Taipei: Day 1 part two

Now I needed to take a taxi to my hotel. As I exited the airport, a guy approached me and said “Taxi?” I said “No” (I learned that lesson back in New York) but he was adamant. “Where you go? My car very cheap!” Me: “No.” This happened two more times before I made it to the official taxi stand. When they asked me where I wanted to go, I handed them a page that I printed from the hotel website. It had the hotel’s name written in Chinese characters and a map. They said “ok” and I got in the car. As I went to put on my seatbelt, the driver said “No, no, no.” I said “No? Why?” But he said “map.” So I handed him the map, and he took off. But I’m still wondering, why can’t I put on my seatbelt? Then I look down and notice that the buckles are not sticking out of the seat. Ok, no seatbelts… hmmm.

My taxi ride was interesting because I’m just trying to figure out where I am. The driver speaks no English, he looks like he could be sinister (don’t all cab drivers?) and I have no idea how ‘safe’ Taiwan is. Oh, and I’m not allowed to wear a seatbelt! Now, I’m not super freaked out or anything, I’m just paying attention and trying make sure everything is on the up-and-up. Of course, I also have no idea how far the cab ride should be, and I can’t read the highway signs, so I’m really just helpless and clueless. Meanwhile the cab driver asks for the map twice more along the way… does this guy even know where I need to go?

Apparently so, we eventually pull over and he says “Ok?” and points. I see the hotel and say “Yeah.” He says “Ok?” and I say “Yep, I see it.” “Ok?” Right, no English… “Ok.” He pulls out a sheet to show me how much I owe… $1280.

Now seems like a good time to describe the New Taiwanese Dollar… Let’s see, they call it a dollar, and use the $ sign, but 1000 Taiwanese dollars is worth about 30 American dollars. The smallest denomination is $1, which is a coin ($1, $5, $10, $50 are coins, and $100, $500, $1000 are bills) and they don’t have cents. Things are a bit more expensive than they are in the States, but the different pricing scale makes things look REDICULOUSLY expensive (at that price, it better be life sized!)

Anyway, I got to my hotel room, and WOW it’s HUGE and very nice! The furnishings are very contemporary and high quality. There is a walk in shower, the bathroom is all marble tile, there is a control panel next to the bed that controls all of the lights in the room. It’s really quite impressive. When I walked in, I actually said “WOW!” and the bellhop laughed. Free internet, so I hooked up the laptop and looked up how to use the train system. It appeared to be WAY easier than Japan’s system so I headed downstairs to see if I could find my way to Caesar Park Hotel.