Daniele Somenzi's Taiwan

Taiwan The Air China Airbus A330 from Fiumicino lands at Taipei around midday; the airport isn't bad but not among the most beautiful. Marco and I take our 4 rags and move into the city by bus; the hotel is a 3-star, a building of about twenty floors. Straight away a swim in the pool to wake me up from the flight.

Total relaxation and then a walk through the streets of the city. At once we notice an anomaly: at the edges of the streets there are hundreds of mopeds parked; at first we think they belong to people who maybe are working in some office, but as the hours pass we understand that's not the case, and they're not parked in front of a mechanic who repairs them. No. But whose are all these scooters? Why are they there on the street gathering rust?

Marco laughs when we hear that the rubbish truck, to make itself heard by everyone, plays carillon music. We didn't understand why; maybe all the residents of the buildings come down with the rubbish when they hear it? Who knows! The bins are there like back home, and self-service laundries are there too like back home. I went into one with about ten washing machines of various sizes and as many dryers, these though not gas but electric. Just like in the USA.

We enter a Carrefour, which is here in Taipei too, and see that SD cards cost very little and they even sell those of 16 GB; Marco tells me they make them here, that's why they cost little. I take advantage and buy a 2GB one for 2 euros. What a treat, I needed it precisely for my camcorder that runs on mini DV and also works as a 2.3 megapixel camera.

We go to our hotel in the dark after eating in a little street-side mini restaurant.

The next day, there's sun, but you can see the city's haze, the pollution from the cars. Here it's like being in China, only that it's autonomous as a province, but it seems peace with the motherland is coming; I know they've already started direct Beijing-Taipei flights. Instead of going to Singapore and then coming here.

Anyway, of Taipei, as of every city, I've had enough, so I'm glad to take the bus for the airport; however there are still quite a few hours to departure, so Marco takes advantage to do a 4-hour guided tour; I wait there; I don't even dream of throwing myself back into the city traffic; had it been a visit to a zoo, I wouldn't have thought twice.

In the meantime I clear customs and enter the airport's duty-free zone to relax in the VIP lounge; Marco then joined me; the flight for Brisbane leaves in the dark.

bye bye