Andrew and Mei's Taiwan Travel Blog

For those of you who are reading this right now...

2007-02-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

We have been receiving comments from people who continue to enjoy the blog. Which is great, but this is our disclaimer: We have stopped posting to this blog because we have come back to the US and resumed our "normal" lives. While we have every intention to go back to Taiwan, it won't be posted here, this blog was created mainly for our family and friends to keep tabs on us during our year and a half abroad. We hope you enjoyed our stories of our many misadventures, but there will be no new ones.

And for those who are thinking about teaching in Taiwan or just exploring:

-Go for it, Taiwan runs on its own pace, you will find out a lot about yourself, and the Chinese culture
-The best way to find a teaching job is to look in the classified section of any of the major English newspapers, there are always ads for open positions
-There's too much to see for us to sum up, your best bet is to pick up Lonely Planet or National Geographic Taiwan and figure out what is most in line with your interests, we don't read comments from this blog often enough any more to respond in a timely manner if you're headed off to a trip in the near future

Asia pictures

2005-10-31T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

I finally finished uploading the 293 photos that are in this album. Again, you'll have to log into Snapfish in order to see the photos.

Enjoy!

http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=547311130794745666/l=65291688/cobrandOid=1000321/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

First Trickle of Photos...

2005-10-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

You have to have a snapfish account in order to view the photos. Sorry about the catch (No pun intended)! But it's free and I will be uploading all of my pics onto Snapfish. I'm not sure how Andrew will upload his pics.

http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=192271130458320686/l=64809203/cobrandOid=1000321/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

What? Who? Where?

2005-10-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

Luckily, my jet lag has been minimal, so I can discern easily whether that ("What? Who? Where?") is coming from the Nicholas Cage impersonation on SNL or from yours truly. I think that has something to do with the fact that on our last day in Thailand, we had to get up at around 4:30 AM and were only able to sleep minimaly for the next 36 hours. That led to an immediate crash upon coming home. However, I have been waking up at 8 AM (what the hell) and taking long, extended naps during the afternoon.

So what now? Ideally, I'll be sitting on my ass for as long as possible. I DO have my movie collection I hope to watch. But in reality, for me now I have to a) find a job, b) find a car, and c) find a place to live. Not neccessarily in that order, either. I need to organize my pictures into a digestible format, but until I get my monitor back (currently on loan) that is an impossible task to do. Oh well, maybe it's for the best. I still need to FIND jobs, APPLY, finish my school apps, get a car, clean my room, organize the boxes that will be coming home, and last but not least, trying to figure out how I'll be seeing my friends.

So what do I immediately notice about here compared to where I was? Driving to Wells Fargo, I was just amazed by how big our neighborhoods are. In cities in Taiwan, there are no neighborhoods and there are no noticable zoning regulations. It seems to be everywhere you go there are 4-5 story buildings, with the bottom floor being relegated for businesses and the top floors for people to live. Houses are minimal except in the 'country', and convenient stores are LITERALLY on every corner instead of on every commercial corner. Comparatively, the density of people here to there is non-existent.

And it's cold here! Man. This is me, the guy who hates the heat, who withers and dies. But I must have gotten used to it, at least more so that previously, because I'm not enjoying the SJ autumn, I'm wearing jackets and pants constantly, and my hands are nearly frozen off (I have bad circulation in my hands).

Well, this may be one my last postings on this blog, since it's not mine. Thanks so much to 6Q for letting us post on here and use this space. Maybe I'll make one of my own for my random thoughts and to provide therapy, if you're remotely interested just let me know. So concludes our trip: now, it's 'back to the real world.' Thanks for taking the time to read this, everyone! I hope I get a chance to see you all soon!!

Home. Safe and Sound!

2005-10-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

We are home, happy and healthy! Our plane was a little delayed and we had some trouble getting our bag (but at least they made it!) The end of our trip was nice, but we got rained on during our trip to see one of the smaller islands, and our canopy trekking was very quick but fun. When I get all of my pics uploaded, I will post a link for you guys to see our pics, and maybe Andrew will get his plethora of great shots uploaded as well.

It's been a great ride, thanks for going along with us!

Counting Down...

2005-10-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

Only a couple of days left in our trip! We're enjoying the last few days, doing things like relaxing on the beach and stocking up on last minute supplies.

Huh? Supplies? Well, DVDs and PS2 games are extremely cheap here. (Of course they are burned.) The thing is, I don't know if the PS2 games (sorry, they're called DVD games) will work, but I am pretty sure that they will. But as games have gone from $4 to $2.50 to $2 as we have progressed around Thailand, you can imagine that I've been going a little crazy. Like a moth to a flame is a better description. Not as cheap as $0 for unlimited games like Todd can get, but hey, all the (PS2) games I can want for, what, $50? Not too shabby. Now I just hope they work.

It's also ridiculous the number of DVD's I have bought here. After leaving America with *2* tapes, I'll return with an infinite number of movies.

In fact, I think when I do get home, I'll need a couple of months to get all the games and movies out of my system. THEN maybe I'll start looking for a job. Haha.

Koh Samui is a beautiful Island!

2005-10-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

Super quickly:

Made it to Samui safe and sound, our bungalow is about a 15 sec walk to a very quiet, almost private beach. We've rented a jeep to see the island and it is absolutely gorgeous! We have plans to go sea kayaking, snorkeling, and "canopy climbing" which is apparently going through the trees on ropes, like rapelling, but you go horizontally through the air, instead of vertically down a cave or cliff. Yay!

"Bangkok is bitchin'"

2005-10-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

To quote Jerry, the guy who placed us at our jobs in Taipei, "Bangkok is bitchin'."

Well, as it turns out, not really. If you recall, Jerry, the recruiter in Taiwan who placed us at our jobs, is a habitual liar. Some of his other comments include, "Your job isn't far from Neihu." (in fact, on the complete other SIDE of Taipei, a mere 1 1/2 hours away by bus and train), "Teachers have all the leverage.", "Schools have all the leverage.", etc. He has an insatiable thirst for lying.

