link to my pics

thoughts -
things are built close together like in NYC but open to the outdoors like Australia.
motor scooters are EVERYWHERE.
ppl are in a hurry, and even during the week in the middle of the day, when im not sure where they're going.
night markets are interesting, kinda like a sale everyday?
towns (a bunch of them) are surrounded by mountains, so ya gotta build up anyway.
kao-shung is 2nd largest city in taiwan next to taipei, but the buildings look a whole lot cooler.
instead of one design for basically all the buildings like taipei, where they go way up and scrunched together, they aren't as tall in kao-shung, and have different looks.
following street markings becomes more of a liberal interpretation in smaller towns, such as kenting, mostly because of more pedestrians and scooters and less cars and buses and taxis.
kenting had 5 lines on the main road, only the exact center one was the most followed, to manage the direction you should be traveling.

Thursday
got in late, about midnight when we got to eric's apt. took skyway in airport then bus then cab to get there

Friday
up about 10a, walked around taipei, saw lots, not many pics (wrong SD card, DOH!), had sushi for lunch and curry for supper, had to take some pepto bismol before i could drink, went to MoS (stood for Ministry of Sound) that night and had fun

Saturday
too much fun at MoS, home and sitting by 5a, fell asleep sitting on couch, then with feet on chair, then got online and chatted,
then finally slept again in the bed at 2p, got up for good about 5p (and I wasn't even the worst one! it was just a long night), we finally left the apt. at 8p for the evening ;).
saw some night market and some people that were afraid of us - interesting (one young lady was just plain petrified of us)

Sunday
31F at 2:30a in CR, feels like 80F in Taipei at 3:30p :D
climbed up a mountain and took many pics, also took some city pics on way back to apt.
ate all you can eat buffet thing where we cooked the food at our table on the grills...

Monday
breakfast at a breakfast bar, then a train ride to keelung and bus ride to jeliou where we spent the day at the rock formations, then ate seafood dinner, steamed fish, some beer, rice, shrimp (which i can completely take apart w/ chopsticks :D ).
I was also invited and had a picture taken with 3 young tailand girls who were also out as tourists.

Tuesday
off to kenting and the beach!
kao-shung was stop after 5hr train ride.
ate McDs for first time on entire trip, got offered short-term English teaching job while eating!
3hr bus ride made an 8hr trip, so day was done when we got there, except for checking into the hotel thing.
welcome to kenting national park!

Wednesday
at beach - didnt jet ski cause we couldnt speak chinese :( but we did swim for about an hour, and then I took a break, but that was after I had messed up my toes on my right foot. didn't know it at the time, but by 8p I had 2 bruised toes to go with the one that had two bandages on it - doh! - I knew those rocks hadn't felt good. score one for the ocean. also got alcohol at one of (at least 3) the 7-11s in kenting and drank that as we walked around looking at more of the area, wish we could do that back home ;). we also found multiple wireless networking access points attached to buildings on the way home so decided to give it a shot. oh so close, but to get on HiNet, you either needed an account, or a prepaid card, and 7-11 didnt have anything. oh well.

Thursday
at beach - got sunburned but ironically didnt go jet skiing because the "main boss" guy wasnt there and we were foreign so they didnt want to take a risk on us.

Friday
come back to taipei - bus and train back, bus wasnt as bad, but train seemed to take forever this time, went to a fashion show as soon as we got back to taipei, then out to supper then just chilled out

Saturday
went up in taipei 101 - worlds tallest building, took a bunch of pics, was pretty cool. went shopping for clothes I can wear during spring/summer at home since I(we) cant find anything else really worth bringing back or affordable. I got 8 shirts, and after the first 6, the guy gave me discounts on the next 2. had night market for supper. ate something that had chicken and potatoes rolled into a tortilla thing and then had chicken on a stick, and some strawberry drink. then party at Roxy 99. took a while for the place to get going, and they had very low ceilings with little ventilation (it was in the basement of the building)

Sunday
another fashion show at 2p, this one was more expression stuff, but was more free form, so we saw some interesting skits during the little shows too, pretty cool, now time to pack!

Monday
go home... 10a from Taipei for 3hrs to Tokyo, then 11hrs to Chicago, then less than 1hr to CR