Monday June 26 New York-Taiwan
No traffic going to JFK airport so we got there pretty quickly. We met Bob's friend who works for the Port Authority at the airport and he got us a parking pass to park at his office. That will save a bundle.
They gave us a ride to the terminal and we got on a long line at EVA Airlines. After a 1/2 hour we noticed that we had only moved about 10 feet. Upon closer inspection, we saw that no one was being checked in and people crowded around a single computer. Long story short, their system had crashed and we were at a standstill. Good thing we got there early. Overall the crowd was very restrained and we assumed it was a cultural thing. 99% of the passengers were obviously of Asian heritage. Neither of us could see more than 3 or 4 other caucasians in line. We imagined if things would be this calm for a NY to Miami flight. So everybody had to be old school, hand written through check-in. Of course this led to our flight take off being 4 hours late, leaving at 5:30 pm. Not an auspicious start.
The flight itself was unremarkable. We actually never saw night until we landed, as we followed the sun westward. A little poop-your-pants turbulence over Japan for about 20 minutes but no big roller coaster drops. We got into Taipei a little before 9 pm Tuesday night. (It's now Thursday afternoon and the loss of that day is still screwing me up) our driver met us and took us to our hotel, The CityInn Hotel Plus. He didn't have a good command of English so we didn't talk much. We checked in a little after 10 and we asked the night clerks were we might get a little something to eat before hitting the hay. He pointed out some places on a map and then added that there was a might market 2 blocks away that would have some food venders.
So we headed over and the place was rocking. People, lights, music, noise everywhere, it was awesome. Grabbed a grilled chicken roll (on a stick), had the vender throw a little salt and mustard on it..delicious. But I probably would have eaten anything by then. We made our way back to the hotel by11:45 or so and tried to see if I could defeat jet-lag. 12-hour time difference so it was 11:45 am body-time. It worked for two hours but I woke up at 3, wide awake. Took a NyQuil gelcap and that knocked me out for good until 8 am. Bob did not fare as well. Hopefully get to Day 2 in a few hours.
They gave us a ride to the terminal and we got on a long line at EVA Airlines. After a 1/2 hour we noticed that we had only moved about 10 feet. Upon closer inspection, we saw that no one was being checked in and people crowded around a single computer. Long story short, their system had crashed and we were at a standstill. Good thing we got there early. Overall the crowd was very restrained and we assumed it was a cultural thing. 99% of the passengers were obviously of Asian heritage. Neither of us could see more than 3 or 4 other caucasians in line. We imagined if things would be this calm for a NY to Miami flight. So everybody had to be old school, hand written through check-in. Of course this led to our flight take off being 4 hours late, leaving at 5:30 pm. Not an auspicious start.
The flight itself was unremarkable. We actually never saw night until we landed, as we followed the sun westward. A little poop-your-pants turbulence over Japan for about 20 minutes but no big roller coaster drops. We got into Taipei a little before 9 pm Tuesday night. (It's now Thursday afternoon and the loss of that day is still screwing me up) our driver met us and took us to our hotel, The CityInn Hotel Plus. He didn't have a good command of English so we didn't talk much. We checked in a little after 10 and we asked the night clerks were we might get a little something to eat before hitting the hay. He pointed out some places on a map and then added that there was a might market 2 blocks away that would have some food venders.
So we headed over and the place was rocking. People, lights, music, noise everywhere, it was awesome. Grabbed a grilled chicken roll (on a stick), had the vender throw a little salt and mustard on it..delicious. But I probably would have eaten anything by then. We made our way back to the hotel by11:45 or so and tried to see if I could defeat jet-lag. 12-hour time difference so it was 11:45 am body-time. It worked for two hours but I woke up at 3, wide awake. Took a NyQuil gelcap and that knocked me out for good until 8 am. Bob did not fare as well. Hopefully get to Day 2 in a few hours.
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