Adventour in Taiwan!!!!

I has a bit of internet right now, so thought I'd upload what I've been doing. I pretty much have access to internet (intermittently). If there's anything you think I should definitely know about, please email it to me? This username at the gmails. I'm also in the process of uploading photos. We'll see how far I get. I already filled up the gig card . . .

Kim and Curi’s Adventour in Taiwan!!!!

Monday, July 28th.

Kim and Curi’s Mini-Adventour in Japan!

That morning was kinda harrowing. I was suppose to wake up at 7:30 to get last minute things (like getting dressed) done before the power guy came to cut everything off. I woke up at 6:50 and was Up, so I packed up my bed, got everything last thing taken care of and headed to the airport.

Upon check in I was told that the plane I was waiting on was coming from Naha, stopping in Miyako, and traveling on to Tokyo. Because of the typhoon and bad winds, it might not come, it might be canceled. That was a fun way to start my morning.

Jason showed up, saying that Erika was upset that she couldn’t come because of work. And then Erika called me to say bye and that she was sorry she couldn’t come. That was awesome. I like Erika, and Jason.

They were shortly followed by Juliane, Justin, Teresa and her family (who were visiting in Miyako), Sam (big! surprise. Sam had meetings on Irabu, so she said she wouldn’t be able to come, but then the ferries were canceled because of the typhoon, so she could show up :D We had fun conversations about how the ferries weren’t running and weither my plane would be able to go or not), Kirsty (didn’t expect her), Noriko, Noriko, K*** (I can’t remember her name right now), Wakayama, David (!!!!!!!), and Jeff. It was a good send off. Noriko gave me a little parting gift that was awesome, the Japanese ladies were very interested in my pillow case (it’s all shiny satin, I’ve had it for YEARS), everyone was really nice and all. I didn’t cry, but I think that was more because it still doesn’t feel real, like I'm still planning to go back there after a little vacation or something.

Anywho. The flights before me and after me were canceled, but my flight got off with just a little delay, that they made up in the air :).

I got to Haneda airport in Tokyo, asked how was I suppose to get to Narita airport (all in Japanese! During the first of my stay here, I was always asking if they spoke English first, but now I’m confident enough to just ask in Japanese from the get go!) and was told that the next bus left in 2 minutes. So I bought my ticket (3000yen just for an hour bus ride XP) and got on, mailing Curi that I was On My Way!

When I got to Narita, Curi picked me up and we were off on our Mini Adventour! in our rented car. We picked up some conbini lunch and drove the 45 minutes to the second largest Buddha in the car. The Ushiku Daibutsu was awesome. And about twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty. You could ride up an elevator inside it and look out these neat holes in his chest. It was pretty cool.

Then we drove back to the hotel (getting horribly lost trying to find the rental car place, eating some nice noodles for dinner, and stopping by Jusco for some last minute travel items) for a nice stay in a shwank hotel that cost too much.

In the morning we were off to Taiwan!

Tuesday, July 29th

Our flight was delayed. And then further delayed. Now I’d been worrying about the typhoon being the reason we were delayed or the flight was canceled, but no, there was a thunder storm over Tokyo.

We get on. Had a nice 3 and a half hour flight with some nasty in flight fish (they ran out of beef) and landed without much incident (I finished Witch Week on the plane). We got to Taiwan. Had a little mix up at customs, but no problems, and got on a bus for Taipei. We landed about 4:30-5, but we didn’t get to the hotel until about 8. It was kinda ridiculous. And when we get there, (first we couldn’t FIND the hotel, but then we did after asking about 3 people) there was a sign on reception that said to knock VERY loudly, and if there wasn’t anyone there, to go up to the 5th floor and wait. Need I mention the lack of elevator? So we lugged all of our bags up the 5 flights, figured out how to use the phone, called the manager, and were told to wait another 20 minutes while they finish dinner (I’ve been having to REALLY pee for about 30 minutes at this point, and no, there wasn’t a bathroom in the waiting area) and that we were so late that they almost gave our room away (way to make me NOT stress out!). We finally got in, were told that where the bus dropped us off was the train station, and we went back, checked the train schedules to Taroko, and had dinner there. Nice nice pita place. Curi had falafel and I had eggplant and hummus. Made of win. We go back to the hotel, have an interesting shower experience, and go to bed.

Wednesday, July 30th

We both wake up Uber early and decide to just leave.

We catch the 7:25 train to Hualin and meet some nice people who help us with our oversized luggage. This is the first time that our beloved Lonely Planet led us astray. We get off at the station before Hualin, because that’s where the book says we can get a bus ride into Taroko. The book lied. But we met a really nice park ranger that offered to take us up into Taroko and we thought, great. This is also the first time we figured out exactly how HUGE this Gorge is. Taroko (the city) is at the beginning of Taroko National Park. Our hotel was in Tian Siang. This is about an hour bus ride from Taroko. Who knew.

We wait around the park station for about 2 hours, taking in the scenic beauty and some really tasty lunch before hopping on the city bus to Tian Siang.

At Tian Siang we walk up the hill, with all of our stuff, to our hotel, and no body was there. Nobody, no sign, no nothing. And we don’t have cellphones or anything. So we wait.

We are met by a nice dog and 2 cats who really just want the love, but no people. The dog was just all kinds of awesome. At first she was really nervous of us. In that kinda aggressive nervous way. Like she was all wary of us, and when one of the cats came out and wanted to say hi to us, she tried to herd the black kitty away from us, trying to tell her that we’re strangers and not to be trusted. But the cat was stubborn and came over anyway. And after a while of us sitting down and writing postcards without being any kind of problem, the dog came over as well. First she nuzzeled and licked my knee. Then, after I broke down and started loving on the kitties, getting down on their level, she came up to me and was all ten kinds of lovey, but would only come over when I was kneeling, she didn’t like it when I stood up.

