We left Tainan on the high speed train about noon. The special high speed station is beautiful but it takes an expensive cab ride to get there from downtown Tainan.  The speed of the train is truly amazing--at one point the display showed the train was cruising at about 155 miles an hour. The train car is a bit nicer than the standard train car, comfortable but not too fancy, and the ride is very smooth. We need one of these from the Twin Cities to Chicago.

We checked back into our minimalist room in the Ambience then headed out for one of the key expeditions of the trip--exploring the neighborhood Sally lived in when she was ten. We walked south on Xinsheng Road, turned right onto Lane 150 and there was the block she lived on and the park she played in. In fact, there was a concrete playground slide in the park that was the exact same type of slide that she played on as a little girl. While the house she lived in is gone, things generally looked like the pictures Sally took when she lived there.

Sally will spend more time in that neighborhood after I leave and will take a lot of pictures. It was raining on and off the whole time we were in the area so it wasn't a great day to explore. Today we're having normal May weather, rainy and warm, although the Taipe temperature of 25 degrees C is much more comfortable than the heat and humidity in Tainan.

This was our first rain of the trip and it was easy to ignore as long as you had an umbrella. The rain was not easy for the people on motor scooters to ignore, however, so they were wearing a variety of ponchos and rain coats. It must be very uncomfortable for the scooter riders when monsoon rains start in late summer.

We wandered in a broader area for a while, then checked out the hotel Sally will move into on Sunday. It's called the Dandy and it's slogan, painted on the wall by its door, is "Simpleism, Simplistic, Simple, Dandy." I think the Dandy may even be more minimalist than the Ambience, which could be interesting or perhaps frightening. There was something that wasn't white in the Dandy lobby so I'm not sure they can beat the Ambience.

We had dinner at a famous Taipei restaurant that has branches all over the world (but not in Minnesota). It's called Ding Tai Feng and it's specialty is jiaodze (dumplings). They had a variety of jiaodze, xiaomai, and lots of other appetizers and dishes so we ordered a spread of jiaodze, pickles and vegetables and it was all delicious. This place had about six or seven college age people working our area, shuffling in food quickly and quietly while also making small talk in English so we felt comfortable. We probably were there for less than 30 minutes total but we didn't feel rushed.

We found the bus stop for my airport bus tomorrow night, got some fresh soybean milk and some old school cookie things, sat on a white couch in the hotel lobby, and watched the traffic go by on Changan Avenue.

Tomorrow is my last day in Taiwan! We're going to go back to the historic old district for a look at things we missed on our last trip to the area and then have dinner at one of the rowdy restaurants near the hotel that are always packed until 1 a.m. every night. Then out to the airport where the flight to LA begins at 11:30 p.m.