first night in taipei

we arrive at about 7 or 8 p.m. that night and head straight for the hotel -- the king of france hotel! it's very nice, but my room is kinda interesting. there's the main room with the bed and such, and then a neighboring room about 3 feet deep which runs the length of the room. it has a table and two chairs and a full-length window overlooking the bed. totally bizarre. the hotel is rather fancy in a tacky sort of way (like something a trump underling decorated to try and make him proud), and this bizarre little room looks like an opulent sleep observation lab.

anyway, even though i've been in taipei all of 43 minutes i can't wait to unpack my bags and eat all of my snack food. i down all of the oreo dip sticks (thanks amy!), a smores pop tart and some goldfish crackers.

the next morning at our hotel's buffet breakfast i recognize the eggs and some sort of glossy cabbage dish. that was about it. but there was toast. TOAST!!!! score. it was about this time that it really set in that i was in asia -- land of no forks. everyone else managed the chopsticks handily, and i managed to get by hoping no one would notice.

we cruised around today and met our tour guide peter, who will be guiding us on our one-week tour of the island of taiwan. we're doing taipei today, before heading northeast tomorrow, where we'll hit the Pacific Ocean and follow it down the length of the island.