Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label Taiwan nature. Show all posts

"I am happy anywhere I can see the ocean."

5 Best Places to See the Ocean in Taiwan

If you need a dose of the sea and you are travelling to Taiwan, you will be in a treat. Taiwan has a lot of places to view the beautiful ocean. I am quite skeptical at first because well, whenever someone come back from Taiwan, the only thing that he or she is raving about is the night market food. Justified as it is, the beautiful coastal view of Taiwan should not be missed at all. So here are my top 5 best places to see the ocean in Taiwan.

1. Qingshui Cliff

Qingshui Cliff (清水斷崖) is the only ocean viewing location in Taroko National Park where you can see the beautiful hues of blue of the Pacific ocean. The color of the ocean is so beautiful and it seems to be a sin not to stop for a while at the viewing platform along Taroko Pass to enjoy the beautiful view of this Pacific coastline and the shore of Chongde Beach.

2. Kenting

The beautiful Kenting Beach (墾丁) has become famous world wide because of the award-winning movie, Life of Pi. The paradise is located at the southern Taiwan and it took us two hours driving from Kaohsiung to reach Kenting. Whether you want to just lay on the beach, swim in the warm blue ocean, scuba dive or surf, Kenting offers the best spot to enjoy warm breeze and weather of southern Taiwan.

Save up to 25% on your hotel in Taiwan & see millions of reviews.

3. Sanxiatai

Sanxiatai is situated at the 111-kilometer mark on the coastal highway in Taitung. It consists of a headland facing a small island in the sea. Sanxiatai is the perfect spot to see the beautiful East coast of Taiwan. You will occasionally see the sea creatures like crayfishes which are drifted across to the rocky shore of Sanxiatai.

4. Penghu Islands

Penghu Islands is located in the southwest of the Taiwan strait. It is also known as the pearl of the Taiwan Strait. The islands offer magnificent ocean views. Even though it's located on a different archipelago from the main island of Taiwan, it is relatively easy to reach Penghu. There are regular flights from Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Chiayi and Kaohsiung. You can also reach Penghu islands by boat, with service from Budai Harbor in Chiayi and the main port of Kaohsiung. Don't miss the firework show at night in Penghu!

5. Yehliu

Yehliu is one of the most popular attractions amongst local and international tourists. This makes the geological park is always filled with tourist buses. It offers a superb view of the northern cape of Taiwan with so many natural wonders and naturally-created rock sculptures. The famous Queen's Head is also located in Yehliu Geological Park. Do bring umbrellas if you are visiting Yehliu on a hot summer day!

If you ask me is there any destination in Taiwan that I can never get bored of, it is Yehliu Geopark (野柳地質公園). It may sound funny because turns out the place that I will not get bored of is a place full of rocks and geological formation. But hey, it's not like you can see unique geological formation anywhere. Singapore does not even have one. So if you are into this kind of nature wonders, you must include Yehliu Geopark in your itinerary when visiting Taiwan.

Yehliu Geopark is located along a cape stretching out from the town of Wanli. The cape stretches around 1,700 metres and it forms a lovely rock formation towards the ocean. It was pretty cloudy that day so the weather is pretty chilling.

In Yehliu Geopark, you will be able to see all kind of rock formations. If there are no names given to any particular unique rock formation that you see, you can get creative and name it yourself. Hahaha. All the rocks here are formed naturally by the combination of water and wind. I suppose whenever typhoon hits this region, the nature is doing its art work here. =P

Unique Geological Formation at Yehliu Geopark

Save up to 25% on your hotel in Taiwan & see millions of reviews.

I would like to call the next rock formation, the beer bottle holder rock. Oh gosh, now I am imagining a bottle of ice cold beer.

Beer Bottle Holder Rock Formation at Yehliu Geopark

Other than rocks, we happened to see a big sea shell. Too bad it was broken. =(

Big Beautiful Sea Shell at Yehliu Geopark Taiwan

There are human-made pathways on which the visitors can walk on to reach various sections of Yehliu Geopark. There are a lot of tour buses visiting Yehliu Geopark so if you happen to visit the geopark at the same time with them, you may need a bit more time to view the whole area.

How to go to Yehliu Geopark:

I took bus from Taipei West Bus Station - Terminal A. At the terminal, go to Kuokuang (國光) counter and purchase a ticket for NTD96 to Yehliu Geopark (野柳地質公園). The journey takes approximately 90 minutes and the bus will drop you on the main road just outside the park entrance. You can see the park entrance at my previous post here.

After watching the dragon boat race at Love River in Kaohsiung, we spent the next day travelling to Kenting. If you have watched the movie titled "Life of Pi", you probably have heard of Kenting, which was used as one of the filming location for the movie. Kenting is a beautiful city in Southern Taiwan. To be exact, in Pingtung area. It is a popular holiday destination in summer for both the locals and tourists alike. So, we decided to do a summer trip to Kenting in Pingtung. Beach, here we come!

We took a cab from Kaohsiung Main Station to Kenting. The whole ride took us two hours and it costs us NTD1,500. You can opt for a shared cab because surely there are a lot of people with the same destination at Kaohsiung Main Station. The driver will charge each person around NTD350 for a shared cab. After checking into our accommodation, we roamed the city of Kenting. We saw a post office which looks somehow more retro-ish compared to its brothers and sisters in Taipei. Hahaha.

Baleno store in Kenting is so random. It has Doraemon statue riding a surfboard on its top. Not sure if Baleno Kenting has exclusively obtained a tie-in agreement with this popular anime character from Japan. Hahaha.

Save up to 25% on your hotel in Kenting & see millions of reviews.

After we had fun strolling around the city, we made our way back toward the beach. We saw a few random boats in line for something. We wonder if this is the equivalent of dragon boat race that we saw the day before in Kaohsiung. XD

After getting amused by the mini race, we were getting thirsty so we looked around for a drink stall. And that's when we saw a drink stall called Happy Panda. Well, we did feel quite happy when we see this stall.

We did not drink at the bar because the seats are all taken by tourists from China. So we bring our fruit juices (mine's orange while my friend's is pear) to the beach. We slurped the drink happily under our umbrella while enjoying the ocean view of Kenting.