Lumbini – the birthplace of the Buddha
Besides trekking in the Himalays, visiting Lumbini in Nepal was an important goal of mine. As a Buddhist I've always had great respect for Buddhism, not because it's a religion, but because of its teaching, especially how it teaches us to often look inward and not outward or to heaven to solve our problems. So after my trekking to Annapurna basecamp I took a bus from Pokhara to Lumbini which is located in the south of Nepal near the ...
The amazing Annapurna Base Camp trek
One major thing I wanted to do during my travel in Asia back in 2018 was to hike in the mountains of the Himalayas. As a person that never did any serious hikes before this was a strange goal to have. But having seeing pictures and videos of the Himalayas made me think this must be an adventure of a lifetime. Besides there was something mythical about Nepal and the Himalayas that I really wanted to explore. In a ...
Hiking to the Elephant Mountain in Taipei
During my visit to Hong Kong I met a fellow traveller from Taiwan and he told me about the many mountains and hiking routes that exist in Taiwan. This was something new to me as I always thought Taiwan was a small island with little to no mountains. So after coming to Taipei I researched quite a bit to find any hiking areas nearby to explore the mountainess side of Taiwan. Due to time contraints I was unable to ...
Crazy night markets in Taipei
I've seen a couple night markets since I arrived in Taipei; one in Taipei Bridge and the other one in the city centre near my hostel. But to fully experience a real night market in Taipei I visited the presumably largest night market in the city called Shi Lin Night Market. Shi Lin is located in the northern area of Taipei. So to get there I used the metro which is quite comfortable and on-time. The night market was ...
Visiting Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Ximending in Taipei
My yesterday's visit to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall ended abrutply due to heavy rain. Today I went back and visited the Hall once more, hopefully the weather would be good today. I'd also heard and read a lot about a shopping area nearby called Ximending. So my second destination for the day was to visit this shopping district to see what's buzz with that place. From my new central located hostel, it was quite easy to walk all the ...
Free walking tour in Taipei
Although I prefer to explore new areas on my own, sometimes it's great to have a local guide to tell you more about the background stories and histories of the places you are visiting. Usually this kind of guides do cost a bit but I've also seen and joined free guides as well like the ones in Melaka, Malaysia and in Hue, Vietnam. Luckily I found out that there was a free walking tour guide in Taipei as well! ...