I spent most of last night trying to organise the latter stages of my trip, and you'd be amazed how confusing it can be considering I was only dealing with the details for two countries. I have no idea how I've made it this far having juggled between sixteen different ones throughout my travels.
Starting out I'd made arrangements for my stays in Manila and Baguio, and I've been at various levels of organisation throughout the trip as required. When it came to organising staying in Shanghai for example I had to make sure that I had my stay in Taipei sorted as that was part of the conditions of me being able to secure a 72-hour visa-free stay there. At other times it's been much less of a requirement to be quite so far ahead, although I've attempted to stay at least one destination in front of my self in terms of the planning.
One thing I wanted to make sure was that I never got to stage of turning up somewhere without having organised a hotel, or needing to spend a night at the airport.
If I had my time over again, I think I would probably keep it the same way as I've felt comfortable with this level of preparation. I didn't see the need to be quite so far ahead of myself as that would perhaps have meant me taking my eye off the ball about the destination I was currently staying in, but also, doing it this way has kept me on my toes, and also meant that I've not had to devote great portions of my time to organising three of four different hotels and flights at once.
I feel much happier when I have things in place for my next couple of stays though, and whether it's the right thing to do or not, I've always made it my mission on the first night I stay somewhere to make sure I have arranged where I am going to next (if I haven't already) and then know the next couple of steps from there - even if I don't book them at that very second.
Staying ahead of myself in that way has been extremely beneficial as it's meant that I haven't had to do any backtracking, or discovered that when I get somewhere I can't get to where I wanted to go to next. I'd like to think that most parts of the world are inter-connected by now, but I didn't really fancy spending my time travelling from one place to another by having to take a red-eye flight with two or three connections.
There are certain things about travelling that I won't miss, and the arranging and organising part of this adventure is probably one of them. Spending hours searching for hotels and flights becomes a bit of a bore after a while, and I'm always glad when the only thing I have to worry about is how to spend my time in each different city.
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Obviously I don't want to put the curse on anything because I know how the weather can turn in a climate like this - but aside from maybe three drops of rain that I felt yesterday it seemed like the 80-100% chance of rain that had been predicted might have been a little off.
In terms of size, Taiwan is somewhere between the size of the Netherlands and Belgium, but as it is off the mainland of China it tends to have an entirely different weather system to the People's Republic.
Living on an island for pretty much the entirety of my life (and one where the weather is often not very kind to you for six months of the year) I know how things can change very rapidly so when I set out today I made sure that my coat was in my bag once again, because you never know.
I actually really like how Taiwanese people also seem to embrace the weather. In countries like Vietnam and Indonesia where the temperature was sweltering, the only other people who seemed to be wearing short sleeves were the tourists - but here the natives dress very similarly to how I do, and it makes me feel a little less like I stand out like a sore thumb.
Speaking of tourists, I've seen a few dotted around here and there - perhaps there'd be more if I was in the centre of the city, and I'm sure when I visit Taipei 101 before I leave there will be a fair few doing the same thing. In general I seem to get less strange looks than I did in China or Korea, and perhaps that's because they're more use to foreigners here, especially in the capital.
I know that English is mandatorily taught in schools and from flicking through the TV quickly I have noticed that there are a few channels which broadcast in English with Chinese sub-titles. For me it's just reassuring to know that I'm not the only person from the west in Taiwan. In Shanghai, I felt like I really was isolated - although part of that is because of the strict rules on visas in China.
Today I was planning to head out into the city centre itself - well I say the centre, but I'm not really sure that is is.
The map I have shows Taipei 101 at one end of the map, and the main railway station and several of the hotels at the other - my guess would be that perhaps the landmark building in the city is located in the business distract where as most of the other places such as the central railway station and other tourist sights are actually at the heart of Taipei.
One very unofficial way, I always think, of find out what the centre of something is, is to go on Google Maps and found out where abouts the name of the city is located on the map as that's usually in the centre.....
The MRT map I picked up at the airport unfolds into a very useful street map which has pictures of a few key sights on, and a group of them are bunched together just close to the river so I decided to spend the day visiting those.
Having spent quite a bit of the morning booking flights and hotels for next week, I probably didn't leave my room until just after midday, but it was still humid, if a little cloudy, when I went out.
I didn't really have a route planned as such, as I didn't know how long it would take to get from one place to the next, but I figured that as it was a nice day it didn't really matter if I had to spent the whole afternoon zig-zagging through the streets in order to get where I was going.
One thing I did decide to do was visit the place which was furthest away first which was the Longshan Temple - I've seen it written Longshun, but on my map it says Longshan so that's what I'm sticking with.
There's a metro stop right in front of the temple which was handy, and it was quite easy to get to as I stayed on the line that my hotel is on and then had to make a simple transfer of one stop to get to the temple.
It still wasn't very busy on the MRT when I boarded and I was able to get a seat which means three for three days in a row I've been able to rest my legs - that's probably more than the entirety of the time I was in Bangkok, Busan and Shanghai put together!
