I'm glad it's bright and sunny today. I won't get too cold. I started my day by climbing the stairs up the north temple pagoda. I had a great view of the city from there. At the back was a garden with a lot of cats and two Buddhist monks. The atmosphere was really quite and peaceful. The most famous garden in Suzhou is called 'The Humble Administrator's garden' and the Lonely Planet comment on it is 'you will have to battle with the crowd'. Well if you go on Christmas Eve, this comment doesn't apply. I can't say I had the garden for myself but no crowd. This garden is an UNESCO world heritage site. It's really huge and very enjoyable. Once again there is lots of ponds, zigzag bridges, pavilions, hidden corner, moon doors ... read more

Geo: 31.23, 121.47So the plan was to take off from Taipei at 5pm, land in Shanghai at 7pm, take the subway and be at the hostel by 9pm. Well that was a great plan. It all started to go wrong when the time of take off was moved to 6pm. We boarded and where on the tarmac ready for take off (about on time) when....back to the gate....mechanical problem. Argh.....this is not good news. I was not too worry until the mum and daughter sat next to me informed me that the last subway was at 9pm. WTF! Who had the great idea to do that? Well we finally took off at 8pm. Nothing I can do about it. Let's have a good flight. Obviously when we landed they had no gate for us anymore so ... read more

Since I arrived in Taipei it has been raining pretty much non-stop :( So I had to change my plan to inside stuffs. So I went to the: - National Palace Museum: it's ok. They have some great piece of Chinese art in there, a good exhibit on the Qing dynasty and mainly the emperor Qialong - Presidential office: you need to show your passport to get in there and then you get a guided tour of the building and you learn about Taiwan under Japanese occupation. It was very interesting. - Pinglin tea museum: about 1h away but definitely worth it and it's free. - Moakong via the cable. The view over the city must be stunning in good weather. Taipei 101 just stand unchallenged in the landscape. It is just TALL. And among other ... read more

I spent one day / one night in the little town of Lukang. It is actually very nice. It's a lot of small lanes with traditional houses. I would have never guess that the traditional building material here was red brick. It has a home feel to it. Obviously, there is a thousand temples. I have find my favorite Taiwanese temple here! It is Longshan temple. It's located in the middle of rather ugly buildings and it doesn't stand out. But there is something about it, a feel, I don't know. I just loved it all: the old paint, the old people singing, the incense, the square space inside with its lonely tree. I went during the day and then at night. It was great to see it come alive around 5.30/6pm when people come to ... read more

For tourism purposes Tainan is divided into two area: Central Tainan close to the train station where all the old temples are and Anping near the sea. Anping: I went to Anping at the week end so the old streets were very crowded and all the stands were animated. I visited the Tree House which was a warehouse under Japanese occupation. It belong to the Japan Salt Company but was abandoned after WWII. Now Banyan trees have taken the ground over and have wrapped around the brick walls. It seems that most of the building are formed by the trees. It's very cool. For lunch I lost myself in the small alleys and opted for an oyster omelet, some dip fried shrimp wonton (excellent) and a watermelon juice. All that obtained with much pointing and the ... read more