Folksy Travel by Bill Smale • Page 2 of 54 • Click on "Menu" below to search Country or City (wait 30 seconds after clicking) or to see Country Guide

September 7, 2025September 7, 2025

Crowning Kings in Reims

Reims is a pretty interesting ciy to visit, the place where French kings were crowned for many centuries .

The roman wreath for crowning kings in Reims is what the lady is carrying

piano Crowning Kings in Reims — Many train stations in France have pianos for people to play some music, a very interesting and enjoyable idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Colbert

French roof — Nice architecture. The roof identifies it as French

crowning church — The church where the king were crowned

Garment Lao bag — Still carrying my Lao garment bag

coffee and cigar — Nice coffee but not my best cigar

continental hotel — John Wick’s Continental Hotel?

Hemingway hotel — Didn’t ask if he stayed here

September 6, 2025September 6, 2025

Quick US Trip

I made an emergency trip to the US landing on July 4. After taking care of necessary issues I traveled to see some friends in bad health and stop by my old hometown to check out how things changed.

quesadillas — My favorite kind of breakfast, a quesadilla with guacamole and crema. A good way to start out the day.

Not an announcement but some very interesting information about he past came to light. I got this cookie at my favorite chinese restaurant. Did you know this fortune cookie tradition was started by a Japanese restaurant owner in San Francisco for kids many decades ago

onigiri — Mispelled but an interesting way to present ONIGIRI

retro diner — They have new owners but a pretty nice diner in the city, retro style

Monroe photo — This is THE famous Marylin photo

Our doctor’s office, Dr. Cook who became the county coroner

corner Market — The former Corner Market where I worked as a delivery and bag boy for the Manteganis

The house my parents built in Tiburon in 1967

bay view — Part of the view from out house bay windows. We could see the fog rolling in over the Golden Gate bridge and over Sausalito

The bakery was Mr. Taylor’s barber shop where I had one of my first jobs at 9 years old sweeping the floor an shining customers’ shoes.

st steven’s — St. Steven’s where I was an acolyte and was confirmed so I could drink the wine on Sundays

Behind the tree is the rest room for he Belvedere park where I almost fell from the roof to a disastrous fate. I grabbed the gutter on the way down

Old house — Our former house on Bayview Avenue. I talked to the new owners who didn’t even know they had an extended garden area in the back. The plum tree in front has been replaced.

Cheap alcoholic drinks in round containers. Interesting Marketing

market street — Not so much taffic on Market street

Famous clam chowder in Boudin’s sour dough french bread

luggage — This is everything I own. Yes, it is all carry on.

A Mexican style pizza with lots of jalapeños

September 3, 2025September 3, 2025

Taiwan is becoming quite a tourist attraction for Asian populations. The one group I saw and heard the most of is from the Philippines. Of course there is somewhat a language barrier for non Taiwanese (one Chinese dialect plus some original indigenous people’s words) but most people I met spoke enough English to assist me or were just kind enough to use gestures and simple words in Chinese to get the message across. My Chinese is limited to food and a few phrases I learned long ago. Looking around town I understand most of the signage with the similarities with Japanese Kanji. This page on Taiwan (link here) will give you more information that might be helpful for visiting.

TAICHUNG 台中

Taichung is a fairly quiet city and it seems the busy city center has moved away from the train station, to the west, so you might want to concentrate time there.

Old tracks — The old train tracks are a fun place to sit, have a coffee or tea and think about old times, or whatever.

shops — You can buy all sorts of things on the old platform

Old train Food in Taiwan — Here is one of the older trains for people to view. You can see this generation train still used in Thailand on the very slow route from Bangkok to the Malaysia border.

simple food variety Food in Taiwan — This restaurant has inexpensive but tasty food variety on a plate. It is a well known with locals

one piece — A famous Japanese Anime made into a TV series recently. Taiwanese people are crazy about everything Japanese. You probably know Taiwan was a Japanese colony for decades until 1945. However both countries are really the closest of friends.

ramen — Delicious noodles with some WAN TAN

Thai food — This Thai restaurant has some good food. The cabbage order should have been made with NAM PLA (fish sauce) but I asked and they made it the Thai way for me. I think the owners are Vietnamese.

coffee and mango cake — Good coffee and excelent Mango cake is in a very hard to find coffee shop which you can find with the reference below.

Your seat here is an old elementary school desk. The entrance is through a hall that looks like one for a janitor, then up steps to a locked door you need to knock on for the young lady to let you in. I asked the owner why this kind of setup. She explained the rent was low.

