Taiwan: Days 1 and 2 (Saturday and Sunday)

Travel blogs can, quite frankly, get a little boring at times. Especially if it's just twenty photos of "Here's us at the Empire State Building," "Here's us at the Brooklyn Bridge," blah, blah, blah. Not exactly exciting stuff. So it is with a little bit of trepidation that I attempt to document our trip to Taiwan. I hope it will not be boring but I make no promises. I can promise, however, that there will not be 20 pictures of David or me. I think you've seen enough of us. I'd rather you see what Taiwan looks like.

Taiwan was like a warm tropical paradise to us. Not that it was extremely warm--I still tended to wear sweaters and occasionally my jacket--but it was at least 20-30 degrees warmer than the cold we left in Korea.

Case in point: our plane before leaving Seoul. I was afraid that our flight would be delayed or cancelled due to the weather, but luckily, the Incheon airport was prepared for snow. (And good thing we left when we did because later that week, Seoul had it's biggest snow storm in 60+ years.) We had to go through a de-freezing process before we took off, which meant we sat on the runway for an extra hour, but otherwise it was an uneventful flight. We did, however, get bumped up to the big cushy seats in Business Class. There was only one person in First Class and none in Business, so they allowed a few people from the packed Economy section to sit in Business. David and I thought we'd hit the jackpot.

After landing in Taiwan, collecting our luggage, and breezing through customs, we rented a car. (And here's David attempting to read his directions in Chinese while trying to drive at the same time. I was absolutely useless as a navigator.) Aside from our plane tickets, our biggest expense on the trip was on the rental car which wasn't all that fabulous of a car to begin with and was ridiculously over-priced. I don't think many foreign travelers rent cars in Taiwan but it was the only way we could visit all the cities and towns David wanted to see from his mission.

I assumed that since Koreans, who consider themselves as such an "advanced nation," are such awful drivers, that the Taiwanese would be even worse. But I was wrong. Driving in Taiwan was a pleasure after the streets of Seoul. Not only did people stop at red lights, but they obeyed traffic laws. Their goal in life was not in trying to run you off the road. They didn't want to kill you. (The biggest challenge to driving in Taiwan are the large number of scooters who occupy the same street as the cars.) It was a revelation. It has also made driving in Korea all the more infuriating because now I know that Asians CAN drive like civilized human beings but the Koreans choose not to. I have lost all my tolerance and patience for lousy Korean drivers. It's going to be a very long year and a half.

Anyway, after getting our rental car, David and I hit the road toward Yuanlin, which sits in the middle of Taiwan's west coast. It was David's favorite area during his mission and was in a centrally-located area to the other sights we wanted to see so we decided to stay in Yuanlin for four the first four nights.

Our hotel wasn't anything fancy, but it was quite comfortable and the people there were extremely friendly and helpful. In fact, most Taiwanese people are incredibly friendly, more so than Koreans. They were especially fond of David as soon as they discovered he could speak Chinese so well. I, meanwhile, perfected the smile and nod.

Here's the view of Yuanlin from the front of our hotel. Our first order of business was to get something to eat and then get a phone card so David could call all his Taiwanese friends. As it started to get darker, we decided to walk through Yuanlin and we stumbled across this, for lack of a better term, Buddhist fairground.

There were sculptures and a fake temple and lots and lots of lights. We thought they were just setting up, for Chinese New Year perhaps, but later that week, we saw them dismantling the sets. I'm glad we got a chance to see it when we did because it was incredible.


There were all sorts of colors and characters.

You can't tell from photography, but most of these figures were moving as well. And there was music.

Here you can see most of the cast from Sponge Bob. Why, I don't know. But there you go.

And these amazing statues made entirely of suckers and lollipops.

Behind this area was a night market full of street food like stinky tofu and dried squid, games, and other items for sale. It was an incredible sight to see on my first night in Taiwan. Later that night, Shuqi, who was a new convert in Yuanlin when David served there, and her husband Aaron, came over to our hotel room with a bunch of snacks, including tianbula (fried fish paste) and mixue (rice and pig's blood). Yum! (Actually, the tianbula wasn't bad. I steered clear of the blood.) Shuqi served her mission in Hawaii (and then later went to BYU Hawaii) and so we were able to have a conversation half in Chinese and half in English.

The next morning, we woke up early to drive to the chapel in Yuanlin to attend church. When David served in the area, they had just a small branch that met in an apartment building. Now they have two wards and a brand new, big church building.

We attended Sacrament meeting in the both the wards. David was in Chinese heaven while I was struggling to stay awake. It's already hard enough to stay awake when church is in English but when it's a foreign language that you can't understand, it's real easy to nod off even though Shuqi was doing a great job translating for me.

After church, David and I ate lunch at a "steak house" where they bring out flaming skillets while your meat is still cooking. I wish I knew then that that would be one of the best meals I'd eat that week.

Later that evening, Shuqi and Aaron picked us up and took us to Shuqi's parent's house in Changhua for dinner. David was very happy to eat Taiwanese food cooked by a real Taiwanese person. Plus, it was just cool to see how the Taiwanese live. Shuqi's father is a music teacher and he played a few things on his Asian guitar (I don't know what it's called) and Taiwanese wooden pipes.

After dinner, we drove to the Big Buddha on Baguashan Mountain, literally a 72 foot high giant Buddha. Unfortunately, it was fully dark by the time we explored there and my camera struggles with night photos so I didn't get pictures that really capture the area.

But you get the basic idea of the Big Buddha. You can even climb inside him and look through his eyes. (But it was closed so we didn't get to do that.)

Behind the Buddha was a large Buddhist temple.

After awhile, all the Buddhist temples start to look the same.

But this one was still cool.

There was also a great look-out at the top of the mountain to view the city of Changhua and fountains with "dancing water" shows.

Now, if you've made it to the end of this boring post, I'll leave you with just one picture of David and I with a faintly glowing Buddha in the background. Just proof that we were actually there.