Taipei, Keelung and Pingxi

From Chiayi I caught a train back to Taipei and had some problems finding a room and when I did find a room it was only available for one night. Rather than spending any more time looking for a room in Taipei I decided I would go to a smaller town the following day and then return to Taipei after the weekend when there was no problem getting a room. The one night I had in Taipei I went to another baseball game and ate the tar like rice that I talked about in the baseball blog entry.

In the morning I went to the train station and stuck my backpack in a locker and caught a train to Keelung. Keelung is a port town and I ended up staying in a hotel that I think would be what they call a love hotel. It was really tacky decorated place and I think they had rates by the hour as well as all night. It was fine with me but felt a little strange being in a love hotel all alone.

I did not do a lot in Keelung other than walk around the city and then go to the night market in the evening. I was not to crazy about the night market it was just to crowded for my taste. I just bought some things to eat and made my way back to the hotel to eat. I did find the night market sort of interesting to see and here is a picture of the market.

The following morning I bought a train ticket to Ruifang from a machine and then went and ask at the information office when the next train left for Ruifang. The lady seemed to understand English really well but did not seem to speak it much but she let me know that I would be better taking a bus and let me know I could get my money back for the train ticket. I copied the Chinese charters for Ruifang on a piece of paper prior to returning my ticket since my book did not have the name in Chinese charters. I used this piece of paper at the bus station ticket counter and they shook their head no and pointed me out the door. I ended up using my little piece of paper about 4 times asking different people until I found a bus schedule with Ruifang on it. I waited in front of the schedule until a bus came with a sign saying Ruifang.

I have screwed up with paying just about every time I have got on a bus in Taiwan. Some of the busses you are suppose to pay for when you get on and some of them you pay for when you get off. I watched the lady in front of me and she did not pay when she got on so I did not pay but the lady set in the first row of the bus and then pulled out her purse and dug out coins and paid. I am surprised the bus driver did not say anything to me about paying but when we were stopped I tried to ask about paying. It took a few minutes but finally we communicated well enough for me to understand I needed to pay $42 and the driver did seem happy when I paid.

After resolving how much and how to pay on the bus I made it to the train station in Ruifang without a problem. I had come to Ruifang to take another ride on a narrow gauge railroad line. This one is called the Pingxi Branch line and runs from Ruifang 12 kilometers to Pingxi. It was a Sunday and not the best time to visit this place. The train cars for the Pingxi line where like subway cars. The cars were set up with the seats having their backs against the windows and the car was crowed with people standing in the middle of the car for the full length of the line. I found this train not very good at all for enjoying the views along the ride. I went ahead and went to the end of the line Pingxi and got out and walked around. Here is a picture of a statue to the coal miners which was the reason the train line was put in place years before.

The tourist info office in Ruifang had given me a list of things they thought I should do around the train line but I only ended up doing one of the things they suggested which was visiting the main waterfall. I decided I would walk a little and walked on a path and road along the side of the tracks down to the Lingiao station and past it to the Lingiao waterfall.

I was going to keep walking down when I reached a place with no path and I decided it was not a good idea to walk on the tracks so went back to the station and caught a train for a few kilometers to the Shihfen station and then walked down to the Shihfen waterfall. This was a large and impressive waterfall and I even think worth the $100 price to get into the viewing area.

I walked to the next station down from the Shihfen waterfall and caught a train back to Ruifang. From Ruifang I caught a train back to Taipei and this was the most crowed train I think I have been on for this entire trip. It was a local train so more of a subway type of car and I’m not sure as many people would have made it on the train without the people at the back of the line pushing the ones in front of them. Even though it was not really a pleasant ride I made it back to the Taipei train station and got my backpack from the lockers with a little bit of help. I’m not sure I would have ever figured out I needed to pay more money for the locker since I left my bag there longer than 24 hours without some help. Taiwanese to my rescue once again.

