Still Learning

I've been in Hong Kong for close to 8 weeks now and surprisingly I still learn something new everyday. While I'm no longer phased by the tall buildings, crowds of people, or lack of good smelling food I wouldn't trade my time here in Hong Kong for anything. This place that once just seemed like a fun place to visit really is becoming home.

Although not a lot phases me here in Asia anymore here is another short list of things i've observed...

1. Asians use full sized suitcases as grocery bags
2. City U students are extremely giggly and immature (I said boob in class and you would have thought I was
    the worlds greatest comedian)
3. The emergency call buttons in bathroom stalls still confuse me
4. I found out that all the ladies crowding downtown on a Sunday are actually Filipino maids on their day off
5. I will miss public transport when I get home
6. Coordinating trips, planning housing for the summer, and general business in different time zones is hard to
    deal with. It actually takes skill to plan!
7. NEVER travel in big groups- it's more stress than fun

It's just a short list today, but i'm sure there's a lot more learning to come. Tonight Haley and I are off to the Philippines. In the spirit of exchange and "YOLO" we spontaneously booked flights Monday night. I can not wait for our four day adventure in paradise! Unfortunately, between now and then I have lots of work to do, and we have to go on a mission to find Haley a swimsuit!

Home in Hong Kong

It is strange how quickly you can become acclimated to a new place. I am half way around the world and thousands of miles away from my real home but my little dorm room in Hall 10 of City University of HK truly  has become home. I was only away for a weekend, but getting back into my own bed and taking a shower in my own bathroom has never felt better! I may be a little bias as I was up for 24 hour straight, but home feels great!

Feeling the 70 degree weather after stepping of the plane and seeing the jaw-dropping skyline of HK was also a great feeling. All in all i'm in love with Hong Kong. This city is phenomenal. It takes leaving it and coming back to realize this. Although the food is better in Taiwan I wouldn't trade living in Hong Kong for anything.

Overall my trip to Taiwan was unforgettable and I learned a lot about another Asian city. Here's a list of a few things I noticed/ learned while on vacation...

1. The Taipei skyline isn't really a skyline at all
2. The streets of Taipei are extremely wide
3. Night market food is delicious
4. I miss dairy products! The cheese and strawberry smoothie was one of the highlights of my trip!
5. Traffic laws (if there are any) are not followed in Taiwan
6. Scooters are the most popular form of transport in Taiwan (there were hundreds)
7. We take HK English speakers for granted- Mandarin is hard!
8. People will do anything they can to help even though they don't speak English
9. Less crowds/people (I had personal space)
10. It's the MRT not MTR in Taiwan
11.VERY clean bathrooms in the MRT stations
12. There are bathroom "maps" which chow you what stalls are occupied through lights- very efficient
13. Every Asian country apparently has Emergency buttons in their bathroom stalls
14. The beds are still rock hard in Taiwan
15. Dogs are everywhere, more specifically three legged dogs

Dog on a scooter in a night market; sums up Taiwan in a picture

Bathroom map

My weekend get away was a great start to my travel adventures here in Asia. After being bitten by the travel "bug" Haley and I booked a spontaneous trip to the Philippines for this upcoming weekend. This addictive hobby of travel could get expensive pretty quickly! I also have flights booked to Thailand for Easter! I guess somewhere in all of these adventures I should actually study a little...

Pingxi Lantern Festival

The trip to Taiwan ended on a high-note at the Pingxi lantern festival. After a bit of struggle getting from Hualien to Pingxi (via a train to Ruifang, train to Shifen, and walk to Pingxi) we finally made it to the festival we have all been waiting months to see!

The train ride to Shifen was extremely crowded. This is not surprising when we learned that 20-30 thousand people head to the mountain town of Pingxi for perhaps the most famous lantern festival in the world that signifies the end to the lunar new year celebrations.

Burning Lantern

The streets were filled with people, food stalls, and most importantly lantern shops! We walked along the railway tracks taking everything in. Special messages were being painted onto huge paper lanterns, trains full of people passed, people danced, and lanterns were lit and released into the sky.

Lantern Stall

After a major struggle up a slippery hill, we got to the main festival area where over 2,000 lanterns were going to be released.

We waited in a huge crowd of people (all with cameras and phones- the crowd was illuminated with phone screens alone) for the release of the lanterns. The massive crowds and lack of personal space was worth it. The lantern release was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!

We pushed our way back through the crowds of people to find a spot to write on our own lanterns and release them. 

The night ended with an hour long taxi ride back to an MRT station (we decided to suck up the cost and not wait in a line of over 10,000 for a shuttle bus) and then another adventure finding the bus that would take us to the airport for our 7am flight. We had survived a gigantic crowd, avoided setting our lantern into flames, eaten more street food, and made our own New Year wishes on paper lanterns! We arrived at the airport around midnight and hung out until morning. All nighters at the airport are actually tolerable when there are 13 people to entertain each other (beer and security were all involved). 

