Tai Hope Taipei

When you travel a lot you fly on
many different types of planes. I don’t believe that I can even count the
number of flights that I’ve been on. This flight was very special in that it
was my first flight on a double deck jumbo plane. That plane was absolutely the
biggest I’ve ever been on. There were so many features that I found to be just
amazing.

The
first was that I got the row of three seats next to the window ...

... around 1 hour and 30 minutes. Most of the way was by motorway, with rice paddies on both sides. This area of Taipei seemed to be very industrial, and not a great sight from the window. An hour or so into the journey we started to see high rised buildings, and lots of run down shanty style buildings. Traffic intensity was also starting to pick up, with mopeds flanking the bus at each turn. This was more like the Asia we have been ...

... of about ten hours was uneventful with some kind of meal being served. Since it was a night flight I tried to sleep but don't sleep very well on planes so didn't get much rest. The flight arrived very early in the morning and one of the first things I saw was this sign welcoming travelers to Taiwan.

... would it be in Singapore...Anyhow, after spending about 5 minutes there, they decided to look in my passport and saw my Visa which said i was studying chinese... In any case, I think it was rather strange and ridiculous. US citizens by default have 30 days in Taiwan visa-free...Also, once i'm out of their country, my business is none of their business. Perhaps, I have an attitude problem. I could understand if it was ...

... kept talking. Eric and I entertained ourselves with watching Paradise Kiss and Inuyasha. That evening Peer and David's family took us out for shabu-shabu. We returned to Tucheng very late (10 PM is late when you get up before 7 AM). Nothing else eventful really happened on Wednesday besides the fainting incident. Eric and I watched a Chinese sci-fi action movie called 2002, starring Nicholas Tse (who's so ...

... bliss! Between the gap in the trees you could see a massive Shiva (or something like it. It was a long way away) statue cut into the cliff, which was pretty cool. They only parts that remain are the foundations, a a few fake cannons to mark the old gunneries, and hidden away down a little slippery path, the main entrance gate and a big parade square. There was a path down to something called the 18 Fairy cave (or something like that), but I started down it and ...

... has to be practiced - as using the mini toilets ( I suppose they have to be so small that the kids don't fall in and get flushed away ). Info: Taiwan features two kinds of toilets, for sitting and squatting. In the villages, don't throw the paper into the toilet, but a basket or bucket for technical and environmental reasons. At 9:30 pm a large hiker group arrives, but luckily get other classrooms . They will leave early next morning for a hike to Bai Cha Tien Shan. Sleep.

... soon! The festival came from the old 'lover's day', a day when young people were accompanied into the streets with matchmakers busily trying to pair them all up. The brightest lanterns signified good luck and hope. Solving riddles is popular too. So, there you have it, a quick intro to Chinese New Year. In a nut shell, it's a time to be with your family to welcome good fortune and good luck in the new year. But my favourite part? I get a week off work!

... After Bon went back to Toronto, lab test came out that she had a parasite causing campylobacter disease. It is basically a bacteria that got into her system either through water or undercooked poultry. The symptoms of diarrhrea, fever and stomach pains appear 2-3 days after being infected, and may last 7-10 days. We both remembered drinking a fruit shake at the Suan Lum night market in Bangkok on our ...

... Taiwanese paid for us. From my experience, I think Taiwanese were nice and kind and I like the nationals the best of the world. According to Lonely Planet Taiwan, National Palace Museum was a must-see. It is said that the museum is one of the finest museum of the world. It was a little bit far from the city center, we took a minibus at Shilin station to get there. The museum was spacious, but building itself didn't have an old flavor like Palace ...