And here we come to the close of our 2011 Asian adventure. Jordan and I were talking about this on the way home from church a while back. It feels like this trip was forever ago! Maybe it's because since this trip we've moved to Washington for him to start his job in Portland, became pregnant, traveled to Ireland, moved to Canada for Jordan's new job in Calgary, I had pancreatitis and then galbladder removal surgery, and we've been getting ready for our baby that's due tomorrow (as in February 24th). Jordan said that it feels like, "Isn't it time to go to Asia again?" I guess so, because we've already started booking our flights for our trip in October when we'll go to Hawaii, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Speaking of Taiwan, I don't think a trip to Asia is complete for me if we don't stop in Taiwan. One day we will live there...it's in my plans.
So what happened and what did we see when we were in Taiwan in 2011?
Taiwan
We met these Taiwanese people in the Dumaguete airport. They loved that Jordan spoke Chinese and we got to know them while we waited to board our flight back to Manila and then on to Taiwan. Because we were on the same flight to Taiwan we all decided that we should wander around Resorts World together before our flight. They were so much fun! By the end of it all we exchanged Facebook information and e-mails so we could keep in touch once we went our separate ways. We actually met up for a bit another night while in Taiwan, more on that later.
My anniversary present: a bathtub! For those of you who have read about previous birthday and anniversary gifts, if we're in a foreign country, it's either fresh fruit or a bathtub, both make me extremely happy.
It was definitely a warm day and seeing the kids playing in the fountains at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial (中正紀念堂) reminded me of being a child in Portland, Oregon when we'd go to Waterfront Park in the summer so we could play in the fountain and wander around Saturday Market.
These are the friends we made while in the Philippines (except the first girl from the left...she became our friend after this night market and guotie 鍋貼 outing). We met up near the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial where we took a shuttle to the Grand Hotel and then tried to find a night market that was supposedly near our hotel...no such thing...so we stopped at a Si Hai You Long 四海遊龍 shop where we talked until the store closed about marriage, relationships, food, and just about anything else. It's not exactly common to be as young as we are and married so they had a lot of questions for us about how to find someone you really want to be married to, things to think about while dating, and what kind of life adjustments need to be made once you make the leap. Well, one thing I have a lot of is advice and I don't mind sharing it. Jordan did some translation, but with what English they knew and the common language of relationships, most of our ideas came across and were well-received.
We stopped in TaiZhong to meet up with one of Jordan's friend and had Turkey Rice, which I crave to this day, and Jordan caught me stealing his pickled radish. I'd move to Taiwan just to eat Turkey Rice...and the chicken we had at the restaurant in the picture right above this wordy blurb. Again with the Yao family, this time they had a new baby with them. Each time we visit they have a new baby so they said to stop coming, haha! Well, this time it's our turn. We will be going to Taiwan in October and will have our own baby to show them. Anyway, the chicken was cold and freaking delicious. I have never in my life had chicken so tasty. I mean, all I can think of are cuss words to use as adjectives in describing how amazing this chicken was. So we'll move on...
Yes, that's an Asian Jesus.
We met up with a good friend of ours, Ryan Huang, that we got to know through couch-surfing the year before and went out for teppanyaki. Teppanyaki...the bacon with onion (minus the pepper) is heaven...also something I crave regularly. If I were pregnant in Tawan not only would I be in heaven, I would also be fat...and not just a little bit fat. Thankfully I've only gained 15lbs throughout this pregnancy, but you can rest assured that it would probably be tripled if I were in the land of awesome food I crave. Below that picture is an indecipherable phrase on a t-shirt found at a night market. Yeah, try and make sense of that one.
Not too far from Ryan's place is Aunt Lisa and her amazing Tomato Rice...while I have never had it, Jordan assures me that it is also heaven in your mouth, so we're hoping that we can have some in October. Aunt Lisa took us to LuGang 鹿港 where we took a little walking tour of the really old city (after a hotpot lunch, of course). She's super tiny and very sweet. She and I hopped into an empty tricycle for an impromptu photo op while the driver was away somewhere.
The Wu kids...some of my other most favorite people on the planet. They live near Aunt Lisa's place so it was super convenient for us to stop by and play with them. Jordan played basketball with the three Wu kids as well as a couple other random boys who were also playing while I took the pictures. The next day after church we went back to the Wu's place for snacks and conversation, and the obligatory goodbye photo, before we left to go to TaiNan to visit more people and eat more food.
Nick Huang is such an awesome guy. I really love hanging out with him and always wish for more time to spend with him each time we get together. We got into TaiNan pretty late, so none of the food places we went to last time were open and it was also raining, so we weren't going to park somewhere and then wander around. Instead, Nick made quite a few stops (as you can see from the table full of food in front of us) so we could try a little of everything. His sister-in-law made guotie that were absolute heaven and Nick's nephew ran around, played hide and seek, wanted to be tickled, showed me dinosaurs, and played catch. After dinner we went to find pineapple cakes for souvenirs for our family and Nick's little nephew came with us. He sang along to Nick's tunes all while making up words and bouncing around like the crazy little monkey he is. Nick warned him to sit down and buckle up but he wouldn't do it, of course insisting that he was fine, until we had to stop suddenly and he fell off the seat and bonked his head on the console. Jordan's "I told you so" followed and he calmed down for a minute. Now...before anyone reading this becomes all incredulous about children not properly fastened down in a carseat with 17 belts and buckles to keep them there, remember that we are in Asia...a place where many American sensibilities and rules do not apply. And now moving on...
Who would I be without my love for pups. Jordan's friend had a dog so I got my puppy fill for the trip. Our last stop was XinZhu. We ate at a noodle place, a bread dongxi store, Si Hai You Long with Thomas Chen (pictured with Jordan above), and of course a 7.
Overall, I love Taiwan. Our trip in Asia comes to a close for another year and we hoped to go back again the following year but we weren't able to make arrangements to go until 2013. No matter, at least we get to go back! We are so very fortunate that we have the opportunity and the financial discipline to make trips like this a regular occurrence since they are so important for our well-being, sanity, and the happiness of our marriage. We're still looking for people who want to come with us and be our traveling buddies, so send your applications via a comment of any of our posts =].
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