Training South on a gorgeous Taiwan Day

A totally stunning day after many days of rain, and there I was on the train with a clean window, and empty camera, fresh batteries and two hours to kill. Don't get many days like this....

One reason I like the train is that you always see the backside of everything, where people just let reality go instead of giving it nice neat presentations like they do in the front.

A stream flows through Changhua. The skies today were unbelievable, and the mountains rang clear for the first time in ages.

Plenty of that good Taiwan countryside to soak up.

The sky is like a painting.

The land of farms and rice fields.

"I thought I parked the Rolls right here...."

Sudden views into small towns.

Home and rice flats.

Mud flats.

This Japanese-looking building stands out on the central Taiwan plain.

Everywhere you look, there were men at work.

The ride south is studded with old san he yuan homes.

Irrigation systems criss-cross southern Taiwan. The first regional systems were installed under the Japanese.

Clear views of the mountains all the way down.

Harvesters were out in force today.

An expressway shoots across the landscape.

It reminds you of why they call the island "Formosa."

Steep mountains have strange eroded shapes.

The width of the rivers gives you some idea of why land travel was so difficult in Taiwan prior to the invention of the railroad and the construction of dams.

Mountain ranges as far as the eye can see.

Rice ripens in the bright sunlight.

This company and its wrecks actually extend over quite a distance.

In Douliu the traffic halts for the train.

A mechanical rice picker waits to trash Spock's ears.

Another type of structure lining the track are hundreds of pigeon coops. Here's one....

....and here's another.

Harvesters take a rest.

Tombs are often shoehorned into rice fields.

The HSR shoots across the landscape.

Workers on a duck farm in Tainan county.

[Taiwan]