This isn't to say that we went to Bangkok because of what HE said, no, no no no. It's the capital of Thailand, of course we're going to stop by and say hello. However, bitchin' isn't the term I'd use to describe Bangkok. Big? Definitely. Boisterous? Sure. Belligerent? Yeah, you bet. But bitchin'? Eh...

Bangkok isn't a bad place, but it is what most large Asian cities tend to be: big, unorganized (aka chaotic), polluted (nasty air and nasty stuff on the sidewalk), crowded, and, of course, there's bad traffic. What with 6 million people here, it's understandable that driving around is a lot like Office Space.

But there is some of the stuff that we came here to see: the history, the temples, the art. Today, for instance, we headed down to the river and took a boat up to the Grand Palace and the Green Emerald Temple. The temple is remarkable: typical Thai style architecture ornately decorated. The temples are tall and have many spires seemingly reaching out toward heaven. Inside there is an actual Green Emerald Buddha, who interestingly enough changes clothes every season to reflect the current season (i.e. rainy, hot, cold).

We then went to the adjacent Grand Palace, which is currently being rennovated (deja vu to Beijing). The King lived here, I believe, and performs some duties here still. Quite similar to the Buckingham Palace structurally (of course it does, all kings get big, luxurious buildings) but is more green and has elephants.

Then we took a tuk-tuk to the National Museum. I think we described tuk-tuks, but if not, briefly they are three-wheeled motorcycle taxis (with a roof). Driver in front, two seats in the back. Perfect to inhale car/motorcycle exhaust, feel the full extent of potholes in the roads, and avoid getting ripped off in. Not my favorite.

The National Museum is enormous and remarkably not crowded, considering how close it is to the main attraction in the area (Grand Palace and adjacent temple), which has throngs of people. The first building had the history of Thailand and its kings, and I was amazed by how often Thailand was at war for a Buddhist nation. However, it appears to be all or mostly all defensive in nature, so the museum says (nearly all by Myanmar (ex-Burma), those crazy war-hungry people!). But I am thankful that with the exception of some territorial concessions to France and Britin, Thailand was never colonized, and the evidence is in the language. While many people speak good English, the Thai language is predominant and never adopted roman letters. Instead, Thai characters are used.

Anyway, from there, we explored other parts of the museum, including ceramics, ivory, old war weapons, gold figures, etc. It was massive. There was so much stuff. there were also massive chariots used for what seemed to be funeral processions. MASSIVE. I mean, we saw a video, and there were maybe 3000 people carrying the largest chariot ceremonially. To actually carry some of these massive contraptions, 56 people were needed.

We are now at our guest house. An hour after we got in a massive afternoon storm came by; it was torrential, but it's eased off a bit now. Looking forward to getting to Ko Samui and relaxing, but I'm not too thrilled about the 4 AM wake up tomorrow! Ack!

One night in Bangkok...Well, actually 3...

2005-10-11T23:41:00.000-07:00

Well, we are in Bangkok now, we went shopping and found a few good deals on bags, I got some dvds for my mom, but let me rewind to Chiang Mai.

So we went to the elephant camp outside of Chiang Mai, but first stopped at the Orchid & Butterfly farm on the way. Andrew likes orchids way more than I do, so I think he enjoyed it a little bit more than i did. I liked it also though, lots of very pretty orchids, everywhere.

Got to the elephant camp, watched elephants take a bath in the river, then they walked up to do the elephant show. We saw how elephants can move very heavy logs, they can play musical instruments (incl. the harmonica), and they can play basketball and soccer. Then we got to ride the elephants, which was like riding a very tall, slow horse. We were dropped off at the local village to buy handicrafts, where apparently Andrew and I took way too long at (more Andrew than me, I SWEAR!) and missed the ox cart ride back. So we started walking back to the camp, and a guy came on a motorcycle to pick us up and drop off us at the cafeteria for lunch. We couldn't find Noi, our tour guide, so we just sat down and started eating, and she showed up half way through with a shocked look on her face. Our first reactions were that we weren't supposed to be eating here.

But actually, it was shock that we were already eating, because she was waiting for us at the ox cart drop off, but we didn't show up. So she went to the bathroom and told the driver to watch for us, but he was reading the newspaper. When she came back someone told her a group was being brought back by motorcycle, but she didn't think it was us. We had a good laugh.

Then we took a ride down the river on a bamboo raft, got picked up by Noi, and then we were taken to a few different factory/handicraft places. We got to see silkworms and how they make thai silk. Then we went to a pottery/ceramics place that made beautiful ceramics for really cheap! If it didn't cost so much to ship stuff home, I think I would have bought more!!! And the last stop was a paper umbrella making place, where we saw the process from bark to hand painted umbrella. Quite interesting.

The next day we spent the morning wandering Chiang Mai and seeing some beautiful wats (temples). We then got picked up for our 3 hour spa package, that incl. an hour long massage, body scrup, facial, herbal steam room, and jacuzzi! (Andrew opted for the foot massage instead of the facial, I don't know why...). We went night market shopping and I bought some nice, light clothes to wear in the Thai heat.

The next day was sleeping in, walking around Chiang Mai some more and visiting the oldest wat in Chiang Mai. They had a 25oo year old Buddha statue! Small, but very old! Then we took a taxi to the train station to take our 12 hr train ride to Bangkok, arriving at 7am the next day.

From Bangkok we went straight to Sri Racha, which is a little bit above Pattaya on the east coast of Thailand. We went to the tiger farm and got to bottle feed a baby tiger! He was so cute and soft, and I have pictures to prove it! (we also got the polaroid, the cub was just too cute.) We then saw baby crocs, and their croc farm that had way too many crocs in one area. It was a little scary. After the elephant show, we went back and slept and watched TV. We've realized it's a lot harder to sleep on a train than you would think it is.

The next day (yesterday) we went back to Bangkok, but didn't get to our hotel until late in the afternoon. So we checked in, and then searched for dinner, and found a "Big C" shopping complex, which is kinda like a Thai version of Walmart. Yes, we did some shopping, and got dessert at the Swensens shop!