I did not do a lot in Taipei other than just catch up on stuff like laundry, writing postcards and figuring out where to catch the bus to the airport for my return trip to Bangkok. I was a bit sad to be leaving Taiwan since I have really enjoyed the country but maybe I will get a chance to return some day, I hope so. Strange to feel this way about a place I never would have visited without wanting to get my notebook repaired.

Sunrise at Alishan

I caught a train from Tainan to the town of Chiayi. From Chiayi there is a narrow gauge train that runs up Alishan Mountain. I arrived in Chiayi and was planning on taking the train the following day at 9AM up the mountain only to find a sign saying the morning train only runs on weekends and the afternoon train for today was sold out. There was a lady that was selling rooms in Alishan and even though I did not really like paying for a place to stay prior to seeing it. On paying for the room she also sold me a ticket for the train that afternoon.

My guidebook says the train climbs from 30m to above 2200m in about 3 ½ hours and goes through 3 climatic zones: tropical, subtropical and temperate. It was a really interesting ride and I think I was most impressed with seeing the bamboo forest on both side of the tracks on the way up. I tried to take some pictures of the forest but none of them came out well. The trees seemed to be very evenly spaced like someone had planted them rather than being this way naturally. The train also went through a number of what I would call switchbacks on the way up. These switchbacks are something I had never experienced on a train before. It was sort of a fork in the tracks and an end to the tracks the train would pull in going up the hill with the engine at the front of the train and stop at the end of the track. They would switch the tracks and the train would push up the hill going in the other direction following the other side of the fork with the engine at the back pushing rather than pulling.

On arriving at the village of Alishan I had no idea of where my hotel that I had booked in town was. It was interesting trying to find a place with only a piece of paper with the name of the hotel in Chinese but I had a number of people help me to find the hotel. It still amazes me how friendly and helpful people in Taiwan have been. Alishan is rather high and was a big change in temperature. I started the day at 34c/93f and on arriving in Alishan village ended it was around 12c/53f.

The one thing that seems to be a requirement when someone visits Alishan is to get up and see the sunrise here. I signed up for a tour to go to a spot and see the sunrise. I had to get up at 4 in the morning to make the tour. The sunrise was nice but I am not sure at all if it was worth getting up this early in the morning. The place that the van took us to see the sunrise was in Yushan National Park. This is the 3rd time that I have been in the park and from 3 different entrances. Here is a picture of the sunrise.

The tour also gave me a lens to view the sunrise without harming my eyes. I took a couple of pictures of the sunrise through the lens and sort of like this picture.

I always think of viewing a sunrise or sunset as a personal thing to do and you should do it alone or just share it with someone close to you. I don’t think of it is a group activity and I think it detracts when you have a group like this to watch the sun come up.

We also stopped at a couple other places on the tour mostly to look at different trees and saw a monkey crossed the road. You will have to insert your own joke here on why the monkey crossed the road.

We made it back to Alishan Village just before 8 in the morning. I tried to get a little sleep but then just checked out of my hotel bought a ticket for the train back down the mountain and took a short walk a ways up the mountain prior to catching the train. This is a picture from my short walk.

Maolin Recreation Area

I was really looking forward to visiting Maolin Recreation Area to see the purple butterfly valley. My guide book says it is considered one of the 2 most important butterfly migratory resting grounds in the world with the other being The Monarch Butterfly Valley near Mexico City. I was disappointed with what I found and it was not until just before leaving that I found out at the visitor’s center the time to come to the valley to see the butterflies is between November and March. If you ever happen to be in Taiwan during this time of the year you will have to let me know what I missed.

After visiting the butterfly viewing area with not many butterflies I decided to take a hike up to a waterfall. I got the waterfalls in Maolin a bit confused and thought I was walking to one that was only a short walk but it turned out I was headed to one that was a bit of a hike. I hiked for about an hour and crossed a number of these holy bridges. The bridges are not religious but rather have a lot of holes in the planks crossing the bridge. Here is a picture of one of the bridges.

