Safe and Sound in Taipei!

About half an hour after my last post I boarded a really huge plane. I believe it was a 747. All I know was there were a lot of people and it was pretty much booked full. So I'm walking and walking and walking and finally reach my seat, pretty much toward the back of the plane. The first bad yet kind of good thing, I was in a seat without seats in front of me, just the little kitchen and whatnot...the bad part, nowhere to store my bag so everything can be right near me. The second bad thing, my whole row was full of parents and kids under the age of three. So I sat down and grabbed what I thought I would need out of my bag and prepared for a 14 hour ride.

I guess I was pretty tired, I passed out as soon as we took off. Then maybe two hours later, all hell broke loose. Every little kid started screaming and screaming. I didn't know it was possible to scream that loud! So I attempted to watch a movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. That lasted about twenty minutes and I was out again. I think in total I got about 5 hours of sleep and 9 hours of screaming babies.

I think it was 6:30 am when we landed in Hong Kong. When everyone was getting ready to get off the plane they made an announcement about the Swine Flu outbreak saying that anyone that visited certain states should stop and have their temperature taken. Well technically everyone that was on my flight had just visited California, one of the states that is having the problem. When we walked through a checkpoint before reaching the other gates there were heat censors that checked how warm everyone was walking by. One of the men in front of me was stopped and an alarm went off...that was a little freaky! I also didn't know that when you change planes in Hong Kong you have to go through security again. That was a nice long line to wait in. I have to say, Hong Kong has the cleanest, nicest airport I have ever been in! There were so many stores and whatnot. I didn't have time to check any out or go to any restaraunts but I will definitely on my way home. Here is a picture of me after the longest flight of the trip and the beautiful view from the airport.

Here is my first meal in an sian country...a peanut butter and jelly panini from Starbucks in Hong Kong! Go figure.
Luckily, my wait wasn't too long in Hong Kong and soon enough I was on my final flight of the trip! This one was nice and quick, especially since I sat down and went right to sleep. I only had to endure about 10 minutes of the flight awake.

At 10 am I arrived in Taipei...finally! I had all the fun of the long walk to customs and then making it through customs. It was the strangest trip through I have ever made, granted I have only been through customs at the Canadian border. All I did was hand them my passport and my paperwork they looked at me and said something to each other, stamped it and I was on my way. Now for the most stressful part for any person, let alone a pool player, waiting for your luggage. I always worry but this time there was nothing to worry about. I also ran into a few of the other girls that are in the tournament from Holland. We all made our way out the door and found signs with our names on them. It's so nice to have all of that organized! It was off to the hotel. Now here is where I regret not having my camera out. The drive from the airport to Taipei is beautiful. Everything is so green! I would describe it as not quite mountainous but bigger than just hills, covered in plush, various colors of green trees. I will be sure to get pictures when I go back.

When we got within Taipei the first thing that you have to notice are how many people ride little scooters around. I will take a picture tomorrow of the streets lined with them. But I was wondering, keep in mind I haven't really slept in a few days, how in the world do you go grocery shopping if all you have is a scooter? And just as I thought that I looked out the window and saw my answer...I got to my hotel and was greeted by one of the organizers of the tournament, Sophie. She said hello and made sure I knew what time I was supposed to be there tomorrow. After that I just handed over my passport and credit card and I was checked into my room within five minutes! I got to the room and immediately noticed the difference between a room in the US and a room here. First thing, the beds. Monica Webb and I have a room with two beds. The two beds are TWIN beds and are maybe 6-12 inches apart from each other...Another thing that you will notice is quite different..Check out the bathroom and tell me how many times you have seen a bidet and would you admit to trying one out?? For some reason they really make me laugh!I haven't had a chance to go wandering around too much so the only site seeing picture you get is the view from my room. The biggest building in the background is Taipei 101. I'm not sure what everything else is, but I will find out soon.The one adventure that I did go on was for a walk about a block outside the hotel. To be honest, I was looking for a place that had pictures of food that I could just point at to order...no luck. So I stopped in the convenience store to pick up a few things. I hadn't had a diet coke since I left St. Louis so I am seriously going through withdrawals. It is kind of hard to find Diet Coke around here. I got lucky the store had a few. My shopping resulted in bread, diet coke, dried mango, and orange juice. Here you can see the comparison between my shopping in Taiwan and my food I packed with me from the states.
So now that you all know that I am here safe and sound, I'm going to try to get some much needed rest! Tomorrow I get to do something that I have never even seen in the pool world...a press conference! Thanks for reading and rooting me on. I'll definitely bring plenty of updates. As Roy commented on the last post, I know it is hard to find info on this event so I will do my best. One last picture...a happy me in my hotel room. And yes, I will change clothes now that I can!