Today we saw a museum that had artifacts from a very old civilization that lived in Northern Thailand, then went to the Jim Thompson house. He was an architect, enlisted during WWII, came to Thailand, and decided to make Bangkok his home. He revitalized the Thai silk industry, made a fortune, built a beautiful house, and then disappeared while on vacation in Malaysia. No one knows what happened to him, and it's been 37 years since he vanished. But he left behind a beautiful house made from old Thai style homes and a great collection of antiques from throughout SE Asia.

And definitely last but not least tonight, SHOPPING! We went to a huge shopping mall, then to a night bazaar. Lots of fun, but my feet are tired and I am ready to go to bed. Tomorrow we are going to be doing a few boat trips on the river to see the Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha, and the National Museum. After that it's a 6am flight to Koh Samui, where we get to relax on an island beach for five days. I can't wait. Time sure does fly when you are having fun, one more week and I will be home! It's gone by so quickly!

I just ate delicious Thai food, cooked by ME!

2005-10-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

I realized I forgot to mention our trip to Tainan (Southern Taiwan) in between Penghu and Kending to see Kate and her family for a day. Her little brother (Charlie) was so sweet, and drove Kate and Clay out to the Kaohsiung airport to pick us up so we wouldn't have to take the train to Tainan. Then we got to take part in the neighborhood BBQ celebrating Mid Autumn Festival and be completely stuffed with Chinese BBQ! After we got to stop by and see Charlie's beautiful wife Olivia, and their adorable 2 month old daughter, Fion. Then we walked along the river front to see fireworks, lit sparklers ourselves, then hung out at a nice cafe (which didn't have cold beer, so Andrew and Clayton had to drink their beers on ice! Ha!) They helped us find a place to stay for the night, and then the next morning we had shaved ice at a famous Tainan spot and went go-carting! My legs were too short to comfortably step on the gas, so my fastest lap was slower that Kate's slowest lap. yay being short! We were then dropped off at the Tainan train station to take the train to Kending.

And I forgot to talk about the point of our Three Gorges Cruise, the Three Gorges! They were, as I kept calling them to the annoyance of Andrew, "'Gorge'ous." We passed through them so we saw them from the boat, they were beautiful and breathtaking, and we took lots of pictures. I wish I could have come earlier to see them at their full height, but at least I saw them before they are 20 meters shorter! Definitely glad we did the cruise down the Yangtze. (We learned from Michael that the whole river in Chinese is called another name, but a British guy named the entire river Yangtze because the section he saw was called the Yangtze, he didn't see the whole river or bother to ask if it had a different name.

OK, back to where I left off:

We had breakfast at the airport and then figured out the MRT (subway) system to get to the stop closest to the train station. When we got to the train station, we dropped off our big bags at the left luggage room since we would only be in Singapore for a little bit. We stopped by our hostel, but it was too early to get our room, so we walked through Chinatown, and took the MRT to see the ultra famous Raffles Hotel, and window shop at the gigantic shopping complex of Raffles City. We had a delicious Indian lunch buffet, and then went back to the hostel and completely crashed for the afternoon. (we were exhausted in Beijing, and really didn't get much sleep on the plane to Singapore) We wanted to see the Botanical gardens, but never had time to. But we made it out to the Singapore Zoo for the "Night Safari." They have the nocturnal section of the zoo open from 6:30pm to 12am, so you can see animals doing their thing at night when they are active, instead of just sleeping during the day time. And the zoo has natural barriers and clear panes so you are just mere inches from an animal, or can see them clearly without any cages. I really liked how they have the zoo set up. Anyway, we were mere inches from leopards, had harmless fruit bats hanging inches from our (well, Andrew's) heads. We got to see a flying squirrel leap past us, lions, sea otters, mousedeer, and a whole bunch of other cool creatures. We watched their "Creatures of the Night" show, where they trained sea otters to sort cans and bottles for recycling, hyenas, a gigantic python, barn owl fly by our head, bearcats scaling a rope over our heads. It was all a lot of fun. And if you made a donation, you could have your picture taken with a wild cat of some sort, and hold a snake and take pictures! Andrew held the snake, I just stuck with the cat that hissed at me.

The next day we went back to the zoo to see the rest of the animals, which ended up taking the whole day! They have a cool "Fragile Forest" area, where it mimics a rainforest, and you get to walk in and have hundreds of butterflies flying around, bats hanging in trees, birds squawking at you, and my favorite, curious lemurs that go by your hand as you try to take a picture. They had the standard zoo animals (lions, giraffes, white tigers, hippos, etc.) but they also had cool primate areas that was big enough to support a few families of monkey (or baboon or whatever the primate was.) So the primates weren't just a few chimps in a cage staring wistfully at you, it was packs of primates ignoring you because they were busy defending territory, or grooming, or taking care of their young.

After the zoo, we headed to the train station, and took a sleeper train to Kuala Lumpur, arriving at 6:40am in the morning. Head breakfast at the train station and then taxied to our hostel. Of course, we were too early to check in to our room again, so we had some coffee and tea at a local cafe, and then went to see the Petronas towers! Too bad the sky bridge is closed on Mondays, the one day of the week we were there. But we walked around the Petronas mall, which was very upscale. Then we went back to our room and, guess what? Crashed. We woke up in the afternoon and went to a really tall communications tower that I can't remember the name of. But you can go to the top and see Kuala Lumpur from above, and be eye level from the Petronas towers. We had dinner at a cafe in the tower, and then headed back to our hotel because the next morning was a 7am taxi ride to the airport.

We got into Chiang Mai around 2:30pm yesterday, and was picked up by Noi, a wonderful lady that works at the hotel/hostel we are staying at. She asked what we wanted to do while here, and is helping us book our stuff, everyone at the hotel has been so nice! So today we had the day course in Thai cooking. I learned how to make: Hot and Sour soup, spring rolls, green curry, pad thai, papaya salad, and chicken with cashew nuts. Andrew made: Fried bananas, thai beef salad, coconut soup, yellow curry, and chicken spicy noodles. We got to eat what we cooked, and it was all delicious!!! Needless to say, we were allowed to take our leftovers with us, since no one could finish all of their food. We also got a cookbook that included the recipes of what we made today, and lots of other yummy thai dishes. Tonight we are going to try shopping at the night bazaar, and tomorrow we are getting picked up at 8:30am to go bamboo rafting and elephant riding! I love Thailand!

