Blogs from Taiwan, Asia - page 132

Do you know how long I have waited to have an excuse to use that as a subject line? Too long. Too long. My visa woes have followed me to Japan. After having to do the crazy 24 hour visa run from Korea to Japan about 9 months ago, my company in Japan told me they could not process my work visa before my toursit visa expired, so I had to leave the country. For regular readers, you can probably guess there was no way I was going back to Korea. My company gave me very little notice, so Jen and I scrambled to book a weekend trip together, but we just couldn't make it work due to her work schedule. So I decided to head to Taiwan alone boo-hoo. The short version goes like this: ... read more

Thursday 13th May – Hong Kong – Taipei Tony said when he awoke he could quite easily stay in bed, considering how our day turned out this may have been the best thing to do! We left the Dragon Hostel just after 10am for Hong Kong Airport, our flight was at 1.10pm, but we had a couple of trains to catch etc. Caught the Metro to Central HK11 ($2.40) and then had to transfer to the Airport Express Train HK75 ($16) which took about half an hour. Once at the airport, it didn’t take long to find the Cathay Pacific counter, which is where our troubles began. “You can’t enter Taiwan without an ongoing (exit) ticket”. We explained that when we got to Taipei we were going to buy a ferry ticket to Okinawa, this, however ... read more

The night market is so, so crowded.... read more

After a good night's rest I wake up to find that my face is in shreds. The Thai colour is obviously coming off fast. Judy picks me up for lunch before we go out for some sightseeing on foot, the streets filled with little kids in school uniforms rushing for home. We walk both large avenues lined with shopping malls, banks and office towers and narrow streets full of little shops and residences. The traffic goes from being nearly non existent to chaotic. Taiwan is definietly scooter territory, everywhere the sidewalks are cluttered with parked rides and colourful helmets. This is also the first time I have come across a pink shop dedicated to that Hello Kitty craze. I try not to think too much about the fact that a 3.5 magnitute tremor was apparently felt ... read more

My second stint as an ESL teacher landed me in Taiwan. I was convinced to make a trip to this land of many wonders by a friend of mine that I taught with in South Korea. So, I hopped a flight in August 2003 and headed to Yuanlin to meet up with Jeno. Jeno and I have some crazy stories to share, but I'll save some of those for my small South Korea blog. When I arrived, I was completely awake and so we decided to drop my bags at Jeno's place and go grab a bite to eat. This was my first experience on a scooter and let me tell you...........I never thought I'd get back on! Jeno was a great driver, maybe a little bit too "local" for me already, lol. Jeno helped me ... read more