Welcome back!
Our last day in Taiwan. We spent time at the AIT office getting the final details worked our with Davis’ passport (luckily everything went ok and they said he could leave the country!). We spent most of our remaining time shopping and visiting the Temple again. Davis wanted to find some Chinese puppets so that sort of turned into our “quest” before we left. It was difficult to find a puppet shop and when we finally found one it was closed while the owner had left temporarily. We ate some lunch while we waited for the shop keeper to return. We were pressed for time to head back to the airport but luckily the shop keeper returned just in time and we were able to find some puppets.
We also had a nerve-racking experience at the airport. After we had checked our bags and were heading through customs a security officer came and flagged me down and escorted me to the baggage area. They were concerned with what they saw in our suitcases. The boys had purchased some swords at one of the shops and they were stashed in the bottom of the suitcases. So, I had to unload the entire suitcase, dirty clothes and all, in front of the entire airport, so they could inspect the swords. They seemed concerned because the blades were metal but they finally allowed us to keep them and we were on our way.
Posted under Taiwan
This post was written by Paul Pearson on August 5, 2006
