I returned to Taipei for two more days before leaving Taiwan for Thailand. Arriving in Taipei Main Station again was less of a confusion than the first time. My biggest problem with this sprawling underground station is that they use acronyms for all three major systems: HSR (high-speed rail), MRT (the subway) and TRA (regular train). They all have pictures of train-like vehicles and no further description and it was VERY confusing my first time there.

Besides the poor signage, the subway wasn’t hard to manage once I actually got to it.
I spent my extra …

Part of the reason that I chose to come to Taiwan was an interesting sounding volunteer opportunity helping to rebuild a hostel in the city of Hualien. Hualien is known among Taiwanese as one of their most beautiful cities. It is right on the water and also has one of the highest percentages of indigenous peoples, meaning there are some interesting things here that you won’t find elsewhere in Taiwan.
The help exchange wasn’t quite what I expected, mostly due to the fact that the hostel is already almost complete. They were hoping I was …

Do you ever get so bored that you can’t seem to convince yourself to actually do anything productive? That has been me for the last few days. You’ll understand why towards the end of this post. I’m sorry I haven’t posted yet about Taiwan!!
My first reaction on arrival was that it will be a good transition between quiet, clean, orderly Japan and what I expect Thailand to be like. The best way I can describe it is more of everything: more people, more noise, more traffic, more lights, more shops open in the streets, …