DAY 4 - OUT AND ABOUT IN TAIWAN [2] : A FISHY LUNCH AND A LESSON IN TAIWANESE HOSPITALITY - SATURDAY 30 APRIL

Our planned route is a circuit around the coast, starting at Taipei at 12 o'clock, around to Taroko Gorge at 3 o'clock, across the centre of the island via Sun Moon Lake and back up to Taipei.  The north is heavily forested

and does a roaring trade in fish farms

Further down along the coast, what else? : a bat cave with warnings to give them priority in crossing the road

It was getting late and we were beginning to despair of finding anywhere to stay. The satnav helpfully indicates the location of hotels and pointed us to a relatively unpromising-looking area where a dozen or so people seemed to be enjoying a Saturday night BBQ in front of a building. The usual charades about sleeping didn't have much luck but the trump in the pack proved to be an 11 year old boy called Robin who spoke a modicum of English...all set! 

When we came downstairs to go out to eat, we were enthusiastically invited to join the BBQ, and thereafter treated as royal guests. 

Poor Robin was called from his play with his schoolfriends and deputised by his proud father to sit by my side all evening and "translate" - I shouldn't be at all surprised if he wasn't making up on the spot at least half of what he was telling us all, but the conversation flowed well enough and everyone seemed happy with his skills; photos were taken and exchanged by email as we enjoyed chicken and sausages and salad and oysters, until we had to refuse any more platefuls...

DAY 3 - OUT AND ABOUT IN TAIWAN [1] : MARTYRS' SHRINE AND PALACE MUSEUM - FRIDAY 29 APRIL

After three nights in Taipei, we picked up a hire-car to tour the northern part of the island.  Luckily, it has a satnav; less positive is that it operates in part on character recognition so you have to "draw" the chinese character and pick what the satnav guesses you might conceivably have meant from a list... we'll see!  

Meanwhile, heading northwards, it's not too difficult to find the 1969 National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine, housing the spirit tablets of about 390,000 persons killed in various engagements and dedicated to ROC war dead.  

At the gate stands an honour guard from various ROC military branches. 

The honour guard changes each morning with great ceremony

and then to the National Palace Museum (which is big so we spent virtually all day there)

Sadly no pics inside...  and the sun was coming down when we arrived in Tamsui and found a room with a view of the Tamsui river

DAY 2 - A SECOND DAY IN TAIPEI - THURSDAY 28 APRIL

More beautiful temples : the Bao'an complex - very impressive, with dark wood and swinging lanterns

On the way back to the underground, a Confucian temple with cafe and gift-shop...

In memory of the former ROC President, Chiang Kai-shek, the national monument Memorial Hall stands in a park at the east end of Memorial Hall Square and is framed on the north and south by the National Theatre and Concert Hall.

Two sets of ceremonial white stairs (89 steps apparently representing Chiang's age at the time of his death), lead to the entrance to a large statue of Chiang Kai-shek in the main hall.

Last stop is Tienhou Temple, snuggled into the modern shopfronts.  It was built in 1746 with funds donated by immigrant merchants from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou and again is busy with worshippers.

DAY 1 - FIRST DAY IN TAIPEI - WEDNESDAY 27 APRIL

For practical purposes, Taiwan has been independent since 1950 although China regards as a rebel region (that must be reunited with the mainland - by force if necessary).  It's claimed sovereignty since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 - when Mao's Communists swept to power and the defeated Nationalist government fled to the island - and insists that nations can't have official relations with both China and Taiwan, with the result that Taiwan has formal diplomatic ties with only a few countries (the US is Taiwan's most important friend and protector). 

Taipei, at the northern end of the island, hosted the world's tallest building from 2004 until completion in 2009 of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. At 509.2m (1,671ft) tall, Taipei 101 is an icon of modern Taiwan, designed in an echo of a bamboo stalk and capable of withstanding typhoons and earthquakes (one of which we felt as a shudder on our first night - turned out to have been 4.3 magnitude about 130km away).

Not too hazy a day for us to get our bearings when we head out into the city

including the huge National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, 1972 memorial to ROC "National Father" which covers over 7 acres (29.5 square metres) in an open space of 28.4 acres (115k square metres).

complete with Lincoln-esque statue

and shiny-saucepan-helmeted guard of honour

Lastly to Longshan Temple, originally built in 1738 but rebuilt several times after earthquake and war damage

It's not just a monument but a working temple

with the traditional dragon and phoenix emblems colourfully cavorting on the tiled roofs.

EAST FOR THE SPRING - TAIWAN, KOREA, JAPAN

The plan is a week in Taiwan, ten days in each of Korea and then in western Japan, and a day in Dubai on the way home.  Hire cars are booked and a couple of hotels (Taipei and Soeul) reserved, and we've a vague notion of where else we're likely to go, but all that is certain is that we land in Taipei on the last afternoon of Tuesday 26 April