I felt my first earthquake!!!

Taiwan took quite a beating from Morakot. I'm sure the stories will keep coming for days to come. They are just finding out about a lot of people missing in huge mudslide in the mountains. I wish the best for all the good people of Taiwan. My personal adventure involved waiting it out until Sunday a.m. when I was checking out of the hotel in Kenting anyway. I could tell that the storm had abated a bit but was certainly not gone and the ocean was still rockin' and rollin'.

After checking in several times, I finally heard the 11 a.m. shuttle would leave for Kaoshiung on time. It would take an hour or more longer than usual due to the road conditions. So off I went for a bird's eye view of the destruction. Downed trees and whole fields of crops destroyed. I understand the bananas took it the hardest. Our journey was full of twists and turns and at times on dirt roads or were they roads washed out from the storms....not sure. We had to take a more inland route and at times the road was nearly impassable. I got to play nurse to a poor young girl barfing her guts out through a good part of the journey. I think she was very grateful for my wet wipes, tissues, and essential oil spray. She knew the English workds "thank you" but that was about it. As it turns out, the south of the island took it much harder than the north even though the center of the storm was in the north. The river about 2 hours into the journey was the most surreal. You can't really see the full effect in my video but it was like boiling oil. The river was black and raging and GIGANTIC. This same river a couple days earlier looked mostly like a big beach with huge dry areas everywhere. This is the same river where the hotel fell into the river which has been all over the BBC and CNN. I am not sure of the name of the river but I am sure I will never forget that sight of seeing it after Morakot. So maybe there is a blessing in the storm:

Check out the video...http://www.youtube.com/user/HSGWorld or it should be displaying on the right side of the blog.

So we made it to Kaoshiung and HSR station. I was very lucky in that the station was pretty calm, I had no idea no lucky but would find out the next day. Anyway, there were no trains running at all which made me quite glad that I didn't buy a ticket in advance. I did have the good sense to buy a ticket then even though there was no guarantee of the trains running in the morning. I had to be in Taipei to catch my flight to Toyko at 1450 on Monday. I bought my ticket for the 7:06 train and headed out to the taxi stand. I ended up, with lots of hand signals to help, at a very interesting little motel in town close to the station. I had my own garage and stairwell. Kind of a drive through motel of sorts. Exhausted from the rest of the day, I just crashed into the rock hard bed (typical in many Chinese hotels but surprisingly comfortable) and flipped on the TV. Goodness TV is so boring, how does anyone watch it regularly? Of course, then there are surprises everywhere in life like when channel surfing you come across porn movies. What? Plenty of free porn to go with your Love Cats lubricant and condom (only 1) provided in the room. There was even a choice of porn, very American low budget style and Chinese style where you never see the man's face. How about that? Finally, my favourite part of the room:

VeryNineJoy Cream...see the video on http://www.youtube.com/user/HSGWorld or it should be displaying on the right side of the blog.

6:3o a.m. Monday at the HSR station. I was too lazy to get my camera out but really should have, there must have been 3-4 thousand people trying to get moving. Once again, things were on my side as the one train that was going to run was the one I had bought a ticket for the night before. YIPPEE!!! 2 hours later I was in Taipei and headed to the airport to catch my flight to Tokyo.

Finally, the title of this post must be explained of course. Early this morning (Tuesday 11AUG) in Tokyo there was an earthquake. I am on the 33rd floor of the Shiodome media building and I felt it BIG time. It was bizarre. I thought I was dreaming but then again, I never dream about earthquakes because I have no idea what they feel like. I had been awake at 5:30 and decided to do a little waking sleep meditation practice which frequently means I sleep for another 30 minutes or so. The whole building was swaying and felt like it was moving in a circular way. I didn't hear any noise. I understand there is now a tsunami warning as well. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes. ___Voltaire