Only Aloud Partial Mercy

Riding out on the unencumbered highway from downtown Taipei to Taoyuan (formaly Chiang Kai Shek) Airport.  It’s rained a lot here in Taipei.  Nothing but rain these past few days, but this morning, there is finally sun and big fluffy clouds.  Apparently we have just missed another big Typhoon that took a hard turn and is now heading straight for Japan, instead. 

Checked out of the Sheraton and said one word of Chinese, in response the initial English inquiry and the staff member quickly adjusted his posture and spoke to me exclusively in Chinese.  It was just what I wanted to see happen.  Usually the battle lasts a bit longer.  And immediately I thought to myself this person is providing good service.  He is crisp and animated and pleasant and his name tag suggest he is . . . Japanese.  That caught me off guard.  We were obviously both speaking in a foreign tongue.  I thanked him at the end and said, I suppose I should tell you “arigato gozaimasu,” To which he smiled. 

The signs on the highways in Taiwan always make me homesick for US. Signs. These were clearly built out on with consultation from someone like the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.  The side of the highway are verdant and unspoiled with great semi-tropical canopies that extend on for in every direction.  There is the Buddhist monastery with garish decor that wouldn’t be allowed to broadcast in such a flashy way back home in Beijing.  My driver is a pleasant, older man who chatted with me for a while and then was sensitive enough to know I wanted to work and not to banter. 

In Beijing or Shanghai when you hop into the cabs the advertisement on the back of the front seat head-rest immediately kicks on and you are allowed, should you not want to look at the insipid barrage of advertisements to turn it off.  In Taipei, it appears that you are only aloud partial mercy.  You can turn off the volume.  Thank you.  But you cannot turn off the video.  I am forced to consider what they want me to consider over and over and over again.  There is the political advertisement.  That’s different from back home.  There is the Samsung Galaxy and  . . .  whatever.

We are flying long the highway at what must be 70 mph or so.   I've mentioned but I don’t think you could ever get going this fast on tone of the highways in Beijing or when I was speeding along the highways in Hangzhou last week.  Parallel universe with the dials turned just so.  And its good one doesn’t go so fast in the mainland because other drivers are too unpredictable. Most people know that most people won't do anything stupid here.  And you can' rely on that back home.   But if we ever had an accident at this speed it would all be rather dramatic.  Up ahead is the Evergreen tower which signals we're closing in on the airport.

Thursday, 9/27/18