JFK to Taipei

When I checked in, I thought I had one of those awful middle seats requiring me to climb over someone every time I wanted to use the facilities. Fortunately they had changed my seat to an aisle. Yes!! says the old prostate!  This was my first time flying EVA Air and I have to say so far I am impressed. I AM flying economy, folks, so let's not get too excited, but this Boeing 777 looks brand spanking new, the stewies (sorry, flight attendants) are these young, willowy, long legged creatures I remember from the days I used to live in Tai Chung. The girls in Taiwan have the best legs, cause they ride bicycles so much - IMHO - at least they did 40+ years ago. But, I digress.

The aircraft is beautiful, legroom is adequate, actually spacious by today's cramped standards and the entertainment system is great, with really recent movies! I actually watched five movies. And this is the guy who normally sleeps the whole way; ask my wife! Only one did I see previously, "American Made", other than "Top Gun" the only Tom Cruise movie I really like. "Wild River" and "Battle of the Sexes" were both really good. So was "Victoria and Abdul", but I only got to see about half of it. Don't waste your time on "Kidnap" ; I guess Haley needed the money. Sorry, off on a tangent again!

So, the food was good and it was a really smooth flight and the pilot greased one on in Taipei. But let me tell you about the bathrooms. Bathrooms? Yes they ARE important. Normally I don't have anything nice to say about aircraft bathrooms, but these were immaculate, I mean for the entire 16 hour flight! I know, because I checked - frequently! And they kept them resupplied the whole trip; no running out of TP here. And they even supplied us with toothbrushes and toothpaste. Very classy. I would definitely recommend EVA.

Finally, landing at Taipei, I found the terminal equally clean and very modern, with all of the typical accouterments - don't you just love that word? - including the gauntlet of super high end shops you have to walk through to get anywhere. I finally find the Plaza Premier Lounge and check in. It just opened and I'm the first one there. Shouldn't have eaten on the plane because they had a really nice spread in the lounge.

OK, so I'm running out of things to say about the terminal so to put into perspective for you, the last time I landed in Taipei, this terminal did not exist. There was an open ramp where I parked my C-130 and a Chinese guard with a submachine gun to guard it while we went into Base Ops to file our flight plan. On returning I had forgotten to get the rice paper "chit" from the dispatcher that we needed to reboard our aircraft, and I wasn't going to argue with a guy with a machine gun, so I grudgingly trode back and got the damn chit. When I handed it to the guard he gave me a big toothy grin and said in perfect English, "haste makes waste!" I wonder how long he had been waiting to use that line. And that's why I was so thrilled to get that T-shirt, last Christmas that says "Ho Lee Chit". True story!
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