Snake Alley Fail

My last full day in Taiwan had us waking up early to go to Taipei and drink some snake fluids at Snake Alley. We get there only to find out that the snake shops don't open until 4pm...

Ryan had to go to work at 5pm in Zhongli so we had no choice but to skip out on that. We did have time to check out a buddhist temple in the city.

That night we had one last outing with Ryan and his friends. Most of the English teachers in Zhongli don't have to teach class until 5pm so it makes for late night excursions. I met some good people in Zhongli and Taiwan treated me well (Too well...I gained like 8 punds in this country in all)

The next day it was off to the airport to prepare for my Korea trip.

Right now much of the big highway roads headed up to Taipei are undergoing heavy construction. For miles and miles you see immense highway construction taking place and the sclae of the project is definitely monumental in terms of height, size, and scale. 

Thereare two international airports in Taiwan that I flew in and out of. I flew into Chiang Kei Shek but found myself flying out of Songshan Airport. Songshan airport has gates that are individually designed with different concepts in mind. One theme titles Taipei the city of love. There is a big heart sculpture in the middle with many intricate caricatures inside.

I forgot to mention in past posts but 7 Elevens are EVERYWHERE in Thailand, Taiwan, and South Korea as well. They are the equivalent to street corner bodegas in New York. The mascot/icon that represents 7 Eleven in Taiwan is everywhere as well. You go inside the bathroom and he is there stuck on the walls greeting you with that tri-colored rainbow on his head. The airport had a nicely illustrated map of Taiwan with the 7 Eleven mascot placed throughout the ountry.

Some other promotional pieces for Taiwan.

Now I just had to get ready for my flight to Shanghai where I would have to face off with a 13 hour layover before getting on a plane to South Korea. I definitely wasn't looking forward to that but little did I know it was going to be anything but boring...