Friday, March 17th
On Friday we took the hotel shuttle (like the genius travelers we are) to the metro station and then a route down and back out of Taipei way out to the airport. In the final train they had those open shelves by the doors to store luggage. In typical Taiwanese style there were cloth straps that you could hook over the outside of the shelf to close it in a bit, which seemed like total overkill, and the scene was completed when a passenger sitting a few seats away noticed the train was about to depart and nobody had closed them so stood up and fastened them all himself.
The people in Taiwan were very friendly and generous to us, somewhat reserved, and big on queuing up. They seemed a somewhat anal and anxious people (and who wouldn’t be given their political situation?). It’s my kind of culture!