In Chiang Mai! This blog goes to the end of China, more later!

2005-10-04T18:10:00.001-07:00

So I thought we would have time to post in Beijing, but Beijing is HUGE, so even though we were there for four days, we didn't see everything we wanted to, but would like to go back to see all the finished construction for the Olympics in 2008. Everywhere you look, there are massive cranes dotting the skyline building Beijing the city out at an ever increasing pace.

I left off with Penghu, it was nice, we got to the main island and scootered around and saw gorgeous beaches and a gigantic temple under construction. After that was Kending, which is the southern most tip of Taiwan. It's kind of like a postcard picture from Hawaii (gorgeous blue scenery and a rainforest in the background), and with fewer resorts. We were there during the week so there weren't that many people and hotels were cheaper. While in Kending, we went to the Aquarium (very interesting with lots of cool exhibits), and just went to a few different scenic spots and beaches.

Next was our one day stopover in Hong Kong. We took the Star Ferry from Central (where we spent the night) to Kowloon on the other side of the water and got to take in a beautiful view of the Hong Kong skyline at night, lots of high rise buildings and awesome lighting against the waterfront. Our pictures don't do it justice. We walked around, went down the "Avenue of Stars" and Andrew took a picture with Jackie Chan's star and handprints! The next morning we took the tram up to the top of Victoria Peak, but really couldn't see too many great views because of all the smog.

We then flew into Chongqing (China) that night, the taxi driver had trouble finding our port, but eventually we made it to our cruise ship. It wasn't that big, like those Princess cruise ships you see in adds, just a small 5 floor ship, but it did have a small bar and dance floor, and the top deck had a mini bar and lots of chairs to view the gorges. We had a great view of the Chongqing night line from our cabin window, and met Mike, our wonderful English speaking river guide. Turns out the Germans love to visit China, so half our boat was a German tourist group from Northern Germany and the other half was Chinese tourists! We were the only two Americans on board. There was a Chinese-Australian couple (hand surgeon and OGBYN) who could speak Mandarin, and had an awesome Australian accent! They were very nice and were lumped with us on the day trips for the English speaking guide.

We left port at 9am, and the first day was a visit to the "Ghost City." There we went through the three tests to see if we were good enough during our lives to be reborn as humans, or to be tortured and then reincarnated as something lesser. We also saw the living human town newly built on the opposite side of the river because by 2009 the original town will be under water. All the way down the Yangtze, there are signs marking the water level, and anything below the "175 meter" mark will be below water by 2009. So some of the homes we saw that have been standing for hundreds of years will be under water within a few years.

The next day was getting pulled up stream in tiny wood boats by six men, they literally got out of the boat and pulled it along the river bank while we sat inside at one point. I felt bad, like we were using slave labor to cart our butts around. But we got to see some of the lesser gorges up close, and a point where local villages used to meet and trade goods, which, surprise, is now going under water.

That night we went through the ship lock of the Three Gorges Dam, which took a total of four hours. There are 5 locks total, and we were packed in with a total of 6 other boats (two cruise ships and 4 coal boats). We could touch the lock wall, and reach out and touch someone on the boat next to us, that is how packed into the lock we were. Which is also why it takes so long, because all of the boats have to slowly maneuver in. Across the locks we were dropped a total of 75 meters. Crazy!

The next day was a trip to check out the dam itself. It is a monsterous site, with over 20 generators and a spillway, not to mention the locks on the side, as well as a currently being built "ship elevator" that will move small boats so quickly through (45 minutes vs. 4 hours).

We then arrived in Yichang, and luckily, got tickets for a sleeper train from Yichang to Beijing that arrived in Beijing the next afternoon. We had a cute old Chinese couple in our cabin, the husband spoke very good English, apparently he was in the information from the internet/computers field and had been to the US on training trips. The first night we stayed near the Bell and Drum towers (very interesting, they told the time back when most people didn't have clocks.) We also saw some hutongs, old courtyards with homes built very close together, with very narrow alleys. We tried to find a theatre house to see a Peking Opera performance, but couldn't find it.

The next day we moved hotels, closer to the Forbidden City. We then rushed to another theatre house to get two of the last three tickets for that nights performance, then explored the area around the house, including the Temple of Heaven and surrounding park. We were in the park for over three hours and still didn't see all the small temples and museums inside it. It was ENORMOUS!!!! We then had a delicious steamed bun/dumpling dinner and went to the opera. There were two skits, the first about a general and his concubine and how the concubine eventually kills herself because the general is losing hope after fighting a ten year old war. The second skit had a lot of acrobatics and sword play, it was about the famous monkey king trying to steal a magical fan that could create wind.

The next day we saw the Great Wall. Absolutely breathtaking, no words to describe. I had always wanted to go to the Great Wall after seeing Big Bird on a quest in China and he was walking along the wall ( from a Sesame Street show I watched when I was little.) There were way less tourists then expected, and met a nice lady from Denver who had been teaching English in China. The weather was cloudy so we didn't get to see the whole expanse of our section (the Mutiyang(?) section) but it was still very cool. And an exhausting trek.

The next day was walking around the Forbidden City, also incredibly large that we didn't see all of, Tiananmen Square (which was closed off for the National holiday), and the Beijing Zoo (I got to see pandas!!!) and largest inland aquarium in the world (like any other aquarium, but they had dolphins!).

Our legs were quite sore after walking part of the Great Wall, and walking all around Beijing, but we thought we could take more punishment. Our last day was biking to the Summer Palace. It was fun (and a little scary) biking through Beijing, 2 hours one way. We then walked around the lake at the Summer Palace, again, enormous and we didn't even see half of it I don't think. Then we did the 2 hour bike ride back to our hotel. By that point my entire lower body was aching (along with a sore butt from the bike seat!) That night we flew to Singapore, and arrived bright and early at 5:45am.

Next post: Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Thailand! We are going to a show and dinner tonight, tomorrow is an all day Thai cooking class, the next day might be white water rafting and elephant riding!!!!

Travel update

2005-10-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

So Mei I think is posting what we've been doing in full (see above). I have a little less time to post, so I'll try and be a bit more brief.

