Read this blog: The one where Matilda finally gets to use her emergency poncho Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th March 2025 Rain was forecast but it was still quite warm so Matilda took her emergency poncho rather than a waterproof jacket. Santa had put the poncho in her stocking about eight years ago just after she retired and she has been taking it on holiday with her ever since. When we emerged from the metro station it was raining heavily and Matilda finally got the chance to make use of this very well-travelled piece of attire. It proved quite successful: the only issue was that, because it was so light-weight, the hood kept blowing off. We planned to visit the Taipei Confucius Temple first. On the walk there we came across bear statues illustrating the “hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil” adage with a fourth one [below left] with its hands behind its back illustrating the principle of “do no evil”. The saying is derived from/attributed to Confucius: “Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary […]
Taiwan
Read this blog: The one where we can’t avoid a glass floor Monday 3rd March 2025 We had decided to take a ride on the Maokong Gondola which runs between Taipei Zoo and Maokong [literally translated this means ‘cat area’ probably after the wild cats which lived there]. Matilda was initially expecting a boat ride on water until she realised that the Maokong Gondola was in fact a cable car. We took the Wenhu line to the Taipei Zoo stop then walked the short distance to the gondola station. Having queued at the ticket office we were told that it was “cash only” at the booth and we had to use the machines if we wanted to pay by card. An all day pass costs NT$300. The Maokong Gondola opened on 4 July 2007. Matilda was pleased that she had not known in advance that on the first day of operation in 2007, a faulty door lock left both the serving Mayor and the former Mayor of Taipei suspended in mid-air for 10 minutes. Our ride went more smoothly. The cable car spans 4.3 km or 2.7 miles and has four passenger stations although not all of them were in use when we […]
Read this blog: The one where we experience what we feel is is the longest airport walk in the world Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd March 2025 As we prepared to leave Hong Kong, Matilda reminisced about the last time she had visited around the end of March/beginning of April 1987 when she stayed with her brother-in-law Sandy. He had introduced her to Paul Simon’s Graceland album and on this trip she had enjoyed hearing tracks from it played in several bars and coffee shops. We were to fly from Hong Kong to Taiwan. Our Octopus cards were valid on the Airport Express but we had slightly miscalculated and we both found we had a HK$3 debt on each card but thankfully we were both allowed through the barrier. The new Hong Kong International Airport is huge. When we checked in and looked for our departure gate we saw that the numbers went up to 524. However, not all these numbers actually correspond to gates: there are 89 in total. At Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport you must first pass through the Animal and Plant Quarantine control to make sure you are not importing any banned foodstuffs. We noticed one woman in the […]