The Amazing Adventures of Dave and Jen

Dave and Jen arrived in Taipei International Airport after a long 13 hour flight from Melbourne with a quick stop over in KL's low cost Air Asia Terminal. 

To our delight the seats did in fact recline, thereby discrediting all those horror stories of how horrible the in flight experience is.  Melbourne to KL was fine, we were seated in the last row and the plane was not fully booked so it allowed Jen to stretch her legs out and Dave to have two seats all to himself to "comfortably" get some much needed rest post work chaos of the past week.  Around us were the scum of Melbourne it seemed, a group of about 10 individuals who were obviously heading to KL to embark on a swingers holiday of some description, all creepy looking and at least 50 years old, in particular, creepy man #1 who was sitting in front of Jen, often staring, with a long mullet esque - marbled grey pony tail, plaited down to his waist seemed to be the head man, due to his frequent canoodling of whom ever he liked in the three rows they occupied...

The flight experience was fine, however, no food, no TV, but the service was friendly and our seats reclined so we were happy.  Not so cleverly, did Jen book a connecting flight which only allowed 2hrs and 50 mins to clear immigration, collect our baggage, go through customs and then check in again and board the next plane, and when our current flight was delayed we were imagining ourselves being stranded in KL's low cost airport for a couple of days...  Worringly, we asked the stewardess if we had enough time to make our connecting flight and she replied, in broken english, (as almost everything is in Bahasa Malay) that we would have to rush.  Hearing this Jen told Dave that it would be a Home Alone special, sprinting through the airport and taking no prisoners...  As it turns out, the heat and humidity of KL tarmac at seven in the morning must have zapped our co-passengers energy, or it could also be that Dave and Jen are two feet (slight exaggeration) above everyone else and so our leg strides were longer, but we were practically the first through immigration and collected our bags with ease and the airport is relatively small so we had time to spare!

Dave and Jen lined up for the Taipei connecting flight check in to find what barely resembled some kind of a queue, rather similar to 6 year old children in line at Whittlesea Swimming Pool on a 40 degree day demanding killer pythons and icey poles.  Luckily, Dave is from LA, the roughest place on earth, and found himself at home, muscling our way through to the check in desk amid stares of wonder at these two tall white outsiders people who somehow knew the Malaysian queueing rules...

We landed in Taipei international airport, with, thanks to World Nomads Free Language Guides, an extensive vocabulary of Taiwanese Dialect of Mandarin.  I.e. Hello and Thankyou.  Surprisingly, these two words have enabled us to get around in a country that hardly caters for any kind of English speaking tourism...  Dave and Jen caught a bus to Taipei, about an hour north east from the airport, and took in our first sights of Taiwan.  Dramatic scenery of lush mountains, with traditional Chinese tea houses high up on the slopes, well connected and flowing freeways and tall commission style looking buildings randomly astrewn throughout the cities and towns.  It was also raining.  In fact, in the 6 days we have been here, it has continued to rain, with the occassional break when we were in Central Taiwan.  Nevertheless, Dave and Jen would not let rain dampen their spriits (hahahaha), after all, Dave was back on his trip and Jen did not have to explain the process of turnstile mechanics to a MUS fresher for 5 months.

Dave and Jen checked into Happy Family 2 Hostel, which was to be our Taipei base for the next few days.  Fantastically located in the centre of town, opposite the Taipei Main train and bus station and relatively clean, friendly and not to mention at NT 800 (about 32 AUD), the cheapest hostel going around.  Dave and Jen visited the National Palace Musuem, which houses most (if not all) of the Forbidden City (in Beijing) treasures.  Apparently, during the Chinese Revolution, Chiang Kei Shek (spelt incorrently, I'm sure), fled to Taiwan and took all the Chinese treasures too.  As a result of the Cultural Revolution, all of these would have been destroyed if they stayed in Beijing, and so it is lucky they were relocated here.  The Museum itself is spectacular to look at from the outside.  A huge pagoda style building with a beautiful Chinese garden next to it.  Inside, as most museums, Dave was annoyed to find that it was filled with "pottery and stone tools and stuff that he does not really care for," but also, to his delight, it contained, some beautiful paintings, sculptures and scripts.  Jen preferred the garden and enjoyed sitting and watching the massive Khoi's (spelt wrong) (overgrown goldfish) opening their mouths expecting food when she was pretending to feed them.  (hehe)

Dave and Jen have been enjoying sampling Taiwan's food, especially at the night street markets and street vendors. Jen is never too far away from a fruit stand and is delighted to be able to eat as much summer fruit as humanly possible!  Dave, on the other hand, has been sticking to his tried and true diet of ice cream,  and was very excited to see that Cold Stone and Baskin and Robbins is available in most major cities in Taiwan.  Jen's culinary highlight has been the ' Chinese Pizza.'  A  piece of roti bread that is fried, an egg cracked into it, chilli sauce and some other special undistinguishable herbs and spicies, and a handful of basil!  Absolutely delicious!  Another notable highlight is Taiwan bakeries.  They have the most amazing bread products, both in taste and appearance!  Jen is quite happy that she is leaving Taiwan tomorrow, fearing that after getting a taste for sweet bread, and no clear self control, she would soon resemble the bread roles she has been eating!