I take a bus every day from downtown Taipei to Chiang Kai-shek Airport to go to work. The Westin Taipei supplies multiple busses for all the workers going in the morning, and I have a choice of taking one into work at 5:00, 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning and returning either at 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening. It's a long day, filled with images not familiar to the average American.

The bus ride takes about 30-50 minutes, depending on traffic. Similar double-decker busses are ubiquitous, as are the scooters, which are the favored mode of transportation among the less-well-to-do. These scooters have been observed going against traffic, going up the tiny aisles created by idling cars waiting for a light change or other traffic, and even down the middle of the sidewalk among the walking pedestrians.

The locals are so used to this that I have yet to see a single accident, even though the average distance between vehicles is probably a fourth of that I am used to seeing in America. Think of the thickest traffic experienced you've probably seen and you might visualize a typical drive here, but they all seem to be excellent drivers, witnessed by the lack of accidents.

A couple nights ago, 3 of us took the subway deep into the heart of the city, (I'm happy to follow, as the other guys knew how to maneuver the change of trains and the multiple stops) and ended up in the district known as "Snake Alley".

I was on a mission to buy some tee shirts, or anything else that caught my eye and was light on the wallet. I was successful in that I found 3 shirts for about $250! Of course, this was only about $7 US apiece. When I first changed money here at the hotel, I got 6 $1000 dollar bills and 10 $100 dollar bills. Seven thousand dollars in my pocket! Wow! Well, this was really only something over $200 US, as prices must be mentally reduced by dividing by 30.

During the walk of perhaps a mile, slowly observing what street venders were hawking, we saw one shop where they kept live snakes of all kinds. There was a black cobra, sitting stationary only feet from the passers-by. The handler would periodically wave a cloth at the cobra's head and it would move a bit and then be completely stationary again. There were dead snakes hanging over buckets positioned to contain the draining blood, which I was told was occasionally purchased by the locals to be consumed raw, like a shot of alcohol. You could also purchase a shot of snake bile. Mmmm-mmm-mm.

Nope, not in Kansas, anymore, Toto!