Taiwan

Tuesday, February 16th

Today we are in Keelung, Taiwan. We arrived here after a night of rocking and rolling on the ocean. No one on the ship slept very well (us included) so everyone is a little tired.

My leg has been very sore but not directly because of my knee. I wore my brace too long the first day in Hong Kong and I seem to have bruised my leg. It hurts every time I put my foot down. This is the third day and it does seem to be getting a little better each day. Because of my leg, we decided to do very little in Taiwan. We left the ship and just strolled through the markets. We certainly got a good feel for Taiwan though. The sights, smells and sounds were everything we thought Taiwan would be. The fish markets were incredible – all kinds of fresh fish including Octopus.

Our second day in Hong Kong we strolled off the ship into a huge modern shopping complex. We then walked out onto the street where Bill located a camera store. Hel negotiated hard for a long time for a lense for his camera. He finally secured a price which he thought was a great deal. He handed them the MasterCard and immediately after the transaction was completed the salesperson showed him a wide angle Macro lense. After more negotiations, we offered him the MasterCard again only to have it not honored (we suspect it was not honored because it was the second large transaction from the same store), however, I came to the rescue with my American Express card. When we got back to the ship Bill checked the prices on the Internet and found out we paid a couple hundred dollars more than we could have bought them for at home. Oh, well.

Yesterday we were at sea and did very little but rest (which Bill does not do well). We are both feeling fine and have really enjoyed this Asian trip. We will be at sea tomorrow and the next day will dock in Okinawa. We’re looking forward to that day.

We depart the ship in Shanghai, China on Saturday, February 20th. Bill wants to take the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train to the airport. It’s the fastest train in the world, even faster than the Bullet train in Tokyo, Japan. We’ll see how well that works with our luggage. He also wants to find the time to go to the zoo and see the Pandas but I don’t see how that will be possible. Our first plane leaves at 2:00 P.M. and the third plane arrives in Reno at 5:30 P.M. the same day. We will have been traveling for 21 hours. I hope my Daisy girl remembers me. I miss her so much!