I'm back in Phoenix now so I won't be updating this anymore.
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I'm at a computer in the Taipei airport, about to head through immigration. See you in 20ish hours America.
Went to Dai's House of Unique Stink for lunch today - Home of the stinkiest stinky tofu in all the land. At first its not so bad. Then the aftertaste hits you. It is unique, it is stinky, it has earned its name.
Africa: Not serious about tea.
India: Not serious about tea. Taiwan: Very serious about tea. Rashid: Got serious about tea. 
My train ticket to Yingge. The only parts I understand are the date and time at which I bought the ticket. Everything else is gibberish to me. Forget figuring out where to get off, I had to ask 3 people which train to get on. Though I did manage to match the 3 symbols under the date to a list on the wall and at least figure out which platform I needed to be at.
Apparently these are the best dumplings in the world. The NYT called this one of the 10 best restaurants in the world...in 1993. I guess its a big chain now, but we're eating at the original.
How did I go 3 weeks here without getting hot and sour soup?
The Confucius temple is nice, but the I prefer the much older, popular and ornate Bao-An temple across the street. Built in 1742 its remains in constant use.
New temple, old ideas. Wishes written on wooden cards hung around the temple
The Confucius temple in Taipei is new by temple standards, built in 1879. 
I've been here before, but it was cloudy and cold. Today is warm and sunny and the Chiang Kai-shek memorial park is a great place to hang out
Martial arts and weapons show that my lift took me to.We're back from Tainan. It was just sort of OK. We actually ended up staying far outside of Tainan, which meant taking a taxi in last night for some night market and karoke action.Today everyone except me went to a wedding. I didn't know the bride or groom, so I opted to head to Tainan for the day. After searching fruitlessly for a bus I did the Peace Corps thing and stood on the road until I got a lift from a very nice retired woman. She showed me around Dawan abit and we checked out a martial arts demonstration at a nearby temple before dropping me in Tainan.
Taking a little road trip down to Tainan with some of Taylor's roommates.
Not dinnerYes, that painted liver is part of a show entitled "Internal Organs, A Sporting Event". Notable bits included girl in giant bunny head, girl wearing cardboard house on head and rollerskating. Two men dressed like native americans cooking eggs and bacon and then catapulting them against the ceiling. Eventually baseball was played with a heart while another girl jumped rope with some intestines. This went on for at least 20 minutes Quality stuff.
Firmly back in the urban fray: Taipei 101 at dusk.
Went hiking up to the top of some mountain outside of Taipei yesterday. Nice to get out of the urban fray.
So relaxed. Just stepped out of a two hour soak at the hot springs in Beitou. Not this one mind you, at 170-220F its much too hot. A bit further down a the more popular outdoor public baths the hot water is mixed with cold in varying quantities to make a range of cool to blisteringly hot pools.
Took the red line out to Danshui, the end of the line. Nice city on the shore, but it was really cold. I NEED to get my jacket from Taylor's house.
Taylor and I hit up the National Palace Museum today and then went to the Shilin night market for dinner. We're heading down to Shida for drinks later
This place is great. Wednesdays: Free entrance and 2 free beers. How are they making any money?
Take off your shoes and take a deep breath, these hurt.
I went to the Guang Hua electronics market today, but first I swung by Da an Park and took a little walk on the foot massage path. OUCH. The stones start small and get progressively larger, and I swear sharper, as you walk. To be fair though, my feet felt pretty good afterwards. 
Took a trip over to Taipei 101, the world's 2nd tallest building.
Welp, I made it to Taylor's from the airport. Just kind of hanging out in the student district bit of town.
I'm sitting at the gate in the Bangkok airport. Security on the roads around here is seriously beefed up, but getting here was smooth sailing. Plane just pullled in. See you in Taiwan
Apparently periods of civil unrest are the best times to see a cities sites: The temple of the emerald buddah was exceptionally quiet this morning
CNN just flashed to "Breaking News". It sounds like its hit the fan on a major highway into Bangkok. Thousands of police, soilders and rioters are engaged in a fire fight and you can hear gunshots and explosions in the background. Fun. No worries: This is all on a highway outside the city. Jenn and I are very much so safely inside the city in a comfortable hotel.
