Mar 5, 2014 - Leaving Taiwan and reminiscing

April 2014 Traveling was what I came here to do. I wanted to experience other cultures and I have definitely had the opportunity to do that. Here are some highlights from different trips: Shanghai- first time being exposed to people who rarely see blonds. People in the streets took pictures and acted as though we were celebrities. First Asian experience. First time seeing markets. Didn’t have any currency, though, so we couldn’t really eat or do anything. Arriving in Taiwan- as we flew into the island for the first time, Cody and I had our...

Jan 26, 2014 - Taiwan 2014

Monday is our first full day in Taiwan. We flew in at 5:30 yesterday morning. We caught the high speed train to Taichung. The highest speed that we saw posted is 271 km per hour. It certainly makes for a quick trip. It is the dead of winter here. There are parkas and knitted hats. It is 21 degrees today. Brrr! We met little Scarlett and spent all day Sunday at home playing with her. Lauren had a girlfriend come by in the afternoon. She has a 6 year old who is learning English. She and I read some of Scarlett's English books. I taught her...

Apr 7, 2013 - Taipei, Taiwan

Our interest in visiting Taiwan was due to the fact that it is one of the significant countries on the Pacific Rim and because it has the second tallest building in the world, Taipei 101. It had the tallest building in the world until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010. We could not find one of the tourist guide books we normally purchase for our trips nor could we find tour companies that could give us some suggested travel tips. So it appears that at least “western” tourism is not a major economic factor. However, we found...

Mar 10, 2013 - Chapter 2: Taiwan

Hi everyone, So where we last left off I had just arrived at TPE after nearly 24 consecutive hours of travel. When I left Dulles it was 6:35 am local time the morning of March 1. When I landed in Taipei it was a little past 7:00 pm the evening of March 2. Since I did manage to get a few hours of sleep on the flight to Seoul, I was less tired than just a bit disoriented. Luckily there were not many other international flights arriving so customs/immigration went quickly. Because Taiwan has a unique arrangement and operates with a good deal...

Mar 1, 2013 - Keelung (Taipei) Taiwan

Today we docked in Taipei for a two day visit. As we have previously been to Taipei, we decided to visit the outer regions. Our first day we visited Chiufen which is high in the mountains. It was a very small village with only 9 families. The name acutally means 9 portions as when delivers we made it was always for 9! Years later gold was discovered and its population grew. It still has many of the older style architecture and is famous in Chinese film making for this reason. We visited the market as well as a teahouse. The procedure to...

Feb 14, 2013 - Layovers suck

October 26, 2012 is when we booked our first ticket for this trip. It has been a very interesting journey to get here. We have both experienced every emotion possible. Excitement, fear, anxiety, happiness, sadness, and we both have been very overwhelmed. But this is something we both wanted more than anything and we are proof that you can make your dreams come true no matter how big or small they are. No excuses people!! "Do just once what other's say you can't do, and you will never listen to their limitations again" J. Cook DAY 1: So...

Oct 20, 2012 - The End

And so we come to the end of our holiday. We are hosting a dinner for Eva's family Saturday evening, and fly off back to Sydney on Sunday. We've both enjoyed it immensely. Postscript: Tommy, Jei Wei's dog, broke a leg whilst we were in Vietnam. Apparently, he fell about one story whilst out walking. He's now in a cast. It wasn't setting very well, and the cast has had to be redone. PPS: Some time after we get back, I'll post Eva's videos and some more photos. Will send an update notice when that's done.

Oct 18, 2012 - Hualien

Hualien is a port and administrative centre on Taiwan's east coast. After taking the two hour train journey there Wednesday afternoon, we checked into our hotel on the sea front. We were to meet up with another of Eva's university friends, Wendy. Wendy is a great traveller (she's been everywhere, and is now looking at the poles for fresh fields) and couldn't make the reunion because she was returning from another short trip. Whilst waiting for Wendy to finish work, we borrowed some bicycles from the hotel and went riding along the sea...

Oct 16, 2012 - Yilan County

Tuesday we caught a bus for a one hour trip to Toucheng, which is on the north-eastern side of Taiwan. It too is becoming a commuter suburb for Taipei, being about one hour away now a new tunnel through the mountains has been completed. We were met by Yang (Yang was one of those at the reunion on the Sunday) and his wife Vivian; Yang had taken a day off to show us some of the sights of Yilan County. In the morning we went to Lanyang Museum at Wushu, which has displays showing the natural and social history of Yilan County. It was quite...

Oct 14, 2012 - The Reunion

On our return from Vietnam, we were met at Taipei's airport by Wilson and his wife, Tina (and their daughter as well). Both Wilson and Tina were students at Wollongong University when Eva was doing her MBA there. Saturday night we stayed at their place in Taoyuan, which is a semi-rural commuter suburb for Taipei, where both Wilson and Tina work. It's about one hour from Taipei. Wilson had organized a reunion lunch on Sunday at a nearby restaurant for Taiwanese who studied at Wollongong at the same time. There were eleven adults present, and...

Sep 17, 2012 - Last Day in Taiwan

I'm actually making this entry 2 days later in Hanoi, but I thought I would date the entries by the day to which their content relates. Monday was our last day in Taiwan, for now: we'll be back at the end of our trip. Today Jeiwei took a party including Didi, the bride and her mother, some friends and us out for lunch to a restaurant serving Eva's favourite fish course. After lunch, some of us went to Tamsui, originally a port near Taipei dating back to the 16th century when the Spanish and Dutch fought over it and established a fort. The...

Sep 16, 2012 - The Wedding

Think BIG. Like 430 guests, a 12 course banquet (groan - that's 2 big meals in 2 days), a multimedia production, both photographer and a videographer, and so on. Kind of like a Greek wedding but with a Chinese twist. The multimedia bit was family photos of the bride and groom - as babies, young children, teenagers, dating - projected onto 3 big screens with accompanying music. The groom was Didi, Jei Wai's son. It seems the Chinese custom is that the father of the groom pays, not the father of the bride. And none of this new-fangled...