We finally made time to finish this post (thanks Nick!) so here we go! We're only 2+ months late :D This is really long (mostly to remind us of what we did), but feel free to read it if your heart desires...
After our trip in China, we headed Taiwan. Nick and Cameron both served there, so Bob, Linda, Cameron, Kelsey, Nick, and I headed to visit their mission.
Taiwan is the republic of China.... people in Taiwan don't claim to be part of China, but Chinese people claim Taiwan as part of their land.... it's kind of funny. China and Taiwan have many similarities, but also many differences.
The first adjustment we made when we arrived in Taiwan was the smell.... they have an open sewer system there and occasionally when you walk past a drain vent on the street you get a wiff of unique smells! Surprisingly it wasn't as bad as you'd probably imagine, but something to just get used to.
In Taiwan...
- it is SO humid! We were sweaty all day, every day! Even when it was rainy outside!
- there are thousands of scooters!!! and little kids ride on them with their parents... doesn't seem too safe, but you've gotta get your family from point A to B somehow!
- breakfast is SO GOOD! They make "breakfast hamburgers" and these other crepe/egg/bacon meals called "dan bings" that were pretty tasty!
- when someone dies, family members mourn for a long time! Sometime a whole street is closed off and they bang pots and pans and make all sorts of noise -
- kids do wear diapers here (unlike China.... it hurts their skin aka "diaper rash" so Chinese people avoid diapers)!
- people can have as many kids as they want - although we didn't see any families with more than 4 kids.
- when you get your hair cut you can have a neck/shoulder massage included in the price!!!
- food is cheap, cheap, cheap! Most meals cost us less than $5 total for both Nick and I. We went to an expensive restaurant (that had 6 courses) and it was $15 a person.
- the garbage man comes EVERY NIGHT. The garbage truck sings a little song (that sounded like the ice cream man) as it drives around. People run out to the street and throw their garbage in as it drives by.
- it doesn't seem like anyone trims fat off meat...
- you get laughed at if you want to drink cold water with your meal - like in China, people drink soup with their meal and that serves as your drink... weird. I felt dehydrated the whole time!
-you can chew with your mouth open, but it's bad manners to let someone see you pick at food that got stuck in your teeth...
- we used almost every kind of transportation possible there - we walked, rode bikes, took a
taxi, took the fast train/slow train, and rode the subway. The
realization of how limited public transportation was in Utah definitely
hit!
We stayed at the "Kindness Hotel" most of the time we were in Taiwan - they sure had "kind" employees! Breakfast each morning was included, there was free ice cream and caramel popcorn all day, and the employees bowed to us whenever we passed the front desk... it was pretty funny! Our rooms were tiny, but they were clean and comfy so it was good. It rained all day every day we were in Taiwan, but that didnt stop us from having fun!
We made it to Taiwan after a long day of traveling via airplane, bus, fast train, slow train, and walking... we finally made it to our hotel around 11:00 p.m.and were to happy to see our comfy beds waiting for us :)
Day 1 - Wednesday
We decided to go out and explore Kaohsiung City. We took the subway to Nick's first area. While we were there we found a mall, Nick's first apartment building, and wandered past "Lotas Pond". We were lucky enough to have umbrellas from our hotel because it poured!
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| on a morning walk |
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| Nick's first apartment behind us |
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| Lotus Pond |
In the afternoon we headed back to our hotel because we were exhausted! We relaxed and took advantage of the free caramel popcorn & ice cream. We finally went back out on the streets and got fried dumplings and fruit smoothies for dinner.
Day 2 - Thursday
The sun was shining and it looked like we were going to be able to spend some time outside and not get too wet, so we decided to go to Kending. Kending is the most Southern part of Taiwan. It has beautiful beaches and is a very touristy place. We took a two hour taxi ride and as we drove South, we drove into more and more rain. There was no one on the beach, and no where to really go play because of the massive downpour. Our taxi driver dropped us off and told us he would meet us in an hour. We wandered around, went into surf shops, and then loaded back into the taxi.
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| Cameron and Kelsey |
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| Ken Ding |
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| Nick and Bob |
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| The "butyshop" |
We had our taxi drop us off in Chaozhou on our way back. Chaozhou was Nick's second & last area's (he was lucky enough to move back there for his last 3 transfers). Nick and Cameron wanted to go to a book store to buy some pens, Chinese study materials, etc so Kelsey and I parted ways with the boys and wandered into a little boutique. We were shocked to find that the majority of shirts in the store were only $5 - we shopped and shopped and had our husbands help us make our purchases when they got back.... no one spoke English so it was a pretty memorable shopping experience by ourselves!
After we met back up we headed to see the Feng's - Nick and his companion contacted the Feng family toward the end of his mission. They were baptized and went through the temple a year or so ago. The Feng family was so nice! Brother Feng is the second counselor of the bishopric in the ward where Nick served, so he coordinated a little ward party for Nick and Cameron (they both served in Chaozhou). It was so fun to meet some many ward members! They serves us some yummy (and... interesting...) foods and we all ate too much.... we were stuffed due to the culture, not because we were actually hungry!
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| prepping food (they even brought pizza!) |
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| the branch |
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| the Feng family |
Day 3 - Friday
Cameron's investigator Scott met up with us early and we headed to a little island to spend the day hanging out. We rode a ferry over, then got 2 four man bikes to ride around. We had a fun day relaxing and walking around - it was a pretty low key day, although the four man bike was alot harder to ride than you'd imagine!!!
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| We ran into a couple elders! They joined us for "bing" aka the best shaved ice ever! |
Friday night we met up with the Feng family and went to dinner in Kaohsiung. We can't remember what the restaurant was, but it was a really nice restaurant! We had a 6 course meal and it was $15 a plate! AWESOME!!! We loved spending more time with the Feng's and we were so glad it worked to get together with them Friday night. After we ate, we went to a market :) The Feng's sure spoiled us - they gave us all sort of gifts and I almost felt guilty!
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| With the Feng's again! |
Day 4 - Saturday
Today we headed up to Taipei - The President (of Taiwan) was coming to town and most people don't really care of him.... so there were lots of protests in the streets.... basically my least favorite part! We wandered to the temple and wore ourselves out again! Taipei has a much more complicated subway and SO MANY more people!!!
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| at the temple |
A few last pictures...
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| "dan bing" aka the yummy taiwanese breakfast! |
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| It's impossible to explain how many scooters there were.... My camera could not catch them all!!! |
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| our TINY room |
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| Do you see all these scooters? Seriously!!! |
We had so much fun in Taiwan! I'm so happy we were able to go visit Nick (and Cameron's) mission :) Our trip to Asia was one I will never forget!
