The dog is unimpressed by the news of the engagement.

I will be going to Phulbari tomorrow for two nights.

I'm staying in room 405 at the Courtyard, but they now have a generator, so I won't be walking into the wall in the middle of the night.

I did the mountain flight this morning, in beautiful clear weather, and it was absolutely fantastic. But I have no desire whatsoever to climb any of them.

thursdaysd typed: <i>I did the mountain flight this morning, in beautiful clear weather, and it was absolutely fantastic. But I have no desire whatsoever to climb any of them.</i>

You obviously did not listen carefully to the annoying song from <i>The Sound of Music</i>.

(Actually, most of the songs from SoM are annoying.)

SoM: so true!

That mountain flight is stunning, is it not? BTW, I also have no desire to climb and of them - or, for that matter - to listen to any of the songs from the Sound of Music.

Christopher Plummer (who played the role of Colonel von Trapp) referred to it after his performance as "The Sound of Sewage."

Thursday, I have been reading this saga while sitting with my foot up, enclosed in some kind of ortho boot, for the last four weeks, instructed not to walk. So I can't imagine you limping all over Asia and having to endure various discomforts. Empathizing but enjoying...

I can just picture Plummer complaining while counting his loot.

Well, I think we'll lose thursday for 48 hours. Ain't no internet up at Phulbari. Thursday, if you get this; Govinda is the clue. Trust him. Let him take you around the village. He can arrange a motorbike to get you to Namo Buddha.

Make pals with the women. Go visit the school. Remember, it's isolated so take any luxuries you need.

Dog's residence of choice is the Sun House - but I'd go for the Cavehouse, just because it's so odd. Just organise buckets of hot water in advance and washing will be a breeze.

By the sound of it, you might just get the views. Ahhh.

The Dog spot is the bench by the helipad. Sit there and commune. Who knows, you may <i> become</i> Dog. You're looking at Tibet.

And leave a tip. You'll see why.

Oh, and an extension to your Namo Buddha jaunt is to continue along the ridge road to Depcha and see what you find. Untouched medieval village, I'm told. That's for my next trip.

Are you good with motorbikes?

Oh, LAleslie --- in a boot for four weeks?? So dreadful!! Hope your're up and about soon. I can't stand being incapacitated. I'm very spoiled . . . and very neurotic.

Just so the luxuries I need to take don't include food! I plan to borrow "The Age of Kali" from the Courtyard library, and I just picked a South India LP as I need to do some work on that leg. But catching up on the writing and enjoying the scenery are really what I'm planning.

The Courtyard people weren't enthusiastic about the motorbike idea. I've done motorbikes in Cambodia, but they're not my preferred mode of transport.

LAleslie - so sorry to hear about your boot. Hope you're better soon.

Thanks guys. Gotta sit and gaze at my navel for two more weeks. Going quite insane. Reduced to reading the first Stieg Larsen book.

"Buckets of hot water in advance"? Hmmm. Sounds like another Thursday adventure. Look for the Dogster Memorial Grease Spot.

OK, here's another piece on Taiwan to hold you until I get back from Phulbari.

<b>Oct 24-25 - Taipei, Part One</b>

I had given up my plan to visit Sun-Moon Lake on the advice of the T.I. office in Tainan, although looking at the rainfall maps later I thought they had been over-cautious, but after tourist-trap Jeonju I wasn't eager for another such experience too soon, and it sounded like Sun-Moon Lake had become over-popular with the mainland Chinese tourists now flooding the island. So I wasn't too sorry to be going to Taipei instead. I did baulk when the T.I. people at Taipei Main Station suggested I should reconsider my visit to Taroko Gorge, and after they called the T.I. in Hualien they agreed that it would be OK.

I had booked a room at the Fullerton 315 at the Internet rate (although I couldn't get their on-line form to work and had to use email), but while the room had the usual comforts, it didn't have a functioning window. Still, the hotel was close to an MTR station, and had the excellent Very Thai restaurant right next door. I had a very Thai couple of days, eating one lunch and two dinners there. Papaya salad, green beans, wet chicken curies, dry beef curry - all recommendable.

I can't second Lonely Planet's recommendation of the public baths at Beitou, though. For one thing, it's quite a long trek to get out there, especially as I had to change trains twice. But, more to the point, the changing rooms are awful. A few wooden cubicles, with cold-water showers, and wet floors, and then you have to stash your clothes in one of the nearby lockers - assuming you have the right change. After the Japanese baths these were a real let-down. I should have tried one of the hotels instead.

My first full day in Taipei I visited the two prime tourist sights: the Longshan Temple and the Palace Museum. For a change, the day started out hot and sunny, and my umbrella finally got to function as a sunshade. A major ritual was underway when I arrived at the temple, with tables of offerings filling the courtyard, and rows of devotees, many of them women in black robes, chanting along with the monks. I waited for it to finish before taking photos, and again, there was plenty to photograph. I noticed one woman busily polishing possible smoke stains off an already gleaming incense burner, and others whisking away the profusion of fruit and flowers.

The Palace Museum was very hard on my feet, and in the course of the afternoon filled up with tour groups. While I enjoyed the special exhibition on the Southern Song dynasty, and I thought the exhibits reasonably well displayed, the museum failed to live up to my expectations. Maybe they were too high, but I thought there was a distinct shortage of jade and of Tang artifacts. I felt this even more strongly later when I visited the Taipei History Museum, which had plenty of both. I did skip the bronzes and the later ceramics, neither of which do much for me, and had coffee and an elaborate chocolate cake in the cafe instead. At which point I got to look outside and see that it was raining. Again.

The high-speed trains only run down the west side of the island, so the next morning I took a regular express to Hualien. On the way I chatted with an Australian Peace Corps volunteer about my own age, on holiday from Thailand, but she was staying at the upmarket Silks inside the gorge, and we parted company at the station, where a young man with a sign was waiting for me.

i'd take chocolate cake over most bronzes anyday

This is getting to be a gastronomic tour of East Asia. I guess bad weather= more eating!

30 years ago I stayed in a monastery in Taroko Gorge. It was full of cockroaches that clattered about and woke me in the middle of the night. Hope you are avoiding that.

Have they moved that incredible collection of jades out of the Palace Museum? I thought that was one of the highlights.

LAleslie: How did you wind up in a boot?

thursdaysd: "White Moguls" is even better than "The Age of Kali." I also enjoyed "The Last Moghul" much more than I thought I would. There's nothing bad about William Dalrymple . . .

Bob: I'll take the bronzes over chocolate cake!

Stress fracture, Indiana. It's cause, a mystery. Did nothing traumatic. That I remember. (Ah, maybe that's the key.)

Chocolate cake over bronzes. Now it becomes clear.

LA--heal quick and strong! I don't think the Love Boat can cope with two palanquins...

The more palanquins, the more handsome Nubian slaves to carry them.

Personally, I think the Love Boat could do with a few Nubians. I think we could find a use for them...

Yesss. I can do Nubians. Not sure about the Love Boat though