Fili’s world

Taipei <yaZ!>

• The EVA-Air flight from Bangkok to Taipei was wonderful. This will join the list of top flights I’ve been to together with Singapore Airlines from Brisbane->Singapore->Bangkok and Virgin Airlines from London->New York. Comfortable, modern with a very kind and professional service. I still can’t get over the differences between the noise on Israeli flights and being able to actually hear the aircon working in Asian flights.
• Taiwan is trying hard to promote international tourism and it shows. In the Taipei airport, previously called Chang-Kai-Shek but now changed to Taoyuan, I found signs mentioning the new Youth Travel Card and pointing my way to a lovely lady who signed me up. Thing didn’t work out perfectly, as the 2 of hostels supporting this new card in Taipei were full and the 3rd and last one was near impossible to find and didn’t meet basic requirements. Being tired of a long journey, I chose one of the many love hotels near the Taipei Main Station and have had the pleasure of falling asleep with sounds of extreme passion running in the background.
• I forgot how difficult it is for a foreigner to do things in Taiwan, even in Taipei. In my few days in Taipei I’ve maybe seen 10 western looking foreigners and I walked around plenty. English is almost never an option, and my Chinese tones accompanied with my extreme lack of confidence in my language abilities do not register well with the locals. Yeah, even getting food is a complicated thing and I fight the urge to make things easy with the evil KFC/McDonald all the time. The worst is trying to take the bus, and in the last week I’ve already spent hours (yeah, hours!) going in wrong directions or waiting for nothing because of misunderstandings with the locals.
• Taiwan is extremely hot as well, with average temperatures running 36c during day time. I thought it was Asia, but sources say Jerusalem has been running almost 40c this past week.