Taipei - Day 1

2014, it's become a common theme that I travel and have a great time but then become too tired to document it in a diary/blog. I've had the most amazing/tiring first day in Taipei, I do not really want to leave. Lucky I am not leaving anytime soon. But main question: How important is it to document travels?

Interesting people I met and had conversations with today:

11pm -7am: Dr Chen the Dentist: I was seated in 7A, the seat right next to the emergency exit on the flight from Brisbane to Taipei. Thanks to Nick Chang, who I didn't know worked at the airport who changed my seat 3 times and got me to the awesomest seat ever. We were the first 2 people to get out of the plan after the business class passengers. Dr Chen frequently travels between Brisbane, NZ and Taipei so knows the ins and outs of his seat (7B) very well. He even knows quite well the ins and outs of the seat equivalent on the Eva Air jets.

Bob Witworth: Met him on the transfer bus. He's from Gympie of all places! And donated some pine planks to Woodford last year. He was teaching me how to spot hoop pine in the Taiwanese landscape. Hoop pines are native to Australia but thrive surprisingly well in Taiwan.

8am:'Annoying "Egg" Man from the States': An egg is someone who is Caucasian but only likes and targets Asian females mostly in a creepy way. If it is merely an informed personal preference, fair enough. But if it is a fettish derived from ignorance, then that is gross. This man singled me out this morning and asked me:

"Why do you speak English? None of the other people here do, they only speak Mandarin."
Me: "Well, it is their country, not ours."

Howard Huang (East Tone Mobile Attendant): Very helpful and gave me insights on how the service industry in Taiwan are used in many case studies in international service training programs as exemplars of what to do.

Receptionists at Hostel: Haha, they are all so hilarious. One of them gave me lots of good tips about not getting gipped by local employers, she's a graphic designer too. And the whole gaggle of them (about 6 of them) started giving me tips about house searching and hot guy searching. They are helpfully hilarious.

Kai: Shop Assistant at "Rice Revolution" who was giving me samples if fruit vinegar so that I could decide on which one I wanted. He studies Production Studies and is quite an all rounder explorer of the universe. He's invited me along on a Matsu Agricultural Blessing Pilgrammage next weekend! Apparently we have to walk for 35 hours straight! Very much looking forward to it. We've got each other on Facebook now!

Robin Winkler: www.winklerpartners.com. <--- Read that and it is only the beginning. We only had a brief exchange at 'Rice Revolution' when he gave me his card but he seems like a really cool soul.