Today we caught the High Speed Rail (HSR) train from Taipei to Tainan City, the original Capital of Taiwan / Formosa. The approx 315 klm was done and dusted in 1hr 45min. They occasionally show the train speed on a screen at the end of each car - 289 klm/hr was the fastest we saw. A very smooth ride and despite the speed you could easily nod off in your seat. Well, I could. We haven't seen much of Tainan yet but it is a big city that's for sure. We are yet to or...

Howdy. We had a pretty lazy day today. Had planned to go to Elephant Mountain for views over the City but that involves some hiking apparently and as it was a bit hot at 29C we took a Taxi (Lady Driver - the first one we have seen) to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. CKS is one of the most important historical figures here and played a large part in developing Taiwan. He made some mistakes along the way it seems (Wiki it) but still remains influential to many. The...

Hello again. We had an interesting day. We visited the Confucius and Bao'an Temples (separate but across the road from each other) - they are very nice indeed as can be seen in the photo section. We also joined another Walking Tour - this one focussed on the historical background to modern day Taiwan. Some Countries are cursed by their geographical or strategic location and are then conquered by others as a result - Vietnam is an example. Taiwan has variously...

A very busy day - up early sorting through photos, breakfast at the Hotel (nice!) and then organised Tickets for the High Speed Train to Tainan on Monday. One of the Hotel Reception ladies took us next door to a "Family" Supermarket (similar to a 24/7 store) where they have vending machines that, amongst other services, allow you to purchase Train tickets. We were glad she offered to help though as the instructions were largely in Mandarin. I did see ticket machi...

Hi all, Internet problems again so I'm not sure if you will see any photo's yet. Our flight left Brisbane on time last night and a pretty uneventful flight via EVA Airlines saw us land in Taipei a bit early at 4:45am. No dramas at the Airport with a Visa not required unless you are staying 30 days or more. On the basis that our Hotel check-in time was 2:00pm we were in no hurry - other than being worn-out through lack of sleep and wanting to have a rest in comf...