A Truly Fantastic Month

May, and the beginning of June, has been a time full of adventure and accomplishments for myself and friends. I'll start with a brief update about regular things, and then move on to the more exciting stuff....

I'm still working six days per week but it really doesn't feel like it. The weeks fly by and the next thing I know, it's Monday again. I signed up for another semester of Mandarin classes. Now our group is down to two die-hards. We still have six hours of class per week. It's progressing slowly but with my recent holiday I find that I'm re-motivated to study. It was reinforcing being able to use my Mandarin during our tour of Taiwan. Our plan is to continue until Christmas (only six months away!) and hopefully finish book one (400 pages long mind you!).

And now for the good stuff: from May 14-27 Tomek came for a visit. It was fantastic! I wouldn't have recommended Taiwan as a travel destination until I took this trip. Not that Taiwan isn't beautiful, diverse, and packed with friendly folks, it's just that there's so much to see in Asia. Well, after this tour of the island, I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone. We enjoyed city life, four national parks, clearly marked highways, and CHEAP prices! The average hotel room was only 1000 NT/night, that's $29 CAD for two of us!

Just to give a quick glimpse at our itinerary: I picked Tomek up in Taipei and the following day we took a bus to Kaohsiung. On Tuesday we drove to Yushan National Park and climbed the mountain. Wednesday we climbed down and relaxed in the hot spring at Dongpu. That night we slept in Alishan National Park and on Thursday we drove back to Kaohsiung. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were filled with visits with friends, climbing Monkey Mountain, Parasailing (!!!), dinners out, seeing my bushiban, our birthday party (!!!!), and lunch with my director, Vivian.
The second week we headed for Kenting National Park, which is pretty much a beach town. Our room was gorgeous and because we were there during the week, we got an awesome price. On the Tuesday we rented a Jetski (I had to hold on tight because Tomek wanted to see what the thing was capable of doing) and visited the National Aquatic Museum. It was incredible!!!!! Lots of pictures to come.
Wednesday we headed for the east coast and drove on some pretty crazy highways that were full of sharp turns and big trucks. Needless to say that I was glad NOT to be driving. We saw the platform of the three immortals, the caves of the eight immortals and had the most delicious dumplings in Hualien that night.
Thursday was the big 25th birthday and we celebrated by hiking in Taroko National Park. I can't accurately describe the beauty of this area, you'll have to see the pics. That night we were famished. All I wanted was western food so we headed to Pizza Hut and KILLED the buffet. We were like kids in a candy shop!!! Ice cream, a latte machine, salad bar, pizza, lasagna. Perhaps you might not fully understand our excitement. This food is RARE here unless you want to spend lots and lots of money (compared to Taiwanese restaurants). Afterwards we went to the hotel to have chocolate cake (was good but didn't replace mom's) and champagne. It was my champagne birthday after all (25 years old on the 25th of the month). There, I opened my birthday gifts from home. It was an awesome day. And, the sun was out!!!
On Friday we took a drive up the Suhua highway on our way to Taipei. You also must see these pics because its beauty is indescribable. In Taipei we went up Taipei 101 (the world's highest building), visited the snake night market, and went dancing till the wee hours of the morning at Luxy. Our hotel was pretty sweet too, will post pics of that as well.
Saturday was our last day together but we definitely made the most of it. In the morning we saw Chiang Kei Shek (a.k.a. CK Shrek) memorial and then walked to Longshan temple. This was one of the trip's highlights. We lucked in and our visit just so happened to coincide with the 15th day on the lunar calendar. The temple was abuzz, full of people give offerings and monks chanting. We must have stayed there for over an hour just taking pictures and allowing the soothing vibe to permeate our psyches (nice expression eh?!!!).
That night we had our last dinner in an Indian restaurant and then drove to the airport. It was a REALLY sad goodbye. Makes me sad just to write about it....
BUT, I couldn't be upset for too long, I had to get my thoughts together and drive back to Kaohsiung that night!!!!! It was terrible, to tell you the honest truth but it had to be done. The rain was coming down, almost all of the signs were in Chinese, and it was super late at night. I stopped once and got home at 3:30 am. Understandably I was exhausted and drained. I must have slept for the entire next day.
I feel like this is a really condensed version of my wonderful time with Tomek. I will elaborate more on the photo captions.

My next update will be about this past weekend's big music concert. So great!!!!
keep in touch,
love Rach