WE'VE ESCAPED THE FOLLOWING DEATHTRAPS:

- Dengue Fever! Apparently as we were in Singapore, the DAYS before we got there, there was an outbreak going on. The day we got there, we saw on the TV of a bus reading: Singapore turns corner in outbreak. That day, there were only 73 new cases as opposed to 87 the day before. Oh. Comforting.

Malaysian terrorists. Apparently the bombers were from Malaysia. Unfortunate. The Malaysia I briefly saw was serene, gorgeous, and extremely polite. Definitely a place I want to go back and explore more of later on. And as the ads say here, "Malaysia truly AAAAASIA!"

I'VE CAUSED THE FOLLOWING CARNAGE:

Made my OWN dam. Passing through the Three Gorges Dam, I happened to create my OWN dam. Enough said.

Did my part to destroy China. While there, I made a dam, ripped off a towel rack from the sleeper train, and.. what else.. broke another small thing...

THOUGHTS:

I've definitely been happy with where we've gone. Loved soaking it in. But we've been at each place only for a couple of days, a few places the exception. That's the cost we paid trying to see more. However, we will now be relaxing more in Thailand: less hectic running around, more relaxing. So far, so great. But now, a truly relaxing vacation awaits us (and I do enjoy both the sight-seeing and the relaxing!). What's next? Massages, cooking classes, riding elephants, and rafting in Chiang Mai, followed by sights in Bangkok, and gorgeous beaches in Koh Samui (haha operation Koh Samui from Meet the Parents). Can't wait! Now, we just need to watch out for people with backpacks... Take care all.

Not going to be as informative as Mei's previous post, but...

2005-09-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

We're in Penghu and having fun! Mei just wrote what we have been doing here. I know that because I'm right next to her and can see what she is writing.

But I will write THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT WASN'T MENTIONED!

Have I gone red? Well, sort of. My chopsticks usage is ok, but my chinese... well, no, what I really meant was have I been deep-fried like a lobster? No! I'm doing okay! Constant, 15 minute intervals of sunscreen will keep me nice and pale. (Status: slight burn)

Any more road rage? We rented a scooter today and drove to some of the beaches and stuff on the main island. A LOT less drivers, and I didn't even crash. I did't have to suck on tail pipe until I was actually back in the city of Magong!

How are your fantasy teams doing? This is what EVERYONE likely wants to know. Baseball? Ok.. we're in the playoffs, I'm in position to make the finals, but won't know until Monday. Football? The season is early. But I already lost my top WR for the year (Walker) and a potential RB sleeper in Anderson, who likely will lose his job. But somebody dropped Trent Green, and I nabbed him, so we'll see how that works out.

Haha. Having fun here. Actually enjoying being told to do this, do that. We'll have our time later to do our own thing without any tours. But as there is one minute left I must hurry and post this...

Penghu is fun!

2005-09-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

We are on the third night of a four day tour in Penghu, exhausted, but lovin' it. We have gone squid fishing (entirely unsuccessful), fish fishing (Andrew caught 2), Andrew caught small crabs and a fish by hand, seen a lot of small islands, went snorkeling and saw gorgeous blue fish, and eating lots of yummy fresh seafood.

Today was not as packed, in the morning saw a famous bridge that is famous because the ocean waves have a lot of speed, if you were to fall in the water, in one second you would be moved the distance of two cars. Apparently if you just floated the waves, you would reach the southern shore of Taiwan in about 4-6 hrs. We did some food shopping of Penghu food specialties (dried fish, crackers, peanut candy) and the afternoon rented a scooter to see some beautiful beaches near the main city of Magong. After dinner we were let go to explore the downtown area and while we were exploring found this internet cafe!

Tomorrow we have a 6am morning call, and will be picked up by the tour bus at 7:10am. SO EARLY!! (Now you know why we are so tired....) We get to see some southern islands and then our plane leaves at 5:10pm to Kaoshiung, where we will take the train to hook up with Kate in Tainan and spend Saturday evening and Sunday with her and Clayton.

Don't know when I will have time to post again. I have a feeling not until we are in Beijing. That and I have received the confirmation for our three gorges dam three day cruise (YAY!), so I have no super pressing need to check my e-mail. So until then, wish us luck in our travels (we have been doing well so far, but only three days in...) Or as the Chinese say, "On the road, go with the wind."

Last post while in Ban Chiao!

2005-09-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

Feels good to say that. Too bad I have about 1 minute in which to do it.

Anyway, work is ending quite well. My second to last day on monday I got pretty setimental with the kids. I felt like I did for the first 9 months, when things were going well. The last 3 weren't as good, more yelling less having fun, I think. But yes, yesterday went quite well. And today is a quarter day! Yay!

The parents and teachers were so kind to me. They threw me a little going away party over the weekend. Very nice, very nice.

To do still: mail our boxes! See Todd. Go to work. Go home. Sleep. Leave at 6:30 in the AM to go to the airport to start our travels. Awesome awesome awesome. I am definitely ready to head out and go have fun.

I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing you guys, so I hope you all keep in touch and we can hang out when I get back. Whoops. 50 seconds. Until then!

Two more days!

2005-09-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

Two more days and we leave for Penghu. I can't wait! I will try to post updates to the blog while we are travelling, and I will definitly upload my pictures when I get home, for everyone to see. Hope everyone is doing well! I'll be home in a month and six days!!! YAY!!!

Want to mail us something? Hold off on that...

2005-09-06T10:45:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone. Just thought I'd point out that if you're waiting to send us that fine china, it's too late to send it to Taiwan. We're leaving in about a week, and that's probably the time it takes mail to get here. We're still checking our mail, and will check it before we go, but... just send the expensive stuff to our parents. Haha.

Oh. I found out a problem with my addiction to milk tea drinks here. 2 cavaties!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Although, really, that's not all that shocking, considering... Anyway, the "cleaning" cost 100 NT (3 US). All he did was scrape the teeth. But get this, the 2 fillings cost a whopping... 100 NT (3 US). Total. I tell you, there's something great about the health insurance program here.

