I am tired, greasy, light-headed and sitting in the food court of the Taipei Taoyuan Airport waiting for my flight to Hong Kong. The old lady sitting next to me is posing for a picture with her chicken sandwich from Burger King. Patrons of the Chinese take-out restaurant carry bamboo steamers and giant bowls back to their tables. Me, I opted to try out Salt and Bread, a Russian themed cafe chain. I wanted to get either the onion soup or borscht but am still full from my in-flight meals.
My flight from Vancouver to Taipei departed at about 2 a.m. PST and less than an hour into the flight we were served a full dinner. I might have turned down chicken and rice at 3 a.m. (or more like 6 a.m. since my head was still stuck in Toronto time) if only Air Canada hadn’t turned into a discount airline experience. No food, no headphones, no blanket for my five-hour flight from Toronto to Vancouver. Or at least none that didn’t have to be ordered off the menu card. The Taiwanese overcompensated for the stinginess by offering the choice between Western (eggs, sausage, yogurt, a soggy cherry tomato and grapefruit slices) and Asian (congee with some vegetable sides–I didn’t get a good enough look at my neighbour’s plate) breakfast.
As promised, Taiwan taking the swine flu very seriously. They made several announcements about it on the plane before landing and most of the airport employees are wearing masks, in fact, probably about half of the general public are too. Back at in Canada people who wear masks were in the minority and probably treated with suspicion or subject to eye-rolling. Here no one seems to bat an eyelid about wearing one or at those who choose to. They’ve got offices and departments devoted specifically to disease control around the airport. Apparently there are a fleet of beagles trained to sniff out the illegally smuggled fruits and vegetables in your luggage. I haven’t seen them in action yet but if the public service type posters in the airport they put up about their beagle fleet are to be believed, then it should be cute.