A view from and of the train through Samut Songkhram's market.The train really does cut right through the heart of the produce and fish market. If you look closely you can see fruit and vegetable spread out under the train cars.We're back in Bangkok today. Things seem calm around here. We leave in a few days, hopefully before things get too out of hand. We took the train in because protestors have setup road blocks on the highways around the city and traffic has come to a complete halt in some places.
During the day Mae Klong's market buzzes with the peddling of all manner of meat (mostly pork), seafood (mostly squid) and produce (mostly, uhg, durian).At night one quiet produce stall remains, devoid of durian. Closer inspection reveals the source of the gut churning stench of rotten onions: Buckets of empty durian shells sit nearby.
Dumplings and floating kitchens in AmphawaWe're staying in Amphoe Mueang (also, confusingly, known as Mae Klong), but 6km away is Amphawa. On weekend evenings the canal that runs through Amphawa to the Mae Klong river is filled with floating kitchens and hungry Thais crowd the steps to the water. Jenn and I ate our way through the market for dinner. I can't recall everything, but most were dumplings of sorts and all were very tasty. We're now very full and very tired and its very sleepy time.
The central market in Maekong, Samut Songkhram spills onto the train tracks. Several times the vendors hurridly gather their goods and close up their stalls to allow the train to pass.A boat, an overnight bus, a taxi, another bus, and one very helpful lady with a car brought us from Ko Samui to Samut Songkhram.
Grabbing some noodles and seafood while we wait for a boat to the mainland
I dragged my sorry ass out of bed at quarter of six this morning to go see the sunrise that Jenn sees on her run every morning.If the beach pictures are getting old, look at it this way: This morning it was sunrise and the beach, or middle aged english dude and his young thai hooker. You don't want that, there's no picture that makes that not creepy
We've departed the solitude of Mae Nam for the softer, though admittedly less picturesque and peaceful, sands of Laemi. Laemi has the silky white sand and clear turquoise water that Mae Nam lacked. However there's no shortage of bright pink sunburned tourists and fruit slinging beach vendors, both of which Mae Nam, mercifully, did not attract.
You really can't beat a beer on the beach at sunset.Its us and one german lady staying here, that's it. The hot season (and perhaps Europe's little volcano problem?) has kept the beach quiet. Can't complain, this place is great: We've had a monopoly on the beach. There are 2 lounge chairs. The rooms have AC and TV. There are 2 english channels. There's a restaurant and a bookshelf. There are 2 english books. We're leaving tomorrow for another part of the island. We were planning to soak up some of Bangkok at some point, but the state of unrest has us wondering if another week soaking up sun on the beach might not be so bad
The gods demand straws!These tiny shrines are everywhere. Most are surrounded by glasses and bottles filled with colored water. It seems the gods have trouble with bottles though, since all of the bottles have straws, often of the bendy variety. Those shrines that are mounted on poles have small ladders to the ground. I assume this makes it easier for the gods to get down?
At the far end of Ban Mae Nam, Ko Samui, Thailand. The Thai New Year holiday is over, the beaches are empty and there's nothing todo but lie on the beach. Well, there's probably something todo, but why would I leave the beach?
Getting on the boat to Ko Samui. Samui is kind of "big island" of this group.
We took a little trip around the island to do some snorkling. If you look carefully you can see Jenn in the water.
From our room at Tao ThongWe're still on Ko Tao, but we're back in Hat Sai Ree. We spent the last few days out at Tao Thong and didn't have cell reception
Sunsets are the easiest thing in the whole world to photograph.We're on the island of Ko Tao.
Its 8pm, we just got into Chumphon and we're having a beer on the side of the road. The overnight boat to Ko Tao, a small island off the coast, leaves at 11pm.
On a bus pointed south to Chumphon, the jumping off point for the island of Ko Tao.The buses are air conditioned, which is nice, but the music is Africa loud and the quality is far lower. This sounds like professional (just as bad as amatuer) karaoke mixed with a comedy act, and the volume is positively ear splitting.
I'll spare you the sample. 
Street stalls in Bangkok. Dig the buffet style joints, also dig skewered meat. Oh, and that was half a chile, not a piece of okra, crap.
We're in Bangkok. Going to try to head off to the islands tomorrow, but tomorrow is Thai New Year...so we'll see.Our number in Thailand is: +66 87 563 0322
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