Work is winding down. I can't wait to escape JoJo's evil clutches. The kids I'll miss, from afar! Haha. But I'm definitely looking forward to jumping ship and seeing what else is out there.

We're OK!

2005-09-04T01:06:00.000-07:00

Quick Update: Typhoon Talim hit with strong winds and heavy rains, and luckily, N. Taiwan was spared most of the damage. So we're ok. South Taiwan didn't do as well, lots of flooding going on there, especially in Tainan. But the second typhoon that was coming suddenly slingshot itself north, and is now heading straight for Okinawa, Japan. And the last I heard it was a Category 5 typhoon. I hope no more people die this year because of flooding.

Me: In Lungtan this weekend to see my family before heading out. Officially ten days before we leave our apt. in Banchiao! YAY!!!!!!!!!!

Typhoon Talim is coming!

2005-08-31T13:01:00.000-07:00

I know the US news is all about Katrina right now (I can't believe people are looting in New Orleans, as if there isn't enough damage, stupid people). Anyway, we're about to get our own hit, Typhoon Talim is currently brewing off the east coast of Taiwan and will make land fall sometime tonight. And when it hits the island, it will completely cover us. So if you were to be looking for Taiwan from space, you would see a big swirling cloud mass where the island of Taiwan once was.

No boats are running between the islands, flights are being cancelled, and currently soldiers are helping farmers pick crops before they get destroyed. And the government is telling us to stock up on lots of drinking water. Eep. And to add injury to insult, there is another typhoon that is on the same path about a few days behind this one. Wish us luck. I have a feeling we will be eating a lot of instant noodles for the next few days.

I am hoping that after these two, no more typhoons will come until after the 21st when we have left. Although I doubt that.

Peekaboo

2005-08-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

"Andrew?"

"Rowr rowr rowr."

"Um, Andrew, where are you? All I can see is a pile of paper."

"Rowr rowr rowr essays grrr essays."

"You okay?"

"Can't... breathe... paper all around me... can't see any light..."

"Ok, I'm going to go have fun now because I'm done and you're not and you're stuck doing your application essays."

Such has been my life for the past month. Well, in a sense. I feel that my time has been spent doing little more than going to work, coming home, relaxing or writing essays. Compareatively, we all know Mei is done, and while I am happy for her, I am also quite jealous! But it is payback: all that time where I laughed at her for having to get up early has come back to slap me in the face. But it helps me, too: she has been doing a FANTASTIC job planning for our upcoming monstrous vacation AND editing my essays to make them actually respectful (as opposed to the piles of garbage they are before they reach her editing desk).

I've seen Todd a few times: once he came to my area on scooter and we had lunch, and another time he came by scooter to our HOUSE, and we had lunch with Mei. If I have one regret about my time in Taiwan, it's that I wasn't able to see Todd more than I did, or DIDN'T. I know our schedules aren't exactly lined up, and we aren't all THAT close, but I could have made more trips on sundays. But as he put it, we saw each other more than when we were in college (oregon and cali), which is true. But still.

So we have, what, 18 days left here in Taiwan. I think now would be a fantastic to say the pros and cons of leaving!

First, the cons:

-The sweet, sweet food! Sushi, teppenyaki, danbing, street vendors, hot pot, oh wow. Oh wow. The quality is excellent, and it's cheap. And I'M GOING TO MISS IT!! I'll have to have sushi for a week straight before leaving. Like Madagascar, "The pussy cat likes the sushi..."

-The rock-star persona surrounding me being me. Being a foreigner is good and bad. There is good publicity, including wanting your picture taken with strangers, and respect just for being white. There is also bad publicity. There is what must be a 13 year old in this internet cafe who just stalks us and is incredibly annoying, then the people in the street who stare at you for being white, or those high schoolers who are anti-foreigners. Regardless, I won't get this treatment in the States.

-The Asian culture. I'll miss leaving a place that just has so much respect. Elders are respected, not neglected. Traditions are respected, not discarded. And ancestors are respected, not forgotten. It's nice. It'll be a shock going back to America, where I just sense the respect is less there.

-Not having anyone understand what you're saying! Another good and bad thing. At the stores, I can manage my own, usually. Sometimes I cannot. But walking on the street, I can say absolutely anything and not worry, beucase really, the English level here is on average minimal.

-No transportation and/or place to stay! It looks like after traveling not getting our taxes back for 6 months, I might be purchasing some cheap-o car and temporarily living at home until I am assuredly on my feet again. WHICH BRINGS ME TO MENTION: IF ANYONE KNOWS OF A CHEAP, GOOD CAR FOR SALE, OR IS LOOKING TO SELL THEIR OWN, OR WHATEVER, LET ME KNOW! AND IF ANYONE NEEDS A ROOMMATE FROM NOVEMBER ON IN THE BAY AREA, ALSO LET ME KNOW!

-The new Taiwan sights. New things in Taiwan, obviously, compared to the US. Too bad so many of them involve buildings and cities!

-Taiwan friends. I got close to some of the parents here, and also to some of the kids. I'm really going to miss those that I have. One of the parents has taken me on about 3 outings, it's really cool. And some of the kids and I have a great relationship. Sure, I won't mind the stupid crap kids, but those sweet ones... it'll be sad to see them go.

-Cheap... EVERYTHING! DVDs, VCDs, gadgets, widgets, everything. Yaaaaay night markets!

-No more typhoon holidays! Enough said.

The pros!

-Traveling. Leaving here means we are embarking on our travel extravaganza. What's not to like about that?

-Going online somewhere that won't give me cancer. Man, even the smoke-free levels at internet cafe are adjacent to open doors or stairs to places where there IS smoking. Useless.

-Seeing my friends. Todd and Mei are friends. It's obviously greatto see them. But where are everyone else?! It'll be good to see you all, WHEREVER YOU ALL ARE. Shoot, you're spreading all over the globe. So. Cal folks, Davis, Bay Area, SOUTH AMERICA, the Carribean, I don't know how or when or where I will get to you all, but damnit, I will.

-Not getting run over on the sidewalk! Scooters. Everywhere. On the road. Off the road. In the road when they eat it. So many of them. Nightmares.

-(Relative) respect of pedestrians! See above. Except cars are worse on the road.

