, visiting tribal villages and working our way through Taiwan’s nearly infinite variety of culinary wonders. As for accommodations, we’ve chosen some excellent hotels including the Silks Place in Taroko, the Château Beach Resort in Kenting and the Grand Victoria in Taipei. (As if you’d expect less on a tour around Taiwan being orchestrated and led by a guy who writes guidebooks about the place!)

And that, of course, is another of our trip’s many added value factors: You’ll be exploring this vibrant, exotic landscape with a cyclist who writes guidebooks about Taiwan, benefiting simultaneously from my passion and experience in Taiwan and Bicycle Adventures’ 30+ years of experience in orchestrating luxury bicycle tours.

If you’ve read this far and want to go further, check out the Bicycle Adventures Taiwan Bike Tour page, which has full details about the tour-including pricing, dates, routes, activities and links to every hotel we’ll be staying.

If you mention this blog, you can get one of two discounts – $150 off the trip starting on October 24 and $75 off the one starting on November 7. Just use the code “XPATMATT” when booking.

Feel free to hit me up with any questions you might have about the tour (or Taiwan in general) at josh.brown@bicycleadventures.com.

Need a reason to cycle in Taiwan? Here’s five!

We now return you to your already scheduled blog, already in progress!

Sincerely,

Joshua Samuel Brown

Author

Vignettes of Taiwan (Things Asian Press). 

Co-Author (Lonely Planet / BBC): Taiwan (7th & 8th edition); Belize (3rd, 4th & 5th edition); Singapore City Guide (8th edition); Greater Mekong (2nd edition); Singapore Encounter (2nd edition); Central America on a Shoestring (7th & 8th edition).  Contributor: China (Fodor’s ~ 2006 edition). The World’s Best Street Foods, (Lonely Planet),The World’s Best Spicy Foods, (Lonely Planet), The World’s Best Brunches, (Lonely Planet).

The post The Josambro Taiwan Bicycle Adventure appeared first on XpatMatt.

The best way to see the gorge is on those trails or from the road a bicycle or motorcycle. I’ve written before about hiking and biking in Taroko Gorge.

Last Sunday my friend Mei Mei from Taipei came to visit me in Hualien and she mentioned that she hadn’t seen Taroko Gorge since she was in high school almost 20 years earlier. So, I had to take her for a Sunday motorcycle ride up the gorge. Before we left, I grabbed my Go Pro to see if I could capture the magnificence of the drive on video.

Music: Hearts on Fire by Scomber on CC Mixter

The post A Ride Through Taroko Gorge, Taiwan [VIDEO] appeared first on XpatMatt.

I used to live in Taiwan. That was where I developed a taste for taking on ridiculously difficult challenges with little or no preparation. I had a friend there named Jeremy Taws. He also liked to take on ridiculous physical challenges without considering the consequences.

Jeremy and I would meet at night to go for 20km runs and stop along the way to do pushups and sit-ups. We’d finish around midnight and then go for Chinese food at a local restaurant or get drunk.

Individually, we believed in our ability to do anything we put our minds to. When we got together we talked about epic journeys, like cycling from Hong Kong to Casa Blanca and kayaking from Taiwan to the Philippines.

We also talked about climbing Jade Mountain — which is normally a two-day trip — in a single day. When the opportunity came up, we grabbed it. Physically, we were up to the challenge.

Mentally, however, it would be a different story. Our combined intelligence, as it turned out, would not be sufficient to get us to the summit.

The Jade Mountain (Yushan) Trail

Jade Mountain is a symbol of national pride in Taiwan. Like I mentioned, it’s considered my many to be the tallest peak in East Asia. Not everyone agrees on that because there are all sorts of different ways of measuring mountains and interpretations of what area “East Asia” includes. Argumentative geographic douchebaggery aside, it’s a very popular mountain to climb.

Taiwan is densely populated. It has a population about 2/3 the size of Canada’s in an area smaller than Lake Superior. The trail to the peak of Jade Mountain is possibly the most popular hike in Taiwan — which means there are a lot of people in the country that want to hike the trail each year, and that’s before you factor in peakbaggers coming from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Japan, and Malaysia and the rest of the world.

For safety and environmental reasons, the trail is limited to a certain number of visitors each day. To deal with the excessive demand for hiking permits, the parks department holds a lottery for permits several months in advance.

