Jane, It has been many years since I traveled around Taiwan by train. Outside Taipai, there was little to no English spoken or written. I'm sure it is much easier now. I was with someone who could read and speak a little Mandarin and I was willing to make a fool of myself quacking, clucking, and hopping to get food to eat. It would be a wonderful treat for a botany sudent to travel with you and your life would be much easier. Liz Jane McGary wrote: >I have two questions to post, unrelated to each other except that both have >to do with travel. > > >2. I'm interested in visiting Taiwan, just to experience something entirely >different, and would like advice on the best time to see mountain plants >(presumably late spring?). I'd also like to know, from those who have been >there, whether it is unrealistic for a person who does not speak and read >Mandarin to contemplate traveling there, particularly by car. I'd like to >make the trip next year and I don't think I could learn to read it by then, >though I could probably manage speaking (I've studied other tone >languages). I even thought of hiring a local person, perhaps a college >student studying botany, as a guide, but it seems so imperialistic! > >Thanks, >Jane McGary > > > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > > > >