Taiwan

Ok, I have a confession to make...I'm in Hsinchu right now, anyone know where that is? I didn't think so, Johnny you're probably the only one. This city southeast of Taipei doesn't have much, except for TV in the cabs (I watched the Dodgers/Cubs game between visits) and a TGI Fridays which is where I had dinner (I know I know, not exactly native food). After close to 4 weeks on the road it was nice to have a nice american style dinner. I love the food over here, but every once in a while you need to have food you know.

Well Taipei isn't all its cracked up to be, there wasn't really much there. I visited the two schools and walked around the area a bit but there really wasn't much there. Hopefully next time I'm in Taipei I will have time to see Taipei 101.

I actually liked Hsinchu a bit better. It was smaller and seemed a bit newer (and I was able to get a good sandwich). All in all I really didn't do much in my two days here, time to go on to Beijing. My flight tomorrow is at 8 in the morning which means I need to be at the airport around 6ish, which means I need to leave my hotel in Hsinchu by 5. Its going to be an early morning...

Oh one more big thing to tell you, so I booked a hotel here in Hsinchu for the night because I figured it was too far from Taipei to visit for the day, by car it usually takes over 2 hours. But once again the transportation has amazed me. The bullet train took me from Taipei, through 2 additional stops before Hsinchu in 25 minutes, all for less than 10 dollars. If I took a train from Boston to New York it would cost at least 100 dollars and would take over an hour! Man these bullet trains move fast!