If you are lucky enough to win the lottery, you’re given a permit for dates that cannot be changed. If the weather is bad, you’re out of luck. If you can’t get the time off of work, too bad. I had twice obtained permits to climb Jade Mountain only to have the trips cancelled because of circumstances.

The hike to the peak is very steep. From trailhead to peak is only 10.9 kilometres, but it climbs nearly 1400m. The vast majority of permits given are for two-day trips, during which one night spent at the Paiyun Lodge in the park. Although it’s possible, relatively few climbers attempt to summit Jade Mountain in one day.

Last fall, however, we learned that the Paiyun Lodge was being renovated, so the park was not issuing two-day permits and, since few people try to climb the mountain in one day, there was no lottery. We would be able to get a one-day permit — and we did.

Preparation

Climbers who attempt one-day ascents of Yushan usually leave the campsite around 3:30 am. The drive from Tainan to the campsite would take about four hours. So, we decided to leave Tainan mid-afternoon on Saturday, arrive around dusk, and try to get a few hours of sleep before starting the climb on Sunday morning.

The trip required little preparation. We both brought tents, sleeping bags, headlamps, and water. On our way out of town we stopped at a large grocery store to buy provisions. I stocked up on fruit and trail mix for the following day.

“Hey, you want a luchbox for dinner?” Jeremy asked me at one point.

“Sure.” I replied.

A lunchbox is a staple of Taiwanese dining. It is a small box that usually include a piece of chicken or pork, a couple of sides of vegetables, and some rice. The quality of lunchboxes varies greatly. Some are healthy delicious packets of nutrition, and some are greasy slabs of soggy nastiness, depending on where you buy them.

The Attempt

We arrived at the campsite near dusk and set up camp. Then it was time for dinner. The lunchboxes that Jeremy had bought were greasy slabs of soggy nastiness — some of the worst I’ve ever seen. I ate a few bits of the chicken before throwing it away. Luckily, I wasn’t very hungry.

Jeremy, however, is not as picky as me. He ate his whole lunchbox and then we climbed into our tents to try and get some sleep.

I woke up around 2 a.m. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, so I went to the van to read. Jeremy heard me walking around and got up too. Since we were both awake, we decided to get an early start — but not until we had some breakfast. I ate some trail mix and fruit. Jeremy ate another one of those nasty lunchboxes (he had bought three). How he managed to force down that disgusting chicken leg covered in congealed grease is beyond me.

Jeremy is an animal.

We started up the trail at a brisk, but sustainable, pace planning to stop every couple of hours for a short snack break. Jeremy complained that his stomach was upset. I made fun of him for eating so much greasy nastiness. After a while, though, it became clear that the food was having a significant effect on his performance.

Jeremy began walking slower than me, which was definitely not normal for him. Jeremy was usually the one trying to go to fast while I’d try to slow him down.

We arrived at the Paiyun Lodge, just two kilometres short of the peak, around 10am. Jeremy was feeling awful, talking about having chills and stomach pains. We were both also exhausted and starting to slow down. We took a short break.

At the lodge the trail split. One narrow trail ran along the side of the lodge and appeared to dead end behind it. The other started uphill toward the park ranger’s cabin. We started up that trail.

As we traversed a hillside in the dawn, I began to realize that Jeremy was becoming delirious. We’d walk in silence for a while, and then he’d suddenly ask me something like, “Did you hear somebody shout?” or, “Is there somebody up on that ridge?”

Those were things that he possibly could have noticed that I had missed while lost in thought, but I was sure something was wrong when he commented, “Somebody had a good time up here.”

“Why do you say that?”

“The Taiwan Beer can.” He replied, pointing at the ground.

There was no Taiwan Beer can.

“You’re hallucinating, Jeremy.”

“Shit, really?” He squinted and stared at the spot on the ground. “Whoah,” he said, shaking his head.

We were very close to the peak, and there were no sketchy parts on the trail, so we pushed on, but I was concerned. We were on a steep hillside and would likely have to do some scrambling before we reached the summit.

The trail continued to climb and entered a forest. Suddenly, we found ourselves standing in the middle of the forest with nowhere else to go. The trail ended. We could see no ground above us. At the end of the forest was a cliff.

