Landing in Taipei, the capital of Nationalist China was not much different than Hong Kong.  People were busy trying to survive, or selling whatever was available.  I took a van to downtown Taipei and checked into a modest hotel.  I noticed a man at a table on each floor of the hotel.  They are the go to people when you need something or they think you need something.  I only stayed one night and he sent ladies of the night to my door twice.  When I said no the first time he thought she wasn’t pretty enough, so he said another.  I had to tell him in a strong voice, no.   The next day I made my way to the north of the island and boarded a ferry to take me to the far side of the island.  I was able to circumnavigate the islands mountain range and see the east coast of Taiwan.  The island is mountainous and the coast is inhospitable.  I arrived at the town of Hien at dark and found a hotel room for $8.00.  I thought I was pretty shrewd to find such a cheap hotel.  Boy did I regret it later.  After a couple of days of steady travel, one looks for a quiet place to rest.  I thought I found it.  The ground floor of the hotel was a rocking, rootin, tooten, saloon that roared until 3 A.M.  During that evening while trying to sleep, 3 inch flying cockroaches flew about in my room.  It was like sleeping in a cage with birds.  It really got exiting when one landed on my chest.

I bolted from the room at first light to catch a bus going to an enchanting lake up in the mountains.  No cockroaches and no saloon.  It was very peaceful and quite isolated.  No one spoke any English, so the next day, by bus, road through the mountains on switch back roads that seemed to almost fall off the mountain before turning around the corner to the next spot of death defying transportation.  Taiwan looks very much like Switzerland and Austria and after one more night in Taipei, I flew back to Hong Kong the next morning.

My Pan Am Clipper 747 was on the tarmac to take me back to Hawaii when I arrived.  The next two days were extremely long, in that I crossed the International Date Line.  We went back to yesterday on the 12 hour flight from Hong Kong.  I had been gone for two months making the orangutan documentary, trying to get into China, and exploring other countries.  A couple things stuck with me. I love to travel, I love the people, and I really love Asia.