Taiwan: Driving at night through a foreign city

Taipei. What else i remembered was the rather fabulous night markets, great, cheap food and all, and the mega malls that weren't my cup of tea at all. The Taipei 101 area was fun though, a road junction with wide sidewalks for pedestrians, lined with alternating red and yellow flowerbeds, in full bloom in the cold, crisp morning air. The Taipei City Council was nearby, and at that time every night you turned on the TV it was political debate after debate, talkshow after talkshow -elections were just around the corner.

I remember beautiful highways, lovely night journeys that sped down the island, heading southwards, the lights of the city a blur, then once out of it, gave way to streaks of lights from cars coming from both directions, and the uniform rows of streetlamps, with the intention of flying out from the port city of Kaohsiung. The cold sometimes misted out the windows - it was a lovely experience. I felt so detached from the world, all my worries faded away, left behind, like the streaks of lights, zooming into the future, what was to come, and the anticipation.