Taipei, Taiwan.

As you know, Rama gets married tomorrow and thus we are two hours from leaving for Taipei for the wedding.

And since Rama is so gosh-darn gorgeous, let's have another photo of him:


No idea how Taipei is set up for internet (world leader, I imagine!) but I will be attempting to daily blog our Taiwan Adventures so feel free to drop by regularly to see what's up.

Oh, there is one Taiwan Adventure we've had already. Two weeks ago, Keith says "Find out if we need visas." Stupidly, I think it'll be the work of minutes but instead ... every single website contradicted every other one and hunting for an answer turned into a hair-tearing frustrating "Kill! Kill! Kill!". I sent an SOS to Maureen, who lived in Taipei for five years, asking for clarification, and her reply was simply "Hey, welcome to Taiwan. Things change minute to minute and no one ever knows what's happening."

Then gorgeous Ernest, who comes from Taipei and is a lawyer - and they usually know these things - heard I was asking and texted me "No visas for visits less than three months." (Same as Fiji and HK, BTW) thus we don't have visas and hoping, fingers crossed, that this won't be a problem.

Ernest, as I told you ages ago, has a volcano growing in his backyard in Taipei. It started within days of that massive earthquake at Christmas three years ago ... and I'm hoping I get to see it while I'm there. It's exciting, huh! After it's grown into a massive mountain, I'll be able to say "I knew it when it was just a baby!" And, hey, isn't it kinda-cool to buy land on a perfectly ordinary plain then suddenly and unexpectedly find yourself with a house on the side of a mountain. It's like magic or something!

We also plan to spend many days in the National Palace Museum. You will remember how Chiang Kai-shek's lot took "The Greatest Treasures of China" - the entire contents of The Forbidden City - with them when they fled Mao's army - thus saving these infinitely precious pieces from the Cultural Revolution - and how they are all now in Taiwan, in a very special museum built just to house them. (Hey, note how the site I've linked you to says they took them to escape the Japanese Invasion. Gosh, you have to LOVE Chinese Revisionism, don't you!)

All China's greatest treasures in one place! And you don't even need to go through the torture of getting a China visa! Mmmm, LOVE! And we plan to see them ALL!

We also plan to visit the Taiwan Ethnic Museum, called Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, to find out just how Polynesian the "Taiwan Aborigines" actually are! Was having the worst time trying to find where it was located, until The Redoubtable Mrs Walker says "Go to the Palace Museum, and at the front gate turn left and walk 50 meters, and you'll see the totem poles across the road. That's it!"

There are several other places we planned to visit ages back, strange little artists villages and such, but I can't find the articles I cut out in anticipation, and it's so much hassle trying to find the places everyone knows about, I think they'll be no chance of finding the more obscure!

But I'd better get ready to go. I'm now just waiting for Keith to return and then, voila!, we're off.

Exciting, huh! Gosh, I LOVE going to places I haven't been to before!