Old bricks — An old construction from a past Chinese imperialist occupation.

hot pot — Hot pot with an old friend. It was very popular, not expensive and very fresh and delicious ingredients.

TAINAN 台南

Gyoza — One of my very favorites, a gyoza type **fried** dumplings with SUI GYOZA. This shop is very popular and very delicious.

Sometimes it is a challenge not being deflected to the street to walk around due to the over abundance of motorcycles parked in the way on the walkway. This part was ok.

sushi — Would you eat at this Sushi restaurant? I waited to get back to Japan.

ding dongs — When I was a kid there were very foamy “Ding Dongs”. These are different .

motorcycle parking lot — Motorcycle parking lot. Reminds me of Vietnam.

Taiwan spaghetti — Taiwan style Italian Pesto Spaghetti with broccoli which was delicious.

Kaoshiung 高雄

sui gyoza — Old Chuan has a sour attitude but his food is so delicious. This SUI GYOZA was so delicious.

This duck restaurant was not with the highest recommendation in Kaoshiung but it was very good. It was 2 dinners and one breakfast in one duck. The rest they did Taiwan style with the rest quick chopped, thrown in a wok and cooked up with spices, pepper and some sauce. The whole duck cost NT$500 ($17).

dressing up — Kids dressed up for an event in the underground metro

Night market — This night market was huge.

pin ball — Pin ball parlor with old fashioned Japanese Pachinko

sweet potato — Sweet potatoes were easy to grow in your yard and became the sweet delicacy in Japan at the end of WWII since rice was hard to get. It is popular throughout Asia

Unlike Thailand, in Taiwan the fresh fruit smoothies are not made with sugar, something I appreciated

August 27, 2025August 27, 2025

Walking Germany

When Walking Germany remember to look at everything and investigate interesting shops for some fascinating things for sale. But things to do are to watch and talk to people. You will meet some very interesting people wherever you go in Germany and they might be tourists or migrants.

dino insel — Bill Maher talks about “Insel” a lot. Well I found this advertising for the Dino versions

wheat ber — This is a very nice wheat beer

singers — The volunteer Heidelberg wandering chorus group

cheering on walking germany — Here they are cheering on some local business.

church walking gemany — A beautiful church inside

Toilet — This is what kids call a toilet.

Scary FIGUre — This could be very scary for a little child going to church

Not so scary figure — Not quite as scary from the front

Stained glass window — An interesting modern stained glass window

Ancient crests — Different districts represented with their ancient crestS

Cathedral model — Model of the cathedral

Spaghetti — Another wonderful spaghetti with pepper and oil with pine nuts

Vespa shop car — These are produced by the Vespa

Landshut pizza — a very tasty pizza in downtown Landshut

August 26, 2025August 26, 2025

Try Trier Germany

I recommend to try Trier Germany for several reasons. You will love some of the old architecture, the location next to the border with Luxembourg and the surrounding beauty. A one or 2 day visit would be sufficient.

August 24, 2025August 24, 2025

Exploring Hsinchu (新竹) Taiwan

What is interesting about Exploring Hsinchu or for Taiwan for that matter? I find food will always by first on my list. The people outside the giant city of Taipei are all living a little slower life and so can spend time being more courteous and polite. The city of Hsinchu was reported by some as a “food desert”. I didn’t find that at all. It is a smaller city than Tainan or Kaohsiung or even Taichung but it has some very good restaurants and plenty of them.

I need to look harder to find the Moto Guzzi here.

Starbucks in the old library, a 1923 designed Japanese colonial building with Frank Lloyd Wright hints.

I am thinking they took some design hints from FLW’s Imperial Hotel designed 2 years earlier in Tokyo

coffee doritos — Adapting to local tastes…..but Coffee flavor?

The big department store. On the left you see the escalator taking people up to the food court on the 4th floor .

Young people gathered outside dancing to an event

character dim sum — Dim Sum for kids with cartoon characters inside other characters

korean noodles — Not expensive, about $6.50

SFO floor Exploring Hsinchu — What I found he 7th floor had

background scene — The city scenery in the background

quaker — Quake makes a ginseng health drink?

Japanese architecture — Another Japanese colonial style building

japanese — The train station also left from the occupation

August 20, 2025August 20, 2025

Luxembourg Adventure

Any Luxembourg Adventure starts with the main city which has free public transport (countrywide) and is also very walkable.

Beautiful building. This is a government building

bridge view — From the brdge. Lots of grenery

river exercise area — By the river bank lots of space for people to exercise in

beggar dogs — Beggars in Phuket got dogs when they saw how many people crowded around me when I had a cute puppy. Now it is a worldwide thing. Beggars need dogs.