The Longshan Temple is a famous historic sight within Taipei and was first founded around the eighteenth century. It is dedicated to the Buddhist God of Mercy - Guan-Yin. Making my way out of the metro, there were plenty of signs (one thing I have to commend Taipei one is it's signage for tourists) directing me the right way.
There was a small park nearby where there were quite a lot of old people sitting around eating, drinking and playing what looked to be either checkers or chess.
A further 100m walk and I was at the entrance to the temple:
Even from the outside it looked very impressive and walking into the courtyard there were a number of areas which struck me instantly:
I wondered if there was a chimney nearby because of the amount of smoke coming from in front of where I was standing, but as I walked in I saw that there were lots of people with incense sticks which was causing clouds of grey smoke to go billowing into the air.
At the far side of the temple there were a lot of people sitting around....
...and then in the middle were most of the people who were offering prayers to the various statues who were in different parts of the temple:
I walked through to the furtherest section and there was another two temples here which people were preying to:
Just generally it seemed like a very relaxed place to be, and I enjoyed just walking around taking things in as the low hum of conversation rang all around from people praying.
I took a quick look at the map and decided that the next place for me to go would be to a place called Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial Hall which is probably a monument that most people will recognise as having seen somewhere when show pictures in a while.
It took quite a lot of walking to get there, and I did have to make good use of the map a couple of times to make sure I was going the right way. What I like about the map is that each street is labelled and actually on there. That sounds like something simplistic and very obvious, but trust me, not every tourist map I've got hold of every journey has included the details of every single street or listed the street names for each one.
Following the road along for about half an hour or so I eventually realised that where I needed to be was on the road parallel as I saw a very imperious looking building which I now know to be the National Theatre:
I crossed over the road and walked through the main entrance of the building which currently looks like this:
There was a sign nearby saying that it is currently being refurbished which is a shame because regularly it would look like this:
Although it was under refurbishment, I still got the impression that it was a very grand and regal place, and there were lots of people milling around in the central area between the National Theatre and the Memorial Hall itself:
It was actually really pleasant just walking around and enjoying the breezy surroundings of the area. The rather large courtyard seemed quite empty, but that was due to the size of the area. Many of the crowds were walking towards Chiang Kai-shek Hall itself and it was easy to see why, even from first glance this is one of the most popular (and most recognisable) sights in the capital:
I headed towards it, drawn like a moth to a flame, by the superbly clean white walls on the outside, as I approached I saw a small row of people starting to build, and as I squeezed in to find a space I realised that the changing of the guard was taking place....
Feeling pretty fortunate to have arrived at the exact moment when the ceremony was in fully flow I
watched the Honor Guards swap roles before eventually being able to get up close and see the bronze bust of the man that the hall is named after:
Completed in 1980 the Memorial Hall is dedicated to former president Chiang Kai-Shek who was the president of the Republic of China. The large statue looks fantastic, even from a distance, and with the value that it holds to Taiwan, I can understand why this culturally significant monument is guarded throughout the day.
Apart from the main room itself there wasn't much to see inside the memorial hall, so I walked around the exterior of the rest of the structure before eventually deciding to move on.
Rather than heading through the front gate I went to the west which demonstrated how fabulous the entrance would have looked were it not under scaffolding:
I was quite pleased with my afternoon's work, and although I've had much busier days on my travels over the last couple of months I feel like I am starting to grow a great affinity with Taiwan, and those positive emotions definitely push it high up on my list of 'favourite countries ever visited'.
Not willing to rest on my laurels, I decided to keep walking to see what else could be found, and headed in the direction of the main station in the city in order to get a real sense of the hustle and bustle of downtown Taipei.
I love how easy it is to get around the city itself, as I was able to walk from the Memorial Hall to the Main Station in less than half an hour, and without having to consult the map once - another bonus point for Taipei.
Aside from the main station there wasn't too much to see where I'd ended up walking too but I eventually came across 2/28 Peace Park which actually turned out to be tucked away behind one of the busier streets I've come across here:
It was built in commemoration of an incident on February 28th 1947 which was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan in which the people were violently suppressed by the Republic of China government. Deaths were estimated to be between 10,000 and 30,000 and the green space was dedicated to victims.
It was a very peaceful place which lived up to its name well. There were lots of people sitting and enjoying the late evening sun and I enjoyed walking through it taking in my surroundings:
Continuing to walk through the park I eventually came to the National Taiwan Museum and then the Presidential Office Building before eventually considering some dinner and making my way back to my room:
It has been a thoroughly enjoyable day, and once again the country of Taiwan has impressed me immensely with a number of ways. I make favourable comparison between Taipei and Seoul in terms of it's layout and friendly atmosphere, although it's much easier to get around here due to it's smaller size when up against the Korean capital.
This might not be one of the places where anticipation about my stay had built up enormously but even after a few short days here I can already tell that my visit is going to live long in the memory.
Feel Good Inc
Gorillaz (2005)
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