Taipei

I spent the last two days on flights or at the airport. I will say that the Singapore Airlines flight to Beijing was the best I have ever taken. I'm quite tired now, but have arrrived in Taiwan, which is very hot.

I went and got some breakfast this morning, but was confronted with a Chinese menu. I asked the lady to serve me something Taiwanese, and was pleasantly surprised to get a turnip cake. Then I walked over to the Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall, a grandiose structure that celebrates the life of a despot. I went to Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world, and paid too much to go up. The view was impresive though, and I did ride the world's fastest elevators. I had lunch at the food court. It was good, but prices are higher than in South-East Asia and China. I was nearly out of money, and wanted to change some but none of the changers would accept my USD because the serial number were 'bad'! I'm not sure why. I never had problems anywhere else changing mony, although in Laos, people would not accept 'old-style' bills. I had to get money from the ATM, which I really did not want to do, because I still have plenty of cash. I next went to the National Palace Museum, which contains the relics smuggled away from the Forbidden city in 1948. It was interesting, but very small. They need to expand the exhibition space to put more of the collection on exhibit.