We’ve made it to Taiwan! We landed in Taipei and, without stopping, hopped straight into a taxi to a small town about an hour away called Jiaoxi. We’ll be coming back to Taipei later on—originally, the plan was to meet my brother there about a week into our Taiwan trip and do all the sightseeing together. Sadly, he can no longer join us, but since all the accommodation had been booked months ago, we’ve ended up with a slightly jumbled itinerary.
In the end, it’s worked out surprisingly well. Normally when we’re backpacking, we only book things three days to a week ahead, but in South Korea and Japan, all the nicer accommodation gets snapped up months in advance. So, while we were still in the Philippines, we locked everything in. What we didn’t really plan for, though, was any downtime—every day had been crammed with activities. After nine weeks of nonstop travel, we were definitely feeling a bit worn out. Thankfully, Jiaoxi is famous for something we desperately needed: hot springs and relaxation.
We arrived at our hotel around 6pm, only to find the front door locked and no reception in sight. Luckily, our lovely taxi driver had waited to see that we got in safely. When he noticed the situation, he kindly called the hotel for us. A few minutes later, a man pulled up on a motorbike, took our payment, handed us a key—and then disappeared. We didn’t see a single staff member again for the rest of our stay! Still, the room was nice and cozy, which was all we really needed. After settling in, we wandered out into town and followed our noses to a little noodle restaurant. With the help of Google Translate, we managed to order. Grace had a braised beef noodle soup and I went for pork noodles. Both were absolutely delicious—possibly one of the best meals we’ve had so far. Feeling full and happy, we headed back to the hotel, found some YouTube travel documentaries about Taiwan to watch on the TV, and had an early night to recover from all the travel.
The next day, the weather wasn’t quite so welcoming. It was rainy, grey, and miserable. We’d originally planned a walk to a nearby waterfall, but decided instead to stay local and explore Jiaoxi’s famous free hot spring foot baths. The town is full of them! You’re not allowed to dip your feet near the source of the spring (the water is dangerously hot there), so we found the furthest pool and gave it a go. Even then, the water was scorching—around 45°C. Our feet turned bright red after just a few minutes! I couldn’t last more than five minutes before hopping out.
We had seen adverts for larger, private hot spring baths (onsens) at some of the local hotels, but they didn’t open until 3pm. With some time to kill, we naturally decided to return to our new favourite noodle spot for another incredible lunch. Afterward, we headed back to the hotel for a lazy afternoon of book reading and chilling, letting the rain do its thing outside.
At three o’clock, we made our way to one of the hotels offering public onsen baths. These are gender-separated, as the tradition is to bathe naked. We handed over our phones at reception, were given a towel, and instructed to thoroughly wash and shower before entering the pools—following proper onsen etiquette. The pool itself was beautiful, styled to look like a natural hot spring with rocks, a small waterfall, and lush greenery surrounding it. I’ve added some photos from the hotel’s website to show you. The water was lovely—still hot, but far more manageable at around 41°C compared to the earlier footbath. Even then, we couldn’t stay submerged for too long without needing to cool off. For the most part, we had the whole place to ourselves, floating peacefully in the warm water surrounded by mist and greenery. After about an hour, we were thoroughly relaxed—and thoroughly cooked! We grabbed an ice-cream to cook off and headed home.
In the evening, feeling like treating ourselves, we decided to splurge (£15 per person!) on a fancier restaurant and cocktail bar. It looked promising, with fancy presentation: our cocktails even arrived surrounded by decorative scenery. We ordered three dishes—lemon prawns, courgette and pork skewers, and dumplings. Sadly, it didn’t live up to expectations. Everything was a little greasy and not nearly as tasty as those humble noodles we’d been enjoying. We both agreed we should have just gone back to our favourite noodle shop instead!
The rest of the night was much less glamorous. We had a walk around town to see it all lit up in the dark and then we spent two hours sitting in a laundromat doing our washing, but at least it meant we had clean clothes ready for the next leg of our journey.
Tomorrow, we’re taking the bullet train to Hualien—I’ll tell you all about it soon!
Love, Alice x