Mandarina Crown Hotel Taipei

... of Asia but to get to Bangkok and Teach
Spanish.

On the bright side I am now so well versed in all the airports; Tokyo,
Japan; Taibai, Taiwan; Hong Kong, China; and Bangkok, Thailand. Amazing the
plans that God has for one's life, This is my first time to Asia and when ever
I reach my final destination, I will have visited 4 more countries and three of
them were surprise. Oh God must know I like surprises.

... check-in. At the desk we had a little scare, as the lady didn't speak much English and she was slightly confused that we had only a one way ticket. It was very lucky that we printed out our forwarding flight from Taiwan, as that might have been our saving grace. Once through security, we decided to spend our last loose change. We wandered around the shops and ended up buying a Pedometer (to measure the distances we walk on our adventures ...

... got back to the hotel. We were sooo tired! When we got up we went back in the hot springs some more and then walked around the city's one major street before going back to the hotel and calling it a night. Wednesday morning we had more fabulous breakfast, soaked in the Japanese style hot springs some more and then hopped on a train back to Taoyuan. We both had to work...but we were significally refreshed and happy from our yuletide hot spring adventure.

... me more of San Fran, from first impressions. The really weird thing is that most street signs were in simplified chinese and english, but the smaller signs were just simplified. Interesting.. maybe because it was from the airport? everything in teh hotel is in both, so that makes life easy. So riht now I'm at San Want Hotel... stange place with little fat babies in diapers on all their logo stuff... check it out. http://www ...

... my aunt and the make-up artist got it). Getting double eyelid surgery is like no big deal in Asia, and almost all the celebrities get it if they don't already have double eyelids. It was nice getting glammed up and being the focus of attention, but definitely no career in modelling for me. The photographer had a hard time getting me not to blink or look dead/fake. Hey, I can't help it if I don't like to smile. :p I ...

... web of tiny bridges. Complete with a tiny shack blaring out KTV (karaoke to us - they are OBSESSED with it here,for reasons that I still can't fathom) behind it! And a little further along (up more hill, huff puff) was an even stranger sight. One of the most important deities here in Taiwan is Gyuanyin, the Goddess of Mercy and one of the Buddhas. Most temples have at least a few statues of here, but this one went a little crazy! Outside is a 22m meter statue of her ...

... the river ( this trail ends at the triple waterfall Wa Wa Gu - shall have the most health promoting ions of all waterfalls in Taiwan - I feel something, yes I feel younger, rejuvinated ), then I switch back to the road. A group of aboriginies sitting in front of a small store involve me in a conversation. At a police station I have to fill in a registration sheet and pay 10 NT. Don't forget to bring a readable ID document. At 4:30pm I arrive in Fushan ...

... a train that day, eek! New Year's Eve Dinner is the rough equivalent of Christmas Dinner - the whole family together, and all kinds of lavish food. A lot of fish is eaten (but in Taiwan, that's nothing new!), and dumplings too. The dumplings look a little like fat ravioli - they are considered lucky because they resemble (vaguely) the shape of ancient Chinese gold ingots. New Year's all about bringing prosperity and fortune... Pineapples, apples, fish ...

I dragged my ass back to the hotel around 3am, b/c our driver was picking us up at 5:30am to go to Phuket airport! With barely 2 hours of sleep again in my system, exhaustion was finally catching up to me. We passed out in the car for the 3 hour drive to Phuket, and flew to Bangkok that morning to catch our 1pm flight to Taiwan. We got to see the new Bangkok airport again and I still can't believe how big it is ...

... more South-East Asia like market spread on the streets as in Thailand or Laos. Shopping: I bought tea bags, Guandu charms, key chain of Chang kai-Shek Memorial Hall for souvenirs. I got recipts with a lottery number evertime I shopped. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to check the winning numbers with a newspaper. It was the first time in one year to travel oveseas and the first time in 10 years to travel with my mom. We chose Taiwan as our ...