Fall is here! ...Wait, is it??

My apologies for not updating this blog for a few weeks.  Some weeks are kind of boring and I don't have much to talk about.  Let's see.. fall is here, at least I thought it was.  It was getting pretty cool during the day and at night last week, only around 25 degrees.  Yes, I know that sounds hot, but it actually felt really chilly at night, a damper 25 degrees is how I can describe it.  This week, we are back in the 30s and it definitely doesn't feel like fall compared to how it would be at home, and I'm definitely ok with that.

We had a long weekend in September, and we celebrated by having a BBQ at a friend's rooftop.  The holiday in Taiwan is called Moon Festival, and although I am not sure the history of it, the day is celebrated by barbequing with your family and friends; so that's exactly what we did!  We cooked for a few hours, throwing kabobs with steak, vegetables, chicken and shrimp on the barbee, as well as eggplant, corn on the cob and chicken breast, and a few beer to chase it all down with.  Good times, good food, good friends!

One Sunday, we decided to venture out to the Beitou Hot Springs as I felt like we should do something touristy and not sit at home all day.  Beitou was a cute town, with lots of trees and very hot, hot springs!  We decided not to go into the public hot springs as we figured there would be 1000 Asian men in speedos and shower caps, so we thought we would rather just look at the hot springs instead.  They were nice and hot, you could see the steam rising off of them, and they gave off an awfully strong sulfur smell.  But, apparantly they are good for you to bathe in!

Checking out the springs

Mark and I on the train to Yilan

This past weekend, Mark and I decided last minute to book a hotel in a small city called Yilan located on the East coast of Taiwan.  It is about an hour and a half train ride from Taipei.  We were expecting it to be closer to the beach.  Although it is on the coast, the town itself is set rather far from the beach, and you need transportation to get to any sort of sandy beach.  When we got there, we decided to get a taxi and have the taxi take us to a beach.  So, we got in a cab and said "beach" and the driver said "OK, OK, I know".  We knew we were around 5 minutes to the beach, so when the cab driver took us on a freeway, we started to wonder where the heck he was taking us.  I saw that he was going in the direction of the township where our hotel was located in, and since we hadn't checked in yet, I just gave him the address to the hotel and told him to take us there instead.  After several phone calls between him and other people, as well as me and his sister who spoke english, we made it to our hotel.  I wasn't impressed with having to pay him so much for the cab as we weren't even wanting to go to the hotel in the first place, we wanted to go to the beach, and we could have taken a train to the hotel for WAYYYY less money than he charged us.  Oh well, it all comes with living in a foreign place where you don't speak the language, you gotta expect adventures regularly.

Our room was pretty awesome.  It was a two story 

suite, with a full living room, bathroom and then bedroom upstairs.  It cost us $150 Canadian.  The bathtub had hotspring water that came out of the tap, and the bathroom itself overlooked the city, with the sea in the distance.  Very pretty!  The couch was amazingly comfortable, and since our couch in our apartment sucks, we thoroughly enjoyed simply watching TV and lounging on it, as we never do this at home since our  couch is small and uncomfortable.  While we were at this hotel, we also enjoyed the hot springs pool, fully equipped with a random Asian pool attendant that made us wear swim caps.  Swim caps are usually essential pool attire in Taiwan, so I wasn't overly surprised, but we thought it was pretty funny, so we took some pictures to remember how good we looked in them!

 

Had a bit of a weird experience in this town. Mark and I chose a spot to go for dinner.  When we walked into the restaurant we were greeted with nothing but snarly stares.  This has happened other times, but nothing as crazy as this.  It was like the circus just walked into the place.  These were not pleasant friendly stares, but more of a "um, you're foreign, why are you here?" kind of look.  We sat there not being served for a good 5 minutes, and then Mark went to the bathroom.  I watched the heads turn as he walked past the tables to reach the bathroom, and then the stares turned to me.  At this point, I was feeling really uncomfortable.  When Mark returned to the bathroom, with eyes still following him, we decided to leave.  Not only had we not been served during this whole time, but I felt like a spectacle in this place, and it didn't feel good.  As we walked out, I looked back to see the entire restaurants heads turn to watch us walk out.  I literally could have almost cried.  I'm probably being too sensitive, but I have never felt like that in my entire life.  Being stared at because of what you look like is not a good feeling.  We went to another place, literally next door and were greeted by a nice Asian woman who opened the door for us, sat us down and had her daughter who spoke English help us order.  Two other men and a woman who spoke English sat down next to us.  Both men were having a few (several) beers and wanted to practice their English I guess!  They sat with us for our whole dinner, making sure our beer glasses were full; complimenting me, and saying to Mark, "say something!" as they just wanted to here him talk.  A complete 360 from the restaurant right next door.

That's pretty much my life up to date.  I am working a bit more now, as is Mark.  We are planning to head to Hualien (another city on the East Coast closer to beaches) for the October long weekend which is in less than two weeks.  Looking forward to that.  I am finally getting healthy again (knock on wood).  I have been sick for over a month, so let's hope my health stays with me for more than just a week!!  I have been trying to take pictures of the food we eat here, and once I collect enough, I will do a blog page strictly on the food we like to eat, and how much it costs, etc!  Miss you all back home very much!!! xo

Beach Time

With another work week over, it was time to head out of the city!  Ryan, a friend from training was nice enough to host Mark, our friend Mary and I in Keelung; a city 25 minutes away from Taipei.  It was a breath of fresh air to be in different surroundings, and able to smell the sea. 


Keelung is located on Taiwan's north east coast, and is a short journey away from the Ocean.  We arrived in Keelung after a short train ride, and decided to hop on a bus to go to a place Ryan suggested.  This place was gorgeous.  It was located on the ocean, with amazing eroded rock that we walked around on and explored.  We even found a few caves in the sides of some of the rocks to go in. 

Eventually, we sat down on a rock peak overlooking the water at sunset, had a beer, and soaked in the scenery.  Not too bad of an afternoon. 

The next day we were up bright and early so that we could go to the beach.  We caught the train and were off to Fulong beach for the day.  We had a great day.  Mark and Ryan rented surf boards and caught a few waves, while Mary and I soaked in the rays and went for multiple dips in the Ocean as it was uncomfortably hot and sunny.  Although SPF 30 was applied, Mark and I were a bit burnt at the end of the day, and Mary was quite burnt as well!  Note to self:  Reapply sunscreen VERY often.  Oh well, I got a good tan. 

We are planning on returning to Fulong beach next weekend.  It is a long weekend in Taipei next weekend, so we will have two days off in a row, yay!  Even though this was a one and a half day trip, it was a blast.  This is why I am in Taiwan.  I want to explore and spend time at Taiwan's beautiful beaches and take in all it's gorgeous scenery.  Being in the city gets old fast, so even one day at the beach every one to two weeks is enough to recharge the batteries!