October 29th – December 1st 2016 (32 day stay)

Taiwan boys and girls became a 32 day stay for me and I actually had a contact in this independent sovereign country through someone back in Canada that was from Taiwan, so she still knew many people and had close friends that she hooked me up with, the first contact was a long time friend of hers that was involved in real estate thus had a place or two available for travellers to stay, one of those places was a hostel called Oceanviewstay, it is located in the Tamshui area of the Damshui district which is on the river front and walking distance to the MRT red line terminal station being the Tamshui Station.

From the airport it was a bus to Taipei Main Station MRT, then finding the red line as many different coloured coded lines going in all different directions, the redline seems to be the main line as other lines branch off from it. Although this hostel was available to rent to travellers, I was offered to stay at another very nearby location as I was going to be long term staying for a month. I ended up at one of his nearby apartments on the 9th floor with a great view sharing kitchen, bathroom, and common area with a few other long term tenants, I paid $10,000 TWD (420.CAD) in advance for the month, I found buying food at restaurants or even in the grocery stores expensive until I was introduced to the open market available daily from 6am – 2 pm for all my foods like, tofu, even ‘stinky tofu’, fruits, vegetables and if you eat meat all kinds of meat especially a large selection coming from the ocean, be it squid, octopus, or even turtles.

I liked the Tamshui area as I could take some beautiful sunset photos every night and with the clouds above and river below and in front the blackened city outlined made for some spectacular shots, especially if boats were captured also, and this river was a very busy river for boats, as there were many ferry boats taking passengers back and forth across the river to Bali, Fishermans Wharf, and elsewhere. I travelled across to Bali a couple of times, just to see Bali anod to view Tamshui from Bali side, I did go to a Museum on the Bali side and there was a park on a hill where I observed kite flying on this one windy day, so taking a closer look and walking up the hill I observed many beautiful bright coloured parrots flying in the air freely, it was spectacular seeing these brightly coloured birds enjoying flying in the winds giving spectators a show of their beauty and graceful flying, in all about a dozen parrots, these birds were trained and obeyed by whistle commands or whistle blowing to come back. First time I ever witness so many parrots flying so gracefully in the air, so fast and low flying at times over people’s heads very cool attraction indeed.

There is a very long bike path and walkway from Bali ferry terminal along the river and all the way to the Museum, about a 5 km or so journey, but it was along this journey about 1/2 way I suppose when I came to the park with hill and also because of hill a great view of Tamshui area again.

As one gets off ferry boat from Tamshui to Bali, many street foods to eat and fresh fish to buy, a mini market/street food scene to eat and photograph. Also there is a street nearby with restaurants, stores, bakeries, it’s a nice place to spend an afternoon or day walking and exploring.

Tamshui has a very extended shopping market and street foods to eat, along with many restaurants and street performers and also a long walk way/bike path from Tamshui MRT Station all the way to Fishermans Wharf, maybe up to a 8km travel I suppose. Saturday and Sunday’s this river front area is crowded and very busy. There is a statue of George Leslie Mackay, apparently the first Canadian foreigner arriving in Tamshui. In 1871 Mackay became the first foreign missionary to be commissioned by the Canada Presbyterian Church, arriving in Taiwan on New Year’s Eve, December 31st, 1871. Mackay arrived at Tamsui, northern Formosa in 1872, which remained his home until his death in 1901. Starting with an itinerant dentistry practice amongst the lowland aborigines, he later established churches, schools and a hospital practicing Western biomedicine. He learned to speak vernacular Taiwanese fluently, and married “Minnie” Tiu, a Taiwanese woman.
In 1894 he spoke out against the head tax imposed on Chinese immigrants to Canada. As moderator of the Presbyterian church, he broke precedent to speak in favour of a resolution opposing this tax, saying it was unjust and racist.

I travelled the red line MRT to transferring to the Taipei 101, this is a great view of Taipei from the 89th floor of the viewing observation deck if your willing to pay the $600TWD, if so you will experience one of the fastest elevator rides ever, both going up and coming down. The observation deck has a 360 degree viewing area, I just wished the windows were much cleaner for photographing through.

The train system (MRT) Mass Rapid Transit was easy to use and easy to travel around to destinations and very affordable too.

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