Monarch Plaza Hotel Taoyuan

... annoyance all night. She lingered around me all night listening to all my conversations with other parents (she spoke English). I talked with another parent who spoke English and I was complimenting his son's writing and I found out that the dad was correcting and helping with all his writing. I had to tell him to stop doing his sons homework! I had one other parent ask if they should punish their child because they weren't listening in class. Punishing here is sometimes ...

... refused to tell me his real name....and I had to refer to him as 'Sexy Monkey Tail' for the first hour of class. Until someone finally decided to tell me his name was Vincent. The first topic was 'Friends'. One of the questions was 'Where do you like to hang out with your friends'? Vincent put his hand up and said 'The love motel'. This earned giggles from the whole class and an inward groan from me. I was like...'Um, that's great. Any OTHER ...

... are dipsey-doodling in and out of traffic, it's heart attack inducing! Anyway...about halfway through the journey it began to rain. The bungee jumping people called us and told us that there would no longer be jumping for that day...since they were on a metal bridge and there was some thunder and lightning happening. We all drove back Taoyuan and hung out a local pub/restaurant for a while. Then, a bunch of us went to this place called Thai Disco ...

... this guy.", but immediately relegated him to 'potential fling' status. The drinks flowed and so did the conversation. I was under the impression that we had really hit it off. He was flying out to Hong Kong the next day for a visa run and had to leave Taoyuan at 4 AM. We stayed at the bar til nearly 2 AM. We shared a cab to the train station...whereby I got off to get my scooter and he continued to his apartment. I went home feeling pretty good about myself. He had asked me ...

... birthday. I didn't want to put people on the spot and so I just didn't go and bother anyone. After I had purchased myself a drink and realized that I just wasn't drunk enough to be enjoying the scene....I decided to call it a night and head up to the hotel rom (this was round 2:30 AM or so). So ya, I was somewhat disappointed with the whole birthday outing...but I have had a birthday in 4 different countries now (Canada, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Taiwan) and not many ...

... got up and was shocked by this site in my kitchen. Thankfully I never did meet my roommate face to face... would have creeped me out. His antannea were huge.. had to put my finger in for scale, to show how big he was. And some photos from my old Sultan's palace. Was temporarily staying here til we found a place that I'd like to stay for a year (would have liked staying here, though felt a ...

... are kind of shaped funny because they're kind of big for a Taiwanese girl but the arch is small to where the sandals would slip off if the seller didn't punch another hole in the strap. I also got a new umbrella; hopefully this will stand up to Houston wind better than my other one. We got shaved ice again (basically we always get some when we swing by the place). I checked back with the dermatologist. My ...

... the eye can see. I stop three times to eat and drink, once at a school and once beside a small stream coming straight down the mountain and I prepare water, which I am running short of, with my filter bottle. At 2:00pm I arrive in Nanshan village at km 29. Although it is still early I decide to stay here as the next step to Wuling would be another 23 km uphill and I would for sure get there only in the dark. Although many homestays ...

... People also wear new clothes to symbolise a new beginning. Firecrackers and fireworks are everywhere as well, again to scare away evil spirits. And those damn firecrackers really are pretty scary! There's lots of them tied on one string, and man are they loud! It sounds like a machine gun from a film or something horrid like that. I suppose it works though... The last few days people have been letting them all hours of the day and night - in the ...

... monuments and symbols. -Taiwan girls are so beautiful!! ren piao liang! They smile a lot and they know whats fashion or not. All my guy friends that went there felt in love with these. -The 7-eleven are so much better than in HK. They even have good food, fresh pastries, sushis!!! amazing! -The pedestrian light is so much. Check out the video