After about an hour of walking and not seeing another person on the trail I think my common sense kicked in. The walk was not easy for me and I started thinking if I was to trip and fall or broke through one of these bridges it might be days before someone found me. I gave up on making it to the waterfall and turned around and headed back. Even though I did not make it to the waterfall I did enjoy the hike with seeing monkeys along the trail and a really sweet smelling flower thing. Here is a picture of the flower thing.

I reread my book when I returned to the motorbike and saw I was at the wrong waterfall for being a short hike and headed to the one that was a short walk. It seems the bridge to this waterfall was no longer there so did not get close to this waterfall but took a picture of it from a distance.

I spent a little bit of time just riding around and enjoying the pretty scenery and then went back to the butterfly area and rode the motorbike up the mountain behind the viewing area. I did not see many purple butterflies but there were all kinds of while and yellow ones that seemed to fly every which way as I rode up the mountain.

I rode from the Recreation Area back to Tainan enjoying the scenery on the way and returned the motorbike and spent another night in Tainan. This picture is taken just outside of the Maolin Recreation Area on the road returning to Tainan.

Shuangliou National Forest Recreation Area

Since I did not want to ride the southern cross island highway again I headed south to where the mountains that cover the island are not as high. I stopped one time on the coastal road to watch the waves crashing on the shore. At times during the ride along the coast I could feel the spray of the ocean as it smashed against the rocks from 5 to 15 meters below the road.

Shortly after turning west I saw a sign for Shuangliou National Forest Recreation Area and did not have plans for the day so figured I would see what was there. I paid the park fee and the guy I paid seemed to try and explain the trails to me and I decided I would take the shortest trail up to a waterfall. There were butterflies all over the place along the trial and I took what I think is my best picture of a butterfly while walking to the waterfall.

I enjoyed the walk up to the waterfall and I think the butterflies where as thick here as anywhere I went in Taiwan. Taiwan is really the land of the butterfly with butterflies everywhere. Here is the waterfall that I reached at the end of the trail.

After Shuangliou I made my way to Pingdong where I found a hotel and spent the night.

Ride in the clouds

I wanted to see the landscape on the southern cross island highway but there is no public transport so I decide to rent a motorbike. I figured one day over one day back and one day to visit Maolin Recreation Area. I found a place that rented me a motorbike for 3 days and left my backpack at the hotel in Tainan. I put clothes for a few days under the seat of the motorbike and headed off. The map I had was not very good so I just used my compass went east and figured I would hit the road for going across the island at some point. This worked out really well. I did not take the most direct route but I passed through some really pretty countryside. Just when I was thinking I had made a mistake I hit highway 20 which was the road I was after. The cross island highway goes through a part of Yushan National Park which is the same park I had taken a hike in a few days before but this was a different part of the park.

You may have noticed that when I was in Vietnam and Cambodia I always called the motorbikes scooters but now that I am riding them I call them motorbikes. Here is a picture of me on my motorbike/scooter and don’t you think all the people that only have Harleys will be jealous.

This ride was one of those stupid things I do from time to time when I am traveling. I really enjoyed the ride until a little distance past the Yushan Park visitor’s center when I entered the clouds. A lot of the ride I could not really see any of the scenery it was just all white. I had my long underwear shirt on but once above 2500 meters it was cold and frost started forming on my sleeves. Even though I thought about turning around a few times I figured I had to be close to the top so kept going. The road just kept going up and up and up through the clouds. The road was really narrow where 2 cars passing each other was not that easy and the visibility was really low. I really did not like the couple of times a bus went past me in the opposite direction. The road also had places where rocks or boulders had fallen on the road and a few really big holes in the road. I finally came to a tunnel that I think was the top of the highway. I did not like this tunnel either it was long, dark and narrow. I was really happy I did not meet a vehicle coming in the opposite direction while in the tunnel.

Once out of the tunnel the road started to descend and I was really glad because by this time I was really cold. A ways down the road I broke out of the upper clouds so stopped and took a couple of pictures. I found it strange to have clouds both above and below me.