This was not right. I had seen photos of the peak of Jade Mountain. It’s a rocky peak with a 360-degree view (which I had been hoping to photograph).

Then I recalled the sign on the trail near the cabin. I had barely noticed it. It said, “East Peak”. It had not occurred to me that there could be more than one peak. We had climbed the wrong one.

Not that our mistake had saved us any effort. The East Peak is 3869m, which puts it less than 100m lower than the summit at 3952m.

We got all the work, and none of the view. We could hardly see anything. So, after walking around in the forest and a nice long rest, we started down.

Jeremy stopped hallucinating, though his stomach continued to bother him. We passed numerous hikers coming up the trail.

We had been on the trail for nearly twelve hours at that point. Our muscles were overflowing with lactic acid, and every step was uncomfortable. We began complaining.

“I can’t wait ’till this is over.”

“I am NEVER coming back here.”

“Yeah, fuck this place. Lets get home.”

We spent the drive home vowing along never to put ourselves through such an ordeal again.

Back to Normal

The next day Jeremy called me.

“Dude, I can’t believe we didn’t make it to the summit. We have to go back. They didn’t even check our permits. We could totally sneak up in the dark.”

“Well, it’s still a few weeks before the park closes for the winter…”

The post How We Missed the Peak of Jade Mountain by Less Than 100 Meters appeared first on XpatMatt.

I’ve been working on a story about outdoors adventures near Taipei, one section of which focusses on mountain biking in the city. Most people don’t realize that Taipei is pretty outdoorsy city and has several mountains within the city limits. There is some great mountain biking in the Beitou District and Yangmingshan National Park.

Despite the fact that there are tons of mountain bikers and some of Taiwan’s most picturesque trails in the city, it was really hard to find any good information online. So, I wrote this post to help other people looking for information about mountain biking near Taipei with there research. Here’s a bit of what I learned and some of the resources that I found.

 The Best Mountain Biking is in Beitou

Beitou is Taipei’s northernmost district. It’s best known for its hotsprings, but also draws a lot of visitors with Yangmingshan National Park. This is one of Taipei’s most popular and scenic areas for mountain biking. If you want to go mountain biking near the city, you will almost certainly end up here.

The first website you’re likely to find when searching for mountain biking in Taiwan is that of the Formosan Fat Tire Association, which has some excellent information about the trails around Taipei. The website is, however, lacking some important details for potential mountain bikers, such as how to find the trails.

The most detailed blog that I found was Biking in Taiwan. The author (I couldn’t find his name anywhere) has several good posts about trails in Taipei, such as this one about the Wefenshan Weather Station and this one about his five favourite rides.

Taiwan in Cycles is another blog worth looking at, although I didn’t find much information about trails there.

Another good resource for information on biking in Taiwan is the website of my Internet buddy Daniel Carruthers, Bike Dan in Asia. He’s a road cyclist, so you won’t find much info about mouton biking there, but you aren’t likely to find anyone more knowledgable about cycling in Asia than Dan.

Another great resource is the Forumosa cycling forum. It’s probably the best place to find information in English about biking in Taipei, or anywhere in Taiwan for that matter.

I also came across a couple of videos of biking in the park here and here. They’ll give you a fair idea of what riding there looks like.

You Don’t Have to Mountain Bike to Enjoy Yangmingshan

Surprisingly, although I wasn’t able to find a lot of info about mountain biking in Beitou and Yangmingshan, I was able to a good Taipei Times article about road biking there. Yangmingshan is crisscrossed with small roads perfect for biking, so even if you don’t have a mountain bike,  you can still explore the park and even make it to the nicest spots, like the top of Datun Mountain, which is one of the highest roads in the greater Taipei area, and the lookout at Lengshuikeng, which is said to be amazing.

Bike Shops and Biking Tours in Taipei

Alan’s Mountain Bike is probably the best-known local shop with English service.

There is a huge list of Taipei bike shops on the Formosan Fat Tire website.

Grasshopper Adventures runs bicycle tours in Taiwan. I met these guys once randomly on the side of a rural road. They seemed super nice.

In Motion Asia is another well-known bicycle and adventure tour company with service in Taiwan.

I hope that this post helped you to find what you need to organize your trip to go biking in Taiwan.

