Arrival

What a long flight!!! Did I say what a long flight!!! We were at the top of the plane, which was pretty cool never having been in a 2-story plane before. Alia and Mom sat behind us. The seats were just a little bit roomier (leg room mainly) than any domestic flight. I hope we get a bulkhead for the way back or it will be hard. TVs in the headrest with lots of entertainment (games, movies, TV shows, flight tracking). We were served 2 meals - both delicious and plentiful. They wandered through the plane from time to time offering water and juices. Having bottled water on hand in our carry ons would have been very smart, though, and we just totally forgot to buy it at the airport (well, when you're walking a million miles, you know you can't remember everything!!). We slept some, but thought we'd slept more than we had, so time passed slowly.

We arrived in a beautiful airport. They stopped Alia to check her temp (more on that later), which was fine. We went smoothly and quickly through Immigration then Customs (had a small form to fill out for Immigration). When we left with our luggage, we didn't see Mr. Yeh, our driver, in the line of people waiting. After about 15 minutes, we asked someone how to use the pay phone and when we called, a phone nearby rang - it was Mr. Yeh. He speaks VERY little English but seems to be such a caring man (as we'd heard). The drive to Taipei was CRAZY with drivers just driving madly. From the air, we saw no yards but lots of planting plots. Little did we know that nearly ever stretch of land was planted with rice - between apartment buildings, factories, everywhere. Now that's a good use of land!

PICS: Mr. Yeh's taxi, rice patties, and pigs.