We are in the plane to Japan. The last week in Taiwan passed fast. We visited Taitung and Hualien on Taiwan’s East coast and were welcomed by more hosts.

In Taitung we stayed with Shihlung who we met through Couchsurfing.com. He works for the National Museum of Prehistoric which gave us the opportunity to discover the origin of the island Taiwan. On the second day he lent us his bicycles so we could discover the city and its surrounding area.

At Hualien we visited our friend Chihfang from Los Angeles, who had relocated back to Taiwan 3 years ago, and her sister. We spent our days between hikes in the beautiful Taroko Gorge and enjoying local specialties downtown.

The sun finally broke through the clouds on our last day in Taipei were we enjoyed the hospitality of Cindy, another Servas member. We said good-bye to Taiwan with a visit to the 1600 pandas who were taking a break from their own world tour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.