Wrapping Up Taiwan
We flew home from Taipei on May 2nd. This tour has been wonderful. For several reasons:

1/ Huang (right, with his family) did a marvelous job organising things. Everything was well planned. He had everything so well planned out, he even had time to bring us sight-seeing! Always on time for appointments, the man not only had to drive us up and down the country throughout the day, he even had to perform during the gigs. With all these organising and driving and worrying about ticket sales, he remained cool and collected. Plus, he knew where all the good food was. Kudos!

2/ Food was brilliant! Between mouthfuls, we took many pictures of the food. I don't think I fit all of them in this blog. But here's an example of hawker fare. I must admit though. I don't know what those are..

3/ The audience here in Taiwan is very, very respectful of artistes. This is quite new to me because I've sat through some of Mr. X's concerts and 99.9% of the time, audience at clubs / concert halls walk right past the stage in the middle of a performance to
(1) pee,
(2) get to the bar,
(3) walk off a leg cramp - I really don't know why they have to walk around in the middle of a 45-minute session and I'm not even refering to the waiters neither,
(4) talk to the person next to them,
(5) talk to the people around them and
(6) talk on the phone some more. Why the obsessive need to talk while listening to a performance, I don't get either.

In Taiwan, they stop talking, they stop smoking (stubbed out the ciggy! right before the gig started. Saw it with my own eyes! Amazing) and everything in their body language suggests that they are listening to the artiste on stage. Full attention. Noone gets up to pee, noone talks, noone whispers, noone needs the help of a cigarette to breathe. They're totally into the music. That was a very refreshing experience for me and just for that, I got to stand up right now and applaud the Taiwanese!

4/ 7-Eleven.
Did you know that Taiwan has the third largest number of 7-Eleven outlets in the world?! Next to U.S.A. and Japan? More than 4,000 outlets.

But if you take into consideration the population of Taiwan, this little island (394 kilometres / 245 miles long, about 6 hours drive from north to south) has the highest "per 7-Eleven" per person in the world! Huang said there's a 7-Eleven at every street corner and he was right.

I've never appreciated the convenience of this 24-hour store until Taiwan. But here in Taiwan, 7-Eleven sells almost everything. And when I say 'everything', I' m talking about food. From (microwave) fresh pastas to curries, from potatoes to sushi. And most of Taiwanese cuisine! And who makes most of the fresh food for 7-Eleven? CHIMEI!

Marvelous, simply marvelous.