Back to the Motherland. Again.

It is time again for my annual trip to Taiwan! It's going to be a long 18 hour flight (almost 6 hours to Seattle and another 12 to Taipei) with my sister, brother-in-law, 10 month old nephew and 4 year old niece, MadDog. I am not quite sure it will be okay, but I guess we'll just have to see. I am hoping this trip will not involve any debilitating illnesses, like the past two years. However, this time I won't be spending my birthday there, so that should take the jinx off. (Fingers crossed, people.)

In the meantime, let me give you some general information about Taiwan:

*Taiwan is approximately the size of CT & NH put together. Or the size of Holland, for anyone who is more euro-centric.

*The island is in the shape of a sweet potato or tobacco leaf and 2/3 of the area is covered by mountains. Although it's an island, Taiwan is NOT a beachy destination.

*Population: 22.9 million--over 10% are in Taipei (2.63 million).

So let's compare Taipei to NYC:

Interesting, no? Taipei is quite dense, but as expected, the population is rather homogenous. Apparently they like their coffee too. There are some 2000 coffee shops in Taipei. I can't believe only 5% of them are Starbucks.


And what's the deal with China, you ask? Well, the mainland is 266 times the size of Taiwan, has 55 times as many people and an army 7 times larger. Without going into too much detail (or politics), they are Communist, we are not. They also like to occasionally aim missles at Taiwan and "test" them in the 120km stretch of water that separates the two. That's all I'm going to say on the matter.

I will try my best to post while I'm abroad. Our itinerary is still up in the air, but hopefully we will make it to Thailand or some other tropical beach!