Homeward bound via Taipei Jan 18th 2009

Well this really was the final stage of our trip, and we arrived back in Taipei in a bit of a hurry. In Laid-back NZ style, we hadn’t arranged accommodation this time around, and that’s really not a good idea here. Taipei hotels are, I’m sorry to say, very far from what a typical westerner would expect from a hotel. They are more often than not housed on floors 12-15 of a 23 story tower block, have a lobby that looks completely unwelcoming, and are generally run-down. We had to try really up market places to get anything worth a serious look. As it turned out the local YMCA, was great. We’d never used on before on our travels, but this was fantastic. OK, it was floors6-11 of a 23 story building, but the lobby was huge and airy, it had its own restaurant, and the staff were great. One morning Lara woke up much too early, and as I didn’t want to disturb the sleep of the other two, we decided to have a walking tour of the entire office block at 5:30 am The staff, as I said were very understanding….

Our second-to-last day was spent out at a distant part of suburban Taipei, Jade rock waterfall, I think it was called. They were having some sort of festival, and Emma had some hand-painting done and played 7 incredibly well-organised games in a rigid order in a 45 minute ”play-campaign” which had to be paid for, but was actually quite cheap. Apart from that we just mooched around – really just trying to save our energy for the big flight.

The final night we spent picking up missing gifts at a night market. If anyone ever tries to convince you to take a wide three-wheeler mega-pram into the bustling swarming crowd that is a night market, I strongly advise you to refuse. It was an experience, but the ride there and back n the metro was great. I had to realize again how welcoming these people are. Everyone was smiling and nodding, and those who could speak a little, talked to us (mostly they talked a lot actually, but the thought was nice)

Finally, with slightly frayed nerves after several re-packing adventures and, we set off for the airport. The flight itself was great again. Both kids slept a lot on the way back, but never at the same time, funnily enough, so Dorka and I also had to take turns through the 14 hours.

Finally we landed in Vienna, on a bitterly cold January morning, to be welcomed by Dorka’s father, who had driven an incredible 3 hours to collect us! Just like that, the trip had reached its end. Had it all been worth it? For us, absolutely. We’d do it again in a second!