The owner came back after about an hour, and she spoke nicely broken Japanese. We got checked in, and then wandered over to the temple right next to Tian Siang. Hsing-te Temple. Large Buddha, temple, tower, really nice. Apparently they had a bunch of natural disasters not too long ago and needed lots of money and volunteers for the reconstruction of the temple (and the monks are all female). We met a nice young monk in the gift shop who talked to us a bit and told us some information. (I finally found a necklace of my personal Buddha!)

After walking around the temple for a while we came back to the hotel to just chill for a bit before dinner. Apparently the only restaurant in Tian Siang that caters to non-Taiwanese is the restaurant in the resort (RESORT!) and it was kinda pricey, but good. We met a German guy named Robert (does NOT sound American) and dined with him, and talked a bunch. Good times.

After dinner we met this nice Taiwanese guy (who’s dad apparently lives in Canada, and that’s why his English was so good) who’s family had worked on the construction of many of the roads in Taiwan and he took us around an exhibit in the hotel that showed pictures of Then and Now about the war and the roads and the Gorge. He also gave us some travel advice for when we go to visit China. Really neat.

We came back to a mostly cold shower, and then chilled out and read until we went to bed, a bit early.

Thursday, July 31st

12 hours later, we woke up :P We had a bit of a light meal for breakfast and walked to the information center. We were told that there aren’t buses that just go from one stop in the gorge to the others, that if we wanted to see more of the gorge we should have rented a car, rented a taxi (from Hualin), or gotten on a tour bus (from Hualin), and we were just kinda stuck. So we walked from Tian Siang to the next stop over, Lyu Shui, which was nice to walk so slowly and get pictures.

In Lyu Shui we found a restaurant that was closed, and a visitor’s center that wasn’t and showed us how Taiwan was made and rocks and stuff. There was also a video that they played just for us (because there weren’t a whole lot of visitors today, I guess). We were also told that all but one of the trails were closed, and one of the volunteers was going on it and did we want to join her. We said we did and she showed us the Lyushui trail (2km) which was pretty awesome. And then we walked back to Lyu Shui and she helped us hitchhike back up to Tian Siang. Yes, I have officially hitchhiked in a foreign country.

We had a fantabulous lunch of ice cream and instant noodles and are now chilling in the hotel again, our legs aching. Yay!

Friday, August 1st

We woke early enough to catch the 9:05 bus to Hualin, which took about 2 hours to get there. We got off at Hualin station, and were told to jump back on the same bus to go to the train station (I bet the driver thought we were crazy—speaking of the driver, he was just kinda awesome, cursing at everyone else on the road, but beeping his horn and waving to his friends). We had about a 2 hour wait for our train, and we spent it just sitting there, eating a whole bunch of conbini food, in preparation for our VERY long train ride to Tainan.

I’d like to take this moment to point out that I love the fact that I know a bit of Japanese. And that day was the day that it really hit home how great it was. See Japan kinda ganked the Chinese writing system a few hundred years ago, and while things have changed a bit, some of the words are still written the same, and in Japanese there are usually 2 or more readings for any particular character, and one of those readings is usually from Chinese. So as we were passing Taipei on our 7 and a half hour train ride, we knew where we were because we were passing tai = 台 (the kanji that is Taiwan’s tai) and pei = 北　(north) Or the big city of North Taiwan. Cuz I can read that. Go me. I can also read 台中 (Taichung, Japanese = Taiwan’s tai + chuu, middle), 台南 (tai + south), among most of the other station names, or at the very least, as soon as I saw them, I could usually figure out where we were on the map. It was the awesome.

Like I said, 7 and a half hours later, we get to Tainan, a nice lady with a colorful backpack helps us know where our hotel is and that it’s waaaaaay to far to want to walk, so we catch a cab, which was fun, cuz he didn’t know exactly where our hotel was either. But it’s okay, because we found 2! nice couples who showed us to our hotel :D

We check in, kinda cringe at the bill, but love the fact that it’s a “hostel” with an actual “hotel” feel. And we get breakfast vouchers, so it’s not so bad. We go out in search of dinner, and don’t find anything for a ways, as everything seems to close about 9pm. We found 1 ramen place still open, and negotiate in Japanese for him to just pick whatever kind of ramen he wants to cook for us (seeing how we can’t really read the menu), but for Curi to not have any actual pork meat in hers.

Saturday, August 2nd – Death and Cake Day

We started out the day with some Death. Well, actually we started out the day with our complementary breakfast, but then we went to Dongyue Temple (Top 10 in Taiwan, #10) which was a whole bunch of Death, which was just kinda awesome. Then we walked towards the Alter of Heaven, good for dispelling bad luck, and on to the Official God of War Temple (Sacrificial Rites Temple) which is dedicated to a Han dynasty general deified as the war god (woo!). Next door was the Matsu Temple (Top 10 #3), which use to be a palace, and we even saw the ceiling beams where the king’s wives hung themselves (followed along with the Death theme very nicely). We walked back to our hotel much earlier than I though we would and on our way found a nice lady who talked at us in Chinese, but helped us to FINALLY find us some bubble tea!!!! We then went to the super across the street from the hotel and got some meat buns and cake and enjoyed some of the nice A/C for the rest of the night.

Sunday, August 3rd

We would have gone on a bus to see another Top Ten temple (#9), but decided that we were really tired and wanted to take it really easy today. So we did. It’s been awesome. So far we went walking around a little bit, got our tickets for tomorrow, and mostly read and played video games. Like I said, pretty awesome. Tomorrow we take our train to Taichung and to the BIG Buddhas.