Nice Prince Hotel Chiayi

9 May 2009 (Sat)
It wasn't a long stay in Chiayi (嘉义). We planned to spend a night here in order to catch the early Forest Train (森林小火๗ 0;) to Alishan (阿里山) the next morning. We reached the city by High-Speed Rail (HSR) and checked in to Jiaxin Dafandian (嘉新大饭ॵ 5;, NT$700/double room ...

... br>While doing the initial research for our extended end of contract break we had strongly considered both Malaysia and Indonesia but began looking more keenly at the Philippines simply as the result of an unavoidable and indisputable fact. It was by far the cheapest flight. For the equivalent of $200 Canadian each we could purchase return tickets from Kaohsiung in the south of Taiwan to Manila, the Filipino capital on a 7 week return. Why 7 weeks I hear you ask?

Putzi, TW.04, Taiwan yamahuh

Theresa and I celebrated Christmas eve by decoration a little tree from CarreFour. Sam was at Tae kwon do. Christmas Day, after a long day of school we had Talitha and Robert over to watch Fred Claus. On the 27th we had a sort of party at the school, so there are some pictures of my kids ...

We went to the Tropic of Cancer Astronomy Square. The first thing we did, like all the children was climb all over the planets. I needed a little help to climb up on Uranus [Aquarius' ruling planet]. In the ones of me standing you can see my scooter which the girls held so I could climb up. We tried some unsuccessful "boosting" first [Sam with my foot, Theresa trying to give me a push] and felt the scooter would get me closer.

... biggest fans). They plan to e-mail us in the future, their English was pretty darn good. We thought someone swiped Maile's camera, but it turns out they took it by mistake and she got it back. Umm, I would try to describe the cars we have been riding in and our hotel rooms, but words would not do it justice. We were (literally) in a pimp's suite last night with 3 porn channels. Hey, at least my blog entries aren't boring....

... Das Quellbad war nicht sehr gross, aber schoen angelegt, halb im freien, holzverkleidete Waende, eine gruene Boeschung, ein kleiner Wasserfall und von Naturstein eingefasste, dampfende Becken. Im heissen Wasser liess es sich gut chillen, das Wechselbad sorgt fuer Abwechslung, im Blubberbecken blubbern, ... und die Schlammschlacht, ... nun, seht selbst :) Photos unter http://picasaweb.google.com/david.kinsk y

... we can pay in train ) as the train is coming any minute. The train ride is only 15 minutes. We pay our ticket at the " fair adjustment " counter at the exit. Outside I check the prices of the hotels, which are acceptable between 700 and 1000 NTD, a taxi driver tells us that prices in the Hongyue hotspring hotel are 500 pp and in Rueishuei hot spring 400 pp. We take the taxi for 150 NTD to Rueishuei Hotspring hotel, the only original hot spring hotel ...

... always I am alone on kilometers of beach, how wonderful. We check the bus station and confirm the time with a local aboriginal Amei tribe lady. She asks if we have eaten and as we say yes she picks up two plastic chairs and asks us to follow her to the other side of the road where she and her friends are sitting beside the road in the shadow of a big old tree. She is 76 and her friends over 80 - hi girls. Later a man in his 50s joins the group. Their ...

... upper section of road No. 20, a part we have just walked, but at that time have not seen the trail entrance. The walk up and down takes about an hour. Wulu village is really set a few km up the mountain. We get a lift on the flat bed of a small van up to the village - the aboriginal name is Bulu Bulu [ There are several explanations for the name, one being from the sound of bursting mud bubbles when hot water and steam comes to the surface. ] In a park near the ...

... The hot water is running into manmade pools, just using the available sand and stones. The temperature can be regulated ( sorry not by opening a tap ), but by rearranging the stones mixing the hot spring and cold river water. It's fun standing under the dropping hot spring water. Then I jump into the river and swim about 30m against the stream into the gorge - brrrrr, is that cold -, around a bend just to see that the gorge finishes very soon ...