Arriving in Taipei

Thirteen hours is a long time for any flight, especially trans-pacific where your knees end up in the back of the chair in front of you. Happen to me every time, like clockwork. However, rather than having some weird passenger sitting next to me that I actively try to avoid, I had a nice lady who is on her way to Ningbo, China to teach elementary school there. I didn't look forward to her flight, with a delay in Taipei, then a flight to Hong Kong, a delay there, and a transfer onto a puddle jumper to fly into Ningbo. She was nice though, and made for some pleasant small talk for most of the flight.

I got off the flight at 5:30 local time, walked to immigration and saw long lines of 20 people or more. Figuring it would be awhile, I waited behind two people to change my USD into NTD (New Taiwan Dollars). When I turned around, the crowds had dropped to 4 people per line. In the 3 minutes that it took me to wait in line and get my money, they processed a couple hundred people. I jumped in the shortest line, got through, and went to collect my baggage. However, I wasn't paying nearly enough attention to which carousel I went to.

Since there were two flights from LAX to TPE, one a half an hour earlier than mine, Murphy's law dictated that I had to go stand by the wrong one, that was almost empty, and look like a fool. I figured out quickly enough (with minimal embarrassment) that I was in the wrong place, and hurried over to the correct carousel. I grabbed my bags as they came right by and breezed out of customs without having to declare anything.

Having had 3 years pass since I last landed in Taipei during summer, my brain actively worked to shield me from how miserable this much humidity is. The cab ride was fine, although walking into the wall of humidity is a nasty wake up call at 6 in the morning. When I got out of the cab at my hostel, World Scholar House, I quickly realized why my brain had tried to protect me. My glasses immediately fogged up and I immediately started sweating profusely. This was at 7:30 am mind you, not the middle of the day (which was far worse).

I got situated in my prison cell style room; 6X10 with one window an AC and a fan. Its not bad for now, but I need to find my own apartment quickly. Hostels have the ability to attract weird and socially inept people. Grunting and staring seems to be on par for the current guests, in contrast with when I stayed here last. That time had some nice fellow guests to chat with and watch movies with.

I grabbed breakfast with Felicity at 11 or 12 am and then we walked around and chatted. It was miserable weather but great seeing her again. She's offered to help me find an apartment and I took her offer up. She has one in mind that I'll talk about in a later post.