IT WAS RAINING WHEN WE SAID “SAYONARA” to Japan and it was still raining when we said “Ni hau” to Taiwan. Another tropical storm, would you believe? Taiwan's proximity to Ishigaki coupled with a time change meant that we arrived in Taipei 5 minutes after we left! Once we collected our luggage we skated through immigration — the only other Americans on the China Airlines flight were a couple of attorneys from Brooklyn on their honeymoon. I had resigned us to a $35 taxi ride to Taipei, preferring not to have to search out our hotel in the rain. But the helpful guy at Information showed us a bus that cost $4 apiece and would drop us a block from K Hotel.
Squeeky shoes are OK
And what a hotel! We were embarrassed as our wet shoes squeaked on the lobby’s marble floors but the forgiving desk clerks were as polite as any Japanese and spoke perfect English. Our room is wonderful by any standard with a huge bathroom and heated toilet seat. CNN is the first news we’ve seen since before Nikko. It still isn’t good news but what can you do. Breakfast is included and if we had known before that it had free laundry we wouldn’t have bothered in Ishigaki. It isn’t as near the places we want to visit but public transportation is very affordable.
Let them eat dumplings!
I know we won’t starve. Besides the Chinese restaurants it seems there are dumpling shops every 50 meters.. We had corn chowder and an assortment of steamed and fried dumplings for dinner for only $5. I can see two 7/11s from our hotel and a FamilyMart where 600ml Coke Zeros cost less than a dollar.
