Passing Time in Taipei International Airport, Taiwan

Greetings,

I’m writing this from a luxurious location known to some as “the floor” aka next to the only plug I could find at the Taipei International Airport in Taiwan. It’s 6:28am local time and I’ve been on the road now for 21 hours. I’ve managed a quick 15 minute cat nap and could write a book on positions for you and your airplane seat to share but that’s neither here nor there.

I’d write this when I get to Singapore but it feels like a lifetime away and who knows how I’ll be feeling. I will note that this floor spot is quite cool and I mean that in terms of temperature and nothing else. What’s crazy is that I’m doing some work and the “free airport wifi” here is comparable to the connection I was using for the last while at home in Canada, go figure?! It’s as though they understand how important ingesting digital media is to our intellectual diet, I like it.

The trip started great having sushi with my sister before arriving at Ottawa International Airport and plugging in my system. The internet was a joke and didn’t work so I turned my iphone into a hotspot. The biggest joke was on me though. None of the plugs even worked so it killed all my batteries before the flight to Vancouver, great way to start.

Despite having a row to myself, I couldn’t’ sleep as I felt like a kid the night before Christmas filled with ideas doing somersaults and cartwheels around my cranium with a mind fuelled by plutonium or so it seemed. Vancouver Airport was pretty dead at the time I arrived but managed to meet some cool tourists from Taiwan and time passed. I got on the plane and immediately crashed, I was ecstatic about that as it was needed.

No more than 15 minutes later it was dinner time and the lovely lady sitting next to me named Bonnie had this special vegetarian meal, no big deal. It was a big deal that it woke me up since I was middle seat and that was the last sleep I had. I eat a meal which was quite enjoyable, I dare say and that was it. I got my second wind and it was “zombie land” for the next 11 or so hours. Didn’t even turn on the entertainment unit, just tried to sleep but to no avail.

Now I’m back to where this blog update started; sitting on the floor wondering if I’ll pay later for this cool spot and by cool again, I’m referring to temperature. The airport was dead about an hour ago when we landed but it seems as though every 5 minutes it increases with volume as ghost town shops turn on the lights and the once dreary and totally dead corridors are starting to teem with life.

An influx of pleasant memories from my previous visits to this part of the world are filling my mind like a flash flood. It was here, in Taipei that I asked a gent named Luke aka “The Linebacker” what the time was in October 2009 and it changed my life forever. We became friends, I went to Khao San Road with him, met some people who said I have to visit Koh Tao and the rest is history.

Now it’s time for round two and just as before, I’m as excited as ever.

Oh yeah, the lady at the airport in Ottawa gave me trouble for flying to Singapore on a one way as though she wasn’t even going to let me leave. I remember getting grilled last time I tried to enter this small island country and it was by bus, I guess time will tell.

Tips hat,

P.S: I almost forgot my bag on the plane when leaving, sleep deprivation does funny things.