Because its there of course! Actually it’s because it’s cooler than Thailand and the adjacent countries at present!
If you grew up in the UK in the 70s you will remember everything was made in Taiwan so, I was anticipating an industrial landscape. What a surprise I got. It’s lush and green and very mountainous!
Our first battle on arrival was getting a taxi to our hotel at a fare price. Uber would have charged us a fantastic amount (TWD 1,200). Our hotel had given us a clue how much to pay. We ignored the smartly dressed men offering slightly cheaper taxis just outside (TWD1000) arrivals and then went to a kiosk, that was also really expensive (TWD 800). Tatajana was tenacious and eventually we found the taxi rank outside the building and got a fare price at TWD 180!
The next day we made our way into Taipei. Tatjana being able to read some Chinese Characters (because they are similar to Japanese) made light work of the MRT. I would probably have floundered about for half a day trying to work it out!
My first impressions were how clean and green it is! I think for Tatjana it was how Japanese it is! There is a reason for this and I’ll explain a bit later.
I’m not sure where to start! The first few days we were with a few different Servas hosts. Pamela and Moses, Juliana and Lily. We joined a couple of Servas outings with another European couple. It was organised chaos with several members buying us food we simply couldn’t eat, for the sheer volume. I think some were just pleased we were willing to try the different food stuffs.
Without our hosts we had a guided tour of the National Palace Museum. That was a good move as it highlighted the important artifacts to us and we managed to avoid the Buddha collection!
Next a day out with Pamela…..
The Travelling Bee 