Back from Taiwan

Been back now for just over a day, was meant to have had a productive day with cleaning and unpacking and running around but instead stayed out far too late and ended up sleeping the day away. All in all, had a fairly good trip, despite lousy weather and lots of bus travelling:

Monday - woke up at 6:45, checked the weather status in Taiwan to see if the pending typhoon was going to cancel our flight. The ten thirty flight had been delayed, but our one o'clock flight was still on schedule. Arrived in Taipai around four in the afternoon, to grey skies and drizzling rain, but far better than we were expecting. Checked into our teeny tiny hostel and headed out to Shilin night market. The market wasn't what I had been expecting as it was mainly food stalls and the markets that weren't food, didn't have anything I really wanted to buy. After that we consulted our guide book and checked out a few foreign bars, but being that it was a Monday night most were fairly empty.

Tuesday - still lousy weather, my mood proceeded to get grumpier. We headed out in the middle of the morning to see a temple and a downtown part of Taipai. I thought it was fairly old looking and not that different than Korea. Still grumpy. We debated what to to with our day, seeing as the weather was messing up our plans for a week at the beach, we decided that we should make our way towards Kaoushing, another major city, in hopes of better weather. A four and a half hour bus ride later and we were in the city. Fortunately we were on a luxury bus that had lazy boy seats, personal tv monitors, and loads of room. I definetly liked Kaoushing better than Taipai as it seemed a little newer and there were some prettier sights. For dinner we went to a Taiwanese restaurant and I decided to try one of the dishes that had been mentioned in our guide book - drunken chicken. It was not good, it vaguely tasted of wine, and it was served cold, with skin, next to some grated ginger . After that we headed to a bar and sat and played cards for a few hours. By this time I was thinking that the trip was going to be a total bust and I just wanted to go to sleep.
Wednesday - still gray skies, still grumpy mood. We decided that despite the weather we might as well stick with our plan for Kenting because the city wasn't that interesting, so we boarded another bus for a two and a half hour ride to the beach. This bus was not nearly as luxurious as the first one, and right before we left for Taiwan I managed to break my Ipod charger, so now I was without music as well. The ride went fairly quickly, and despite being worried about being carsick, I passed the time by reading a book. Finally, we arrived at a little town outside Kenting, right on the beach. We headed to a hostel Tom had stayed at before, but it was all booked up, so we ended up staying at another little place down the road. We decided it was time for the beach, even if the skies weren't bright. Ever the optimist (hahaha), I slathered on some tanning oil and settled onto the sandy beach. After a few hours of frisbee, beach walking, and some playing in the waves, we decided to head to Kenting for some dinner and shopping. Had a yummy meal which seemed to be a cross between Taiwanese and Thai food, and it finally started to feel like we were on vacation. After that we spent a few hours looking through the shops and stopping at bars for random drinks. Just as we were walking down the street to grab a taxi home, we saw a guy drive by on a scooter, slide off it, and hit a pedestrian, this changing my mind about renting a scooter for the following days. Don't know how the two people were but did see two ambulances drive by about twenty minutes later.

Thursday - sunny skies, my mood a little cheerier! Woke up to a blue sky and big waves on the beach. Grabbed my towel, lotion, and book and headed off. After about two hours the sun was pretty intense and I decided to walk back into Kenting so I wouldn't end up looking like a tomato. Had a nice peaceful walk in, spent some time wandering through the shops, but was disappointed that there didn't seem to be anything that I wanted to buy. Walked back to our town and met up with Tom who had rented a surf board and was practicing his skills. Despite what we had seen the night before Tom was still keen to rent a scooter, and I conceded that if I didn't have to drive, I would still be game for it. So we rented a scooter, which was cheaper to rent for 24 hours, than our taxi had been the night before, and headed back to Kenting for some dinner. Being that Kenting was kind of expensive we opted to go back to our place, buy drinks at 7/11 and sit on the beach, which we did for a few hours before going and sitting outside of a hostel and playing cards for a bit.

Friday - another beautiful day, and my mind frame was finally on vacation mode, which was appropriate, being that it was time to head home. We spent a bit of time at the beach swimming, but both of us were fairly red from the day before, so we headed to our hostel, showered, and set out for a day on the scooter. It was really nice to drive all around and see the ocean views that way instead of from a bus window. Tom got me to try driving, but after a loop around a parking lot, I was quite content to remain as a passenger and just enjoy the scenery. Being that it was the last day it passed by fairly quickly, and towards the evening we had to start thinking about the long trek back to Taipai. We opted to go in a shuttle car back to Kaoshing, rather than the bus, and our crazy driver got us to the city in just under an hour and a half. This gave us two and a half hours to kill in Kaoushing, and Tom decided to head to an internet room, while I went and walked through a night market. Then we had a four hour bus ride back to Taipai, and the bus had almost no suspension which made it fairly impossible to sleep. At five in the morning we ended up back in Taipai and then we had another hour bus ride, plus the flight, plus a three hour bus ride back to Daejeon.

I got back here yesterday and with very little sleep. Heather and I met up to talk about our different vacations, and then we met up with some others from the neighborhood and went out, instead of getting some much needed sleep.

All in all, it was a pretty good week, but I don't think I would ever go back to Taiwan or recommend it as a place to go, the places we saw were nice enough, but from the other countries I've visited there is much more to do and see, with vast cultural differences from Korea, and for the most part, a lot cheaper. On a more positive note though, less than two weeks from now I will be in Japan and hopefully that will be everything that people talk it up to be!

Anyhow I'm off for now, time to start thinking about going back to work tomorrow. Hope you all had a good week.