I kept going and the descent went a lot faster than the climb had been and I was happy when I got back down to sea level. I found a hotel in Taitung and took a hot shower and felt a lot better. I had planned on stopping somewhere on the cross island highway and spend the night and then go back the same way I came the following day. Somewhere along the climb I had decided this idea was out I would find another way to get back I did not want another ride in the clouds. One was enough for me.

Tainan

I was waiting for the bus to Kaohsiung when a taxi pulled up and said Kaohsiung for the same as the bus so I went ahead and took it. I ended up sharing the taxi with a couple from Hong Kong. At Kaohsiung I got a train on to Tainan. In Tainan I did the most of the walking tour that was in my guidebook stopping at a number of temples. I got a little bit tired in the day so stopped about ¾ of the way through and went back to the hotel and had a bit of a rest before finishing the tour in the evening. Tainan seemed like a very busy city and it was my least favorite of the places that I visited in Taiwan.

When in Taipei I had noticed some of the people in costumes being lead into the temple after they had done there little performance. I had never really noticed these costumes are always in the middle of the temple. I noticed them at the Matsu Temple in Taninan and here is a picture of one of the costumes.

Kenting

I wanted to go from Yuli to Kenting but knew a train did not go there so would have to go via multiple buses or train and then a bus. The guidebook only talked about going to Kenting from one town on the west side of Taiwan and it was a bit out of the way. I went to the train station in the morning and figured I would ask if they could give me some advice. I went to the counter that had a sign that said English. I don’t think the guy really spoke English but he was helpful. I showed him the Chinese symbols for Kenting and he sold me a ticket. The ticket only has Chinese charters on them so I did not even know the name of town I was suppose to get off the train. I ask then name and he told me something and then said bus. The town where I needed to transfer was also only on the map in my guidebook in English so could not make sure of where I was suppose to transfer. I found a chart with the names in English and Chinese of all the train stops just before the train arrived so at least I figure out I was suppose to transfer at Fangliao.

When I reached Fangliao I looked for a map to find the bus station but had no luck. A taxi driver ask me “Taxi” and I said no but ask bus. He pointed down the street. Nice to have a taxi driver point a direction and not just say long ways you need taxi. I walked down the street and saw a bus stopped so used the guidebook to ask a lady at a food stand bus station and the lady pointed here. I then turned to the page for Kenting and she pointed at the bus in front of me. I made it to Kenting in about an hour and was in the ocean about 30 minutes later.

Kenting is a town within Kenting National Park. There are a number of towns in what is now a national park. Really in driving down the road I would have never noticed that I was in a national park. The park is huge and covers the entire southern tip of Taiwan. There are also different parks within Kenting National Park.

I rented a motorbike and rode just about all of the way around the park. I started by going to Kentng Forest Recreation Area. This is up the mountain from the town of Kenting. I walked about all the trails in the recreation area. I think the stone walls in the park were limestone and at some places in the park it looked phony to me like something you see in an amusement parks where they have build landscapes.

The recreation area also had a number of butterflies and I seem to have a hard time keeping all the ones that I have seen straight but think I saw a couple that I had not seen before.

After the recreation area I rode back down to the coast and went for a swim on this beach.

After a refreshing swim I followed the coast first south to the southern most point in Taiwan and then north stopping to take a picture now and then. I visited another beach that is known for good surf and watched the surfers for a little while before going on to Jialeshui. Jialeshui is some sort of park that has all kinds of different shaped rocks on the coast. I have learned that the Taiwanese seem to have great imaginations. They say this rock looks like a lion, that rock looks like a turtle but usually I don’t see it. I did agree that this rock looked like the island of Taiwan.

After Jialeshui I cut across the island going from the east side to the west and then followed the coast down the west side of the island until I came back to the town of Kenting. I did stop at one beach to eat and another beach to have another swim. It was a really enjoyable day with a lot of changes in scenery for a short ride.

