Monarch Plaza Hotel Taoyuan

... annoyance all night. She lingered around me all night listening to all my conversations with other parents (she spoke English). I talked with another parent who spoke English and I was complimenting his son's writing and I found out that the dad was correcting and helping with all his writing. I had to tell him to stop doing his sons homework! I had one other parent ask if they should punish their child because they weren't listening in class. Punishing here is sometimes ...

... refused to tell me his real name....and I had to refer to him as 'Sexy Monkey Tail' for the first hour of class. Until someone finally decided to tell me his name was Vincent. The first topic was 'Friends'. One of the questions was 'Where do you like to hang out with your friends'? Vincent put his hand up and said 'The love motel'. This earned giggles from the whole class and an inward groan from me. I was like...'Um, that's great. Any OTHER ...

... are dipsey-doodling in and out of traffic, it's heart attack inducing! Anyway...about halfway through the journey it began to rain. The bungee jumping people called us and told us that there would no longer be jumping for that day...since they were on a metal bridge and there was some thunder and lightning happening. We all drove back Taoyuan and hung out a local pub/restaurant for a while. Then, a bunch of us went to this place called Thai Disco ...

... this guy.", but immediately relegated him to 'potential fling' status. The drinks flowed and so did the conversation. I was under the impression that we had really hit it off. He was flying out to Hong Kong the next day for a visa run and had to leave Taoyuan at 4 AM. We stayed at the bar til nearly 2 AM. We shared a cab to the train station...whereby I got off to get my scooter and he continued to his apartment. I went home feeling pretty good about myself. He had asked me ...

... birthday. I didn't want to put people on the spot and so I just didn't go and bother anyone. After I had purchased myself a drink and realized that I just wasn't drunk enough to be enjoying the scene....I decided to call it a night and head up to the hotel rom (this was round 2:30 AM or so). So ya, I was somewhat disappointed with the whole birthday outing...but I have had a birthday in 4 different countries now (Canada, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Taiwan) and not many ...

... One of the oldest civilizations (and one of oldest Christian countries) in the world, it remains off the tourism radar for most of the past few decades due to war and internal disturbances (If you're old enough to remember "We Are the World," you know what I'm talking about). Now peace hopefully has come to Ethiopia (well, most parts of it but not all) and hope things continue to improve there. Maybe 2008? By the way, have I mentioned I like Ethiopian food?

The flight from Sydney was uneventful after we actually got on the plane. Due to the later depture there was no way I was going to make my connecting flight, with the net flight 24 hours later I now had a stopover in Teipai to look forward to. Now, a word on the airline. Alot of people said to me, why china airlines, well it was good. They handled the delay really well and gave us food and accommodation in Tiepai. There was no food on the flight due to the ...

... people and get three different answers, of which one is the direct opposite of my general orientation feeling and the other suggestions. I am tired, the misinformation and that I do not know the way make me grumpy. I follow the suggestion given by the policeman, as this best matches my feeling. Anyhow, if it gets much later I can follow the stars, grrrrr.... After about another 4 km walk I see my place - Halleluja! Omi Tofo! I get a very happy welcome ...

I decided that I'm not doing enough with my time here. The last time I went away was at Christmas, and I spend far too much time in Taoyuan as it is, I don't have to waste my luxurious free weekends here too. But on the other hand, in my true lazy style, the thought of actually making the effort to go away for the weekend was a bit much this week. That and my friends were all busy (nope, not me being lazy at all...). So, this weekend's lucky destination for Loui's ...

... is the SHiling market. Don`t eat dinner before going there. We tried really good things like shang hai jian sheng bao, which is a dought stuffed with meat. I felt in love with the ma shu hua sheng bing qi ling which is king of a peanut ice cream. Finally we tried the cua bing which is snowflakes with mango or fruit jelly and red beens. Interesting. That ll keep you busy the whole night, promised!