Typhoon Fung Wong

On Monday July 28, Typhoon Fung Wong came to Taiwan. Since the government was severely criticized for underwhelming the response to the previous typhoon, they went overboard this time. By Sunday night, the entire island had declared Monday as a Typhoon Day. 

Unfortunately for us, we had about 30 people here from all over the world for a business meeting. So after many phone calls back and forth on Sunday night and Monday morning, we decided to proceed. It was still not raining at all when we went to work on Monday morning and our normal 35 min drive took about 15 min with no traffic at all.  We had our meeting as planned, though with less attendance from the local folks who observed the Typhoon Day. Many people left early - Teresa took a taxi home at about 2PM - and had no issues. I left about 5PM, unfortunately just after the rain had started. I got wet getting to my car - and the driver's seat is still drying out - but otherwise had no issues. I had another vision of wild typhoon driving, though no photographer in the passenger seat to document it.

I would have thought (silly of me, I know) that in the pouring rain and wind, drivers would be more careful and polite. It seemed however, that wild and crazy maneuvers got even wilder and crazier. People drove on the wrong side of the road, made left turns from the right lane, and all the things I have come to expect, and then some. I guess this is another cultural difference to ponder.