Flight . Ambassador hotel . Hsinchu . Tour . Dinner

Coming from you live from Hsinchu, Taiwan... a travelogue / journal about my business conference and trip. Thanks to Django to make this possible!

Jamie and I arrived in Taipei International Airport after a grueling 19 hour transit on EVA airways that took us from Newark, NJ, through Anchorage, AK, to Taiwan. We left Newark at 1140 PM, and arrived at Anchorage somewhere in the dead of night. The airport must have been used to the EVA air group, as certain shops were open at that time to sell us things like toiletries, duty-free items, and food. We noted an asian food offering on the menu with a uniquely local twist: udon noodles with reindeer meet.

The flight was as pleasant as can be, but it was pretty difficult to fall asleep. I watched 2 forgettable movies to pass some time, and worked on my conference talk a bit. Having a night owl schedule made it rather easy to adapt to Taiwan time, which was 12 hours ahead of US eastern time. The plane dipped into the cloud-covered island airspace, and beneath us was a green landscape full of rectangular plots of land cultivated for agricultural purposes. The last time I was here was 11 years ago, and it looked similar to my recollection.

After going through customs, Jamie and I were met by a driver bearing my name on a placard in the welcome area. He motioned for us to follow him outside to the curb, where he returned in a sedan. We hopped in and began the ride towards Hsinchu, passing by the northern Taiwan countryside. Factories dotted the subtropical landscape, with an occasional big buddha statue peeking out from the trees. The sun rose in the hazy atmosphere, possibly clouded by industrial emissions. Chinese instrumental music played softly from the dashboard. Our driver was pleasant, but conversation was limited by the language barrier.

We arrived in Hsinchu about 40 minutes later. The Ambassador Hotel was one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed at in my life. We were allowed to check in despite the early hour, for a much needed shower after the 21+ hour transit. The bathroom had a beautiful glass shower stall and marble walls. The bed was a nice king-sized mattress with Japanese-styled simplicity. Some strange tropical fruits were on a plate for us; some were tasty, others not so ripe. Dark chocolates were a nice treat.

Free WiFi in our room allowed us to immediately start iChatting with my family back home. Our daughter was being given a bath in her little blue tub by her grandmother, and she kept showing us her rubber bath toys. She has become so desensitized to technology, teleconferencing halfway around the globe is routine and a part of daily life for her! I had a couple of messages from the conference organizers; transportation to and from the National Chaio Tung University (NCTU) was arranged for the next two days. Later on this afternoon, our hosts arranged for a tour of NCTU and the town. In the meantime, we were going to wander around the city and find lunch, before we became obligated.

Hsinchu was fairly dense, packed with small dilapidated stalls selling food, clothing, and various other Chinese items. The town center was small and walkable, though a bit dingy. A popular mode of transportation was the noisy motor scooter; navigating and crossing streets was a dynamic dialogue between the motorists and the pedestrians of who would give way first. Jamie and I wandered for an hour, before settling on a small stall for lunch. Our guidebook suggested a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called "Twin Stars", which provided us a cup of fish balls in miso dressing for less than $1.70 US. Though I'm not a big fan, it tasted generally better than the frozen varieties that I buy back home. A kind stranger offered us some tissues to wipe our hands / mouths... in Asia, small restaurants generally do not provide napkins.

We had picked up some delicious pastries during our wandering and were now bringing them back to the hotel to snack on them before the tour. What happens from now through Monday is full-time business and science with a few interesting nuggets of cultural differences... our hosts were so incredibly gracious, yet left no idle time (mainly out of consideration for us), that I will skip the business part of this travelogue perhaps, and inject only some cultural observations and opinions later.