DOULIU - TAIWAN

Earlier on the trip in Beijing I met Marlene from Canada who I kept in contact with until I met up with her in Taiwan. She offered to meet up and let me stay at her place in Douliou. Like most from America and Canada she was teaching English.

She was recovering from a broken foot which happened in a cycling accident a few weeks earlier. We went back to her place and she gave me a set of keys to her place, unlimited use of her bike and internet which was very good (and trusting of her).

The first evening we met up with her other English teaching friends cooked food and drank beer in a nearby park before heading round one of their houses until the early hours.


The town itself was not in my guidebook or in the internet travel guides I use like virtual tourist. I didn't see any other westerners during my first days explore of the town. That's what you call off the beaten track...........


I spent about 2 days exploring the countryside by bike but the map I had was not very clear and I ended up getting lost several times. I also went on a train trip and had a look around the town of            Chiayi
.

While it was ok for a couple of days it was not the best time I had in Taiwan as it got a bit boring sometimes with not having anyone to talk to during the day. English seemed to be spoken by the locals here less than anywhere else.

The night before heading off I was sitting in a local internet cafe when an earthquake struck. Living in England it was something I was not used to but the locals didn't seem to react to it a lot. I jumped up and was ready to run outside.

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A magnitude-6 earthquake hit Nantou County at 5:32 p.m. Thursday, causing buildings to sway all over Taiwan.The quake was the biggest to hit Central Taiwan since the 7.3-magnitude quake on September 21, 2009 which killed more than 2,400 people nationwide, but no deaths were reported Thursday.
The main quake’s epicenter was located at a relatively short distance of 19.3 kilometer under the surface 10.3 kilometer southeast from the township of Mingchien, where the tremor’s intensity reached seven, the Central Weather Bureau said.
The same area was hit by several aftershocks during the rest of the day, the first registering 4.7 about six minutes later. The biggest, measuring 5.7, struck Mingchien at 7:34 p.m., according to the bureau.
The quakes caused light injuries by falling objects inside buildings and forced the high-speed rail line to suspend traffic in Central and Southern Taiwan.
A female student was taken to hospital after she was injured by pieces of the ceiling falling down at the Tzuming High School in Taichung County, the fire service said. Cracks appeared in houses in Mingchien, with ceilings and walls damaged at a local government building.
There were also reports of hundreds of households in the Nantou area losing electricity and phone service.
High-speed rail traffic stopped all along the line as a security precaution, but service between Taipei and Taichung resumed after 7 p.m., reports said.