A Rocky Start

by Suzanne

So, Lillia and I are now in Taiwan, visiting our friend Yen-Wen and her kids at her parents' house.

It was a long and tiring trip here. First a short hop from Denver to LA. Then we went to the international terminal and found the EVA Airlines counter to get our boarding passes for the flight to Taipei. The ticket agent looked at Lillia's passport and said that because it would expire in less than six months, she would need a visa to enter Taiwan. In response to my expression of sheer panic, she said that we could "probably" get her a visa on arrival, for about $150- 200. Yes, U.S. dollars.

So this was weighing on my mind as we boarded our flight. But we were both very pleased with our Elite seats. There was lots of legroom, individual TV screens, good food, and extremely nice flight attendants (all very attractive young women). Unfortunately, the seat dividers could not be raised because they housed the consoles for the TV screens. I had assumed that Lillia could sleep with her head on my lap, but clearly that wasn't going to work. There were even four empty seats in a row across the aisle from us which would have made a dandy bed for me, had it been possible to raise the arms. Still, we both managed to get a fair amount of sleep in our reclining seats. We were both utterly exhausted and the frequent mild turbulence rocked us to sleep.

So on arrival at the airport (at ten o'clock at night), we went straight to the visa office. I filled out forms, got Lillia's picture taken, went and changed money, went back to the visa office, forked over 5000 NTD (New Taiwan Dollars, US$178.57), and got her passport back with the new visa pasted in. Since we appeared to be the only non-Taiwanese on our flight, there was no wait at immigration. Still, I was concerned that Yen-Wen would be wondering where the hell we were. After retrieving our checked luggage and exiting to the arrival hall, I was so relieved to find her there.

On the way to Zhong Li, Yen-Wen explained that the house was still in the midst of construction (they were putting a large addition on the house), so it was a bit dusty and chaotic. She had told me earlier that our room would be small but air-conditioned. So imagine my surprise when we were shown into a room about twice the size of my own bedroom, with its own brand-new bathroom! The double bed that we're sharing has the World's Hardest Mattress, but the air-con worked like a charm, and we were soon fast asleep.