Taking a break from the Taiwan trip. Have a whole bunch of photos taken, but not going to start editing them on my tiny Eee PC. Heh, first night where we aren’t out past 10pm. It’s been a while since I’ve been in an Asian country, and I was quite amazed at the number of people still clogging up the main MRT station in Taipei at 10pm a few nights ago.

Currently staying in Hualien, and visited the Taroko National Park earlier today. Heh, it’s been an eye opener for me, with the many various forms of food available at all times of the day, and with things being very inexpensive compared to Melbourne (well, most places, even New York, have cheaper prices than Melbourne).

I’ve spoken more Mandarin in the past 5 days than I have in my past few years in Australia. Other than the basic mash of languages with friends, I don’t use Mandarin much to communicate. Heh, Ive been listening to people talk and picking up new vocabulary as I go along, something I haven’t done for quite a while now. It’s kind of weird now that I’m thinking in English (haven’t needed to think too much in the last few days either) and typing out this post in the language.

If you speak Mandarin, Taiwan can be a very personable place to visit. I find the Taiwanese very friendly and genuinely helpful with whatever they can tell you. This is more so in Hualien, where at the place we stayed, one of the staff ferried us around to a few places, until he noted he wasn’t supposed to do so, and dropped us at a restaurant, where he mentioned to the owner where we wanted to go. While we were eating, the owner promptly called a taxi driver he knew and arranged for him to come pick us up at 7pm. The taxi driver dropped us there and gave us his card, asking us to call him when we needed to return to the hotel. Heh, I’m quite amazed at the level of service people around the region provide.

Plenty of other bits and pieces to describe Taiwan, like the really interesting flavours. Heh, can go on and on but will save that for another day.