So my finals schedule looked like:
Thursday
Monday
Wednesday
Thursday
Saturday
Then on SUNDAY, I got on a plane with my parents and my brother bound for Asia.
Sunday itself was a trip. We had a layover in LA and got to see our cousins Kim and Kevin. It was nice to just get out of the airport, hit up a Starbucks (which are everywhere including China).
My cousin Kim and I
The trip to Taiwan was long as usual. We left my apartment around 5am so I was pretty sleepy. The sad part is that I sleep very poorly on airplanes. Lack of sleep and my tendency for motion sickness resulted in some fun when we got to the airport in TaoYuan. The big H1N1 scare has people on edge. So you see a lot of people wearing surgical masks. I was feeling a little sick after a sub par flight. What can I say, the last time I went to Taiwan we flew first class, where you couldn’t even touch the chair in front of you if you tried. Anyways, I felt sick walking up the jetway into the airport and decided to just you know, throw up, not once but twice. My brother, the sideline observer enjoyed the fear in people’s eyes as they had to walk around the Texan throwing up in the jetway. They would hug the otherside of the walkway fearing the flu.
I’ll try to stick to the highlights:
1. I ate my favorite fruit, waxed apples:
lembu
2. We ate at Mo’s Burger, Johnny’s favorite fast food joint on the planet
3. We ate Mitsui, my favorite sushi on the planet.
notice we do a lot of eating in Taiwan.
4. We ate the overrated Din Tai Fung, though their Beef Noodle Soup was excellent. (We stay at my Aunt’s place within walking distance of this place.)
I also buy the 0.28 and 0.38 size pens next door at the multi story bookstore.
5. We visited a fish market.
6. We used our YoYo cards to ride the impressive Taiwan subway with Jimmy to Xi Meng Ding. Its a very touristy shopping area. I heard more people speak English than Chinese. We ate at a bathroom themed restaurant.
weird toilet restaurant
7. We went to HsinChu, the city where my mom’s family is from. I was born there and got to see some of the nurses who use to work for my grandfather and helped take care of me when I was little. We also visited the grave of my Grandfather who passed away last year.
8. Even though I’ve been to Taiwan many times, there’s always something new to do. This time we went to the south of Taiwan and visited Green Island off the east coast of Taiwan.
a. We rode the new high speed rail from Taipei down to Kaohsiung. It stopped twice and still made the trip, which is basically the length of Taiwan in 1.5 hours. ZOOM
b. We stayed overnight on the coast at some hot springs place. Asians love the hot springs. Nothing special there.
c. We then took a boat to the island. Now…the trip is about an hour long, against the waves, and in the Pacific. So the first ten minutes, people are cheering and woooooooing when we go over a big wave. By the 30 min mark, people are puking and not a noise is heard. My dad, the former Marine, and I both threw up. I made it until the 50 min mark, but the last ten minutes were just too rough. Was it worth it? Close call, but it was fun on the island.
d. I drove a moped for the first time. The island is tiny and cars are few. So everybody rents a moped to get around the island. I learned to ride and proceeded to take me and my mom around the island. My brother really loved driving a moped again. I agree it was fun, but I feel it was more enjoyable and safe on an island with few cars and mainly other mopeds.
vrooooooom
e. We went snorkling, which was great since I broke my rib before our trip to Hawaii and didn’t get to snorkle in Hawaii. It was an amazing experience. You basically just get into the water and you’re already in the reef area filled with fish.
f. My dad took the ten second airplane flight back off the island. They only had one seat open so I took the boat back. The trip back was with the waves and only 40 minutes long. No pukeing occured on the return trip.
g. We visited non-blood related family and ate the most amazing all you can eat personal hot pot place.
h. In their house…what I want oneday, a urinal:
Additionally their house use to be a golf driving range. They stopped running it so now their backyard is just a giant piece of land, which is rare in Taiwan, espcially in the city.
9. Before we left to China, our cousin took us on a small tour of Taipei. Now we’ve been to Taipei many times so he had to make it something new. Since our grandfather passed away last year, we toured Taipei with a theme related to our late grandfater. We learned he was a doctor by age 22 and visited the old hospital where he went to med school.
Pictures are on Flickr as usual.
Part 2 to come. (basically the trip to Beijing, China)
