Taiwan

I'm probably the most relaxed traveler in the world. I view an international flight as a fantastic opportunity to catch up on my reading, watch movies, nap... and best of all, people deliver food right to my seat. It doesn't get any better than that. I thoroughly enjoyed a recent 10 hour, 55 minute flight to Tokyo, followed by a four-and-a-half hour flight to Taipei. Chris and I spent four days in the city where I was born. He met my aunts and uncles and cousins, and most importantly, my 96-year-old grandfather. He tasted all the foods I grew up eating, tried out a few Mandarin phrases, observed my cousins dodging the sun. (Tans are highly undesirable in Taiwan!) In a nutshell, he experienced all the things that make me the crazy person I am. The funny thing about being in a foreign city is that I didn't feel compelled to make any pictures. Taipei is too dirty, too crowded, too chaotic for me to see any beauty. The one time I felt like making pictures was on the 91st floor of Taipei 101. (Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world, until Dubai built one even taller.) Yes, the observation deck was super touristy, but the views were amazing. Taipei actually looked beautiful. I could see how the city is nestled into a ring of mountains, and the polluted air cloaked the landscape in mystery. So here it is, Taipei from the air: taipei1_lo And here is the 96-year-old grandpa I mentioned earlier. He's 100 percent Chinese, but oddly, he looks more like my Irish-Polish counterpart than me! yeayea

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