Last Adventure

Only once in the taxi, after about 10 minutes, we sat in gridlock traffic. And sat. And sat. The taxi driver didn't speak English, but he got the idea that I was getting a little worried about not moving more than a few feet every few minutes, and he helped me get one of the motorcycle taxis that were passing us as we sat stuck. So I paid the taxi man my current metered fare, and transferred to the motorcycle, my very heavy by now backpack luggage on my back, and we whizzed our way along the narrow gap between cars (once I was afraid I'd catch on a car's mirror).  It was a little scary, but less scary than sitting in traffic risking missing my plane.  

 

Very quickly we arrived to the sky train, which fortunately came after only ten minutes, so that I arrived at the airport very close to my target time, and by the time I'd checked my luggage and gone through mmigration, it was a good forty-five minutes before boarding time. (Which forty-five minutes might well have been spent in gridlock had not I been able to change to the motorcycle taxi!)

 They must have boarded the plane early, because after perusing the food court (the food there was way expensive and I was regretting not having taken time in the end to grab something to eat earlier at the market, or on my way back to the hotel but by then hadn't wanted to risk being late) and answering emails on the free computers, when I arrived at my boarding pass's stated boarding time, it was the Final Call with almost everyone already on board.  Happily dinner came soon after take-out, and the sweet airline stewardess found me an extra piece of the delicious pineapple cake that was the desert.

Am in Tapei now, boarding my SFO flight in about half an hour.