28 July 2013

The Final Days of my Parents in Taiwan

As I said, we spent our last few days relaxing. Showing them around Taoyuan, where we used to live, where we used to hang out, our favourite places to eat. And of course we took them to Taipei to see 101, and have some amazing shaved ice. 

Here are some pictures of their last few days:





My mom met the man of her dreams..

Taipei 101




How could I forget! We went to Modern Toilet! This is the restaurant that is known for their slogan, "Shit or food? You decide!" I'm not even kidding. This restaurant has terrible reviews online about the high prices for the sub par so we were pleasantly surprised with our experience. The prices weren't ridiculous and the food was actually good, we definitely enjoyed our selves. I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you can stomach it haha my mother wasn't too keen on eating out of a toilet but she managed!








If I thought that saying goodbye to my parents the first time was hard, I definitely wasn't prepared for it the second time. Especially the aftermath once they were gone. It was hard and made me miss home a lot. However, getting back into the swing of things in Taiwan helped a lot. Their visit just love and appreciate them that much more.

Around Kaohsiung

We decided to go on from Green Island to Kaohsiung since it was only a four hour train ride there as opposed to the longer train ride back to Taoyuan. Also my father had read a lot about Kaohsiung and was super excited to go there. So I booked us a room, booked us train tickets, and off we went.

The one bad thing about our trip to Kaohsiung was that I did not book an express train... ooooops. It ended up stopping every 20 minutes or so for at least five minutes, or more, at each stop. It was really annoying and we probably could've gotten there a lot faster but it was definitely a lesson learnt.

So we arrive in Kaohsiung and the hotel we booked at picked us up from the KMRT station. The staff at the hotel was super nice, even though they barely spoke any English, they were always trying. We didn't realize when we booked our hotel, but it was right beside Love River. Which is one of the main things we wanted to see in Kaohsiung. It was beautiful at night and we spent our night walking by the river and eating at a seafood restaurant close by.






The next day we checked out of the hotel, left our luggage there and off we went. First we went to Dream Mall. It is, apparently, the biggest mall in Southeast Asia and my mother wanted to do some shopping. It was a lot of fun and really big. While we were there, we went on a ferris wheel on the top of the building. People call it the Kaohsiung Eye, similar to the London Eye. It offered a really cool look at the city of Kaohsiung.






Next we went back to the hotel, picked our luggage up, and headed to Lotus Lake. We really wanted to see the Confucius Temple, along with the Lake itself. However the Confucius Temple was closed for renovations. So we made our way down the Lake and saw some beautiful temples and some great views of Kaohsiung.






After Lotus Lake, we were off to the High Speed Rail Station to come back to Taoyuan. Our travelling around Taiwan was finished and my parents still had a few more days left. We spent the rest of them relaxing after our long week of travelling, going to Taipei to see Taipei 101, and taking them to a nearby town called Yingge which is known for its pottery.

22 July 2013

Green Island ft. the Pituls

Okay.. I have been slacking lately on the blog but moving on... MY PARENT'S CAME TO TAIWAN. I put ft. the Pituls in the title because maybe the Lococos will come visit us too one day! (Hint.. hint... nudge.. nudge.. wink.. wink......)

SOOO. My parents arrived, they were very tired after their long trip and we still had a couple days of work. So for the first few days, we just did little things with them. Took them to the Taipei Zoo, the Maokong Gondolas. And then we were off to Green Island. Our trip to Green Island started with an eight hour train ride that left at 6AM... such a joy. But the seats were comfortable and I mostly slept. While my mother spent 96% of the train ride taking pictures of what we went past. After the train ride, a taxi ride with a very friendly taxi driver and a pleasant ferry ride (read: extremely rough ferry ride), we were at Green Island!!


We met up with the people we booked our trip through and were taken to our eBikes. Now my mother wasn't sure about these bikes at first and said she would just use it as a normal bike. But by the end of the trip, she was a eBike professional. Weaving around pot holes and bumps in the road. Without the eBikes, Green Island wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable. While it is a small island (17 km around), there were no taxis at all so walking around the island would not have been an option. The eBikes took us everywhere and were a lot of fun to ride. We had a couple problems with the battery dying but the hostel owners were quick to help us and we were on our way.

Our hostel was also a lot better than I expected. A fellow teacher had told me to expect "rustic," when going into Green Island so my expectations were very low. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The hostel was very clean and very comfortable. Air conditioning and a pretty nice shower. 

Included in our package was snorkeling. My father and Rick were very excited for this part while me and my mother were hesitant. We went out, got our flippers and all our gear, and stayed on land. My mom and I just couldn't get the hang of it so we told the boys to go off on their own and have a good time. Rick says that Green Island was the best snorkeling spot that he has ever been to, he saw so many different kinds of fish. They both loved snorkeling so much that they continued to snorkel four different times on our three days there.

The hot springs at Green Island were another highlight. They are one of the three only natural salt water hot springs in the world. The other two being in Italy and Japan. Rick and I have decided that we want to go to all three. The hot spring down by the beach wasn't open but we still enjoyed the other hot springs. It was beautiful. Nothing like the Beitou hot springs in Taipei which I found kind of dirty and off putting. These were so clean, and just so relaxing. We all had an amazing time.

Finally, the food. Green Island is known for its seafood since it is an island. Some of the seafood we ate was just okay.. some was amazing. We enjoyed eating so much. Every meal was a new adventure, and breakfast was included with the package that we booked! We also ate the best shaved ice that I have ever eaten while we were there. 

Here are some picture highlights of the trip!


The train ride

The ferry ride

Green Island












We booked our package through Green Island Adventures and I would recommend this company to anyone. I was originally worried about the payment method but everything went without a hitch. They made our time on Green Island amazing and without any difficulty. We booked the Relax package and had an amazing time. I cannot say enough good things about this company. We loved our time in Green Island and they are the sole reason why. Here is the link if anyone is interested! http://www.greenislandadventures.com/

From Green Island, we went on to Kaohsiung! Next blog post coming up!