If you have any useful info to add, please leave a comment and I’ll be sure to add it!

Lead image by Zach Dischner (The image is not from Yangmingshan. It’s only meant to get you pumped for some mountain biking).

The post Mountain Biking in Taipei appeared first on XpatMatt.

If you’re an experienced surfer or have a bit of time, then you’ll probably want to head east to nearby Yilan where there are several breaks and good waves. If you’re a beginner or short of time then you’ll want to head to Taipei’s closest break, Jinshan, which is just 40 minutes by car from the city, and a little over an hour by public transport (there’s more information on how to get there below).

The Break

Jinshan breaks both left and right for 50 – 100 meter rides. The waves tend to be on the small side but their size, of course, depends on the weather. When typhoons near the island the can get very big. The best times to surf Jinshan are in the early morning and evening. There’s a shore break that can make it quite difficult to paddle out during the middle of the day.

My Experience in Jinshan 

I only got to surf at Jinshan twice during my trip. Both times it was the middle of the day so the surf was super messy and it was nearly impossible to get past the shore break. Understandably, I was pretty much the only surfer in the water.

The first day I surfed despite the conditions because I had just arrived and didn’t know if I’d get another chance. I’m a relatively inexperienced sufrer and can’t read the waves very well. Despite that, I was able to paddle out (after a long exhausting struggle in the shore break) and catch one or two short rides.

The second day I wanted to take photos of the break while the conditions were good. About twenty or thirty surfers paddled out and the waves were about chest high. The weren’t the best-shaped waves I’ve seen, but they were decent and consistent and the locals who knew the break got some beautiful long rides.

When the tide started coming in, all the surfers got out of the water. I put away my camera, and hopped in again, once again battling the shore break to catch a couple of short rides.

The Shops

Don’t worry about finding a shop to rent a board at Jinshan. There’s probably a dozen on the highway and along the path to the beach. Here is the contact info for a couple of shops that have hostels you can stay at.

The Johnny Rose Surf Club | 強尼玫瑰衝浪俱樂部

83-1, Haising Rd., Jinshan Township | 台北縣金山鄉海興路83-1號1樓

Phone: 02-2408-2664

Dorm rooms start at about $9 USD per person per night.

They recommend that you reserve your room two or three days in advance.

The Tube Factory | 波管工廠
91, Haising Rd., Jinshan Township (upstairs) | 台北縣金山鄉海興路91號2樓

Phone: 02-2498-5812
0956-293-520 Susan
0932-395-165 SuBee

Dorm rooms start at about $9 USD per person per night. Private double rooms cost about $24 USD/night. Rooms for four cost about $36 USD/night.

They recommend that you reserve your room a day or two in advance.

Getting to Jinshan

Jinshan can be reached easily from Taipei. It takes around forty minutes to drive there. Locals recommend driving over Yaming Mountain to avoid traffic.

To get to Jinshan on public transportation you have two options:

1) Take the train from Taipei Main Station to Keelung (time: 40 min to 1 hr/price: about $2-3 USD). From there you can take the Keelung Bus (基隆客運) to the mid-cape stop (中角站) (time: 20 min/price $1-2 USD) or taxi (time: 15 min/price: about $12 USD) to Jinshan.

2) Take the MRT to Danshui (time: varies depending on location/price: $2 USD max) where you will take the Danshui Bus (淡水客運) that is headed for Jinshan/Keelung (金山/基隆) to the mid-cape stop (中角站) (time: 1 hour/price: $4 USD).

The post Surfing in Jinshan, Taiwan appeared first on XpatMatt.

Please note, I’m not talking about hiking OR biking the gorge. I’m talking about first hiking high in the gorge and then biking to the bottom. This can easily be done with the help of a kind fellow named Rihang who runs a guesthouse at the bottom of Taroko gorge. He speaks a bit of English (enough to get by). If miming and interpreting choppy English are not your idea of a good time, then you would be wise to contact Richard from Barking Deer Adventures to help you arrange your trip. He is the guy who originally introduced me to the area. Full contact information for both Rihan and Richard can be found at the bottom of this post.  But first, the details.

