To the Beautiful Island of Formosa!

Anyways, my trip to Taiwan was two-fold. First and foremost, to attend a funeral and pay my respects to a dear old lady who passed away. Secondly, to visit the sights and sounds of the island the Portugetse termed "Ilha Formosa" or "beautiful island".

This was taken down near the hot springs, which you'll read about later. I'm standing on a bridge and you can see the water gushing by on both sides of me. It was scary, but what a thrill!

I flew on China Airlines, which contrary to the name, has nothing to do with Communist China. China Airlines was established in the Republic of China (the current government/sovereign of Taiwan). It takes anywhere from 12-15 hours to fly from LAX to Taiwan, depending on the season and direction of flight. And since the time difference between Los Angeles and Taiwan is 15 hours, I was almost completely confused by the time I got there!

We left LAX around 4pm Pacific Standard Time and arrived in Taiwan around 9-10pm local time. About two hours before we landed, we had breakfast! I had a little motion sickness, but it subsided after a while. I fell asleep on the plane ride and when I woke up, I was lost! Finally, I realized that I had fallen onto the floor and got back to safety. I watched an episode of Third Rock from the Sun, by NBC, as well as two movies (one while going to Taiwan, the other while coming back)- Hurrican (with Denzel Washington) and Return to Me (with Minnie Driver and David Duchovony). It was very hot and humid when we arrived. It was a tiring trip, but when we landed, it was time to go to bed!