News and Views From my kids accomplishments, to my heretical perspective of the world

We had a few minor events on the trip here, but nothing as exciting as seeing a mountain lion.

Because of complications in the itinerary, we had two separate reservations on Eva Air; one from Los Angeles to Taipei, and the other from Taipei to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Our flight from Phoenix was delayed almost an hour, and we were the last ones to check in for the Taipei flight out of Los Angeles. I told the agent that we were going to Saigon, but in the hurry she saw the first reservation and checked us to Taipei and we didn’t notice. Half way to Taipei I suddenty suspected what had happened and confirmed it when I checked the baggage claim. That stressed me out a little, imagining that when we arrived in Taipei we would have to go through immigration and customs, find our luggage, recheck it to Saigon, and then go back in through immigration and security.

Fortunately the Eva transit agent in Taipei was able to divert our bags without our intervention, and they arrived with us in Saigon.

We flew Eva Air this time, a Taiwan airline noted for pretty good service. Business class with the flat beds would have been very expensive, over $5000 each, so we opted for the next best “Elite” class. It’s slightly better than economy, but far from business class. There’s a little more legroom, the seats are a little wider, they recline a little further and there is a foot rest, plus we get to board ahead of economy. A worthwhile upgrade for just a few hundred more. We didn’t sleep as well as we would have lying down, but better than we would have in the back. One nice feature that I wish all airlines would implement: When you recline, instead of leaning back into the passenger behind you, your seat slides forward and the back drops almost straight down. The result is that reclining reduces your owns space, not the space of the passenger behind you. I think this reduces inter-passenger friction, and means you can stay reclined during meals if you want.

We arrived at our hotel and I met the rest of the tour. More about that in the next post.

We just heard back that the test of Apollo’s tumor came back negative for cancer. With the removal of testosterone producing glands, the existing small tumors should shrink.

According to Wikipedia, intact male dogs are 3 times more likely to have this kind of tumor, and that 95% of the tumors will disappear after neutering. The most commonly affected breed of dog is… Siberian Husky. The prognosis is much worse for cancerous tumors, but we don’t have to worry about that now.

He is feeling a lot better each day. He has to wear the “cone of shame” and take it easy until he gets his stitches out after about 10 days (another week now). Then he should be back to normal.

Gisele and I are leaving for a trip to Vietnam on Thursday. Her brother has organized the trip and we will be joined by several others in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

We arrive in HCM City, then travel northward viewing sites on the way, including the Hue region where Richard was stationed during the war. We eventually reach Hanoi in the north, and then fly back to Saigon. If we have time and can arrange it, we would like to take a short expedition to Cambodia to visit the famous Angkor Wat temple complex, which rivals the Taj Mahal in grandeur.

Gisele has been back to Vietnam a couple of times since she left there in 1979, but this will be my first visit.

We are stopping in Taiwan for a few days on our way home to see Devon.

Apollo went to the vet today for surgery. He has a couple of suspicious tumors. They are probably benign, but they need to be removed anyway. I’ll post an update in a comment here once we hear back.

It’s been almost three months since my foot surgery (September 16). Two months of extreme inactivity (minimal walking, no bike riding), and then a couple of weeks of some bike riding and three weeks of lots of walking in Taiwan. Our hotel room in Taipei was on the 12th floor (oops — 11th — no 4th floor), and I tried to take the stairs whenever I could, but it still wasn’t up to my previous level of activity.

Today for the first time in three months I played basketball, running with the younger guys. It was better than I expected, in that I haven’t lost my shooting touch. I hit the first two 3-point shots I tried, and ended up 3 for 5 from behind the line. But after a game and a half, less than an hour of playing, I was tired and my legs were weak.

But unlike before surgery, my foot didn’t hurt at all as I played. Before the surgery, I would get shooting pains in my big and second toe, but not today. After I got home my foot was aching a little and I iced it, but it looks like the surgery was worth it. The big toe is still a lot less flexible than the one on the other foot, and I hope that works out too, but even if it doesn’t I’m better off than I was.

We are back from Taiwan, as you may have inferred from my previous “Global Entry” post. Here are a few items I found interesting on the trip.

First, it was nice traveling “upper class” in what United calls “BusinessFirst”, implying that it’s between a normal Business class and a normal First class. The lie-flat beds were very nice, and we slept a lot on the trip home. I sleep a lot better on my side than on my back, but with any recliner that isn’t totally flat it’s very hard to lie on your side. These beds allowed that. Jet lag was reduced and we arrived fresher than normal. The food was also pretty good. The only complaint is that Gisele sitting by the window had to climb over me to get out when I was lying flat, and there isn’t much room to store items within reach. But I’ll take the trade-offs.

Since I switched to T-Mobile I was able to use my Android phone in Taiwan, just needing to install a SIM from the local phone company. That wouldn’t have worked with a Verizon phone, since their system is not compatible with most of the world. I paid about $15 for a month, including up to a Gig of data, which was more than I needed. It helped that I was on Wi-Fi in the hotel.

Here is a simple example of community cooperation in Taiwan. When riding the escalator, 95% of the time those who want to stand will all stand to the right, so that those who want to walk have a clear path on the left. Ever try walking up or down an escalator in the US? Unless you are the only one on it, you are almost always blocked by people standing two abreast.

(Sorry how poor the picture is — I took it from the top of the escalator just before it came to the end. But you can see the clear path for walkers.)

We took a ride on a cable car (gondola?) at Sun-Moon Lake. Devon and I found the following sign inside the car hilarious. The English just says “Keep your kid away from the window”, which is a reasonable warning, but the Chinese translates to “Watch your child, and don’t let him climb out of the window”. As if anyone would! Usually it’s the English translations that brought laughter, but this was an exception.

We spent a couple of nights at a hotel in the mountains of central Taiwan. While out for a walk in the morning I came across the largest spider web I have ever seen. It was at least 20 feet high, attached to a power line, and extended at least 20 feet wide. There were at least 50-100 large spiders on the web, varying from an inch in diameter to 4 inches or so (including legs). The following picture doesn’t quite do it justice, but you can click on it for a larger version.

We think they were golden silk orb-weavers. Wikipedia states “Species from Taiwan have been known to reach over 5 in (130 mm), legspan included, in mountainous country”. That’s where we were.

I’ll finish this rather lengthy report with a picture of the toilet in one of the hotels we stayed in. See the buttons on the panel? They control a spray of water. The left hand blue button is labeled “Stop”. The second, green button has a drawing of a butt on it, and is labeled “rear”. The third, red button has a drawing of a woman’s head and is labeled “front”. And the fourth, black and white button is just labeled stronger and weaker. I did try the green button a couple of times. Interesting, but I don’t plan on installing one in my house.

Devon, his girlfriend Xiang-Xiang, Gisele and I are taking a few days to visit a few scenic areas around the island.

Here are Xiang-Xiang and Devon.