George Town Food in George Town is amazing, the indian food is spectacular. We found a cool little indian cafe across from the post office (by the bus stops) served the best. The town is full of old buildings with many restuarants and quest houses. Little India was so lively with music, food stalls, tailored clothing and filled with delightful smells of incents/oil. Geoff and I couldn't resist buying some of the floral and fruity incents. The incents came in handy, it helped me detour the annoying mosqitos. China town was small but full of nice chinese food stalls and dim [View Full Entry]

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KL was a large city with confusing looking highways. It was really nice of Al and Maureen (Geoff's PE teacher from Nelson) to let us stay in their beautiful apartment in Petaling Jaya. We enjoyed a day walking around the twin towers and craft complex nearby. We made a water colourful silk elephant painting which we have never done before. Learned different techniques of water painting and had a relaxing time under a hut surrounded by beautiful paintings, wood crafts and textile art. We managed to come to Malaysia and KL at the same time as the Tamil Hindu festival of [View Full Entry]

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After our last dive we caught the bus up to Kaohsiung. We stayed the night and we were told to check a small island that creates the harbour. Kaohsiung is a busy port town and there were plenty of big ships and boats. We crossed to the island via a small ferry and rented a two person bike. We had a map so we checked out a few sights including a lighthouse and a Qing Dynasty fort that was also used during WWII. We cruised around along the beach passing a temple and a small pagoda. We got a little wet [View Full Entry]

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When we got there we headed to the hotel that the travel info centre had booked for us. The offseason price of 800 NT dollars got us a really nice place on the main strip close to the beach with new furnishings, nice beds, and a big room. Since we didn't go to any of the islands we decided to stay in Kenting longer than we planned. The main strip of Kenting was full of tourist gift shops, clothing stores, street vendors and nicely kept resturants. Although we did not have much luck with food in Kenting, everything seemed to be [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Taitung late in the evening and the tourist info centre was closed. We negotiated 900 NTD for the hotel by the train station which included breakfast and free bicycle use. Excited not to have to walk so we jumped on our rusty steeds down the road to a cool but touristy restaurant that had tables around a grassy centre which we guessed was used for tribal dancing. The next day we looked into getting out to Green Island or Orchid island which we had heard a lot about. However, we found out we missed the only ferry for [View Full Entry]

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Jiaoxi From Fulong we jumped on the train and headed to the Hotsprings town of Jiaoxi. When we arrived hot spring pools were everywhere. There was even a free mini hot spring foot pool a couple was enjoying at the entrance of the train station. These mini hot springs were all over small parks or in front of public hot springs. We went to a clothing-less but seperate mens and womens public hot spring park. The pools were amazingly clean and the park had strict rules about showering before going into the pool and no clothing what so ever. We were [View Full Entry]

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As our train rolled to a stop at Fulong Station we realized we didn't make it to Gongliao where we had a hotel reservation. In the end it worked out for the best, we wanted to go to Fulong in the first place. Fulong is a quiet little town with a beautiful water front, hotels and surf/bike rental shops although it was pretty quiet when we were there. We spotted a visitor centre nearby the station and the staff helped us negotiate the same price for a hotel in Fulong as we had in Gongliao so we decided to stay. Also [View Full Entry]

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Back in Hong Kong, we took a short break before we began looking for where to head next. After a full day of shopping at the three floors of travel agencies in Mong Kok and several hours looking online we booked flights to Malaysia and Taipei and decided to stay in Hong Kong for Chinese New Years. We arrived in Taipei on a dreary day that threatened to rain but we were treated with sights almost immediately. I think the first thing we did was scan the surroundings to try and point out differences from the other places we have been [View Full Entry]

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The last 5 days in Sanya were rainy and cloudy so we decided to give the Nantian Hot Springs another go. We went to the same hostel to see if anyone else posted interest in going as a group to the hot springs. Thankfully, we met a couple Agnus (from Poland) and Thomas (from Germany) who joined us with Cat. Also Mark mentioned that his wife had made a sweet deal with a taxi driver to drive 5 people to the Nantian Hot Springs for 300 RMB including entrance fee and a ride back. SO we all thought it was a [View Full Entry]

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The weather in Sanya was not the best for sun-tanning at the beach so we made plans with Mark who we had met earlier and Cat who we met at the Christmas party to go to Wuzhishan. Wuzhishan itself is a renamed city in the interior of the island about an hour and a half by bus from Sanya. The area is famous for Wuzhishan (or "Five Fingered Mountain") which is in a park not far away. We weren't sure exactly what we were going to do up there but Mark had met an English teacher, Alex from London, who we [View Full Entry]

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