A South Korean husband and his Japanese wife have completed a three-month journey across Taiwan during which they spent an average of NT$300 per day, an exploit that has caught the eye of a local publisher.
Park Kun-woo, 30, and Miki Nakagawa, 39, decided to come to Taiwan for their honeymoon after getting married last year. They chose to experience the beauty of Taiwan, especially its rural areas, the hard way — by foot.
Together, they lugged around a backpack weighing nearly 30kg and slept in a tent at night to save money.
Photo provided by the Forestry Bureau
In the end, the couple spent less than NT$30,000, and local publisher Domain Publishing Co was so impressed they could spend so little that it plans to publish a book that chronicles their journey early next month.
The publisher said the couple arrived in Taiwan on Dec. 9 last year and traveled from northern Taiwan to Hualien via the picturesque Suhua Highway and continued down Taiwan’s east coast to Taitung and Kenting.
They then headed back to Taipei by walking up the west coast.
The two usually communicate in Japanese and speak little Chinese, but they were able to communicate with local residents as they walked around Taiwan using smiles and gestures.
Traveling about 20km per day on foot and sleeping in a tent nearby elementary schools or temples, the couple took about a month to reach southern Taiwan.
They experienced some bad moments, such as suffering extremely sore feet and being chased by wild dogs, being harassed by rebellious teenagers or asked to leave a national park in the middle of the night by park rangers, the publisher said.
However, they also experienced warm and unforgettable moments, such as when they were invited to spend the night by a passer-by, a policeman asked his friend to host them or a Japanese-speaking senior citizen gave them a hot meal.
A sticker on the couple’s backpack reading “South Korean husband and Japanese wife touring around Taiwan on foot” drew plenty of attention, with some people who came across the couple giving them beverages and snacks and others shouting encouragement to boost their morale.
When Park and Nakagawa were about to leave Taipei after completing their journey, they were invited by some Taiwanese back to central and southern Taiwan to see lantern festivals and experience traditional Lunar New Year holiday celebrations.
This was Park’s third visit to Taiwan. He first took an odd job in Nanao, Yilan County, about five years ago, and later took part in the LGBT pride parade with Nakagawa.
Before coming to Taiwan, the couple had used the same frugal means to tour Sri Lanka, Australia, India and China.
The couple said they are not sure what their next stop will be, but they did feel certain that they wanted to return the kindness they received in Taiwan to others someday.
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