Day 2 and 3 - Getting Acquainted with Taipei

We spent the last two days wandering farther from our apartment to get a better idea what was around us, where the stores were, what alleys and smells to avoid, where the train stations were, etc.

After waking up, having breakfast and then doing a nice conference call with the US headquarters, we headed for a long elevator ride to the QuickLogic office (3 floors below our apartment). We met up with the local sales manager, David, and he drove us to the Taipei 101 shopping area to meet up with his wife for lunch at a Thai restaurant. They weren't aware of Asami's affinity for hot, spicy food, so we soaked her tongue in her water glass while I chomped away at the papaya/pepper salad and chicken curry. Yummy. :-)

David and his wife then drove us around the Taipei City area to show us some of the major sites and transportation options. At this point, we are comfortable getting around the few square kilometers of neighborhood within walking distance of the apartment.

Since we've adopted the "no shoes inside" policy of Taiwan, we needed to find slippers that actually fit Brian. This proved to be a significant challenge - one that we haven't solved yet. but, we did get a pair of slippers that allllllllllllmost fit. Good enough!

We decided we would take a city tour the next day, so we stopped by one of the American hotels here to sign up. After signing up we had a nice bowl of fruit and a coffee. Good way to pass the time and figure out what to do next.

Asami still isn't over her jet lag yet so she fell asleep around 7 pm. That left me alone to either a) watch a Taiwanese soap opera on TV, work on my laptop or read a book. I chose the latter two, alternating until I was sleepy enough to pass out. We are pretty close to the street below so I could hear the cars, trucks and scooters revving by for a while.

Today we got up early to take the tour. We walked back to the American hotel in time to meet the minivan full of other tourists (Americans and Euros). One couple was from Amsterdam; the husband owned a business that supplied plumbing to shipbuilders. Another pair was a father and son from LA. The father had worked in Taiwan for 4 years about 25 years ago. The son had never been here and was touring with his dad before taking a couple month backpacking trip to Thailand. He ain't seen humid and mosquitos yet!

The tour was fun and short. We saw Chiang Kai-Shek's memorial. It was very much like the Lincoln Memorial in the US. In fact, there are a lot of parallels between Taiwan and the US. Taiwan wanted its independence from China to be free of communist rule. They are a democracy today and very capitalist. And, they have a pretty short history similar to the US. Oh, and they have all of the luxuries of home like Starbucks, Costco, and Mos Burger... oh wait, we don't have Mos Burger.

We also saw their memorial shrine. It has several guards that stand up straight and don't speak a word during their watch, similar to Arlington or even the guard in England minus the enormous hats.

After the tour, we explored a little more and had lunch in the Taipei 101 basement food court. TONS of food shops, with menus we couldn't understand. Thank god for pictures!

We did some shopping at Costco tonight (g-pa would be proud). The food court there had the usual items like coffee, iced coffee, chicken sandwich, caesar salad, ice cream, churro, seafood pizza, etc. did I say seafood pizza? Yep.



Anyway, I go back to work tomorrow and Asami is going to check out the American Club to see what amenities they might have.

More to come!