Taipei: Day 1, part one

So I didn’t like Japan… but guess what. I LOVE Taipei!! It’s quite possible that this is all in my head, but this city seems magical; the people here seem so happy. Funny, I just searched for ‘taipei magical’ to see if it was just me, and I found a letter written by Tapei’s mayor in 2005 that contained the following sentence “Taipei’s magical charm and Taipei citizens’ happiness do not come about without reason.” I guess at least the mayor agrees with me, on both counts!

When I landed at the airport on Saturday, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. As I walked toward the quarantine area, I saw a large white sign with red letters that said “TRAFFICKING IN DRUGS IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH IN THE R.O.C.” Woah! But then I was a little surprised by the seemingly lackadaisical passport inspection and customs… They didn’t ask me a single question and no one was even standing at the customs counter. In Japan, they asked me a bunch of questions about why I was there and how long I was going to stay. Here, they scanned my passport and let me walk in.

The day before, I realized that I’d be spending my weekend in Taipei so I better find some things to do with my free time. One thing that stood out in my search was a Taipei City bus tour. I emailed a place about it before I left, and they told me to call them as soon as I landed in Taipei. In Japan my cellphone didn’t work, but it did here! But I had no idea how to make an international call from an American cellphone located in the “international” country in question! There was a tourism counter in the airport, so I went up and asked the guy at the counter. “How… do… I… call… this… number… from… American… phone?” After a week of practice in Japan, I think I’ve gotten pretty good at speaking slow, simple, deliberate English. The answer was to drop the country code, but add a zero at the beginning…

So I called the place and a lady answered the phone in Chinese. I asked “Is this Edison Travel?” which carried the unspoken question “Do you speak English?” She said “yes” so I told her that I emailed them yesterday, and I would like to reserve a spot on the Taipei City night tour for that evening. She said ok and asked me what hotel I am staying at? I said “Forward Hotel” she said “Fowo Hotel?” I said “FORWARD Hotel” and she said “… do you have telephone number?” I gave it to her and she told me to wait while she called them.

When she got back on the line, she said my hotel was too far away for pick up, so could I take the train and meet at a different hotel? I said ok even though I had no idea if I really could or not… I had no idea what the train situation was, no idea where my hotel was, and no idea where the hotel she wanted me to go was. But, yeah, will do. She said “Ok, the hotel is call Seesaw Park Hotel.” I said “Seesaw?” She said “I spell, C-?-?-S-A-R P-A-R-K, SeeSar Park Hotel.” I missed some of the letters, and I still wasn’t quite sure what she was saying, so I asked her to spell it again, but she didn’t understand… I said “Can you spell it again? The letters?” She said “I start over.” And this time I caught it all, be at Caesar Park Hotel at 6:05pm. Ok.