How To Travel Taiwan 🇹🇼 Backpacking Documentary | Ep4 Jiufen + Snow Mountain

Coming up on this episode of Welcome to Taiwan. We start in Jiufen, one of Taiwan's most scenic towns. However, it turns out to be overrun with tourists and seemingly impossible to enjoy. So about five minutes, Lin, to walking around, we've already given up. Way too busy. But never fear, we will show you how to escape the crowds and find incredible views just like this. Talk about a place to have lunch. And then it's off to the middle of the island for our final and most challenging feat of this series as we battle the elements and altitude sickness in an attempt to climb Snow Mountain. We're saving the best till last on this one. So sit down and relax because this episode is going to be next level. Not yet. To the last episode of this mini series. In the last episode, we were in Hualien and we had so many adventures, didn't we? It was one of the best places we went to. Then we've come up north today to a town called Jiufen. You've been here before. Yes, it's my second time. It's a bank holiday, so it's super busy. And we have a friend here, Alex. He's come back. But why do you recommend Jiufen? What is this place and why should people come? Well, first of all, if you tell people back where you come from that you went to Taiwan, the first thing they're going to ask is, oh, how was Jiufen? Oh, really? Right. So you just kind of have to see it. But it's just an old town, cobblestones, tea, you know. It's key. Sexy views. Yeah. Look at this. We've got like ocean views and islands. I think we're going to try and find a place to get some beers and watch the sunset. But first, just walk around and enjoy this little cute little town. And then later, after Jiufen, we're going to head into the interior of the island for our biggest challenge of the series so far, where we're going to attempt to climb the second tallest mountain, Snow Mountain. So loads of adventures to be had in this final episode. Are you pumped? That was so cringe. Let's do it. Jiufen is known for its steps and narrow alleyways and its gorgeous mountains and sea views. This town in the north of Taiwan was at one point a hub for the Japanese during the gold rush. So lots of the statues and museums that can be found here really showcase the big influence the Japanese had on this place. On a normal day, this popular place is quite enjoyable. But because today was a public holiday for everyone in Taiwan, it was kind of impossible to enjoy something as simple as just walking around exploring. This place is cool. Very cute. Very busy. All these tiny little nooks and crannies. Think about how many recycled farts go to the bottom, right? Because you're just ass to mouth the whole time. Just a quiet little street here in Jiufen. Smells good though. Yeah, it's an attack on the senses. It's very nasally noisy. Sorry. Oh look, space. I can dance. Yeah, it was packed. And we were starting to regret coming all this way just to be squashed like sardines on every path there is. Have you ever seen anything so busy? Every time I come here, it's like crazy. So much so that Damien just said screw it and he bought us some beers and we just sat on the gutters and let the masses pass us by. So about five minutes Lin to walking around, we've already given up. Way too busy. Cheers, good health guys. Good to see you again, Alex. With all of the delicious food and cheap beers on offer at 7-Eleven, we put together a plan. We wanted to find a quiet spot to watch sunset and actually enjoy Jiufen. So just like a well-organized expedition, we split up to divide and conquer. I went to get the food and the snacks and the guys went to get the beers. And we reconvened in the old gold mine tunnels and came out to a lovely little spot. And look at this. There is a little cute couple taking pictures there. But mountain views, all of the craziness in that direction. Quiet, peaceful, a little temple here and a viewpoint. Great place to have a couple of beers and enjoy sunset with the lads. Perfect time to have this peanut butter ice cream with... Cilantro. They basically have a giant block of peanut brittle and they like shave off flakes. You saw, right? Yeah. Yeah, and they wrap it in this. I don't know what this paper is, but it's delicious. Taiwan classic. I think you're gonna love it. No. No? No, you don't like it? No. Really? No. Do you not like cilantro? I do, but not in that. Put jam in there. Put chocolate sauce in there. Take one more bite. Take a good, take a good bite where there's like lots of peanuts. The sunset was glorious and we really enjoyed this quieter side of town. Honestly, Jiufen is beautiful, so just plan a way around the crowds and you'll be sure to enjoy this town even more than we already do. The sunset beers turned into a few nighttime beers because Jiufen actually has some really cool little hole-in-the-wall bars and when you find one that lets you play your own music as well as serving cheap local brew, well, that's just a recipe for a good night. So you're walking down Jiufen Old Street and you hear some beautiful music coming from a pub and you think, what is that? What are those docit tones? And actually, it's these two idiots drinking beer and singing too. Early next morning, we dusted ourselves off and tackled our hangovers head-on with a mission to climb the tallest mountain in the area, a peak called Teapot Mountain. So we thought we got to the top but not quite. There's this rock summit by the look of it that we need to get past which wouldn't be that difficult if it wasn't for this queue of people. Have you ever seen that Instagram of the queue for Everest? This is kind of that vibe. This is one of the