I arrive in Taiwan

I have a rough night at a Manila bus station and airport, fly out at 7.40am and land in Taipei at 9 something am. I quickly discover that Taiwan is a very Chinese country. English is not very widely spoken. This makes getting around a bit of a challenge, especially since I don't have a good map. After having a delicious lunch near the railway station, I spend about 1.5 hours looking for my hostel. Apart from the map situation, I learn that a street name can be transliterated in different ways, so what I see on the street sign and my map is not necessarily the same. Wonderful. So after 1.5 hours I finally get a hold of someone who speaks English and she tells me the hostel has moved, she doesn't know where. I am very angry at Taiwan at this point. Were it not for the good food, I would probably fly home right away. 45 minutes later I find another hostel.

I spend the afternoon sightseeing the city; visit Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Longshan temple and the Xinyi shopping district. I don't go to Taipei 101 since it's raining a little and the view wouldn't be that great. I also buy a train ticket for 7.18am tomorrow morning to the Taroko gorge (3 hours south of Taipei).

Yummy Taiwanese food! And spicy!

Lost in Taipei.

Some kind of monument.

Some temple and people praying.

I arrive in Taiwan

Taipei, Taiwan