Taiwan Fever

If you have a fever...don't go to Taiwan.

First off, they won't let you into the country. On your way to immigration you pass through a gate that reads your temperature. If you are extra hot that day, you are escorted to this row of seats where a sign over them reads "quarantined travelers". Everyone has to pass by this row of seats on their way to immigration. If you are sitting in one of those seats, you are telling all the people you just sat with on the flight(who were breathing in the same recycled air as you) that you are sick enough to not be let into a country. Thankfully, no one was sitting in that area when I passed through.

Secondly, the humidity percentage was off the charts. I thought Hong Kong was humid, but Taiwan is on a whole different playing field. Walking outside was like walking into a steam room. D's glasses fogged up every time he stepped foot out of an air conditioned building. I could barely take an outdoor photo because every time I turned on my camera the lens would fog up immediately to the point of not being able to see anything. Water would litterally fall from a near cloudless sky. Needless to say, we saw many beautiful rainbows.



Thirdly, the air was so thick in the city I could hardly breathe. Then again, I really didn't want to breathing in that air anyway.

On a more positive note, my hair looked great! Most of you know that I have a thick mane of hair that doesn't do well in any type of humidity. On hot sticky days, my students used to say "Ms. O looks like a lion with her big yellow hair!" Thanks to 3 hours in the beauty salon, thousands of Hong Kong Dollars, and a little thing called the Brazilian Blowdry, my hair looked like a million bucks. A few friends have also gotten this procedure done and have called it "life changing."




Seriously, people couldn't get over how my hair wasn't frizzing up in this weather. Everyone all over the island was staring at me. Well, it may have been because some of them never saw a white girl with blond hair before. The children in the markets would follow me around and just stare at me. They would call their friends over to look at me too. So that's how it must feel to be a celebrity.

Overall, Taiwan was a fun place to visit...for a weekend. We climbed to the top of the world's 2nd tallest building (101 stories), tried the delicious local foods (even though we had no clue what we were eating), visited the precious Jade Cabbage in The National Palace Museum, and shopped the night away in the night markets. We were surprised we couldn't really find much to buy...considering EVERYTHING is made in Taiwan. At least we didn't pick up a fever!