from the land accessed by planes and bullet trains.

Credits to the excellent facilites provided by Holiday Inn Express Taichung, i'm now able to access the net and post this entry, despite being thousands of miles away from home.

Well, to be very precise, the time now is 42mins pass midnight, and i am alone seated at one of the three computers provided at the hobby lobby, with friends almost asleep twelve storeys above and only few cars driving pass the police road block set up just outside the hotel....

In case you are wondering, this is now the 3rd night of my maiden trip to Taiwan, with 5 more nights left to go. Started at Taipei, now at Taichung, and tomorrow back to the city again..

And right til this minute, i'm truely loving it. There could be lots of issue (work) beforehand, there might be much travelling before the real deal starts, however, now it seems worth it. The fact that we DIY it means total control and choice, and at such a country it is possible and fun.

Fun is the key. Taiwan may not have the best city planning around, however the decentralisation means that every where is an attraction... And Colourful indeed, buzzling with activities and energy....Not the stressful push, but the energy to go out and have fun.

Huge too, from the size of the night-markets to the 4 lane roads to the variety of products to buy to the choice of food to eat to creativity of advertisments/marketing to the warmth of locals...

Especially for the last point: The streets here may be messy, however you will most likely to have someone to help you when you need it. Discount vounchers are shared among strangers, taxi driver and food/shop vendors chat with you when you visit... Contrast that with some service standard we have...or rather, dont even talk about "standards"; such human-touch will never be able to be emulated by some service-procedure or ratings... get it?

Standards also for Transport: The roads here will be hell to any average Singaporean drivers... what rules? Scooters rules the road. Bikes/Cars/Trucks squeeze through any given inches and merge in with the crowds in the Night Market. Picture an Corolla thru pasan malam. On roads/motorways vehicles weave in and out, however never seem Life-threatening, simply because they give way to others, Always on Alert... if only our roads can be so....

Keep left to the right of escalator in Subway, else summon. And you get everyone doing so, not blocking the way. And no ones rushes into the train cabin when the doors open, instead an orderly queue is formed.... Plus the call to let out the priority seats are done so even better...dont even need PCK to rap. (pix will be up) And that brilliant Bullet Train...filled with facitilies on board yet so fast that you wouldnt get to enjoy them...reaches destination on the dot, precisely.

Ulimately, is the total experience. Where meals are not just items that you sat down to chew and fills the stomach. Meals are tasty, senses-triggering treats, purchased and ate as you move from a stall to another, while avoiding scooters and distracted by the nice clothes Unique to every stall/shops. Stomach is filled when you had tried every different items bought by each friends, while laughing hard about some really lame thing. This is throughout the day; meaning that, meal times are actually, never ending until the time you call it a day.

Welcome to Taiwan.