Well, we are back on the road again and continuing our world tour. We took a hiatus for a while in Puerto Rico and Pennsylvania, but last fall my wife, Katrina, and I returned to our travels. I apologize for the length of this post, but I realized that I haven’t been blogging enough about our travels. I have made a new year’s resolution to blog more this year so expect more frequent and shorter post to follow.
We went to Puerto Rico in November 2013 because we discovered that travelling with our cat, Cupid, was more difficult than we expected. First we found that it was sometimes difficult to secure lodging when you had a pet with you. We were sometimes even forced to sneak her into a few hotels, but that wasn’t the most difficult issue we faced. We had no trouble taking her to Greece in September 2013 when we began our adventure and no trouble bringing her with us when we continued on to Thailand in October. The problem we faced was that most any other country in Asia would have quarantined her for 30 days if we had tried to enter with her. It was getting cold in the north and as we looked at countries around the world with warm climates (there wasn’t room in our luggage to pack much cold weather clothing) we found that most of these countries would quarantine her and the ones that wouldn’t were classified as having medium or high incidence of rabies. That would have meant that we never could have gotten here out of these countries once she entered.
Therefore, since she was an American cat with the proper paperwork to return home, we took her back to the U.S. and went to the only tropical location in the U.S. that we could take her, Puerto Rico (Hawaii has a strict animal quarantine policy, also, to prevent the introduction of rabies to the island). We had an enjoyable time in Puerto Rico until Cupid suddenly feel ill to feline leukemia. In early May 2014 our lovely little putty tat sadly passed away at the age of 12.
A month later we decided to head to Pennsylvania to spend some time with my son and the rest of my family. We first arrived in State College, PA where spent 2 months with my son and then we helped him move to my home town of Lancaster, PA where we spent another 2 months with him, my father and his wife. From there we headed to Hong Kong in October to spend more than 2 months with Katrina’s family. Katrina is a Hong Kong native. (Please check out my galleries for photos of Puerto Rico, State College [Penn State], Lancaster and Hong Kong; and check back periodically because I still have more pictures to post for these places).
Since we were back in the Far East we decided to continue our tour of Southeast Asia that we were forced to cut short when we left Thailand. We decided to start with Taiwan, arriving in Kaohsiung on December 22. The people of Kaohsiung are very warm and friendly. They have made us feel welcome everywhere we have gone since we arrived. The food is delicious and with a favorable exchange rate of $1 (US) to approximately NT$31.77 (New Taiwan Dollar [NT$]) most things, including housing, are very affordable. We’ve had good luck finding lodging using airbnb so far and we’ve heard that sublet.com is another good resource for finding a place to stay.
The first thing you notice when traveling around Kaohsiung is that there are a lot of scooters or mopeds (the locals refer to them as motorcycles) on the roads and, to our surprise, on the sidewalks and in the markets. You need to be quick on your feet and keep an ear peeled for them when walking on sidewalks and shopping the many markets in Kaohsiung.
Speaking of the markets, they are wonderful. If you find a place to stay with a kitchen (like we always try to do) you can buy your fresh produce and meat in the morning markets. In the evening you can enjoy eating and shopping at the many night markets that dot the city. Some staying open as late as 1 or 2 AM.
While cars and scooters are the primary mode of transportation here, Kaohsiung does have a subway system, called the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit System (KMRT, most locals just refer to it as the MRT), with 2 lines that intersect at the Formosa Station in the Xinxing district. Btw, believe it or not, the Formosa station is a must see. The central rotunda of the station is spectacular with a beautiful domed ceiling covered with illuminated stain glass.
Well that’s it for now. ’m looking forward to travelling and photographing Taiwan. Check back soon and I should have some pictures of Taiwan posted in my photo galleries.