Day 1

This is my first time of visiting Taiwan. I used my last air miles ticket for the trip. You know what, I did not really want to use the ticket. The trip costs me 15000 miles. However, 20000 miles can redeem a ticket to Japan! The point is: I don't have enough money to Japan. So, no hope to practice Japanese... :( But I did have a chance to speak Japanese in Malaysia. Anyway, I should not think that much now because I have already started my trip. I am writing this in a internet cafe close to my hote l.

This morning, I took a bus and MTR to the HK airport. It was so smooth that I knew there had to be some discontent occur. In fact, there were! I don't know why the HK people are so bad in communicating with other people. They even have problem in order ing food in McDonald's. I was stuck in a line in the airport McDonald for 10 minutes. I had never waited for that long in a HK McDOnald. I guess they should observe more from the surroundings. Both the sales person and the customers spoke fluent Cantonese . I could't think of any reason why they could make so many troubles. Also, the sales persons did not speak much English. They always took a menu out and asked customers to point at the menu. What the hack! It is an airport McDonald! Get someone can speak English. After the lousy meal, I went straight to the boarding gate. However, the line for security was longer than a loop of a standard 400 meters running ring. I am not kidding. People in front of me went through so slow. Perhaps, today is Saturday. One should expect to have more people in the airport.

In the waiting lounge, I could see many typical Hong Kongers and Taiwanese: those people have a habit of forming a line in front of the gate even though it is not boarding yet! I don't think they can save much time by doing so as the plane has to wait for everyone before leaving. They still have to wait, however, in a much smaller room. Sometimes I feel pity on them because the progressive boarding procedure (by calling row numbers) may make them to stand in the line for longer. The flight was good except a little kid was kicking on my chair for the whole flight.

I touched the ground of the Chiang Kai Shek Airport around 1:45pm. The immigration officer was funny. He asked me how long I would stay in, and the purpose of visiting Taiwan in Cantonese. But, I replied him in Mandarin. He gave me 14 days as the maximum stay. Then, I took a bus to city center. I dropped off in the Taipei Train Station. But, I have forgotten to jot down the exact address of the hote l!! I only know the the places close to the hotel. Eventually, I asked some people and reached to the hotel. It was hot this afternoon. I sweated a lot while going to the hotel. But, the worst time was not there yet.

After checking-in, I first went to the train station to get a ticket to Kaohsiung. Later, I traveled on the MRT to the Chung Chang Memorial Hall. This is a opened square that was built for a famous Taiwan president. The funny thing was that I could not find the Hall after leaving the MRT. Instead, I went to the president residency. Unfortunately, the sky was not clear. The pictures may not demonstrate the place well. But, I really enjoyed of standing in fron of the building as I was recalling some clips about a drama of Taiwan politics. After t he residency, I managed to find the way to the memorial. It was a nice place, and I was kind of amazed by the Chinese architechure. Then, I lost again! I could not find the MRT station. I asked many people (thank god my Mandarin proficiency allowed me to do so!) the way to the MRT. I reached to a station and took a train to hotel.

The dinner was not a formal dinner. I only ate chilli dumplings (hong you chao shou) and big fried pork and chives buns (sheng jian bao). It was an exhausting day. Got to stop here to prepare for tomorrow's 5-hour train ride.

Day 2

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