22 May 2023
Mini update
Last lap of Zhongxiao Fuxing
I plan to post a second update tonight from Singapore, which will involve hotel pics from Singapore, plus the various boring airport photos people seem to love. So for now, here is a mini update from my 3 hour dawn walk around the vicinity of my hotel in Taipei which involved multiple coffees and a high degree of sweating.
I guess I can post a review of Taiwan while I am at it....
1. Food great, food courts everywhere, cheap.
2. Hotels great, first one in Taipei was small and had shit internet, after that all great and cheap.
3. Hiking average. Not as good as Korea or Japan, I think I have done all worthy permit free hikes.
4. Weather ok... Too hot but did not rain anywhere near as much as expected, I knew I was going too late in the year for good weather though.
5. City comparison - Taipei is where to spend most of your time, Yilan and Keelung also have good access to hiking spots, Taichung does not have enough hiking spots. Taipei wins overall because of transport options.
Now to spend 2 minutes packing and then go get some lunch before going to the airport.
Dockless bike and scooter hire is evidently banned in Taiwan. Instead you still have docked bike rental like this, which Melbourne used to have before they decided to kill old people and drunken fools by unleashing electric rental scooters onto the public that you can just throw off a bridge when you're finished with it.
Some streets in Taipei are tree lined with a linear park running up the middle of them like this one, generally in areas with a lot of government buildings. The fat cats have heir hands in each other pockets as always.
Bonus Sogo, a mini version near the 2 larger ones just up the street, connected by an.....
....underground mall. Not open yet of course. Note that Daiso Japan is the prominent advertiser, as Taiwan is really trying to be Japan.
And my last pic of the morning, most metro (MRT) stations have a library such as this. No staff. You can go in and burn all the books you want if you're from Florida.