Coastal Road and Yuli

The guidebook suggested doing the trip down highway 11 from Hualien to Taitung but the only places to stay were campgrounds so I would only be seeing the coast from the bus. It was a rainy day but the pacific was pretty to look at from the bus. I think it may have been the weather more than anything but the view of waves breaking off shore reminded me of a day I spent driving around the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. I only took a couple of pictures but here is one from when the bus stopped at the monument for the tropic of cancer.

From Taitung I went to Yuli by train. I arrived in Taitung and thought the bus dropped me off at the train station. Even though I could see the tracks and thought this was the station I could not find a schedule or a place to buy a ticket so went into the tourist information office. The tourist information office told me this was the old train station and I need to get to the new train station. I ask how far it was away and they told me I would need to take a taxi for about 200 Taiwan Dollars. They seemed to notice I did not really want to spend 200 dollars so suggested the bus and they would take me to where I needed to catch the bus. Standing in front of the tourist office 2 of the people were talking about the train time to Yuli when they saw the bus leaving to go to the train station. The girl from the office ran screaming and waving her arms to get the bus to stop and wait for me. The bus trip was only 22 Dollars and I was really surprise how nice the tourist information office was.

The train ride to Yuli was also a pretty ride with very green rice fields on both sides with mountains behind the fields. I found a hotel in Yuli and ask about getting to the Walami trail. They said there was no public transport and suggested a taxi or a motorcycle. They helped me the following morning with renting a motorcycle for the day. I ended up making the guy that spoke English late for work waiting for me to help me rent the motorcycle so he rushed off after I was set. I went back to the hotel to pick up my guidebook and the people at the hotel were really concerned about me. I did not understand what they were saying so they called the guy that spoke English and he told me I would not be able to get any food or water in the park so make sure I take some. I am always just so surprised how nice people can be.

I found the Nanan entrance to Yushan National Park and stopped by the visitor’s center to see if I had to pay an entrance fee. I was told no money and given a map of this part of the park. Taiwan is the most expensive country that I have been to on this trip but so far about everything that I have seen has been free.

I rode on up the road to a waterfall and stopped and enjoyed the view while eating something I had brought with me from the town for breakfast. Here is a shot of the waterfall.

I rode the motorbike to the end of the road and the start of the Walami trail. I walked the trail from the start to Chiasin which is as far as you are suppose to walk without a permit. It is about 5K to Chiasin on the map which was spelled Jiasin on the sign when I got there. The different spellings confused me a bit.

Along the trial there were great view out over the valley below.

The trail also had a couple of waterfalls and a couple very high suspension bridges. This walk is not for someone that has a fear of heights. The trail is cut into the side of the cliff at the top of this picture.

Like my walk a few days ago at Liyu Lake I really enjoyed watching the butterflies while walking the trail I tried a number of times to take pictures but getting a good picture of a butterfly is not as simple as it sounds. I got a couple of OK ones of this butterfly.

I was almost to Chiasan when I heard a noise in the woods that I thought was a bird. I stopped and looked to see if I could see the bird when I saw some movement in the trees. It turns out the noise I heard was a monkey and there were a number of monkeys in the trees close to the trail. On my way back down the hill I saw monkeys 3 times. They are Macaque monkeys which are the same type I saw in Thailand but it is so much more of a thrill to see them in the forest and not in a place where they have lost their natural fear of humans.

After the trial I just rode around some looking at the countryside.

Hualien, Taroko Gorge and Liyu Lake

I caught a train to Hualien. The train was a high-speed train so took about 2 hours to get to Hualien. The main reason I had come to Hualien was to visit the Taroko Gorge about 15K from Hualien and the top tourist site in Taiwan. I was not sure how I was going to get there but when checking into a hotel they had a tour for 700 Taiwan Dollars or about 15 euros so I signed up. The gorge was really pretty and the tour worked out really well. Here is one of the pictures of the gorge that I took.

