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I love to travel, especially solo travel so much. But every time I tell myself to be more present, take it slow and just enjoy. Every time, I end up being stressed, pushing myself to see everything as much as possible.

I am at the start of my solo trip in Asia, I have 10 days behind me and 1 more month to go. I really want to slow down and just be present. But I am not sure how to do that. Sometimes I can achieve that by sitting in a cafe and sketching.

Do you guys have any advice on how to presently enjoy travel more?

I know that it's normal that not everyday is going to be amazing, and that there are times when things go wrong. But I feel that I could do better at enjoying the trip more. Any advice?

I love to travel, especially solo travel so much. But every time I tell myself to be more present, take it slow and just enjoy. Every time, I end up being stressed, pushing myself to see everything as much as possible.

I am at the start of my solo trip in Asia, I have 10 days behind me and 1 more month to go. I really want to slow down and just be present. But I am not sure how to do that. Sometimes I can achieve that by sitting in a cafe and sketching.

Do you guys have any advice on how to presently enjoy travel more?

I know that it’s normal that not everyday is going to be amazing, and that there are times when things go wrong. But I feel that I could do better at enjoying the trip more. Any advice?

Can anyone relate?

I am a girl and realised I am bi about 4 years ago. I met this girl who I had a crush on, eventually we became really good friends. But she made me realise I am also into girls.

Since then I have been exploring these feelings. And the older I get I realise I really am not into guys. In the past. I used to date or hook up with lots of guys and I thought I was really into it. But often afterwards I would feel not so great.

These days I can only think about dating girls, and find mostly only them attractive. And most guys seem just gross. Recently a guy kissed me and I really didn’t like it.

I know bisexuality is a spectrum and that probably I am still into guys, but now it’s only if they fit “strict” requirements. Like being actually a decent guy, etc.

Still I find women’s bodies so much more attractive than men’s. Even though I haven’t had sex yet with a woman.

So I sometimes wonder these days if maybe what I thought and did in my life before was truly just was just because of societal requirements. Now when I truly think about it i guess I am truly mostly into girls and only little into guys.

Also to add to the end, I have really been trying to date women, but it’s just not been happening for me. I usually end up being friends with all the gay girls. Also I find lots of lesbians aren’t interested dating a bi girl. What can I do?

It’s possible to see all these 3 locations in one day. Best time to travel is on a weekday, weekends and holidays are too busy.

First, travel from Taipei -> Houtong Cat Village (via Ruifang) by train. Spend there 1 hour, petting cats and getting ice-cream. The trains run once an hour so it’s important to leave on time.

Then travel -> Shifen, spend there 2 hours. This includes the visit the old street and the waterfall. (I don’t recommend releasing lanterns, they end up as trash in the forest)

Take the train back to Ruifang and then a bus to Jioufen. This may take 1-1.5hours. Visit a teahouse and walk the old lantern street with food stalls.

I recommend not leaving too late. It’s very pretty to stay until sunset to take picture of lanterns. But I stayed for dinner and l tried to leave after 8pm. Most buses were out of service. We waited about 1 hour for a bus to take us to Ruifang and then train to Taipei. Alternatively, you can get a taxi back, usually offered at 300-400TWD per person.

With all said, they are all beautiful locations worth the trouble!

I am travelling Taiwan right now and many times it happened to me where I was super frustrated. You can’t rely on Google Maps as they aren’t accurate. Often at bus stops lots of buses are out of service. There are apps like Bus+ but it’s super confusing. At bus stops it doesn’t show it on the time table at what times the buses are coming. Only on the screen if there is one.

Especially frustrating to travel between Taipei Jioufen as buses and trains are overcrowded so you have to stand and in the evening on the way back, again lots of buses are out of service. On weekends is almost impossible to get back without paying overpriced taxi.

Also, travelling form Chiayi to Alishan park, super annoying location. As an English speaker it’s hard to buy tickets in advance if you don’t want to use Klook. Your best option is to pay for the ticket on the bus. However, at busy times people with prepaid tickets go first, so you might have to wait a few buses. I tried to buy a ticket at Family Mart at FamiPort it doesn’t support English to the action of buying tickets, when I got help to buy the ticket it was saying that the system is down.

And going back from Alishan, you cannot buy bus tickets on the way back to Chiayi at the Alishan station. So again if you didn’t manage to buy advance ticket you will have to hope to get on the last buses. There are 3 buses that go back to the city between 4 and 5pm. So there is a possibility that you might miss all the buses and then you might not even be able to get a taxi. At an off-season it should be fine to just use an Easy Card to travel but during peak times it’s horrible.

At the end, Alishan park is not worth the travel and stress. The park is nice but not as impressive. There are only a few of the really big old trees and the rest is a normal forest.

Overall, bloody nightmare going anywhere in Taiwan by public transport. Next time I will make sure to rent a car.