San Want Taipei

... they did. Luckily after the first step, I was able to read what it was after and so I got the tickets quite easily. <br><br>Following that great waste of time as there were also vending machines just outside the MRT station, I decided it was time to finally start my day, so off I went to Long Shan Temple, which was an extremely busy temple and reminded me a little of "Wong Dai Sin" in Hong Kong, except that one is a little bigger. There was a nice ...

So my friend from Ottawa, Mike, ended up in Taipei for about 3 days on business. I managed to get out there and do a little sight seeing with him. This is mostly of us in Taipei 101 and a couple of evening shots. We started out by wandering around the tower then we took to ...

... get on an all-day tour, so I arranged a late check-out, and took a half-day tour to the north coast of the island.  We stopped at Keelung, the crowded port where cruise liners and freighters jostled for space, while dozens of container vessels waited at anchor. The outlook was from a hilltop temple area: you climb stairs inside a huge statue for the best view. The tour bus took us along the coast: there was a lot of wreckage about, and it was explained to us that a typhoon ...

... is so smooth that you can stand a nickel on its edge and it won't fall over during the entire ride. When we got to the top floor we got a pair of the headphones that tell you the details of what you are looking at. We walked up to the first window and Liz looked down and said "that's enough of that, it's too scary." Despite the fact that our headphones told us the windows can take an 8 ton direct hit without breaking ...

We met up for a special meal offered at the Tavern in Taipei. We watched the Bengals (Bungholes) beat our Browns. :( It was a fun night regardless. I haven't received the pictures yet, but I do have a picture of the gang on another night.

... to sight-see on just my first full day in Taiwan. We took the bus to Taipei and from there we took another bus to Wanli. We were dropped off very close to Yehliu park and only walked for some 10 minutes to get there from the bus stop. While we were taking pictures this local Taiwanese girl (I think she was 19 or 20 or so) approached us and asked us if she could show us around. She had taken some English classes before and really wanted the opportunity to chat up some 'real-life ...

... went to bed late and exhausted once again. 15 May Another early start - a 6:30 wake-up in order to make it to the train station in time for a 9 a.m. meeting with Ruby - another Hospitality Club member - who has kindly taken the day off from work to show me around Taipei. We start with a bus ride to Yangmingshan, a national park in the mountains just north of Taipei. The park has sulfurous-smelling hot springs that reminded me very much of Rotorua in New Zealand. I guess Taiwan ...

... kept going up to the big mountain, Yang Ming Shan. The cherry blossom trees are at a huge Daoist temple on the mountainside - sadly I have no idea what it's called. The blooming of the cherry blossoms brings people up here in droves - we got there at 8.30 and the place was already packed! The flowers only last for about a week once they come out, and people make a really big effort to go to see them. David's mum (I don't think she ...

When we arrived in Taipei, it was heavy rain... Good thing, Mark was waiting for us in airport. He had almost left, since when we arrived for immigration, there were about 500 people in the room waiting. We were almost the last ones, since it seems the people are not very ...