Up, up and away … this time I’m off to Taipei

For reasons that will become clearer in future posts, I have to be in Bangkok by the last week of this month.

I checked my Qantas frequent flyer points* with the view to making a direct flight from Brisbane. But I discovered that for about the same number of points I could go first to somewhere I’d never been before — and I’m always up for that.

That’s why I’m going to Taiwan. I know something of its history, but not much else. Having lived and worked in Shanghai, I know that China regards the island formerly known as Formosa as a renegade province, but many of the locals see it somewhat differently.

But, as I write, I have very little idea of what I will find there or what I will do.

I have just a few days to work that out, and that’s kind of exciting.

*It cost 60,000 Qantas frequent flyer points (plus just under A$200 in taxes) for my Cathay Pacific business-class ticket to Taipei, starting in Brisbane, stopping briefly in Cairns and transiting in Hong Kong. I purchased my own onward ticket to Bangkok.