Gone for 13 days exploring the southern cities and temples of Taiwan, along with Mindanao south island of the Philippines...It's -20 tonite in Seoul but will be +22 to +34 in my destinations... how to pack with just 7kg hand luggage??The forecast says 'Frigid' and 'Ice Fog'. What is Ice Fog? We never even had that in Toronto?Also, didnt realize I was landing at Songhsan Airport near downtown not Taipei Taoyuan International Airport on the train line to the southe...

Often on these Asian trips I'm looking for a backup as to where I would want to go for a teaching job. So far I havent seen anything that interested me, but Taiwan was the first place that did. In a word, it felt "normal". Normal is a very subjective term to define as everyone is different in terms of what they like/enjoy/need/prefer, but for me it was the right balance of everything. They had the chinese influence of temples, night markets, street food. Efficien...

This was my final night in Taiwan and I was feeling sad to be leaving, something I havent felt on my travels for a long time. Normally I'm tired and just want to go home now, but this was a rare feeling of sadness, I hadnt had since Xinjiang China last year, or Sweden 2003 when I seriously thought about moving there. I got back quite late after 11pm to my room and settled into bed with the tv on low volume. Next door a noisy group of asians had moved into the adj...

Having returned from the rain of the Yehliu Geopark on the west island to the dry shores of Taipei city on the east, I now had time to kill until 5pm. I had arranged to meet with a guy off the couchsurfing website who was going to show me around his neighbourhood. As it was now only 3.30pm I had some time to wander a bit more first. North of Tamsui station where I was staying was the old market and colonial buildings. But just south of the station which I could a...

For my last nite I wanted to check out some of the muslim restaurants and have a rare chance to eat chinese food as it would be halal. The first place I wanted to check out was a famous muslim beef noodle restaurant. This was easy to reach by Zhongxiao Dunha station on the blue line. Come out from the NE exit, take the first light at lane 223, and go north one block. Unfortunately, they keep very strange hours. They open for lunch from 11-2 then close to 5pm. The...