Monarch Skyline Hotel Taoyuan

... in Taiwan, I came to the realization that I truly enjoy this international hobo lifestyle and would like to pursue it more aggressively from in the future. I then also realized that I had WAYYY too much stuff in order to be a successful backpacker and started decimating my wardrobe and worldly possessions. I went through ALL my stuff and ended up with a 19 kilogram suitcase that I mailed home to my parents and a bunch off stuff I threw out (cuz it ...

... got old really fast. It's like...Jesus...don't you guys watch TV? This one girl screamed and ran away when I said hi to her. What did she expect? Usually when you speak to someone...they speak back...it's a normal sequence of events. She apparently was worried I was gonna kill her and eat her or something. Cuz you know...we foreigners...we do **** like that. LOL. We found a nice place to have dinner and even had help from a nice English speaking soldier. There ...

... intake a lady had her golden retriever climb into the small space between her scooter seat and the steering apparatus. Everyone in the diner stared as she proceeded to climb onto the seat and drive away, her dog's tail dragging on the ground. I imagine is wasn't comfortable for either of them, but the dog seemed happy enough. Taoyuan isn't terribly interesting but the people are friendly.

We found Dr Wu and his assistant David just outside the main exit of the airport. Both men are exceedingly gracious and accommodating, insisting that they take our luggage to the car. Melinda and I were too tired to even feel guilty. David has hired a car to transport us from the airport (located in Taoyuan about an hour outside of Taipei). It's dusk outside and there's not much to see, unfortunately. The ...

... with a giant bottle of Prego spaghetti sauce and some pasta (which I turned into a fabulous dish) and told us that her family has a membership at a Costco in Taipei(Kimmi has since returned to the U.S...she couldn't handle being away from her boyfriend and family). We were invited to go out and buy some stuff there the next time they went. Well, this Sunday we had our big Costco outing. Let me tell you...I haven't been that excited about grocery shopping in quite some ...

... Munich), but isn't the Caucasus mountains beautiful? Just wondering when Intrepid or G.A.P. will start offering tours to this region... 5. Central Asia: Also moved up two notches. Most of them are also former USSR republics like the Caucasus. Uzbekistan is the country I want to visit the most since I want to see some ancient silk road cities like Bukhara and Samarkand; I also want to see the magnificent Tian-Shan (Sky Mountain) in Kyrgystan and the home of ...

Morning tour to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, ShieFoo? farmer's Temple, Handcraft Store - Martin's - a gut we met from the US had some amazing approaches to bartering but we did not think a whole lot of the respect he was showing to others particularly in a trans cultural situation. The National Palace Museum with artifacts dating back to 5th and 9th Centuries & right thru to modern times is a must-see even for people without a museum "bent". It provides an interesting time-line ...

... Beliefs, Languages, Hunting, Burial, Facial Tatoos and the legend of Atayal existance. It turns out that she is a good friend of one of the daughters of Hunter and knows his place very well. Both girls have worked, and Hunter's daughter still does, in the Mingchih hotel ( do you still remember the lunch stay at this place in bitter cold weather about a week ago? ). So small is the world. From there I continue my walk direction Luodong crossing the very long Tayal ...

... i got my shirt was he was trying to tell me he only had med. but be not understanding bugged him till he gave me one anyway. I always forget that they have no XL in anything. I went to a couple clothing store and was told "good luck" but that my chances of finding anything in my size where slim to none

... I hope that made sense, but its just something that struck me. Last Sunday, we took the MRT to Tian Mu, which is the district of Taipei I used to live in when I was little. I didn't see anything that looked familiar, but maybe some week soon I'll be able to travel around to see the street where we lived on and such. We went there to attend this church we had heard about it and it ended up being really weird. It was located on the 9th floor of a parking deck attached to a circular ...