Some hotel and archives related to Joan of Arc

church Luxembourg Adventure — Beautiful church

church burial — Churches bury famous people in the floors

nancy cathedra — Moving on to Nancy in France

Vienna coffee — I thought Vienna Coffee was a Japanese invention but that is not the case.

August 18, 2025August 18, 2025

Thailand 2025

On my last jaunt through Thailand I stopped in Prachuap Kirikan to visit my good friends Alain and Sunan. They now have full solar power in the main house. The guest bungaloo is not yet a priority for solar adaptation. They have a new dog, a stray that stays due to the abundance of food from her generous hosts.

Laos store — Stopped for a few days in Vientiane, Laos to visit with Pasan. I love the store sinage.

no smoking temple — Good thing it doesn’t start smoking.

food salls — Food stalls where you can also find sushi sitting out in the hot sun

train photographers — Kids waiting to get a good photo of the arriving train

Planning lunch — Sunan getting ready to conquer the lunch menu

The garden Sunan created out of a vacant piece of land

At the Bangkok hotel looking at aquaman prepared to put out an underwater fire

emerald buddha proof of theft — In Vientiane, proof the Emerald Buddha at Wat Phra Keow was stolen from the main temple in Laos. Thai people are fed a false truth about this Buddhist figure.

August 15, 2025August 15, 2025

Hokkaido Enjoyment

Hokkaido Enjoyment includes food, walking around and traveling the countryside by car. You should be aware that in 5 years, as I was told, many of the local trains will be discontinued. This means car and bus will be the new major modes of rural transport. But the rental car companies seem to have things prepared in English pretty well so renting a car is pretty easy. My experience renting a car in Japan is very consistent. The rental companies are pretty honest and so are not trying to make extra money by charging for things that aren’t your fault. However, taking photos of the car before driving it as well as the gauge cluster showing milage and gas amount is still advisable.

White gyoza — This was actually in Kashiwa, near tokyo, at the White Gyoza restaurant. This order of Yaki Gyoza was very tasty and the meal including Kimchi was only US$6.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/f3mG6AXe2rRk7EBS8?g_st=ipc

Ferry for Hokkaido Enjoyment — While the Shinkansen (fast trains) go under the channel to Hokkaido now there is still the ferry system which is cheaper. This one goes from Hakodate to Aomori. This ferry was US$26.

Salmon sashimi Hokkaido Enjoyment — Many Restaurants have a photo of this salmon sashimi with salmon roe on rice in the tourists areas.

One man train — Many rural trains are called *One Man* which means there is one person engineering the train and no second person to issue tickets. So the silver and blue machine is to pay for tickets which the engineer manages at each stop. The fare is displayed above on the screen and calculated by distnce.

Toyo-ura town — I stayed at this small fishing town, Toyo-Ura, which I don’t recommend unless you have a car. There is only one resort here and in my estimation overpriced. Everywhere you see the floats for fishing nets.

Good restaurant — This drinkery has very good quality food and I highly recommend it. However, a reservation would be a good idea since it is pretty popular.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/53duUMjFehibRasy6?g_st=ipc

Dunkin' donuts — I never buy hotel breakfasts separately or pay extra for them since I only want a cup of coffee and something small to prepare the stomach for a late lunch, my only real meal of the day. Here I am at Dunkin’ Donuts. While I am “dunking” the rest of Japan knows nothing of this great American tradition.

Proof I was in Otaru, a must visit city with many local craft shops especially glassware.

Kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant but the only thing on the conveyor belt was advertising for specific items. You order as you do in a regular (modernized) sushi restaurant, from an iPad.

Uni shop — This is the only UNI (sea urchin) specialty shop I can recall.

August 9, 2025August 9, 2025

Relaxing Landshut

Relaxing Landshut is close to Munich and a less expensive community to park youself. Enjoy some of the very nice Italian and German restaurants here especially Ristorante Rossini at the foot of the castle. The make the best Olive Oil/Peperoncino spaghetti I have ever had. The recipe includes pine nuts and next to you on the veranda outside is some fresh basil growing you can use to garnish the flavors.

With a cigar — Enjoying a cigar in the Plaza

The European hit, the campari spritz with a new cigar offering by Toscano, the Robusto.

motorcycle group — Law enforcement officers (one here I met) formed a motorcycle touring group called the Punishers. It was a very nice and interesting discussion.

obama hat — My Obama hat on it’s Last trip. The brim disintegrated after 16 years

preparation for event — Getting ready for a holiday event

side dish in relaxing Landshut — A side dish

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TAICHUNG 台中

TAINAN 台南

Kaoshiung 高雄

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