I had booked the hotel for 2 days and had thought I might go back to the gorge and do one of the hikes but decide to go to Liyu Lake instead. I caught a bus and the driver made sure that I got off at the lake. I had planned on doing a bike ride around the lake but did not see a place to rent a bike so started walking around the lake. It turns out the bike rental place was at the other end of the lake and if I would have walked in the other direction around the lake I would have found it but enjoyed the walk/hike instead and feel like I got my exercise for the day. I only walk a sort distance and found a sign with a map of trails. I ended up walking the picnic, bird watching, overview and health trails. I started on the picnic trail and when I came to the bird watching trail figured with a name like that it would not be difficult. I was wrong. The trail was a bunch of steps that went up to about the top of the mountain. I thought a number of times about turning around but kept thinking I have to be close to the top. It took me a few hours to walk to the top. Here is a picture from the other side of the lake and I reached the observations deck on the hill in the center the highest point in the picture.

The walk was a lot of work but the highlight was the butterflies along the way. I think I saw about 10 to 12 different types of butterflies while walking. Some of them are really striking and my favorite was the black one with white and red at the bottom of their wings. I have since read that there are 400 different spices of butterflies in Taiwan so I only have about 390 more to see. I did not get a picture of my favorite but here are a couple that I did get.

Baseball in Taiwan

I had heard a little bit about baseball in Taiwan from my parents and they saw something about it on a travel show. The way they talked about it I thought it was something that I wanted to experience while in Taiwan. On arriving in Taiwan one of the first things I noticed was a number of people wearing New York Yankees shirts with the name Wang on the back. Walking around in Taipei it seemed like there was baseball on about every TV screen that I saw and it was usually the Yankees. Even though I enjoy baseball I do not follow it really and had to look on the Yankees webpage to find the profile of Wang. He has some really impressive stats for the past 3 years and is doing really well this year also. He is from Taipei and is really famous in Taiwan and for all I know the US also. You have to know a country is crazy about baseball when a little league team is on the country's $500 bill.

I ask at the hostel that I was staying at about the Taiwan baseball league and the guy did not seem to know anything about it. I bought a Taiwan paper that was in English and there was a story in the sports section about a game but no real info on schedule or even where the teams are from but at least I had the name of 2 teams. I did some searches on the internet and found the site of CPBL which I think stands for China Professional Baseball League. The problem was that all the info was in Chinese. I went to the tourist information office and even though the lady I was talking to did not seem to know anything about the league she pulled up the website and found the date and time of the next games in Taipei and gave me the bus information to get to the stadium.

I went to 2 games while in Taipei and saw the China Trust Whales play the La New Bears. The Whales won the first game and the 2nd game was a blow out with the Bears killing the Whales by 22 to 2. The stadium was really empty for both of the games and I am sure it would have been much more fun with a packed stadium. The stadium seemed to be divided with the third base side for the bears and the first base side for the whales. There were drums for each of the teams that would pound to cheer on the team that they supported and a guy with a loud speaker would get the crowd into chants for his team. The fans would also have plastic cones to beat along with the drums and the chants. I found this really interesting to see and sure if the stadium was packed it would be really enjoyable. This picture is from a later game with the Lions playing Te Rex.

At the second game I had someone that worked for the Whales in marketing come and set next to me. He had seen me at the game the night before and was interested to know why a foreigner was coming to a baseball game in Taiwan. It was great to have someone to ask all my questions about the baseball. Here are a few of the things that he cleared up for me. There is a limit of 2 foreigners that can play at a time for each team. The Bears put the names of the foreigners in English on the back of their shirts but the Whales gave the foreigners Chinese names so I couldn’t read their jerseys. The teams do not have home cities and play all over Taiwan. They are just called home for half of their games and away for the other half. The reason he gave me for the crowds being so small was because there has been some scandals to do with betting and game fixing. The most recent was last year and Whales players where involved. The Whales team now is full of rookies because of a house cleaning. There are currently 3 Taiwan players in the MLB with about 30 playing in the US farm teams. There are also about the same number of Taiwan players playing in the Japan. Even though Taiwan is not recognized by a lot of countries or organizations as a country they can compete in the Olympics and will be sending a baseball team to Beijing. I also found it interesting and funny when he told me parents in Taiwan don’t want their children to grow up to play baseball because they think of professional sportsman as dumb.