Getting To Taiwan

Many people who go to South East Asia skip Taiwan for two reasons: 1) its (undeserved) lack of reputation for tropical beauty and culture and 2) the fact that budget overland travel to Taiwan is all but impossible. Neither of these is a good reason not to visit. First, Taiwan is as beautiful as any other country in the vicinity (it’s old Portuguese name, Formosa, actually means “beautiful island”). Second, Taipei flights are not all that expensive. Below is a list of budget airlines that provide cheap flights to Taiwan and the best destinations to fly to Taiwan from:

Cebu Pacific Airlines (Philippines)

At the time of writing the cost of a normal one-way from Manila to Taipei (or vice-versa) was $70 USD. Cebu Pacific also has cheap international flights to other destinations around SE Asia, such as Bangkok, for similar prices. This airline is great if you want to visit both countries.

Dragon Air (Hong Kong)

At the time of writing had round trip tickets from Bangkok to Taipei for $360 USD and round trip tickets from Hong Kong for $160 USD.

Air Asia (Malaysia)

Air Asia is an excellent budget airline with a wide variety of destinations. Look here for flights to Taipei from Malaysia and India, or even Paris or Perth.

Getting to Taroko Gorge

The train system in Taiwan is excellent. After arriving at the airport you will need to take a shuttle, bus, or taxi to Taipei’s Main Station where you can buy your ticket. You will purchase a ticket the Xincheng Station in Hualien County.  You will want to take an express train which takes 2.5 – 3.5 hr depending on the train you take and costs about $13 USD.

You can also check schedules and buy tickets on the Taiwan Rail Website quick search page. Just go to the page I linked to, leave your starting destination as is and change your arrival destination to “Hua-lien Xincheng”, choose the date of your trip, make sure “Express” is selected, and hit search.  You will then be shown the times of all the express trains on that day.

If you are staying with Rihan, he can pick you up from the train station. His guesthouse is nearby.

Alternatively, you can drive from Taipei to Xincheng, which usually takes 3 hours or more.

The Hike and Bike Hookup

You may or may not decide to stay at Rihan’s guesthouse (about $20 USD for a room at the hostel. I’m not sure, but I think that’s per person). It’s very convenient because it’s right at the foot of the gorge (most other accommodations are a forty minute drive away in Hualien). If you ask, he or his wife will also cook dinner for you. It’s a great way to try real Taiwanese home-style cooking.

Even if you don’t stay at Rihan’s, you ought to take advantage of his shuttle and bike service. Rihan will rent you a bike for about $10 USD per day. He has a fair selection and, although they’re not new, they’re in pretty good shape. For another $10 per person he will drive you up the gorge so that you can ride down it.

If you’re looking for a bit more adventure than just cruising down this geographic wonder, he will drop you off at the beginning of one of the many trails that line the sides of the gorge (a list of trails is forthcoming) and lock your bike up at the end of it so that you can hike all day, and finish it off by cruising down through the majestic gorge.

I seldom seen more natural beauty from more different vantage points than I did in the three days I spent hiking and biking Taroko Gorge. If you don’t believe me, just check out this video of the Vertigo Trail–a trail carved out of a sheer cliff hundreds of meters above the gorge.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the free riverside hot springs?

Taroko Gorge Hiking Contacts

Rihan’s Guesthouse and Bicycle Rental

Phone: (+886) 922-938-743 (if dialling from inside Taiwan, the first ‘9’ must be preceded by ‘0’)

Email: rihangsu (at) gmail (dot) com

http://rihang.wordpress.com

Barking Deer Adventures (Richard)

Email: barkingdeerinfo (at) gmail (dot) com

Phone: (+886) 938-337-710 (if dialling from inside Taiwan, the first ‘9’ must be preceded by ‘0’)

http://www.barking-deer.com

The post Hiking and Biking Taroko Gorge, Taiwan appeared first on XpatMatt.

STEVEN’S BOOKS AND APPS
Taiwan for Culture Vultures (app)

**The above are affiliate links

Steven Crook, who’s lived in Taiwan for 20 years, grew up in England. He’s been writing travel and other kinds of feature articles for newspapers and magazines since 1996, and has had three books published. His most recently works include Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide and Taiwan For Culture Vultures, a smartphone travel app released by GuideGecko.

You’ve recently moved from freelance journalism into both guidebook and guide app writing. How did your experiences on these projects differ from your normal routine?

