We had accidentally timed our trip to coincide with tomb-sweeping weekend, when good Taiwanese go to their ancestors’ graves in the countryside and maintain them. Taiwan has about the best public transport network I’ve ever experienced, but it was likely to be packed completely solid, and we needed to get to Tainan, halfway across the country. HSR (bullet train) tickets with seat reservations had sold out well in advance; they always have several unreserved coaches, but it’s first-come-first-served onto the train, so we were expecting a fair bit of queueing on platforms. However, we took a punt at a ticket machine while in the station to lock up our bags, and managed to nab two seats on a perfectly timed train that evening! On top of managing (mainly through luck and Fran’s diligence) to get tickets for the Alishan forest railway (more anon, but tickets sell out instantly online and you have to be fortunate to catch the trickle of cancellations) we were rather chuffed; everything was coming up Milhouse.
underneath the open sky 