Taiwan: Day 6 and 7 (Sun Moon Lake and Puli)

I know what you're thinking. I'm thinking the same thing. She's still not done talking about Taiwan?!? I know, I know. I've been a huge blog slacker and I have things I want to talk about that are not related to Taiwan but if I don't chronicle our vacation here, it'll never get done so I'm going to push through and finish our trip to Taiwan as quickly as possible.....that is, if I can still remember what we actually did.

We drove to Sun Moon Lake on Wednesday night, checked into the Full House Resort Hotel, and woke up Thursday morning, prepared to enjoy the beauty and scenery of Taiwan's most famous tourist spot. After eating a normal breakfast at our hotel (eggs, ham, and toast), we decided to drive around the lake and stop at any interesting spots along the way.

Our first stop was the Tutingzai Trail, a short trail that led through forest to the water's edge, and Taiwan's tiniest lighthouse. (Not as impressive as it sounds.)

This was the trail. Luckily, we were the only people on it. Along the trail, they had signs which explained some aspects of Thao culture.

After that brief excursion, our next stop was Syuanzang and Syuanguang Temples, nestled on mountain outlooks that offered a beautiful view of the lake.

That tiny little island in the center of the lake is called Lalu island.


Self-timers on cameras are a wonderful things. Otherwise, David and I would have no pictures of ourselves together.

Again, a view of the lake (and us). It had rained during the night (hence why it's so gray and overcast) but it was still a nice day and we were luckily spared from any residual rainfall.

At yet another stop, we saw more statues of the zodiac beasts (tiger, dragon, rabbit, monkey, etc.) and this sign which apparently says Sun Moon Lake in Chinese. All I know is that many people were trying to snap pictures of themselves next to this rock.

There wasn't much else there besides the statues and rocks and so we kept on driving. We'd already seen half the lake that morning and I certainly hoped that the other side of the lake would have more to entertain us with, otherwise it was going to be a short day.

This is near the village of Shueishe at the Longfong Temple. I'll probably get this wrong (since David is the Chinese-speaker in our family) but longfong means twins and is often represented by the dragon (above) and the phoenix (below).


Our next stop was Wunwu Temple, a very large and beautiful Buddhist temple that, again, offered great views of the lake. David was right when he said that after awhile all Buddhist temples would begin to look alike, but the Wunwu was a very interesting temple and probably my second favorite that we visited, after the one in Lukang.


The steps leading up the main entrance of the temple.

There were a ton of these golden balls hanging all around the temple. I believe they are used as a way to represent a wish or a prayer. I really liked them and so David asked one of the workers at the temple if we could buy one to keep even though we are not Buddhist and they kindly agreed. Now it's going to be an ornament on next year's Christmas tree. David and I like to collect ornaments from all the places we've visited and we hadn't found one in Taiwan yet so this was the perfect solution.

One of the cool things about this temple is that you could climb to the roof of one of the buildings to look out over the lake.

A man visiting from China took this picture for us. When he asked David how he came to speak Chinese, he explained that he was had been a missionary for the LDS Church in Taiwan and the Chinese man nodded his head and said, "Oh yes, the Mormons." We were both a bit excited that the Chinese are growing more aware of our religion even though we're not allowed to actively proselytize in their country......yet. But soon enough, I hope.


On our way back to our car, we passed this tour bus (one of many) but which I had to take a picture of because of all the tours I'd want to be a part of, it would definitely be the Cat's Family. Also, the cat looks like Suyom (who was I missing quite a bit by this point, crazy beast).

Wunwu was our last stop before heading back to our village and hotel. It didn't make for a very long day (we arrived home around 3 or 4pm) and we had no idea what to do with ourselves for the remainder of the day.

We walked around the little village and the docks but that only held our interest for so long before we returned to our room and started to watch one of the four English channels available to us. I ended up falling asleep at 8 o'clock that night and slept for a whole 12 hours. But hey, that's what vacations are for, right?

The next morning (Friday), we checked out of our cute little hotel, and drove to Puli to visit the Chung Tai Chan Montasery, a behemoth building tucked into a mountainside devoted to the study of Buddha.

Part of the monastery and the pretty pond beside it.

When David was a missionary in Taiwan, some missionaries got in good with some Buddhist monks and they were able to tour the entire building. But most visitors--like us--only get to see the first two floors which are mainly filled with various statues of Buddha and the history of Buddhism.


There's a museum next to the monastery as well, but we opted to not go in.

Inside the main entrance hall are four massive statues with four heads each that guard the entrance. We had a brief tour from a nice volunteer. Unfortunately, she only spoke Chinese so David had to translate for me.

After our visit to the Monastery was over, we got back into the car to head to our final destination, Taipei. Those exciting adventures--and the end of this dang trip--will be the last post.....hopefully coming up soon.

Taiwan: Day 5 (Lukang)

These Taiwan blog posts are boring even me (hence why it's taking me so long to post each one) but I want to document our trip so we don't forget everything we did. You can skip over the boring parts.

