That, ladies and gentlemen, is the most foul-smelling edible of the planet, coming from someone living in a country that has
durians at almost every fruit stall. Think a toilet where everyone pees all over the place, not washed for a month, doors left wide open, and a strong wind blowing directly from the toilet into your face. And I ate that.
Nevertheless, Taiwan makes for a good travel location, with spots ranging from picturesque mountain tops to aboriginal tribal museums to heart-stopping theme parks.
Unfortunately, I'm in Taiwan with a tour group, and I'm hate tour groups. Here's why:
1. There is every chance you could be chucked in a group that has China families with 5 year old children. The children could run up and down the aisles of the tour bus all the time playing stupid games very loudly. The China people could be trying to educate the tour guide on how to conduct the tour, only because they were busy sleeping when he was giving instructions. The China people could also be screaming at the tour guide for us being behind the schedule because they wanted to stop at every roadside fruit stall to buy fruits.
2. As far as I'm concerned, the food culture of a country is not found in crappy tour-packaged hotel meals. It's found in the unhygienic, potentially-diarrhoea-inducing roadside stalls with rude store owners to boot.
3. I'm not much a fan of spending 3/4 of holiday time bouncing around my seat in the bus. The roads in Taiwan are terrible, and the leg room given only makes it worse. The only good to come out of it is that I discovered I am fully capable of sleeping with my upper body oscillating about my buttocks.
4. The last thing I want to be doing on a holiday is checking my watch every five seconds, thinking "Is it time to gather? Is it time to gather?".
But, Taiwan is sweet, and I will be back, this time with my backpack, a map, and a cushion for my arse.
