A Journey is Like a Marriage.....

......the certain way to be wrong is to think you control it (John Steinbeck).

Our introduction to Taiwan has gone very well. We flew into Taipei from the Philippines and were very impressed with the capital city, which is located at the north end of the island country. It is very clean with an excellent Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system throughout the city, including a line to the international airport. It is well used and has resulted in fewer vehicles on the roads making life more pleasant when walking around. There are lovely parks spread around the city making for nice rest stops while wandering about. Highlights for us included the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (tribute to a former leader), the view from Taipei 101 (world's tallest building until 2010), the National Palace Museum (artifacts from China) and a short climb to the top of Elephant Mountain (city views). The winter temperatures are in the low 20's but we seem to be in the tiny minority wearing shorts and short-sleeves, while the locals have sweaters or coats on. Another interesting thing we discovered.......Taipei and other cities have a free bi-monthly lottery where all you have to do is drop off your sales receipts in special boxes throughout the city. It was introduced by the government to encourage legal tax reporting by providing consumers with an incentive to shop at stores that legally report their sales. It seems like a brilliant idea. We have been leaving our receipts with the people who clean our rooms and we get big smiles every time we do.

Following Taipei, we had planned to travel to the scenic Taroko Gorge area, near Hualien along the east coast, and to then continue our trip in a clockwise direction around the island. However, Chinese New Year....nightly fireworks everywhere we have been.....has brought a lot of Asian tourists to the country and every train to Hualien that we tried to book for several days (10-15 trains each day) was already sold out. Being flexible travellers, we opted for the high speed train that took us to Kaohsiung (358 km's in 1.5 hours including 4 stops along the way), near the south end of the country, and then took an express bus from there to Kenting NP at the very south end. We will now work our way slowly back up the west side of the island and travel to Hualien near the end of our time here. And remember, if Plan A doesn't work, the alphabet has 25 more letters!

In Kenting we stayed at a lovely B&B, run by a lively, non-English speaking hostess and her family. It was only a 2 minute walk to the main street but far enough removed to block the noise from the large crowds attending the entertaining Night Market which stretched for 2 km's along Kenting Street every evening. We walked along different sections every night.....which was necessary to get anywhere in Kenting.....and observed new unusual offerings each time. Beyond some basics we have come to know (squid on a stick, pork belly, fried quail eggs, bubble tea) there were others like deep-fried milk, smelly tofu and some additional ones we did not even want to ask about. Everything we tried was good though, with no ill effects later, so that was encouragement to continue with the local offerings. The Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium turned out to be an excellent side trip. It was well laid out directionally with some interactive displays, underwater tunnels (where sleepovers were allowed), and scheduled demonstrations through the day. They even tested everyone's temperature at the entrance (forehead scan) in an attempt to detect any potential coronavirus suspects. We spent a nice day at Little Bay Beach, renting lounge chairs and relaxing. Another day we made our way to Eloubi Park and it's famous, well-protected lighthouse (surviving several attacks) which was located at the southernmost point in Taiwan. The craggy shore rocks reflected the coral reef that used to exist when sea levels were higher.

Today we took the express bus back to Kaohsiung where we will spend 2 days before heading further north along the coast.

Entrance to the impressive Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Park. Each side of the park hosted the National Theatre and Concert Hall, with the Memorial Hall in view at the back.

A closer view of the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, built for the popular, former leader of Taiwan. The top of the hall housed a massive bronze statue of the President, where a Changing of the Guards took place very hour, with a Museum below where we learned about the history of Taiwan and it's 'liberal' leader.

This was one of the amazing artifacts within the National Palace Museum. Carved from one piece of ivory.....I know, they shouldn't be killing animals for their horns......there were 13 more balls inside of this one,as it was explained listening to our helpful audio-phones. Many of these Chinese artifacts were sent over to Taiwan for safety during the Chinese - Japan wars (which later merged into WWII)., where they are now permanently preserved.

The peaceful Zhishan Garden next to the National Palace Museum, where we wandered through after spending time in the museum.

The 508 metre tall Taipei 101, taken from a viewpoint on Elephant Mountain (that most of us would call a hill, especially when buildings in clear view are taller!). There were 600 steps on the trail to the top, with benches placed along the way for those that needed to stop for a rest.

I took this picture from the outdoor Observation Deck on the 91st floor. The Guinness World Record breaking fastest passenger elevator made it up to the 89th floor indoor Observation Deck in 37 seconds on our trip. The cabin is pressurized to avoid motion sickness during the ride. The skyscraper also claims to be earthquake proof by utilizing a massive internal damper (visible for visitors) that controls swaying.....but my better half didn't want to stick around long enough to test the theory. Later on, we found out that 34% of Taiwan's smog blows in from China.....not much they can do about that.

The Little Bay Beach in Kenting near the southern end of Taiwan. We found a quieter spot further down the beach where we secured one of the few loungers that were available (for those that wanted to spend some extra money!).

Walking through one of several underwater tunnels at the Aquarium. 

There was a separate building, named Waters of the World, which featured marine life from other places in the world. We happened to be there at feeding time and noticed a second person tracking the penguins to make sure they were all eating their fair share and remaining healthy. It brought back good memories for us from our Antarctica trip.

Some very colourful jellyfish, quite different from the translucent ones we have encountered.

The Kenting Night Market which takes over the outside lanes for temporary stalls and people traffic every evening. The small town of 30,000 people came alive at night with tourists from all the neighbouring towns joining in on the action.

Squid on a stick. Your order was cooked on the BBQ and then cut into small bite-size pieces which were then put into a paper cup for consumption while continuing with your walk along the street. I will try this before we leave the coast but that evening I opted for Scallops on a Stick which were large, tender and delicious.