I enjoyed the games and when I was in Taipei again I attend another game. Before the game I decided to take something to eat with me so went up to a street vendor across the street and wanted to look at what they where selling. The lady did not show me but said one so I answered yes and this is what I got.

I don’t think I would have bought it I would have seen it first but I gave it a try and it was not that bad but I still have no idea what it was. I think it had rice in it and sort of looked like rice held together by tar. I don’t think it tasted like tar but since I have never eaten tar this could be what it taste like.

Taipei

I was on the plane headed to Taipei and reading the travel section of an English Bangkok paper I had picked up while boarding. The paper had this article about a Lonely Planet Writer admitting to plagiarizing and writing sections to the guidebook of countries that he had never been to. This is not what you want to read when you are headed to a strange country with the Lonely Planet as your only source of information.

I arrived in Taipei and getting through the passport process was one of the easiest and fasted countries that I have ever been to. There was no line so just walked up to a security person handed him my passport and form and a minute later I was headed to the baggage carousel. It took a while for the bags but after getting them I was offered help in finding the bus and my first impression of Taiwan was very good. A lot of the great first impression of Taipei may just be from the change in temperature. Bangkok was 36C/97F when I left and Taipei was 20C/68F when I landed.

I had come to Taipei with the idea of getting my notebook repaired. I found the place with little problem and was there an hour prior to it opening so decided to go to the Miniatures Museum of Taiwan. I think this museum is too miniature to be seen because after using up my hour looking for the museum I gave up and went to get my notebook PC worked on.

I was not happy about the notebook repair costing me about 200 euros when I thought it was still under warranty but they said the screen is not covered by the warranty. I was very happy about the time to repair it. I had to go to an ATM to get the money to pay for the repair and within 5 minutes of my return they were giving me a repaired notebook with a working screen and all of the data to be backed up.

After getting the PC repaired and backed up I started to explore the city. I first walked through the 228 park which is a park and museum to remember the events around February 28 1947. There are estimates that the government murdered up to 30,000 Taiwanese following the protest that were held on February 28. I was a bit late to go to the museum but wondered around the park.

I walked to the Tien-ho Temple passing by the Presidential Building. I did not know it was the Presidential Building when I was walking by it and only figure out what the building was a few days later.

When I arrived at the Tien-ho Temple I was surprised that the guidebook says is a Buddhist temple. I did not notice a single image of Buddha so I don’t know if this is a different style of Buddhist temple than what I have been seeing or the book just has some bad information. The Temple looked more Taoists to me.

I went to the Shida night market and made a dinner out of dumplings a lot like the ones I had really loved in Shanghai. I ended up looking for these dumplings about every day I stayed in Taipei.

I spent most of one day just walking between temples. I started by the Dihua Market which is next to the Hsiahai City God Temple. Next I walked to the Bao-an Temple and after that past the closed Confucius Temple. On my way to the Xingtian temple I found some street food and bought something I would call Dim Sum. I sat in a city park on the way and ate about 12 different dumplings. The Xingtian temple was the most crowed of the temples I had been to during the day and unlike a couple that had only tourist this one seemed to be in use.

One thing I have seen in a few of the temples in Taipei that I had never noticed anywhere else is people throwing 2 block of wood on the floor. I have had to do a number of web searches before finding out what they were doing. The blocks are called oracle or divining blocks and they are sort of a half moon shape. What I found is they are suppose to say their name, address, birth date and then ask a question. After this they throw the blocks. If the blocks both land with the flat side up there is no answer and they need to try again. If one of the blocks land with the curve up and one with the flat side up the answer is positive or yes. If both blocks land with the curved side up the answer is negative or no. I took a picture of the blocks.

