Sheraton Taipei Hotel Taipei

... After that I decided it was time to go to my next destination, the "Tian Hou Gong" in Xi Men, which is just one station away. The Xi Men district, or Xi Men Ding I think, is quite a hip neighbourhood where the youths of Taiwan hang out. Daniel reckons it's like the Shibuya of Taipei, but less hyped up. Originally, I wanted to walk it but was glad in the end that I didn't try to save 20c and just caught the MRT. There was suppose to be a visitors ...

... major focus being on public education. A huge huge interpretive centre sat sqarely in the middle of the park and could be seen literally for miles around. A couple of hundred school kids were enjoying running around and especially enjoying the noise that school shoes and bird hide floors can create when brought together aggressively. A few good spp here including good views of Eurasian magpies plus numerous egrets ...

Arrival in Taipei: After flying our faces off for over 24 hours including layovers, we arrive at Taipei airport. The gate area is super clean - quite different than in most US airports. Customs is the usual long line - there are very few non-asians. To be expected I guess. We meet up with Sean and Jeff for the drive to where we are staying. As we are driving - the landscape of the buildings ...

... ticket we were unwilling to make too many concrete plans in case she decided, for whatever reason, that she wasn't going to come. However once she was 'in' the planning began in earnest. Days became weeks of reviewing Lonely Planet travel guides and sifting through countless web sites in order to eventually formulate a rough and moderately adaptable scheme. Unfortunately it transpired that, as usual, we would be travelling during high season which meant that the more ...

I've always felt this blog was incomplete without an epilogue. While pondering over the events of 2007 and sorting through my files I came across this last entry in my personal travel journal I kept during the trip. As I read it the feelings I experienced that day all came back to me in a way that it became clear that this final personal entry would be the most a fitting end for this blog. Enjoy! 9/23/07 Taipei, 11:00pm Well, it seems that my journaling has been much more in depth ...

went to the current tallest building in the world, the taipei 101. named so because it has 101 floors. took the 'straightshot' elevator to the observation deck at 89th floor. the elevator is also the fastest in the world at 1010m/sec. they pressurized the lift so your ears don't pop from the rapid pressure change. they have a lcd screen in the elevator showing in real time how fast you are moving up the building and the current ...

... were beautiful, and I really like talking to David's Mum. Her English isn't great, and my Chinese is almost nonexistent, but we generally get our points across I think! She's such a lovely person, very happy and smiley. The rest of the family are very nice, but not so outgoing. It's nice to actually spend some time with Taiwanese people - it's not something I've done much of since I got here. Finally, I see some of normal Taiwanese life!

... around blindly for a little longer we found the hostel and when we came in we were greeted by a complete tool of a dude. The guy who appeared to be running the joint was from Canada (of course) but was really rude and shady. We didn't trust the place at all and we made sure to lock our bags before we set out to find some food. The greasy toolbag who was running the place suggested that we go to one of his favorite restaurants nearby for some cheap eats and we took him up ...