Zai Yan Loador Hotel Taoyuan

After living 1.5 years in Taiwan, I decided that it was time to pack up my bags and leave for yet another previously unexplored location. The preparation for India was...a pain in the ass. Before I moved to Taiwan I had lived 1.5 years in Brazil (I can't seem to stay in one place for less than 1.5 years!) and had a significan amount of stuff that I took to Taiwan with me. I did not get the chance to stop off in Ottawa and drop stuff off with my parents ...

... away that it was a very small, quiet place. Our hotel was literally across the street from the airport and a 5 minute walk to 7-Eleven. We were really excited to have a 7 nearby...just in case we couldn't find anything decent to eat. We rented scooters and did some exploring that first day. People there I guess had never seen a foreigner before...and to see 6 of them at once...was just a bit overwhelming. I felt a bit like the main exhibit at the zoo though ...

... get there using public transportation. It would probably be half the time if we had a car. Due to the late hour we stayed at their place, the window was open and mosquitoes there are here a plenty. We had breakfast the next morning at Debbie's, a restaurant a couple blocks away that has a western diner flare to it. Big dogs are becoming more and more popular as pets here. During our morning ...

... a church charity. So, the 3 suitcases and two bags really WERE all I left Brazil with. I'm still amazed I managed to keep it down to that and didn't get killed on 'heavy bag' fees and what-not at the airport (I didn't pay from Rio to Vancouver...but I paid from Vancouver to Taipei). Anyway, I digress. We had Jerry's help to move the heavier stuff (the suitcases, bedding, etc...) and then just spent the rest of the week making small trips here and there between the new place and the dorm.

... in another town and found a homestay family with a girl 22 years of age (same age as Kimmi). She stayed in Alex's room for about a week and then moved out. During that time we did some things together and hit it off. Meghan and I hung out with her a couple of times. So after Kimmi was all settled in...she invited me and Alex for dinner at her homestay's family. We went and the food was delicious. Edie is the 22 year old and she was a really fun and cool person. She sent us ...

... is the country I want to visit the most since I want to see some ancient silk road cities like Bukhara and Samarkand; I also want to see the magnificent Tian-Shan (Sky Mountain) in Kyrgystan and the home of Borat (LOL) - Khazakstan. Some other countries in this region may be interesting but not very stable at this moment, such as Tajikistan, and yes...Afghanistan... 4. The Rest of Ukraine and Moldova: Wait! Have I just visited Ukraine last year? Yes, but only to the western city of ...

... had one hour left for check-in for her flight. Smooth check-in and departure at Rome. Passenger behind me was a cat on a hot tin roof and bumped/swung my seat-back a half dozen or so times rendering my sleeping tablet useless and resulting in a pretty groggy state on arrival at HK transit for our connecting flight to Taipei. Steaming hot waether in Taipei as expected. Fantastic hotel room with acres of floor space and a ...

... Behind this big house is another row of smaller altars with statues to other gods inside. There's walls covered in tiny lights too - these are for people that have dies and their family has made a donation to the temple on their honour. The Longshan Temple is a massive riot of colour - golds and reds all over the place, really gaudy and very very busy. The Bo'An Temple was a bit different - It's a Doaist temple rather than a Buddhist one. This ...

... mindblowing, wasn't that old, or that big, but insanely intricate. It's called "concentric ivory balls", and unsurprisingly, consists of...um...concentric ivory balls. 11 of them carved one inside another, inside one piece of ivory. Really, I have no idea how that did this - the carving is beautiful, and it's so intricate. I really don't understand how they managed to separate the balls out of one piece! The balls hang on a chain that was made out of the same ...

... if you want the true I think it taste like every chinese food (sorry yu zhen). What I was personally exited about was to try my first real bubble tea. Bubble tea are becoming more and more popular in Montreal and Toronto, but this product is actually from Taiwan. I had to try the original one. Zhen zhu nai cha is actually the basic one (milk tea with pearls). It s awesssssssome but don t abuse cause the milk is not pasteurized and you may get ...