After all those temples it was time for something different so I made my way to the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. I have since asked some people about the money here and Sun is on the 100 Dollar bill and also one of the coins. They explained him to me as being the father of the country sort of like George Washington is to the US. I found this a little strange since he was considered to be the father of communism in China and Taiwan is not a communist country.

I then went to the tallest building in the world. This is currently Taipei 101. It also has the fastest elevator in the world and I was at the 89th floor in no time at all. I visited the 88th, 89th and 91st floors. The 91st floor has an outside observation deck and I stay there to watch the sun go down which was not near as impressive as I thought it would be.

I spent one day visiting the National Palace Museum and then the Museum of Formosan Aborigines. The National Palace Museum is a very large museum with all kinds of objects and art to do with China. It is an impressive collection. The Formosan Aborigines museum is about the tribes that were native to Taiwan. I found this museum a lot like the minority museums in China and Vietnam or the Tribal Museum in Thailand.

I finished the day by going to the Shilin Night Market. When I arrived in the area of the night market there was some sort of parade type of thing going on. I don’t know what this was all about but I followed along the path of the people in costumes and reached a temple. The groups of people would each take a turn of doing a sort of performance in front of the temple and then light out a string of firecrackers.

I had enjoyed eating dinner at the night markets the 2 previous nights so found a market on the map that did not say night market and decided to see if it had the food stands during the day. I went to the Guanghua Market and was disappointed to find no food stands but only a huge number of electronics shops selling cameras, MP3 players and a assortment of other things. My backpack is already way to full so did not really look at any of the electronics.

I had walked past the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial or National Taiwan Democracy Monument as it is now called a couple of nights before but headed back to see it in the daylight. They have changed the name of the monument but all the signs leading to it and the subway stop are still the old name. Chiang Kai-Shek was the person that ruled the country as a dictator for a long time and from my point of view is the person that kept Taiwan separate from China. He also wanted a single China but under his rule rather than Mao’s and fled to Taiwan and took control of the country once his forces lost to Mao’s forces in China proper. The monument is impressive and I learned a little bit more about Taiwan’s history and Chiang Kai-Shek.

I walk to the Longshan temple and got there late in the afternoon and there were a lot of people at the temple when I arrived. They were singing from some sort of songbook that had been handed out to the people. This is just something different that I had experienced in all the temples that I had been to on this trip. There were also tables full of food and all I could think of is the monks at this temple must eat much better than the monks that collect alms in Laos.

One morning I made my way to the Maokong Gondola and found a really long line waiting to get on the Gondola. I finally made it through the queue and onto the gondola and shared it with a group of ladies. One of the ladies was terrified of the height and left marks in the ladies arm next to her from holding on so tight. Because of the ladies fear the ride up was rather funny but it is also a really pretty place so close to the heart of the city.

Once at the top of the Gondola I started walking and was away from the crowds within a couple of minutes. The guidebook talked about a walk to a waterfall which I decided to try but never found it or really any clue to where it was. I started up one trail and came to fork in the path and decided to follow the path that went up the mountain. I thought this was the direction of the waterfall and maybe it was. The path was not really in great shape and a bit wet. The path was a bit of a climb and then I came to a section that was a real climb it had ropes to help with the climb. I used the rope to go up about a 100 meters where I saw another set of ropes for the next 100 meters. At this point I decided this path was not for me and headed back the way I came. On my way back down just about back to the main trail my feet slipped on the mud and down I went on my butt. The only thing hurt was my pride and I was covered in mud. I tried to clean the mud off me as best as I could and then went ahead and walked to the end of the main trail. The walk back to the gondola did not seem very long but the line to go back down was just as long as when I came up. Other than being muddy it was a good day with being a little bit in nature and I found the worlds tallest building a lot more impressive from the mountain than I did in the city for some reason.