Strategy: It’s a new country and a chance to see a newer, more “western” (?) China. I arrive in Taipei, Taiwan on a Wednesday at 2:30 in the afternoon. I depart on Saturday at 6:00 PM. I’ll have 4+ days in the city. I’m staying near the Peace Park, the Railway Station and the North Gate. I will have phone service in Taiwan. 100 TWD = $3.17078 USD. Lonely Planet Taiwan is available in Kindle Unlimited.

Weather: Temperature averages for lows/highs is 63/74 with less than 1 inch of rain in March. Oklahoma City gets about 3 inches of rain in March.

Airfare: Onetravel can get me out of Bangkok to Taipei for $107 on Tigerair. Tigerair (and Peach) also flies from Taipei to Okinawa for around $65 USD. I wound up taking Vietjet from Saigon for $70.

Transfers: Bus looks to cost $5 USD or less. Bus 1819 costs 125 TWD to the Taipei West Bus Station which is less than a kilometer from the hostel. The bus takes about an hour. There is a High Speed Rail that looks to take about 20 minutes to get to the city and costs 160 TWD plus a small transfer fee to the HSR..

Local Transportation: The metro pass page is located here. They have metro information. Think 3 day TaipeiPass for 440 TWD. Get one that allows a Gondola Ride.

Hostels: HostelWorld. Hostelbookers. Lonely Planet. Over 100 hostels listed. Wound up booking the Fun Inn where, interestingly, there is no alcohol allowed on the premises. I wound up paying $44 for 3 nights.

Attractions: TripAdvisor.  RoughGuides. Google. Lonely Planet. LP Attractions. Frommer’s Favorites. Frommer’s. Fodor’s. VirtualTourist. There are 5 Hillman Wonders on Taiwan, all red: Kenting National Park, National Palace Museum (Taipei – #7 on art museums by visitors), Lungsham Temple (Taipei), Taipei 101 Building and Taroko Gorge. Also think Shilin Night Market (far away) & Taiwan HSR. Night markets are, IMHO, the best places in the world for great food. There are no UNESCO WHL properties on Taiwan. More sights: Ximending (shopping district two blocks from hostel),  Railway Station, Formosa Boulevard Station (Dome of Light), Snake Alley (delicacies such as snake penis and turtle testicles as well as being very close to Lungsham Temple), Red House Theater (Images), Taipei Zoo ( largest zoo in Asia), Chiang Kai Shek – CKS Memorial (Images), Maokong Gondola (Images), Jiufen (day trip),

This is my current transportation breakdown for the Asia 2017 trip. The total comes to $1,698.22, or $19.98, a day for all transportation from one location to another for the 85 days. While that will not be the exact final figure but it will be fairly close as the airfare and bus rides are already purchased and that comprises the vast majority of the major transportation expense. There are 23 flights, 3 bus rides, 3 train trips and a car rental. Actual map is here.  Continue reading →

These are the weather averages for the cities I’ll be visiting for my Asia 2017 trip. This helps me to figure out what to pack. Continue reading →

Couchsurfing. Strange sounding word, right? And it is strange. While I normally like to send neophytes to Wikipedia to check out concepts, the Wikipedia page for Couchsurfing is terrible. It tends to leave someone that has no knowledge of couchsurfing with an impression that is far from what couchsurfing is all about.

Couchsurfing is, essentially, asking someone to sleep on their “couch” and that “couch” can actually be anything from a spot on the floor to a whole apartment if they aren’t there when you surf their place. I’ve participated in Couchsurfing. Many times. Yes, it can appear to be a strange concept to the uninitiated, but it’s really not. It’s about people who are relatively open to meeting new people and sharing some life experiences. It does, however, have some pros and cons.

Pros: You will be guaranteed meet some really interesting people. Some people say it’s a way to stay somewhere for free. The host can fill you in on what’s going on in a particular locale. You get to see what normal, everyday life can be like in the area in which you find yourself. In a some locales, it’s the absolute best way to find great accommodations. In some instances, you can stay with some incredibly interesting people in some even more incredibly interesting places.

Cons: It takes work. It’s only free for those people who have no money and can’t take their host out for a meal or a drink. Conscientious surfers tend to reciprocate their host’s generosity in some way. Sometimes, the person that says they will host you will back out at the last minute. I’ve had it happen. Sometimes the hosts couch is really, really far away from where you want to be.