many ways that smartphones have ruined everything. If you're claustrophobic, you won't like this. Look. Okay, I've got lost. We got separated somehow. But this isn't the top. That's the top up there. This trek is not for anyone who's scared of heights. It's pretty gnarly, especially when you're coming across here. One false slip and you're down. Good night. So, Paddy, you look really comfortable, man. And also Paddy discovered something else we didn't know about this. That's... That's where we're actually trying to go. Talk about a place to have lunch, right? Can you believe this place? Down there you can see the museum. That was the rock that we climbed through. We came up here and up at that crazy wall with the rope. All the way to here. All the way to here, exactly. Absolutely incredible. Teapot Mountain here in Jiufen. Can't recommend this enough. It was fun. It was challenging. It was a little bit dangerous, but a good adventure, right? And what an amazing view to end with. From here, I think we're going to head down. This has been a good practice for our big mountain tomorrow. Yeah, this is just a wee hill compared to Snow Mountain. I mean, look, there's the ocean. We can only be about 1,000 meters high right now. And we're going to be up nearly 4,000 meters tomorrow. Or attempting to, anyway. So we're going to head down, say goodbye to our friend Alex. He's going back to Taipei. And then we are going to go climb Snow Mountain tomorrow. Are you pumped? He has to go back to work. I'm bummed. I wish I could come with you. I got to work. Oh, well. The next day and after a lie-in and a lazy morning in Jufen, by the time we got a bus into the middle of Taiwan, it was already late in the afternoon. And we still had a few hundred kilometers or so to reach the start of the trail for Snow Mountain. Local transport here is amazing. However, once you get into the central highlands, there's no trains and the buses are very seldom. So our only option was to continue by hitchhiking. And even though the surroundings were stunning, each car that was picking us up was only going five or ten minutes up the road at a time. So things were not looking good for us in terms of getting to the start of the trail in time for our permit, which only allows us to climb Snow Mountain the following day. The plan is there is no plan. We just want to try and get to the town where the beginning of the trail is before dark. And yeah, wish us luck. Are we going to do it? We're going to do it. We really have to do something about our time management. Yes. Oh, well. Sleepy heads. We got a ride. So he's not going all the way. No, he's not going all the way, but he's going like half the distance, I think. Like half the distance from here to Dualing. Okay, that's better than nothing. Yeah, right? Well, welcome to the middle of nowhere in Taiwan. What a ride that was. That guy was chewing betel nuts, smoking fags, driving like a maniac. There's literally no towns or villages at all for another 100 kilometers. And look at the traffic situation here. It's not exactly Broadway. We're doomed. Oh, my God. It's been 20 minutes and no cars come. And it's getting cold. Can we break the record? What was the record again? The longest way we've ever had is two and a half hours. This is what I love the most, is just having the sense of like, where are we? What we're doing? This is great. You know, nature, hitchhiking, friendship. But poor Damien's not very well, are you? I don't feel 100%. He's coming down with something. He's got a headache. He's got like a painful, what is it like a nose infection or something? I don't know what it is. It's just like my nose is swollen. Oh, so his morale's down. We don't have any beers and we don't have any food. Mosquitoes biting my leg. Anyway, let's manifest positive vibes. No matter how positive we remain, still the few cars that drove by just didn't seem interested in picking us up and the light was fading really fast. Are you giving them a good big smile? Because nobody wants to pick up a miserable bastard. You've got to give it your biggest like, hey, pick me up. Picking me up for a good time. Amazingly, with the last few minutes of daylight, we got a ride. A couple of Tunisian brothers who were driving around the mountains on a wild camping adventure of their own. They drove 50 kilometers before we saw a place that had rooms. But unfortunately, when we went inside, it was fully booked and we just had to use it as a shelter to heat up some noodles and to make a plan because right now we were stranded in the Taiwanese mountains with no place to stay and no camping gear. We had seen a police station on the way, so we decided our best option was to go back and ask for help. With any luck, these police officers would have a place we could rest until the morning. Oh, you speak English? Yes, I speak English. Oh, wow, very lucky. So, what's going on? We just went to the hotel and it's full. We don't have any transportation. The hostel is full? It's full. Oh, I'm sorry. And we don't have any transportation going to the next hotel. Yeah, we continued to explain that we really messed up and we're completely lost. But the police offered us some tea and snacks whilst they called around to hostels and guest houses to find us a bed for the night. Unfortunately, everything was full and just when we thought we would have to sleep outside in the cold, dark forest, the Taiwanese police came up with a solution. Thank you, Taiwan police. Yeah, the lady working at the station turns out to have some friends who run an organic tea plantation further up into the mountains and the family had kindly offered to let us stay for the night. The Taiwanese hospitality was