Les Suites Da An Taipei

... bothered going all that way and so I decided to wonder aimlessly around Taipei. I took a random exit and headed what I thought was west and just continued walking. I honestly had no idea where I was but then I saw the Shin Kong tower (previously tallest building in Taipei and now second tallest) and thought I haven't been in there yet, so I headed towards the building. The entire building was just a shopping complex I think and it wasn't anything I haven't seen in the ...

... was to be Pan Weibo (潘玮柏) and the concert would start at around 1.30pm, so we went for some light shopping and lunch nearby while killing time.

At 1.30pm, we were back in front of the stage and waited for the singer to come. Not that we were his fans but it was a Taiwanese event. We waited for Pan Weibo to turn up and stayed for two of his songs before disappearing into the metro station.

We went ...

... and announce that we were in Taiwan. Luckily, my dad's coworker had given me 100 Taiwanese Dollars so I didn't have to worry about exchanging money at the bank; which is always a rip off. When the second group came, we went and found our bus which took us about 15 minutes to our Dorm at Shi Da. The elevator took FOREVER, but we all eventually made it up to the tenth floor and fell asleep immediately. We made it safe and sound. ---but not totally prepared.

... s neighboring country Thailand. It's still recovering from it's recent horrific history and for this I am lenient towards the panhandlers and sellers. Sometimes though after a hot, dusty, twelve-hour bus ride without air conditioning you just want to be left alone. The best place to do this is in Sihanoukville, a little beach town that hasn't been discovered. At least not yet. I am sure in five years I won't be able to recognize it. For ...

... them (and to check who has a bigger head, I think it should be me!)... 8. Cuba: Enters my Top 10 for the first time. Though I traveled back to Caribbean again last March, I remain uninspired by most of those islands. Most of them are just too touristy and too Americanized (I didn't come to Aruba for Dunking Donut and Chi-Chi's). Maybe Cuba would be very different from that. "Buena Vista Social Club" also gave me some longing for Cuban music. The tricky ...

Rome to Hong Kong/Taipei flight. Pick-up was half hour early causing a lats minute panic to get out of the room - what have we left behind? Then spent half-hour waiting for next passenger at some toher Hotel before setting off for the airport and going right past our apartment again. Pick-up could have effectively been an hour later. Then we encountered a major traffic snarl caused by a freeway accident and the other passenger ...

Route: Green Island - Ferry Boat - Fugang - Taitung ( by bus ) - Taipei ( by train ) Total Distance: 0 km Altitude: 0m So - my W A L K is nearing its end for the time being. I have beakfast in the ' Breakfast and Beautiful Shop ' as the previous day. Wow, now I have to decide whether still to continue to Orchid Island ( Lanyu ), a somewhat neighboring island of Green Island. I have already checked that there is no ship ...

... wonders. However, just to be sure Im going to have to test this theory further of course. We all have a bunch of time to chill in Taipei, we separated to check into our respective hostels. After that, I had just about one singular goal for the entire trip.....See the Taipei 101 so this is what we did!! And I am so glad we did. It's currently the tallest building in the world with 5 stories underground and 101 above ground is how I think it is all laid out. I mean just looking ...

... it just felt like we were sooooo out of place being there. Mike looked back at me and replied "Dude, I don't think we've ever been in this weird a place since we started traveling," I agreed. So after the weird dinner we decided to go back to the even weirder hostel and make sure our bags were still there. We made sure not to make eye contact with the canadian guy and after we confirmed our bags were still there, we tried to get a hold of Sarah. We had to ask the canadian ...

... the place the owner tells me that it is a coffee shop and homestay. We negotiate a bit and agree quickly on an off-season price of NTD 800 for one night and 1.400 NTD for two nights and only myself. Before anything else I sit down, my backpack against the wall and have a caffee latte. I totally relax with a view on the old stone houses, the ocean with other even smaller islands ( one near-by is called turtle island - not because it has many turtles ...