TAIPEI, TAIWAN

Early Wednesday morning , Jon and Takako took me to the train station to commence my trip to Taipei via Hong Kong. The train ride was about 2 hours long and I had to get a bus for another 30 minutes. The experience of early morning rush of masses of people was everything that I had heard. I have experienced it, but don't care to do it again. It was great seeing the two in their place in the sun. They appear to have a good life and they are great, especially Sarah. It was refreshing to have them as guides for this was the first time to be in a country that had very little english caption under their language.

Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China are obviously proud of their language and have very little concern about foreigners comunicating with them. Hong Kong is better than the rest. When I arrived in Taipei, I was confronted with a language that as we say looked like Greek. I was able to communicate enough with a taxi driver who charged $40 to take me to Taipei and to a small hotel that turned out to be very nice. The Dong Wu hotel had employees that spoke very little English which hampered my finding out about places in Taipei. I later learned that for another $20 I could have stayed in the Grand Hotel, a palace. That was owned and built by Madam Chaing Kai Shek.

At first, I thought Taipei was going to be just an industrial city with little to do, particularly the first day and a half.  After doing a little shopping, dodging motor scooters, both on the streets and sidewalks, feeling like it was a dead city, all of a sudden it came alive. I had great sea food meals, walked parts of the city, tried to see Their Great park and Museum.  I really did not think it had a night life, but I was wrong.  It was a great city and country.

I took a train for about an hour to a small mountain city with very narrow roads. As I was embarking from the train, I met Dr. Yu-ming Shaw and his wife, Shirley. She is the anchor woman for a T.V. station and does the news.  He is a History professor who was educated and taught in the U.S. including Notre Dame. They allowed me to share their taxi to the mountain city. Spending the day and evening was a most enjoyable time.  We stopped at a restuarant and had green tea.  They bring hot coals in a clay bowl to keep the water hot.  The water is then poured into a small tea pot full of tea leaves.  Then, using the tea pot it is poured into a small egg-shaped sized cup, which then is poured into a small shallow cup for drinking.  The view was spectacular over looking the harbor from the mountain.  Later we visted a local artist's paintings in which he uses tar as his basic paint.  Some of his paintings go for $20,000. 

That evening, we met Catherine who owns the rear window resturant and facilities.  She is from Taipei but fell in love with this little town and place.  She bought it for $300,000 and remodeled it.  The dinner I had was of seafood that I actually cooked at the table. It was a Great meal, great place, great time.  Going back to Taipei, we grabbed a bus that took us to the train station.

After they told me about the Grand Palace Hotel built by Madam Shaing Kia Shaik to entertain foreign dignitaries, I decided to check it out.  It turned out to be a very good evening.  One of the clubs had a band where everyone was doing the waltz, cha cha, or slow dance.  Some had good moves but all were stilted.   Whith the help of three women, we loosened them up.  Great time, great time, but I got no sleep.  I had to leave for the airport for Seuol, Korea.  Taiwan was a beautiful place.  I missed a few things that I will have to see on the next trip there.