turning out to be amazing and even when we arrived at the family's house, we were greeted with a tea ceremony and a little taste of their amazing organic tea. I'd say that's six grams more. Interesting smell. Taste it. Sure. It's crispy. That's true. Did you just say yummy? I like it. Put some salt on it and I'm buying it. Welcome to a tea plantation in Taiwan. Didn't think I'd say that. Did you have any clue there was a tea plantation vibe here? No, I don't know. I knew there was milk tea but I didn't expect the milk tea to come from Taiwan itself. I know. They only have one acre of land and they take it super seriously and their tea is a Michelin star tea and they were showing us all the certificates that they've got and I jokingly, well, I wasn't jokingly, I said, oh, can I buy some? And they said, it's very expensive. As if to say you can't afford this since we were probably, we look like such tramps, don't we? When we're hitchhiking, you know, they probably think we don't have any money or something but they don't know that we're just looking for an adventure and we found it. Look at this place. What's this? We still have to get to Snow Mountain today because the thing about Snow Mountain is you need a permit and it does take a little while to organize. We're not even in a county or district of Taiwan where we plan to be. We're far away. But it was worth it. It was well worth it. We can double back. Oh, this is nice. Yeah, waking up here in this countryside paradise was certainly completely unexpected but certainly very welcome. The family even gave us a plowman's breakfast of eggs, cheese, apples and of course, plenty more of their organic tea. Vita, the lovely lady from the police station even invited us to go check out the tea plantation itself. And even though we were really far from where we needed to be we couldn't say no because well, this was one of the most beautiful places we'd ever seen. Make it rain. The oolong gold. Green gold. Organic gold. We got to see their organic fertilizers and plant foods as well as getting to learn how to pick the tea leaves by hand. What we love most about the budgeteers is showing you guys that there are plenty of adventures out there for everyone and the only way to access them is by getting out there and looking for them. Picking tea and hanging out at this beautiful farm had never been part of our plan but hey, neither had being stranded in the mountains being cold and hungry the night before either. The point is that if you stay in your comfort zone you'll always experience life the same way but by getting out there and setting yourselves for adventures you'll always create lifelong memories and learn much more about the world we live in. Vita had to drive home and luckily the road she needed was kind of in the direction we needed to so we jumped in and took in some more of the incredible Taiwanese mountain roads. Thank you so much for everything. Thank you so much for your help. Yeah, no problem. Enjoy your trip. We will. Thank you for the tea and the food and everything. Yeah, if you have any questions just call me. You have my number. We just came back from the tea plantation started to hitchhike our way back to Snow Mountain. It took a while but eventually got picked up in this truck kind of full of garbage but you know that's the first one for the series. Vegas can't be choosers. Vegas can't be choosers, right? Yeah, we never knew hitchhiking in Taiwan was going to be so easy and so beautiful and so adventurous. Yes, hitchhiking in Taiwan. Yeah, life was good. I don't think you can beat hitchhiking in the back of a dirty old truck driving through incredible scenery with your new best mate. This is definitely my happy place for sure. We knew we were making good time as well because within a few hours and a few more truck rides we finally made it into the national park. We dumped our bags at the police station and we started to make our way to the start of the trail. Everywhere we go we're like God, I didn't expect this in Taiwan. And there's nothing yet that you can compare it with because most of the time when you're traveling you compare everything. Like in life you compare everything but I can't compare this with anything I've ever seen in my life. I can only compare it to your beautiful face. Okay, do you want to get up this mountain? You go first. So you can look at my booty the whole time? Sika Hut, that's our first rest point. That's two kilometers. 7.1 is where we sleep. 10.9 to the summit. Hello, we're here at Kika Cabin. Kika, Sika, Kika? Chika. Chika Tita tell me what's wrong. Thank you. Quick Snickers bar break and a wee little bit of tea. Yeah, just chocolate and sugar and peanuts and energy. All the good stuff. From here it's three more K to where we're going to sleep and we've picked the perfect time of day really. Coming late in the afternoon, perfect weather. Sun coming through the trees. Beautiful forest area we've just gone through. Some more forest to get through. Yeah, we're carrying these little backpacks with, you know, some peanuts in it and these guys are carrying these things. Damien, just lift that up to show you. Well, not trying to show you just try and lift that up. Help me up. How heavy is that? That's pretty heavy. I spot a wild Damien grazing on an apple. He searches for a mate yet cannot find one. Damien, we made it. Yes, Damien, we made it. And there was a few slips along the way. I stacked it a few times. Two times. Two times, yes. In the dark, admiring the stars in the view. But Damien was there to pick me up, so thank you. Anyway, it's very, very, very pretty up here. And we, it's about what, seven o'clock, eight o'clock? I think 7.30. 