Phase 2 - here we go again !!!!

Well

'Twas a cold and frosty January morning when Shaz and the girls dropped me off at the bus stop in Llanfrynach en route to Heathrow.  Can't believe it's come round so quick, thought I'd planned pretty well but still working up til the last minute!!!

Needless to say it was a bit of a  wrench, this is the longest I have been away from the girls (3 weeks plus), many tears were shed.......some of them belonging to the girls.

As British travel goes this was sublimely smooth, train from Abergavenny to Newport to Reading, then bus to Heathrow.....all like clockwork.  Managed to Skype home from Heathrow.....what a great invention, nice to see faces and here voices after a sad parting.

All loaded onto the plane to HK without queue or incident, it's a breeze!!!  Flight was good (nice grub) except that the ear phones could not pick up the sound of the movies enough to make it worthwhile watching more than 3 films (i.e. the 3 films I watched were good just couldn't here the dialogue).  Having said that it's a far cry from the journey to Ireland we used to endure every summer as kids on Stenna Sealink from Holyhead to Dunlougheire.  The only things you could guarantee were canvass burns from the "backpack-whipping" courtesy of Swedish tourists and the complimentary pile of sick in your aisle floor sleeping position.

Decided to get and earlier connection from HK to Taichung which worked out well at no extra cost.  Got to the hotel after about 1.5 hrs sleep in 30!!!......So had to go out for the evening.

Hotel staff lovely but English very limited, surpassed only by my command of Taiwanese.  After much pointing and gesturing....isn't it funny how after you try explaining something to a person as a foreigner...and they don't get it....you repeat it but a bit louder.... and they still don't get it.... then you mime and get louder!!!!!.....I made my way into the wild city night (Taoyuan) to find food.

I have to say this was one of the scariest two hours of my life.  The hotel staff gave me directions, looked like about 20 mins and two or three blocks.  They failed to mention that there were no pavements, crazy moped drivers whizzing past your shoulder and a completely dysfunctional traffic light system.

The night markets were absolutely fascinating....rammed full of people (from ages 5-75) buying food and cheap goods. however I was unwilling to trust my stomach to the risk of food poisoning.

In the end I got a little bit lost, only bought a mouse for my pc (the touch pad was playing up for some reason) and ended up asking directions form street venders.  Before I was about to give up the food quest, I stumbled upon the only place I could find where you sat in an air conditioned restaurant.  Unfortunately for me they stopped serving Chinese food 10 minutes after I arrived !!!!!!  So I had lemon chicken skewers with some kind of sweet chilli sauce and a pile of French fries which they could not understand from me the first time I ordered.

Well I have to admit it's been an experience, walking around for two hours in Taoyun with nothing to show for it other than effectively " Chicken Nuggets" and chips and feeling like a girl guide at a Hells Angels convention!!!!!

Today I made Karl Pilkington look like a distinguished Travelling Scholar.........Aye carumba !!!!!


View of Chuenr Road, outside my Hotel, Taoyuan