-Less chance of stepping in dog crap at home. Look down for crap, no, behind you a scooter wants to pass you, no wait, above, air conditioning is dripping on you, oh no, a scooter is coming at you, move to the side! Oh, too bad. You stepped in dog crap. Why weren't you paying attention?! They should make a game like this. Walking here is like Frogger.

-Less likely to get cancer! Living here took off about 5 years of my life. At least. So many people smoke, people live so close to each other, there are so many scooters, so many cars, and the environmental regulations HAVE to be much worse than in the States. So. Dirty. Ugh. I can practically SEE the toxicity.

-The outdoors! Now, I don't remember exactly what this is. But I seem to remember I like it, and am looking forward to rediscovering it when I get home. ANYONE INTERESTED IN A CAMPING OR BACKPACKING TRIP WHEN I GET BACK!?! LET ME KNOW!!!

Graduation Speech

2005-08-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

I finally remembered to bring my copy of the Kindi Grad speech. Everything except the last two lines were written by me with the help of Andrew. The last two lines were added by Jennifer. And I forgot to tell you how the graduation trip was!!

Well, we had a big tour bus to accodomate the kids and parents, and first we drove to Yua Mei (?) where we got to play with dough and make our own little flaky cake pastries. Then we had lunch, and got to put together a mini wooden train that serves as a pencil holder. Andrew went marker crazy and decorated about 90% of the surface area on his train. We took a tour of a mini museum that showed how people lived a long time ago, how they ground rice on stones, used cows to pull stuff, wedding sedans, and such. Then there was an area where you could pretend you lived long ago and use the farming tools they did, and a water area with lots of old fashioned squirt guns. We then went to a mountainous area where we were given our room assignments, which were individual mini-cabins. And right before dinner, it started pouring so the people who remembered to bring umbrellas made it down to the dining area first, and then a second run was made to get everyone who didn't have protection from the rain. We had a nice dinner, and then Jennifer realized she left the CD on the bus that had the graduation song on it. So my kids performed by singing it themselves, and they did pretty good, even if they were a little out of tune. Then they read their graduation speech, and the parents clapped and took lots of pictures and recordings.

The next day was TaiChung and the water park. There were slides, kiddie pools, lazy floating on innertubes, beach volleyball, and "the big wave." Basically the big wave was that, they had this gigantic pool, and you waded out into the water (if you had a life vest you could swim out to the origin) and then every so often after some music and chanting, an enormous wave picks everyone up, and moves them back about 10 feet from where they originally were. It looked like a lot of fun, although slightly disturbing because it looked like a tsunami wave. Only people were giddy and cheering everytime they were lifted at least five feet into the air. Andrew and I tried to experiece it, but we kept going at the wrong time. Curse. And you had to wear a swimming cap to go on some of the rides, so we just lazily floated, and enjoyed the cool water. Of course, it started raining, so there was a lot of mad dashing between roofed areas on the way back to the bus. Then we went back to the school, one of the moms started crying when she said goodbye to me, I didn't know what to do so I hugged her and told her we would keep in touch.

It was good to see my class one more time, and I was reminded why I like them, and why I won't be sad to no longer teach anymore. Here's the graduation speech they read last Saturday night:

In one day, we learned new words.
In one week, we learned new sentences.
In one year, we learned new books.
In just a few short years, we have gone from not knowing how to write our own names to reading and spelling big words like "hippopotamus."
Our years at Key West have provided us with the tools we need to succeed both in elmentary school and our lives ahead. Our English skills are being paved now and will continue to grow as we practice and improve every day. We've also learned a lot about math and science.
But we did more than just sit in the classroom. We went to the Taipei Public Library to read new, exciting books. We went to different museums to learn about how people lived a thousand years ago and forty years ago in Taiwan.
We have also grown as people. We've learned more about respect and helping others and the world we live in.
These lessons we have learned and these memories we have shared will stay with us throught out lives. We've had fun at Key West, and we're going to miss it.
Soon we will be packing our shcool bags not with lunch bowls, but with books and pencils for the first grade. This day is not an ending, but simply another beginning to a new chapter of our lives. Our education and experiences at Key West have prepared us well for this moment.
If I have a good future, it's not bcause of English. It's because I had a good education at Key West.

Three weeks of Taiwan left!

2005-08-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Ni hao!

The countdown clock is definitely ticking louder as September approaches. With the help of my wonderful Aunt Julia, we are now officially booked for a four day tour of Penghu, leaving Taipei on the 14th. That's barely two weeks away!!! My goodness!! So exciting!!

So I've been pretty lazy and productive, considering I don't have to go to work, but I have been packing up the apartment, and I'm up to April in the scrapbook! And I've been reading all of our travel books to map out exactly what we'll be doing in each country and possible places to stay so that everything isn't a last minute scramble when we get to the country (although Beijing is in the air because it all depends on how long our river cruise to the Three Gorges will last and when we leave on the cruise). I also got a book on the history of humanity through the eyes of a scientist to keep my mind sharp. The title is either "Guns, Germs, and Steel" or "Germs, Guns, and Steel." It's a pretty interesting read so far.

Andrew is currently on a day trip with Clark, I wasn't sure if I would go to LungTan this weekend, so I politely declined. His schedule goes back to the old one next week because regular school starts in Taiwan next week, so no more early summer classes. And he's definitely excited counting the last remaining days until he is done teaching.

That's pretty much all the news on this little island. I always have my umbrella with me because every day brings a thundershower that lasts from half an hour to two hours with torrential rains and some pretty loud thunder that makes everything shake. Crazy tropical weather! All the typhoons lately have swung by the island, and I know Tokyo is bracing for one headed straight for Japan right now.

Short and Sweet

2005-08-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Just a quick post to keep you guys up to date. LongTan was nice and relaxing. Ate lots of home cooked Chinese food, watched a lot of random movies, and celebrated with my family when we got full running water towards the end of the week. Yippee!

Am now back in BanChiao, s-l-o-w-l-y packing and cleaning up the apartment. And I have the first page done of the scrapbook.

