Taiwan

When I arrived in Asia, Taiwan was not the destination I wanted to go... A cheap airplane ticket, some readings and some good feedbacks changed my mind! A bit out-of-way, Taiwan is the destination to go to meet very nice people and discover non touristy places! I stayed there only 5 days in the two major cities, Kaohsiung and Taipei the Capital... I wish I could stay there longer and discover the countryside... That would be for the next time! 

The first impression I had when I arrived was the calmness.. Indeed, metro and streets where not crowded at all and I even wondered if it was a public holiday... Apparently not!

I went to get some food in the night market where i could eventually see more people!

Liouho Night Market

The second day in the morning, I discovered kaohsiung by day... Still peaceful! I took a bike to visit the city...

The love river...

Kaohsiung is one of the largest cargo-container seaport... Here is the entrance to the port...

The main religion is buddhism so you can find temple everywhere, on almost every street corner!

On the way to Cijin district... I took a ferry to get there... This is the place where the beach is and where you can enjoy fresh seafood...

This is not the best beach you can find in Taiwan but it is ok...

The 25 Ladies Tomb Monument... This young unmarried laborers died in the 70s going to work... This had become a major date for the rights of workers...

Small market...

Choose your food and eat it in the restaurant behind...

Cijin harbor...

On the way to British old Embassy...

The former British embassy from where you can enjoy a beautiful view of Kaohsiung...

Longchuan temple...

Kaohsiung by night... I hung around through night market for my last evening there...

The Urban Spotlight where bands perform...

That's it for Kaohsiung... I took then a train in the morning to Taipei, the Capital city... I did not do much that day... I just went shopping to find a camcorder after the 4 hours trip from Kaohsiung...

The Central railway station...

The second day, I went visiting the city...

There are a lot of nice park where squirrels run everywhere...

The Presidential Palace...

The Chinag Kai-Shek Memorial Hall...

The Theater...

... Facing the opera ...

It was time to get some food... I had hard time to choose sometimes... Look at the menu below and you will understand...

Then, on the way to Taipei 101, the tallest finished building in the world... 508 meters high skyscraper...

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall...

In the evening, I went with 2 nice English teachers (Cheers John and Adam ;)) to the top of Taipei 101... Quite impressive and we went then fro drinking couple of beers...

The day after, I headed north toward the Confucius and Baoan temple...

Baoan temple...

Unfortunately the Confucius temple was closed that day... Here is the map of the complex...

An other temple on the way... Made of wood!

I tried then to go to the Taipei Story House... Unlucky again, the site is closed for renovation...

In the evening, 2 things remained to do, the Longshan temple, and the Snake night market...

Longshan temple...

here is the Snake market where you can eat or drink products from Snakes... It looks very disgusting to me and my stomach did not want to try...

I flew back to manila the day after...

That was a wonderful and very interesting trip... As I said before, I wish I could go to the countryside to see more things... I did not have so much time but the country left me a very nice impression: people are so kind, it is easy to go anywhere with the good transport network, it is not so touristy and the culture is interesting... See you soon taiwan!