Clean Slate

One pre-Taiwan task on the list is to get my passport renewed which I just received today, think the cost was $75. They send back your old passport, as a keepsake I guess, and here's a scan of the first stamp I received on entry to Taiwan in 2007. On my last trip to Taiwan in August '09 the immigration guy @ LAX questioned my change in appearance from my passport photo which was almost 10 years old at that time. I have much less hair & facial hair now and he insinuated that I was trying to conceal my identity. I think my response in a half-zombified state was, "That was a long time ago."

Now I have a new passport, empty pages, and the clock is reset to 10 years. And as long as I don't get a different haircut, hopefully less interrogation at U.S. Immigration.