After leaving Japan we flew from Fukuoka to Taipei the capital of the Republic of China, or Taiwan, as it mostly known. Our flight continuing on to Bali wasn't leaving until the next day and we were provided with accomodation at the Airport Hotel. We felt tired after arriving at noon (we had left Hondo at 4 in the morning) and thought about a long lazy afternoon in the hotel, but we had paid the airport tax which entitled us to leave the airport and so we did.

We had a great time. It was interesting to see the differences and similarities between Taiwan and Japan and Mainland China where we were last year. We only toured for a few hours but they were really interesting and we met lots of friendly people. We were riding the bus to town from the airport when some young Chinese looking people asked us where we were from. After telling him I was from Canada he became quite excited as it turns out he was raised also in Canada. That was just the start. Another young person we asked for help invited us into her house and wrote out lots of directions for us and recommendations of foods to eat.

We only went a few places. The National Palace Museum, a trove of treasures the Chinese Nationalists took with them to Taiwan before the Communists took over the mainland. After that we went to a night market area full of interesting foods, smells and people.

All in all it was a great stopover and we had an intersting start to our five month journey.