The lonely planet is better for practical use but I still have a few complaints about the descriptions of some places.
We went on a trip the other weekend over the north cross island highway to find the sileng and fan fan hot springs.
For sileng the LP says “cross the barrier. there is a trail starting from the other side…follow the trail down 40 minutes…the springs should be obvious”
but when you get over the barrier the trail splits into three and then each branch splits again. so we ended up walking completely the wrong way down to the river.
As for the fanfan springs “the way up is flat and easy and takes about 30 minutes” no mention of the fact that you need to cross a waste deep rushing river about four times to get there!
I know you can’t fit everything into the book but these were kind of key points.
My only complaint about LP Taiwan is the ‘Health’ section (pg. 354).
On page 355 it mentions Deep Vein Thrombsosis (DVT), but I developed a related condition of DVT after arriving in Taipei. The condition I developed, as I would later find out, is called Purple Vein Throbosis (PVT) characterized by rapid heart palpitations and tightness in the pants when in close proximity to Taiwanese girls.
After visiting a hospital in Taipei, I discovered that my case of PVT was only a symptom of a much larger disease that I developed in Taiwan: Yellow Fever. On page 357 it states that a required vaccination for Yellow Fever is required if you enter Taiwan “within six days of visiting an infected country.” Thailand is not an infected country, as far as I know, but shortly after I flew from Bangkok to Taipei, I developed a serious case of Yellow fever - I became strongly attracted to the girls here. :lovestruck:
I am going to contact the authors and inform them so that they can update this section (maybe I will get a free book for doing this).
Great post rodent! Yellow Fever is a strange disease - it affects people in different ways. For me, it took about a year to kick in.
I’ve also had a bout of Reverse Yellow Fever. That’s when you develop a fetish for white women after having been out here for years. Of course, Lonely Planet is aimed at tourists so they wouldn’t need to go into that much detail.
If you are ever down in Chiayi County and feeling thirsty, send me a PM.
AJ’s medical license has been revoked by the Taiwan Medical Board. He is no longer considered a qualified practitioner to the General Public.
His license has been restricted to funeral wenches, Temple Dancing Girls and physicals for KTV and Bin Lang sales women.
Sorry to go off topic but this I need to respond to the neo-con’s libel.
The court determined that the girl in question had indeed asked for a breast examination and no charges were brought against me. Stop dredging up old shit on me - I’;m not a democrat
I finally received Rough Guide to Taiwan from Amazon and I’m a little disappointed. Other editions of RG for other cities have more maps and more useful information. The Taiwan RG is not very exhaustive. There are only a few maps of Taipei in the middle of the book, and no maps of the MRT. The guide is pretty good for someone who might be visiting for a week or two, but it is not a good resource for someone planning on living there. I have not checked out LP yet so I do not know how it compares.
Yellow Fever is a strange disease - it affects people in different ways. For me, it took about a year to kick in.