THE GREEN DRAGON

Flying out of No Bai airport in Hanoi to my next adventure-3 days in Taiwan; my first experience in this country . Leaving the familiar of Vietnam and Hanoi behind  i watch the green coastline below. I look into the unknown of the next few days- new country-new language-new city-new currency. So goes my travels in Asia.
Falling into a light sleep after lunch i hear in Chinese the announcement of our approach into Taipei airport. Looking out of my window i see a beautiful deep green emerald sea. Below the surface i see swirls and patterns of different shades of lighter green and white. The water surface is whipped by the spray of white caps. The aircraft turns and banks into the airport approach as beautiful Asian instrumental music is fills the aircraft cabin. I catch my first view of this land.
Beautiful forested cliffs rise out of the ocean capped by billowing banks of clouds dropping rain showers in certain areas. As we glide lower the sun falls on the sea revealing the patterns below the water surface more clearly. I see that these are the patterns of coral reefs spreading out from the islands shores. Taipei is world famous for its green jade and Im looking into the swirls and patterns of the green jade in a liquid form that is the sea surrounding the island. The two colliding  geological plates that have formed this island appear to have lifted the green sea and solidified it into the islands jade stone.
I imagine and feel like i am riding the back of a green dragon as the EVA Air 737 glides gracefully and lowers us gently onto the surface of this magic kingdom off the coast of the Asian continent. Another adventure opens up to me across the globe.