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This morning we woke up at around 9:30, took a hot shower, and made some toast for breakfast. We checked out at 11 and headed to Taipei Main Station. Dave had written directions for us on how to get to the bus terminal that would take us to Puli, a little town about 3 hours south of Taipei. It's faster on the train, and more expensive, but we have time and no money so decided to bus it! Anyways, we tried to leave the station through the wrong exit, innocently following the exit signs for the Taipei Bus Terminal, but as we were leaving we decided to ask at information and the woman told us we needed exit Z5. This meant going up a level and exiting through the metro shopping mall.

When we got to the terminal at around 12:15, the information/ticket woman told us the next bus was at 13:00, so we bought those and waited. I went to Subway and bought some sandwiches before leaving, but the bus ride was almost empty and it was uneventful other than noting that there are tons of rocks and small rivers here. Oh, and one old man got a phone call and was literally YELLING into his phone -- no one paid him any mind. Ah, Asia.

When we were dropped off at the humble Puli bus station, we looked at the foggy map located outside and started walking to Nansing/Nanxing street. Online we'd found a couple of references to the Puli Nansing Youth Hostel, so we decided to try and find it. We found it and decided to try to look up some information. Ronald got his notebook out and I walked a block away to see if I could find anything. When I got back, Ronald was chatting with a local who then offered me his bike to use to go look for the supposed hostel. I asked him how much and he waved away the question with his hand and said it was free. Yay! So I took the bike, found the place, and the woman said it would be 500 for one person, 1,000 for two! That is a little above our budget and when I was about to ride away she said she could lower it to 800. It sounds like a pretty awesome place, but better for groups...they're like little apartments and we don't need a kitchen, etc.

So we went to a nearby Family Mart and I sat outside while Ronald looked. We ended up settling on one that is right across from where I was waiting...the room for two people is 700 with AC, a tv, and a private bathroom -- more than we need. There's really nothing cheap here. We might have to illegally pitch our tent tomorrow...

Technical details
-bus ticket from Taipei to Puli: 360 NT
-time: 3 hours
-Our hotel gave us free water bottles!
-The internet place we went to was 20 NT for one hour, 50 for three hours and open 24/7

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