This weekend will be the rescheduled from last time Kindie graduation trip. Hopefully it will be lots of fun and not interfere too much with Andrew's essay writing. Since he hasn't posted in awhile, I'll just let you know that he is definitely counting down the days until he doesn't have to work anymore.

Hope everyone is enjoying the last remnants of summer, we keep getting rain and possible typhoon warnings.

I'm DONE!

2005-08-08T23:56:00.000-07:00

YAY!

It was an incredibly anti-climatic last week. I had one day of teaching left, and then Typhoon Matsa came around at the last second and school and offices were closed on Friday for pretty much all of Northern Taiwan. So I spent the day sleeping, still recovering from my nasty cold (more details later), and just generally feeling that everything was incredibly surreal as the reality of never having to teach kindergarten again sank in. Then Friday night Ted called to say the graduation trip was being postponed due to flooding caused by the typhoon.

I guess I should first rewind and talk about what's happened since Totally Board, or rather, whine about being sick.

The last Monday of July I had a fever, so I took some tylenol, went to school, then crashed when I got home. That night my fever was even higher and I felt pretty miserable, so I ended up taking Tuesday off. I thought I was getting better so I went to work for the rest of the week, with a fever that came and went depending on whether or not the tylenol was losing effect. So I caved in on Friday and went to the doctor after my ears started hurting, who told me I had a really bad cold (thanks Sherlock), it would take a long time to get over, here's a lot of meds. Oh, and no ear infection, just massive pressure build up as a side effect. Joy. So for three days I had to take medicine three times a day, which consisted of at least 6 different pills and 10 cc of a brown liquid that tasted like flat coke. Oh, and two vitamin B pills a day as well. Yay. I still have a cough two weeks later and my ears pop multiple times a day. Yay bacteria and viruses!

Anywho, for class, not much happened, class winded down, I was down to six kids by the end, it was pretty quiet. The last week I spent drilling my kids (the few that were still attending class) on their graduation speech and dance. And they started taking waves of books and art supplies home throughout the week, slowly emptying out their cubbies. Kind of exciting, kind of sad. I think I will have more closure after the graduation trip, 9 of my kids are supposed to be going on it, so I will be able to say goodbye to most of them. One of the kids not going on the trip is Eric, which I am thankful for. I don't know if I could have handled the superficiality of being nice to Eric and his mother when I know they don't like me either.

So today I went to school to pick up the last of my stuff, since I didn't go to work on Friday, and talk to Jennifer about when the graduation trip will be rescheduled for, and if they can wait to cancel my ARC so I don't have to leave the country and come back because we don't leave until Sept. 21st, and you can only get a month extension on a cancelled ARC. She said she would let me know later in the week about both.

And now I am at my family's home in LungTan. And because of the typhoon and the rain we keep getting, there is a water shortage. There's been so much mud and dirt run off into the dam that they have shut down the water purification plants, so yay for turbidity and water rationing! I was hoping to spend a full week here, but might have to go back on Friday, depending on when the graduation trip is rescheduled for.

After that I will be packing the apartment and hopefully finishing a scrap book of our (mis?) adventures in Taiwan. And with that, here is my list of things I will/will not miss about Taiwan:

Will Miss:
Freshly squeezed watermelon juice
Cheap food everywhere
Having Chinese family near by
Night Markets
Practicing my not so good Mandarin
Cheap clothes and accessories
Days off because of typhoon days
Convenience and cleanliness of MRT
Low cost of living
Did I mention cheapness and shopping?
Travelling around, seeing cool stuff, and culturally enriching myself
Blogging about my adventures

Will Not Miss:
Dog crap on the streets, everywhere
Poopy bus drivers that don't stop
Being stared at for being a foreigner and hearing "Hello, Hello!"
Being a Kindergarten teacher
Humidity
Andrew complaining about how hot it is
Not having a car
Not being near good Mexican food or sourdough bread
Horrid pollution/Scooters and buses spewing out black exhaust
Getting sick from little kids
Starting to lose pronouns and speaking Chinese-English, ex) You like sweater? You go, no go?
Smoky internet cafes

I will probably do one or two more blogs while here, and will then try to blog while we travel abroad, but no guarantees on that one. Until next time, ping an! (Peace!)

Totally Bored for the totally bored

2005-07-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

Last week came to the climax with Totally Bored, a ski/snowboarding/bike riding/skateboarding/concert event held at Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall. It was crazy, and it's too bad that my work banned my computer, because it'd be cool to post some photos of it. Here's one of the skateboarding ramp; you can see the main arch to the memorial behind it:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/photo/2005/07/24/2005039602

Anyway, in between the two buildings (the concert hall and the theater hall) there was this 10 story ramp with snow. SNOW. 35 degrees Celcius and they have snow there. Anyway, it was cool, except for the B-grade European talent that performed (where were the North Americans? Nowhere to be found). But it was a cool event, and I think Mei posted a little bit about it.

The Asian bands in the concert were interesting: one guy screamed like Fred Durst on acid, as Mei put it. It was 'cool'. Hahaha no, it wasn't, it was incredibly lame. I got a kick out of looking around and watching people. The next group was cool; it was a solo guy singing with a cool beat, and he had 5 breakdancers behind him as his posse I guess. I couldn't classify the music as rap or rock; but it definitely had a cool beat and the lyrics were funny, as translated by Mei. And then came Coolio. I couldn't help but laugh at the stuff.. like Coolio's "trance" and his "if you're happy and you know it" diddy... it was funny because he was definitely so into himself. Then came the "1, 2, 3, 4, get your woman on the floor" song and that was awesome. Russell: I was thinking of you, man. (Uh, in a purely platonic way......) And then gangsters paradise, and I was hoping Weird Al would show up. And he was shouting like Little John.. I was thinking, NO WAY, is he here?!? But no.

Haha, it was cool. Great event, overall, and it had everything. And it was FREE. Too bad I was super poopy and super cranky because it was hot and I was EXHAUSTED from not sleeping. So... Mei luckily put up with me. She had a few chances to lose me in the crowd, but didn't. So kudos to her.

I said I'd write about the pros and cons about leaving here, but it's too premature to do that, I think. Maybe in a month. But shoot, I still have.. 1 and a half months left! A little more. Which actually isn't long at all.

Take care everyone!