got up at 5am in order to make the 6:30 limo to the airport for our 9:35 flight to taipei. made it all in plenty of time in the pouring pouring rain, only to find out that the flight was delayed for over an hour. eventually we got on the plane, only to sit there on the tarmac while they slooowly moved people over from the plane on our right, which was having mechanical trouble, ending up in taipei THREE HOURS LATE. say what you want about united being a crappy airline to fly, especially in asia, but at least they didn’t make us miss our meeting completely like cathay pacific did. although i do have to admit that the stewardesses are much cuter, but that’s of little consolation, business-wise.
fortunately the taipei team were able to reschedule our meetings for 4:30 and beyond, and all ended up well.
oddly enough, the travel advisory is very alarmist when talking about taiwan:
Avoid ice because it can be made from unsafe water. Do not rinse your mouth or toothbrush with tap water, and do not open your mouth in the shower.
Do not purchase unsealed drinks or ice cream made by street vendors. These may contain untreated tap water and the equipment used may not have been properly cleaned. Coffee and tea made from boiling water are safe to drink, as are beer and wine. It is best to use ultra heat treated (UHT) or canned milk that has been pasteurized.
what the hell? i never worried about the tap water when i was here before. i’m positive i used it to brush my teeth, and lord knows that i’ve had ice before. but maybe i’ve got native genetic super-immunity.
i love (not) being back in taiwan. sure, it’s a little dirtier and scrungier in parts, but i understand it and get it. plus, how can i not feel a little nostalgic for my parents’ homeland? and being able to make out some of what people say when they do end up speaking taiwanese instead of mandarin is a nice plus. zooming around the city, i both laugh at the crazy seemingly reckless driving and also rationalize that perhaps my own prelediction for crazy (and crazier as i get older) swerving around to avoid traffic is not simplly impatience but instead a proud taiwanese trait.
i’m suddenly and oddly nationalistic here, for example looking at the taiwan 101 tower with a strange amount of pride. i ask the local rep if he’s been in it, and he says no, he doesn’t think it’s worth the $15 admission fee. i ask, “but isn’t that worth being in the tallest building in the world?” “what’s the big deal?” he says. “we fly in airplanes all the time, and they go much higher than that. 30,000 feet!” hard to argue with that.
it is hot and oh so humid here. my sales rep asks the local engineer if it’s always this bad, and he says, “no, it’s much better today! it’s always better right after a typhoon comes through.” this is why i kept telling him that there are better times of the year to visit asia, but what do *i* know?
i see the voicemail message from my mom yesterday, and realize that i forgot to call her before i left, to try to avoid this very situation: her expecting a call back when i won’t be back home for another week or so. it’s one thing to go to taiwan and not tell my parents; is it extra wrong to call them from taiwan and pretend i’m not here?
Posted at July 27, 2006 10:47 PMi still find myself spitting in the shower as an instinctive reaction to being in places where shower water in mouth is a dangerous consolation. and i’ve been around safe tap water for months!
Posted by: mack at July 27, 2006 4:10 PMa friend once excused herself from her family’s thanksgiving by saying she would be in santa cruz. and she was - santa cruz, honduras. i think she made a memorable call home and had to say something about her friends owning lots of tropical birds to cover up for the jungle sounds in the background!
Posted by: mack at July 27, 2006 4:13 PMComments are now closed for this entry. Thank you for playing.