Thirty Taiwan vanlife days

Sound on.

First, let's talk about the van. I spent a month trying to rent a Westy. The plan was to live in the van for a month. I had to find a vehicle that could fit me, a 9 foot surfboard, and all my belongings.

Covered enough ground to circle Taiwan five times \ The Tropic of Cancer landmark

There's an emerging vanlife community in Taiwan - google "Westylife Taiwan" or visit Swell Co. Café in 大安. However, no sane owner of a lovingly converted campervan or restored Vanagon, no matter how chill, is going to rent it to a stranger.

Luckily with some trial and error, through a guy, and another guy, I rented an unconverted 1999 VWT4 for a price I could stomach. The market for long-term rentals doesn't exist, so be ready to pay more than expected.

With a van finally, I packed up and left Taipei.

Perfect sunrises all along the east coast \ 磯崎 beach parking lot

A whole week of northeasterly winds snapped the 1st surfboard \ 磯崎 beach

The van went up mountain passes and over sand dunes. Anywhere reached by roads was accessible.

In a sea of clouds, clouds are waves, mountains are breaks \ 台14甲

Sunset at Taiwan's most beautiful highway \ 台14甲

A lot of vanlife time is spent finding running water for showers. Thankfully there's no shortage of freecamping guides and maps, even in places faraway from surf communities.

Temples and public swimming pools for the showers \ 花蓮港天宮

Nature's shower \ 翡翠谷

Pebble factory \ 七星潭

Perfect river tracing \ 翡翠谷

Camping by a surfspot \ 四草橋

I spent less time surfing than expected. Relentless northeasterly winds snapped my first board. An onlooking surfer sighed and said, "This is heaven's way of telling you to stay out of the water today."

Later when passing through 台東, I picked up a beautiful green surfboard. It's a performance longboard, who's first owner was called Yoichi. What a fun board - I named it Yoshi.

Yoshi \ 都蘭半月灣

Messy waves, no surfing \ 杉原海灘

Hawaii \ 都蘭

Taiwan's spine is a formidable mountain range running from north to south. Driving over it proved too much for the van. No permanent damage done, but a multiday hike I had planned was cancelled.

Getting towed \ 中橫公路