Taipei

I made it to Taipei after a long but uneventful flight. I wasn't really looking forward to my 4 hr layover, but I was pleasantly surprised that the airport was really nice! No I'm not being sarcastic - I actually spent a good 3 hrs just wandering around. It felt great to stretch my legs out but I quickly realized that my backpack was super heavy. For a brief moment I was beginning to wish I had one of those nerdy backpacks with wheels...but then I found a free cart to use! That was a lifesaver - I definitely wouldn't have been able to walk around as long if I had been carrying my bag.

The first thing I ran into was the ridiculous shopping: Gucci, Versace, Tiffany & Co., etc. Needless to say, I was happy to get all my Christmas shopping done in one place! LOL! Seriously though, it was weird. However, I guess a lot of people must shop there because I couldn't even begin to count the number of stores. The largest by far was the Hello Kitty store and neighboring playground/kitchen-set. Kind of made me wish I had a kid with me to go play :)


Anyway, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the airport had all sorts of green spaces which I really enjoyed! There was a beautiful orchid garden and numerous lounge areas with all sorts of plants.





There was also the "Taiwan Green Wall" which was probably 30 feet tall and made entirely out of potted plants that were selected specifically for purifying indoor air quality and reducing the amount of fallen dust. I don't know how they manage to keep them all alive...I can't even keep the one plant on my kitchen counter thriving.



There were also art exhibits, a cultural center, prayer rooms, and a reading room. The reading room made me laugh because they had multiple shelves of books divided by subjects and the signs were translated into English, but none of the books were in English. So while it didn't do me any good, I still thought it was a neat idea to have free reading (signs said not to take the books out of the area).









The only thing that made me wary was the food. Marc and I flew threw Taipei on our honeymoon and bought what we thought was apple pie...I still don't know what it actually was other than disgusting! Lesson learned - today I stayed away from the plethora of unidentifiable candy and stuck with the free filtered water stations (nice!). I also happened to notice the strange food in the vending machines: peanut soup and what looked like some sort of chili??? um, no thanks.


Well that about sums up Taipei...I spent the last hour doing yoga at the far end of the terminal where no one was sitting. It felt good to stretch out after being stuck in a seat for so long. Now I'm in the middle of the 5 hr flight to Bali. Unfortunately no wi-fi on board so by the time you are reading this, I will be in Bali!