Ego Libre

I must admit that my first impression of Taiwan was less than stellar. An airport reminiscent of Prague in the 1980’s was in stark contrast to the hyper-modernity of Seoul’s Incheon. Furthermore when I could not locate an open information office or baggage storage, I was starting to get even more depressed. Luckily enough, everything got cleared out and for the first time I realized that by learning Japanese I have unexpectedly learned one of the most useful Asian language. As in Seoul, everyone here speaks at least a bit Japanese to cater to the tourists. It might be even more pronounced due to history of Taiwan since it is only 60 years since the Japanese left, but still it is impressive when you can read menus and converse with waitress in Japanese.

This comment brings me closer to what quickly overcame my shabby impression of Taipei. Taiwanese seem to be extremely nice and friendly people (I should have known from previous experience, eh Eric? . Again from the generally cold acting Japanese and Koreans eyeing you suspiciously, my first hours dealing with Taiwanese have been extremely positive. But let’s give it a proper look tomorrow. It’s going to be a hectic sight-seeing and experiencing day.

Let’s see if Chiang Kai-Shek did a better job than Park Chung-hee in Korea. After all in some strange ways the political and economical structures of Taiwan and South Korea seem to be so similar, the most successful pro-western dictatorships in Asia. (Yes, for those of you well-educated in these topics, I have not learned much about Singapore yet.) Let the experience begin!

P.S: Taiwan is finally a country with a backward mobile system such as GPS, so I can use my ancient phone again. It feels weird to write sms instead of e-mails, but hey, one day, maybe one day the operators in Europe will smarten up and stop being so greedy