Day 1 - some sights have been seen....

Ready....Set.....Go! Scooters are EVERYWHERE. including the sidewalk. We have seen up to 3 people on one scooter. It is not unusual to see an adult riding a scooter with a young child standing in front of them in between their arms. Most have helmets, which is good, and there are some quite unusual traffic patterns for people on scooters.


We didn't do a whole lot today. A lot of sleeping. We went (next door) to the breakfast room and the breakfast was ok. I have had worse breakfasts at US hotels, so I guess it was fine. It is so humid here that the salt won't come out of the shaker....no big deal though. The biggest adjustment for me is no Diet Soda to be found. We had to buy some at the supermarket this afternoon.


We ate dinner at a fun little place. You cook the food right at your table. Luckily the manager spoke 2 words of English "beef" and "pork" and we managed to order what looked like the usual. I broke a big rule and ate a very delicious rice dish that had all kinds of things I couldn't identify in it. Plus the broth from the beef was awesome as a soup after we ate the beef. I'm sure they laughed their heads off after we left. Most of the side dishes were too spicy for me (go figure), but the pot of rice made up for it.

Here is a typical street. Everything is very crowded and close. I have seen some alleys filled with cars and scooters parked all different directions and I couldn't imagine how they even turned around, let alone parallel park in there.

We saw a school and a mall today while walking - those pictures are below.



















I don't know if you can tell, but there are little characters hanging in the window - Spongebob and Pooh Bear and Eeyore were all there.



Also - here are some New Taiwan dollars for your viewing pleasure


















Well, we are off to bed. The ride down to pick up Zoe starts early in the morning. We found out when we arrived that the in-country flight we were to take to Tainan was cancelled so we get to take the train instead. We also heard that it might be one of those super fast trains - so that could be an adventure in itself! We'll have much more tomorrow I'm sure!

Miss you All!