This post is part of my Holiday Price Tag series, where I share the nitty-gritty of my holiday spending, giving you a transparent look at what different trips actually cost me.
May is truly the season of travel. I just came back from my Indonesia dive trip and my previous Taiwan surf & bike trip. Two days later, I’m jetting off again to Longdong in Taiwan!
Not gonna lie, I was most excited for this because I get to do my favourite activity: outdoor climbing!
Fun fact, I was supposed to do a combined surf, cycle, and climb Taiwan trip, but very reluctantly had to break them up into two parts due to conflicting schedules with my different groups of friends. But, so glad that everything worked out in the end.
In total, I spent SG$1,579.78 for my 7-day trip (18 May – 24 May) in Taiwan. Here’s a quick breakdown of the top three biggest categories.
Sports (59% of expenses)
My biggest expense was my multi-pitch course. We paid SG$920 per person for a group class (~3 people) conducted over 3 days with QX.
We learnt many crucial skills, including:
- Setting up anchors
- Clove hitch & Munther hitch
- Redirected & directed belay
- Rapelling
Rappelling was probably the scariest for me because you have to fully trust the system, unlike a normal lead climb whereby you trust your own skills (and possibly your belayer if you take a fall :P). Rapelling is also usually done at the end of your climb, which is when everyone is tired and most likely to make mistakes.
The different crags we visited in Longdong were Golden Valley, Music Hall, and Back Door. My favourite was Music Hall because there was this giant cave that made the whole climb feel so so grand. It’s also very nicely sheltered at the lower half from any bad weather.
Close favourite was Back Door with the amazing sea and lagoon views and the fun slab route where we did a trad climb on!
QX also corrected many climbing myths I accumulated over the years. A noteworthy one was the proposal belay for lead. I wasn’t initially taught this, but saw so many Singaporean belayers do this that I simply followed. It felt more comfortable and gave me more confidence in not flying up when I belay my heavier friends.
But, according to QX, there’s actually no point kneeling down to belay for the first three clips. It creates more slack in the system and also gives less room for you to react or take in the slack in case the climber falls.
I think the biggest questions to ask yourself are:
“Is it a perceived risk or an actual risk?”
“Do we do something to feel safe or do we do something because it’s genuinely the most effective way to mitigate risk?”
QX’s insights helped me realise the importance of critically evaluating common practices rather than blindly following them, especially when it comes to safety. Often, perceived risks actually lead to inefficient or even counterproductive safety measures!
But, I digress. Continuing on to my next biggest expense.
Transport (19% of expenses)
For transport, I spent a total of SG$309.25. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Scoot airfare (SG$256.61): I’m a big fan of Scoot, especially after flying budget flights like EasyJet in Europe. Scoot is less strict with your carry-ons and have pretty decent seats!
- Metro (SG$25.87): Longdong is actually quite a distance from Taoyuan so we had to travel up north. We also did many day trips out of Ruifang/Longdong after our course ended.
- Cab rides (SG$26.78): Travelling in a group means that taking a cab sometimes makes more sense in terms of time saved.
Hotel (13% of expenses)
Last but not least, hotel took up the next bulk of my expenses. We stayed all seven days in Longdong.
For future climb trips, I’ll probably move back to Taipei after our climbs are done. But, since it was my first time there, my friend and I wished to explore the Ruifang area since we’d never been there before. We stayed really close to popular tourist attractions like Houtong Cat Village, Jiufen, and Shifen.
Our bed and breakfast (though they don’t serve breakfast! but you get the vibe) costs us SG$198.60 per person for a week.
With a sad but accepting heart, that concludes my Asia tour. I think I’ve had enough of traveling (till the end of 2025 haha).
Back to the grind of pitching for my freelance clients and applying for a full-time job!
Cheers,
Valery