High Seas and arrival in Taipei!

Wow, what a trip. We departed Hong Kong Sunday evening right into the teeth of a nasty storm. Winds were 25 to 30 knots with a forward speed of 14.5 knots adds up to a wind of 40 to 45 knots on deck. The swell and the whitecaps totaled about a 25 to 30 foot seas. Our relatives (who are on their 63rd cruise) said that this one tied for the roughest they had been in.


Anyway, Pat is down for the count and I have headed into Taipei. Without getting too boring, Taiwan has an interesting history. First discovered by the Portuguese in 1544, they gave Taiwan it’s first name… “Formosa” for “beautiful Island.” The Dutch East India company established a foothold in the 1620’s using Taipei as a port for trade between China and Japan. China controlled the port from 1662 until 1895 when the Chinese were defeated by the Japanese Navy in the first Sino-Japanese war. Japan would rule Taiwan until the end of WWII when General Chiang Kai-shek and Dr. Sun Yat-sen fled the communist takeover of China and took about 1 million soldiers, intellectuals and business leaders. During the next 40years, Taiwan has become a global leader in manufacturing and business and now has a population of over 6.5MM. The region is still under dispute with China today.

Enough history, on to the sights. Today, we wanted to see the “Taipei 101 building which, until recently was the tallest building in the world. It is now second to the one in Dubai. We also wanted to visit the National Palace museum and the Longshan Temple.

After making and deal for a car with “Mr. Tu” who was a very friendly guy….for some reason, he had red teeth…never did figure that one out. We headed off to the museum. The Museum was enormous. We probably needed a couple of days to go through it properly. The key impression I was left with the length of time China has been an organized civilization. I looked at pottery that comes from the “Neolithic” age that was well over 6000 years old and in great shape. Like most other Asian attractions I have seen so far…very clean and very beautiful.

The Taipei 101 tower, like many other super tall buildings is not yet economically viable (or so we were told) but you could have fooled me. We saw a tidal wave of people everywhere. We ate in the food court that probably had 25 different restaurants that ranged from McDonalds to cuisine from Singapore. Just amazing.

The views from the observation deck were again, stunning….

The last stop of the day was the Longshan Temple that was built in 1738 and has really been kept in great condition. Apparently this is not so true of many of the temples found around China. Many have declined over the years. It is a Beautiful Temple with classic Chinese architecture….where did the find the time to do all of the carving?? We seemed to have come at a good time and were watching some sort of gathering..never could figure out what it was.

Pat is feeling better as we speak. Tomorrow at sea and a massage for Pat. Next stop Nagasaki!