My routine didn’t change that much. I do most of my writing in the morning, a bit in the afternoon, and very little or none in the evening. Usually I’m working on half-a-dozen different things. Usually, that means about four articles and maybe two or three themes which, hopefully, will become ideas that win over an editor. With the guidebook and the app, I was still working on half-a-dozen things – just one was significantly more time-consuming that the other five. I’m used to putting aside and then returning to projects; for a feature article, six months from initial idea to publication isn’t unusual. Something I now make sure happens (and this is very important for anyone trying to make a living from freelance writing, I think), is that my projects cannibalize each other. Sizable chunks of both the guidebook and the app were based on old articles (the information had to be updated, of course, and rewritten to suit the format). Before the guidebook hit the shelves, I was selling feature articles based on the research I’d done for the book. Doing the app wasn’t so different. When I’m on a multi-day research trips, the schedule is more like this: Write from 5am to breakfast, then outside until 9pm or so, then write for an hour or more before sleeping.

App writing is a very new genre of writing. How does it differ from other forms of writing?

When I began talking to GuideGecko and examining the structure of their apps, two things appealed to me right away. The first is that each entry can be as long or short as you want – as long or as short as the destination deserves. With a print guidebook you’re always struggling to stay within the overall word limit, and to maintain some kind of balance between the various places and regions covered by the book. With an app you needn’t worry about this, because there’s really no size restriction. Secondly, you can add links from one attraction to another, or to background articles (my app has one about popular deities, for instance, and another about personalities in Taiwan’s history). This saves both writer and reader from repetition. The entries on individual destinations are leaner and meaner as a result.

I write a blog, but rarely read them. After writing a guide app, would you consider using one?
Absolutely yes! An app is almost certainly going to be more up-to-date than a printed guidebook. It’s also a lot lighter to carry around, and cheaper.

What are some of the better sights from the Guide Gecko app that you’d recommend?

I enjoyed writing about some new attractions which opened after I’d finished researching my guidebook. Houtong Coal Ecological Park offers a bit of history and a good outdoors experience. The Magic School of Green Technology showcases sustainable architecture, a field in which Taiwan leads Asia. If you’re interested in Taiwan’s religious culture and traditional arts, then Tainan and Lugang are must-sees.
You write for some print-only publications like inflight magazines, and some web-only publications. How do you feel that these two markets differ?

Web-only publications seem to pay less than print newspapers and magazines. I assume that’s because almost anyone can set up a website, whereas a print magazine requires more investment and certain skills, such as building a distribution network.

Last year you finished your first guidebook and this year your first app. Do you have any big plans for next year?

I’d love to write another book, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. (That’s a hint to publishers: I’m available!) Certainly I’ll be updating and expanding the app, and continuing to write feature articles.

The post An Interview with Taiwan Travel Writer Steven Crook appeared first on XpatMatt.

About the Video

I shot this video using my favorite new toy, GoPro® HD Helmet HERO Camera(affiliate link). It’s small, tough, cheap, fisheyed, waterproof, and can be mounted to anything. Great for outdoors adventure stuff!

About the Jhuliu Trail

The Jhuliu Trail in Taiwan’s Taroko Gorge is nicknamed the Vertigo Trail because of an insane stretch where the trail is just a few feet wide beside a 500 meter sheer drop to the bottom of the gorge.

If you go there I recommend staying with Rihang near the bottom of the gorge.

If you’d like a guide to take care of the details for you then definitely check out Barking Deer Adventures (they first showed me this place)

Special thanks to Freestyle Percussion Magik for the great CC licensed music.

The post Video: Vertigo Trail, Taiwan appeared first on XpatMatt.

I shot this video using my favorite new toy, GoPro® HD Helmet HERO Camera(affiliate link). It’s small, inexpensive, fisheyed, waterproof, and can be mounted to anything. I love it!

The post Video: Cycling in Tainan, Taiwan appeared first on XpatMatt.

I shot this video using my favorite new toy, GoPro® HD Helmet HERO Camera(affiliate link). It’s small, inexpensive, fisheyed, waterproof, and can be mounted to anything. I love it!

About the Guide

Thanks to Barking Deer Adventures for the epic day!

The post Video: Hiking in Hualien County, Taiwan appeared first on XpatMatt.