7.30. The hut is packed and everyone's getting an early night. Half of the people seem to be waking up at two. We're going to wake up at five, get a bit more sleep. Yeah, so we're going to enjoy this delicious meal. You get a meal when you get to the top. How good is that? And a sleeping bag. So we're going to stuff our faces, get some sleep and attack the summit tomorrow. I know it's disgusting. It's really bad. That's why I put chili all over it. Anyway, wish us luck. Yeah, the next morning we woke up to some bad news. I had slept just fine, but Damien had been up all night with a terrible headache and he felt like he might have a minor case of altitude sickness. It's okay. So we ate a later breakfast and just waited to see if Damien started to feel any better. Yeah, I woke up with a severe headache, but I didn't want to let Paddy down. And since I'd climbed much higher peaks in Nepal and Morocco, I knew I could do it. So at least I was going to give it a try. However, even after just 15 minutes, my headache got even worse and I started to feel really nauseous as well. So I couldn't even walk anymore. So I rested in the grass beside the trail and hoped that my body would start to adapt to this altitude of around 3000 meters. At last, I started to feel a bit better. Still bad, but good enough to push towards the summit. I knew we weren't far and making it to the top would be a great achievement. So I summoned up all the strength I had to continue on. Look at this. With Damien powering through, we were lucky that the penultimate stage of the climb was the black forest. Shaded from the sun and with more oxygen around us, Damien was able to take it slow and recharge his energy levels. The forest itself is ridiculously beautiful, much more flat and full of unique plants and animals. And it wasn't long until we got a super lucky encounter. So we're in the black forest. Damien's feeling a little bit better and we've just seen dessert, dessert. What is it? I think it's called a muntyak. Muntyak. Tastes like a special kind of deer. Okay, it's just down here. Pretty cool experience to see that. Amazing wildlife here in this beautiful forest. Amazing. We could see the summit up past the tree line and so we mustered up the last of our energy supplies to hike up the steepest and hardest part of the climb. All right, we're officially out of the black forest, which is a real shame because it was absolutely stunning. But now we're here in this open sort of rocky area now. But over there you can see a blanket of soft white clouds. It's gorgeous. But yeah, this is the last push now to the top. Can you believe this is Taiwan? This is one of the highlights. This is one of the best things I've ever done anywhere. If you come into Taiwan, make sure to get a permit for Snow Mountain. And this is the peak season. The time we're filming this is October. So October, November, and then in December, January it starts to snow. All of this will be snow. Isn't that amazing? Okay, this is how the Taiwanese tell the kids that their lunch is ready. Awesome. Come on, last bit. You can do it. I'm doing this all for you, subscribers. This is the thing about mountains. There's no medal. There's no certificate. You just do it because it's a challenge. And it's better than sitting on your ass. I think we're at the top, Damien. Last few steps together. Come on. Take my hand. Let's do an Instagram, ready? Turn around. Oh my gosh, you look so beautiful. Oh, there's the top. Yes. I thought you weren't going to make it, Damien. Shui Mountain, 3,886 meters. I think this is only time for a high five. Wow. Very good. Let me show you around. Look at this. Down there will be Taiwan. Obviously. Down there will be Taipei. In that direction, Hualien. And down there, Yilan. And down here, a very exhausted, strong Belgian man. The muscles from Brussels. Yeah, as you can tell with the lower oxygen levels and pure exhaustion, we couldn't string a proper sentence together. But that didn't matter because we had done it. And there was nothing else to do other than just soak up Taiwan's insane natural beauty one last time and reflect on this incredible end to an incredible trip. Damien, give me one more high five or fist bump, what are we doing? Both. I really don't think there's a better place to end this series than right here atop Mount Snow, Snow Mountain. The Taiwanese name is Shui. How do you pronounce it? You came to Taiwan two years ago and you mainly did the west coast by yourself and together me and you, we've mainly done the east coast. If someone was coming to Taiwan and they only had two weeks, which coast would you recommend? East coast. Well, it depends what you like. If you don't like nature, if you don't like hiking, if you don't like, you know, that kind of stuff, don't do the east coast, do the west coast. But if you are into hiking and adventure and all that stuff, come to the east coast. Taiwan's been a really big surprise and my battery's blinking. So I'm just going to call it a day here. I just want to say a big thank you to everyone watching it. Hope you really enjoyed this mini series. Thank you to everyone in the Budgeteers crew for supporting the channel and for enabling this series to happen. I'm going to use some of the support you guys have given us to fix half of my camera gear, which is broken during this trip, and come to Taiwan. What a trip. Damien, thank you again. It's been great to travel with you. It's been a pleasure and hopefully we'll get to travel again soon. Soon. And now that you've traveled with Thijs and me, Lina, you've got to do a trip with this boy at some point. Anyway, peace out, safe travels, and thanks for watching this mini series of The Budgeteers.