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Published: October 18th 2006
Hi Everybody!
We are staying downtown in a convenient location. We love our hotel, Sunworld Dynasty, which we got on the internet for a great price. It has an open lobby with glass elevators and is quite fancy. We decided to not take a tour but to adventure out on our own. We walked to the government area of town and saw the Chiabng Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. The people here revere this former leader and have a huge statue of him in the hall with military guards. There were many beautiful national buildings in this area, like the National Concert Hall, Theater, Library, Museum, Presidential Office, etc. I will try to put pictures on when I can. I cannot access the port on this computer. I especially enjoyed going to the Taiwan Handicraft Center. I had visited one earlier in HK. These centers are run by the gov't and display many native goods from inexpensive to very expensive. Overall, I found Taiwan to be expensive in goods and services. We had an interesting experience at a small restaurant run by a young husband and wife. We had walked to a night market and decided to eat in that area. We saw several nice looking businessmen in the restaurant and decided that it would be a good place for dinner. We ordered 2 Taiwan beers which the husband had to run down the street to buy. The menu was completely in Chinese with no pictures. The wife spoke a small amount of English. We ordered one chicken dish and one beef with vegetables. She left and went to the market to buy ingredients for our meal. It turned out to be a great meal! We noticed everyone was drinking a tall drink with chopped apple floating in it. We tried a couple of those and found them delicious! Our total meal cost was $14 US. Walt tipped the server and owners each $100 Taiwan ($3US) and they flipped out. People appreciate any tip that you give them and seem unsure how to respond.
Traveling in Asia is completely different from traveling in Europe. You might go all day and not see another American. I did see a man in Taiwan wearing a Robert Trent Jones Golf shirt. I approached him and found that he had played at Silver Lakes in Anniston. He knew the AL retired teachers owned the gold courses.
The fruits are wonderful in every country! I have had several that I cannot name. Each flight serves a meal. You are always offered wine, beer, juice, etc. The service has been super with Cathay Pacific.
Many of you have asked me if I regret not staying longer in each country. I know that I am missing many attractions, but I am getting a close up view of the people. Sometimes, I am ready to move on to another place.
We have one small, heavy suitcase each. As soon as we check into a hotel, we do laundry. It takes about 2 days for most clothing items to completely dry. If they are damp, we wear them. You would be amazed how the clothes don't look wrinkled when air dried.
Take care,
Everette
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Annette, Adam & Lisa
non-member comment
Hi
Hi Everette! It sounds like you guys are doing a lot of walking! It seems you are getting a good flavor for the places you are visiting. I can't get over how little your meal was at the small restaurant. I guess it could not get much fresher when they run out for ingredients after you order! We are looking forward to when you can upload more pics! You are missing warm and very rainy weather here. Take care!