What do I look for when I surf? References. I want someone who has a track record as a member of the Couchsurfing community. I look for potential comparability. I’m not the same person I was when I was 18. I don’t surf with teenagers. I want to surf with someone who I feel I’ll appreciate and they will appreciate me. At least to some degree. I welcome diversity, but not to the extent that I think we have absolutely nothing in common. I look for location. I like to meet people and make new friends but I travel to check out an environment and to see some of the world’s greatest wonders. The primary objective of my travels in not to meet new drinking buddies, although that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I can do that at home. When I surf someone’s couch I want them to be different than I am but I need their couch to be relatively convenient to what I came to their world to see. I look for some “people” time. Couchsurfing is about meeting people and having some people time.

Do I Couchsurf often? No. It’s normally a lot easier to find accommodations at a hostel and hostels don’t cost that much. At a hostel I’m guaranteed to have the ability make new friends if I so desire. Sometimes, I’ll even meet people to travel with. I couchsurf when I’m in a situation where I think it will benefit my understanding of the location I’m going to and I’ll have the opportunity to make the acquaintance of someone I think can can be a real resource and someone that’s fun to be around.

Trip planning is one of my life’s little pleasures. Some people may look upon it as a pain in the behind. I look at as one of my life’s little blessings. I plan my trips. I spend a lot of hours doing it. Here’s why.

• I really enjoy it. It’s virtual travel. I get to see all kinds of places I never knew existed, places someone has discovered for me.
• I learn from it. The Internet is one huge book. It has a lot of information in it and it’s expanding faster than I can keep up. Today, if I want to know what there is to see in Nauru, a United Nations member state with a population of under 10,000 and a land mass of 8 square miles that has the same number of U.N. votes as the United States or China or Russia, I can.
• It fascinates me. Maybe I’m simple-minded or easily amused, but I can spend hours in fascination of the wonders of the world. I like them. They get me juiced. Even the ones not many people know about.
• It saves me money. How can I go out wandering the world for months at a time? I do research and find how to do things cheaply while still maintaining a high degree of personal and physical comfort .
• It makes me incredibly informed. I like to understand the cultures of the world. I like to know population densities, average incomes, how may people have running hot water and whether polygyny, polyandry or some alternative are legally allowed. I want to know where and how people live. I’m kinda like that. I enjoy certain types of trivia. I should have been a sociologist.
• It’s a challenge for me. I want to feel that I’m prepared to face the local transportation issues of Tokyo, Bucharest or Fez. They have different ones, believe me.
• It makes me efficient. If I’m taking a very structured trip or I’m taking one where the only thing I know are the dates and locations of my arrival and return cities, it means that I understand my options much better than of I have never planned at all.
• Everyone does it whether they want to admit it or not. If I’m taking a trip where the only thing I know for certain is the date and time of my trip back home, even if that date and time are months ahead, I have to make a decision about what I’m going to do every morning I wake up, even if that decision is to do absolutely nothing that day. Admit it, we all plan.
• It’s fun. At least for me.

I feel really fortunate that I can spend as much time as I do planning my trips.

Free Walking Tours. What a concept, right? How do they do it, you might ask. Well, it’s simple. They take donations at the end of the tour.

I’ve been on a few. I think they’re great. I take one every chance I get. The easiest way to find them is to go to a website freetour.com and do a search by city. Sometimes, in the bigger cities, there are more than you can do in a day or two. Sometimes, there aren’t any if you plug in a city where there are few tourists. If you can’t find a walking tour there then you might want to Google the city and the term “free walking tour” and see if there is a page or a comment. Barring that that, you can go to TripAdvisor and  visit the forum for a particular country. Try searching for “free walking tour” along with the city you are in on that forum. You will only need to do this at locations where there isn’t much of a likelihood of finding a free walking due due to lack of demand. Where there are lots of tourist you can bet there will be a free walking tour offered. Often, the tour may even be sanctioned by the local tourist bureau.

As a last resort, check the accommodations where you are staying. If you’re staying at the Hilton or another upscale accommodation, I’m sure they have a list or tours that are available but it’s unlikely any of them will be free. If you’re staying at a hostel your odds on finding a free walking tour on the advise of the person at the desk go way up if there are any.