Planes, Trains, and Private Taxis

Organizing a trip to a gorge in a remote area in Taiwan is not the easiest task to do from another country and when you don't speak Mandarin. With a large group of 13 and lack of other options, we all decided to pay 600NTD each (about 20USD) and rent a private taxis for the day to take us around Taroko gorge. Granted the twenty dollar price tag wasn't bad at all considering we were chauffeured everywhere and had the taxis for a full eight hours.

We drove 45 minutes from our hostel to the gorge and then got to explore most of what the national park had to offer. There was some hiking involved, ringing of bells in shrines hard hat wearing, and crossing of suspended bridges across the gorge. All in all the day was amazing and the gorge was one of the prettiest landscapes I've ever seen.

The entire gorge is made marble based and beautiful clear water runs through most of it. There are also quite a few temples and other shrines throughout.

Driving Tunnels Through the Mountain

Suspended Bridges

White Buddahs

 

Long hikes through the gorge wore us all out and most of us slept the entire way back to the hostel. We also made a quick pit stop at the beach before heading back. The weather didn't make for much of a beach day, but it was still nice to get some fresh air. It was also interesting to see the black rocky sand and HUGE waves of the Pacific. Our English speaking cab driver also agreed to take us to the train station and help us buy tickets to Pingxi for the next day. 

Gorge Selfie

Cold Day at the Beach

After another round of napping we woke up for dinner and went to another night market in Hualien. All of the night markets in Taiwan offer similar food so it was another Taiwan Taco for me! We also splurged and paid $3USD for a 15 minute back massage at one of the stalls in the market. They were definitely not gentle and I still have bruises on my arms. The masseuse did manage to get out a lot of my knots though! 

Taiwan Taco

Mandarin Struggles

Another thing we take for granted in Hong Kong is the ease of communication between ourselves and locals. Although the English may not be great in HK at least people somewhat understand you and can speak back/answer your questions. While we were all warned that no one in Taiwan really speaks English it is not until you arrive that you realize how much of a struggle the language barrier is. The Mandarin challenge was sometimes frustrating, but overall made the trip more entertaining and the charades game was actually quite fun. There was a huge sense of accomplishment when we finally got a point across or found what we were looking for.

Friday started off a little later than anticipated and the first task of the day was to purchase train tickets for the night train to Hualien (a three hour train ride South from Taipei). We took the MRT (we called it the MTR all weekend because we couldn't get used the different abbreviation in Taiwan).  Our group planned to arrive very early Saturday morning in Hualien in order to maximize the day at Taroko Gorge (a gorge that is apparently one of the seven wonders of Asia). After a little struggling we managed to get tickets for the 11pm train that would get us to Hualien at 2:30am.

Waiting for the MRT

Next stop was the famous Taipei 101 which was the tallest building in the world from 2004-2010. The strangest part about the massive skyscraper is that is one of very few in Taiwan. The lack of other tall buildings makes it very difficult to put its enormity into perspective. The overall city skyline in Taipei is not actually all that impressive and is somewhat confusing. Everything is very flat (no hills like HK), and the wide streets and lack of people make everything seem deserted. This may just be because we are all so acclimated to Hong Kong.

Because of the rain and grey sky I decided that the observation deck wouldn't really be worth paying for so a few of us headed to the food court for a snack. Groceries in Hong Kong are expensive; Taiwan supermarkets were much cheaper so Haley and I finally bought some cheese to curb our craving! I also bought a chocolate milk as I'm sure I have a calcium deficiency here in Asia.

The next adventure was finding the famous Taipei hot springs. There are hundreds of natural sulfur hot springs around Taipei. We decided to head to ones in Beitou. After a long MRT trip we arrived in Beitou and took a taxi to the hot springs. Unlucky for us, our poor Mandarin skills got us to a strange public hot spring building in the middle of Beitou. This was not exactly what we expected, and in desperation Celine yelled out the cab window "does anyone speak English?!". A sweet older lady came over and helped direct us to more authentic outdoor hot springs. All six of us squeezed into a four person taxi (Steph dove into the trunk before the cab driver saw her), and headed to a hot spring spa up in the mountains. The taxi dropped us off at a golf-cart stand which then proceeded to take us to a secluded spa. 

After paying a whole $6USD we went into the hot springs for a long relaxing soak. The rotten egg smell from the sulfur wasn't too overwhelming and the springs were definitely worth all the hassle it took to find them. We had views of the mountains and the cooler drizzly weather made the 41 degree Celsius pool temperatures much more enjoyable. 

We cabbed back to the MRT and then headed to the night market again for dinner. After some more shopping and another strawberry smoothie it was back to the hostel to pick up our bags and then to Taipei Main Station to catch our eleven o'clock train to Hualien.

Good to know that this magical pink box will keep me safe at night in the train station.

I had planned to sleep on the train but the man snoring next to me, blasting AC, and fear that we would all sleep through our stop made it difficult to nap. We arrived safely in Hualien at 2:45am and then attempted to find our next hostel, Colorful Taiwan. The simple 8-10 minute walked turned into a 45 minute walk and finally giving up and getting a taxi to the hostel. We were all exhausted and frustrated at this point.