Travel and Arrival

I just arrived at Lorena's mom's friends' place. I have just spent two days traveling half way around the world. We had a 4 and half hour layover in Vancouver. I was really tired because I haven't really slept that well before we left (trying to start adjusting early for the jet leg). Vancouver was really nice, especially compared to Calgary’s -10C.

From Vancouver we took a 12.5 hour flight on China Airlines to Taipei. It was a good introduction to being in a world that doesn't speak english because most of the passengers were from China. Although China airlines mainly catered to Chinese languages they always had things spoken and written in English. In Vancouver we went to the China Airlines desk and asked if we could change our tickets to an exit seat so we could have more leg room. They were really nice and took the time to change our seats and double check our baggage receipts (that is Lorenas and Peters bag tickets because I didn't have to check my bag). It was really nice having the exit seats because it was five times the foot space and we could get up and stretch every so often (not to mention lay back in our seats and put our legs out). It was also right in front of the washroom, this proved to be relatively interesting as we saw countless people try to figure out how to open the door to the washroom. Its also interesting to note that 5 people used the bathroom 90% of the time (I think if my mom was on the flight she'd be one of them). The food and movies were really good, but it was really hard to sleep even with the extra leg room. Still 12 and a half hours went by a lot faster sitting in one seat than I would ever imagine.

Because the flight was going West we followed the sun the whole trip (daylight for 22 hours). We got to Taipei at 3:30pm. China airlines had arranged free accommodations for the night and a bus was waiting for us at the airport. It was interesting walking from the plane because there was a large group of photographers, media and police. From what it looked like there was someone important coming to the city. When we departed today everything was taken down. Both at the airport and throughout the city I noticed that the police always had there lights on and that many cars also had red and blue lights and a few had horns that sounded like sirens. If this was going to be my only vacation outside of America I would have paid 2100 dollars just for the bus ride from the airport to our hotel. Taipei has two airports. One is near the center of the city the other is close to an hour away from the city. We landed in the one far from the city and our hotel was half way between the airport and Taipei. I knew that Taipei would be different from Canada in a lot of ways but I was still amazed by how much. Its impossible for me to explain what it looked like (when I have more time I'll try uploading a picture). The vegetation was unbelievable, if theres dirt there were plants. It makes sense why there is so many people living in Asia. Even the most run down garbage stricken building was absolutely beautiful.

Maybe it was because of the lack of sleep or the high humidity but everything had so much more to it than in Calgary. What I mean is that every where you look it is like looking at a beautiful painting with an extreme level of detail. Something you could look at for days to absorb all the details. It reminds me of something my mom likes doing and that’s going to the mall and just watching people interact, only here its not only people that are interesting but its also the buildings and trees. If I could I would have loved to walk to the hotel and look at everything on the way, but it would have taken me months!

The hotel was stunning and I am confident it will be the nicest hotel I stay at on this trip. Its actually a golf resort which includes an amazingly beautiful golf course designed by Jack Nicholas. When we got in we checked ourselves into our rooms, took a shower (which felt really good after traveling for 18 hours) and went for the complimentary supper. When we sat down to eat the first thing they gave us was glasses of ice water. It seems so odd to be worried about the water and hard to deny it when you’re so thirsty. Equally hard is trying to ask for bottled water when the server knows little English and doesn’t expect the question. We asked them if it was boiled or purified and after asking a couple other servers to confirm the first answer we were pretty satisfied it was safe. I think that being served questionable water is going to be fairly common. In Manila we had a similar circumstance where we were served pop with ice cubes which we confirmed were made from purified water. I don’t think I can nor do I always want to worry a great deal about water in places that look sanitized and that have lots of people drinking the water. Personally if the locals are doing it (and aren’t dieing on mass) I think there is some merit that I won’t get deathly sick from doing it. When I do get sick, as I have been assured by many I will, my outlook on this may change (I’ll keep you informed).

Me and Peter had decided before that no matter how tired we were we wanted to go into Taipei and see the tallest building in the world (Taipei 101). So after dinner we talked to one of the hotel staff about getting into Taipei. It was 6:30 by this time and already dark. Our taxi driver hardly spoke a word of English but got us to the tower (it cost about 800 Taiwanese dollars, the exchange rate is about 25 to 1). After a somewhat difficult conversation we were able to arrange with an extreme amount of doubt that he would wait for us for three hours and drive us back home for an additional 1000 dollars (we didn’t pay until we got back to the hotel). The elevator to the top of the tower cost 350 dollars. The elevator up to the observation deck is the fastest elevator in the world and it only took a few seconds to get up (my ears popped far more than when we flew). Of course all I could think of as we went up was that they had to get one of these in the F block of Engineering. This one took less time to do 85 stories than that one takes to do one story. In the observation deck we grabbed some audio tour equipment. To borrow the equipment you need to give some form of ID or 1000 dollars. I gave my ISIC card which I could care less about losing but I noticed that most people gave their passport (which seems fairly crazy if it could be avoided). The tour was fairly pointless when it was pitch black outside. We could see the second airport I mentioned before was located next to Taipei 101 in the middle of the city, but other then seeing a few planes land and looking out to a seemingly endless city the view was pretty boring in the dark. Taipei 101 also hosts the largest and one of the only publicly viewable dampers. If only there was a structural engineer there to explain things for me and Peter. We decided to go right back home after about an hour of looking around. The whole trip cost us about 50 Canadian each, and while the tallest building in the world is a must see for a structural engineer the trip would have been 100 times better if they gave us a detailed structural overview of the building design. Maybe I should phone ahead so that they have it on hand when I got to Kuala Lumpur to see the second tallest building.

Our trip from Taipei to Manila was short and painless. Things I had been warned about before hand were no where to be seen. Going through customs was extremely easy. At the security check point in Calgary I set off the metal detector and had to run my money built through the x-ray machine, then I had to open my bag to identify a package they were concerned about which happened to be my camera. In Vancouver I set off the metal detector and had to explain to the security personal what an object was on the X-ray machine (my lock). In Taipei the metal detector didn’t go off and no questions were asked. Neither Taipei or Manila had swarms of people asking us to buy stuff, the airports were not crowded nor were there many police (except when we entered Taipei).

A great way of getting rid of foreign currency before going to a new destination is to buy a pop at a vending machine while waiting for a plane, then walking around the terminal enticing other people to buy soft drinks then waiting by the pop machine and exchanging American dollars for local currency that works in the vending machine. We got rid of all our extra Taiwanese dollars at a favorable exchange rate.

I’m so glad I didn’t have to check my bag on the plane. I doubt I will have to check it on this trip (unless I get so much I have to take back both bags I have full). Unlike Lorena and Peter I always had everything I had at my disposal and if it hadn’t been for them I would have saved about half an hour waiting for my baggage.

Just writing this makes me realize how much I have actually seen and done that I would like to remember. I think tomorrow I’ll buy a journal so that I can record while moving rather then having to sit in front of a computer and think of things that happened within the last 7 days. Its now nearly 11pm and while I feel that I’m hardly going to have any jet lag 11pm seems very late (9am Calgary time). So I’m going to call it a night and continue on about Manila another day.