Wednesday dawned damp and rainy, the perfect weather for our trip to an old historic town in which everything is outdoors. We checked out of our hotel in Yuan-lin (of our three hotels, it turned out to be our favorite hotel during our trip) and drove about 45 minutes north to Lukang, another town in which David had served in for a short while. Lukang is home to some of Taiwan's oldest and most famous Buddhist temples and is also known for its old historic district filled with artisans keeping alive many old Asian crafts.

Our first stop was to Matsu Temple (also called Tianhou Gong), an old wooden temple built in the 1600's (according to the few sketchy sources I could find) and renovated in 1936. David promised me that once I saw this temple, all others would seem boring by comparison and he was mostly right.

This is the inner courtyard with stairs leading up to more rooms (I don't know the purpose of most rooms in the temples) and a fountain full of koi.



I loved these circular doorways.

This is the memorial arch welcoming you to the temple.

Dragons are a common motif. Go figure.

The fountain.

Like any good Buddhist temple, there were lots of statues, lots of gold, and lots of burning incense.

After visiting the Matsu temple, David and I wandered around the town a bit, killing time until we were scheduled to meet his friend Suman (Susan) for lunch. I tried my first bing sha (basically a fruit slushie) and it was absolutely delicious. However, it made me very cold.

As we walked down the street, we came upon these two cats, chilling on someone's scooter.
Once we met up with Susan, we went into a very eclectic little restaurant which served an odd conglomeration of Asian, American, and Italian food. While David and Susan stuck with the Chinese food, I ordered what they called spaghetti but whose sauce had very little resemblance to tomato sauce. I was, unfortunately, not feeling so chipper by this point and so David and Susan had a nice long conversation in Chinese while I stared into space and dreamed of taking a nap.

By the time we left the restaurant, the rain had cleared up a bit, and we walked down an old artists' street, filled with old shops. David and I had walked down the street before, but most of the shops had been closed. Now that the rain had ceased, the shops were opening up.
The small street was full of interesting buildings with old wooden doors and locks. It was quite picturesque.

David and I had hoped that we'd be able to purchase a large Chinese fan in Lukang. While we did find a few fan shops, none had the large fans we were looking for. We did, however, happen upon one fan maker/artist who had a large board full of pictures of Mormon missionaries. I don't think that he was actually a member of the church, but a large group of missionaries had visited his fan shop and had brought him pictures of the various temples which he used as inspiration for some of the paintings he drew on his fans. He showed us a few with what I thought was the Taipei temple on them and even some with pictures of Jesus. If his fans hadn't been so costly (about $40 for a medium sized one), I might have purchased one of the smaller ones, but we have our heart set on a big fan to hang on our wall. I guess we'll just have to find one in China.

We did, however, end up purchasing a paper lantern at another shop. It has birds and purple flowers drawn on it, along with a bunch of Chinese characters but David has no idea what they say. He thinks it's a proverb or something. Once I take the lantern out of its box, and figure out where to hang it, I'll take a picture of it. I'm just too lazy to do it right now. (Also, it's late, and I need to be done with this post or I'll never finish documenting this trip.)

When I finally couldn't stand walking around anymore, David and I said our good-byes to Susan and headed back to our car. (I sound like such a spoil sport but I was really cranky by this point, having spent most of the day in the rain while dealing with some fun problems I won't document here.)

From Lukang, we drove east about an hour or so to Sun Moon Lake, a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains in the center of Taiwan. It's one of Taiwan's most famous and beautiful locations and huge tourist magnet. Luckily, we were hitting it at off-tourist time and we reached the lake just as the sun was setting. Sun Moon Lake has several very ritzy resorts (which we couldn't afford to stay at) but the majority of the hotels and restaurants congregate around two small outposts: Shuishe Village, at the northwest corner of the lake, and Itashao Village, which sits on the southeast corner. Our hotel, the Full House Resort Hotel, was located in Itashao Village, which is the smaller and more intimate of the two, and boasts a lot of stores dedicated to the arts and crafts of Taiwan's aboriginal natives, who mostly still reside in the mountains.

I was very excited to stay at our hotel, having read many favorable reviews and seen pictures of the absolutely gorgeous all-wood bed and breakfast. It was a small hotel, with just a hanful of rooms, with rustic charm and filled with the artwork of the owner's artist wife. It took us quite some time to actually find our hotel, since, it being off-tourist season, most of the roads in the village were in various states of disrepair and we couldn't take a direct route. We eventually found our hotel, sitting near the water's edge and went inside to check in. The hotel was just as gorgeous as I had pictured and I was excited to see our rooms, so imagine my surprise when they led us out of the hotel, up the hill, and into some little faraway little rooms that reminded me of the cabins we sometimes used to stay in during Girl's Camp. I was very disappointed.

David questioned why we were being stuck out in the boondocks and we learned that when we had made our online reservations, we had selected these rooms (being the cheapest). Luckily, they still had rooms available in the main house and so we were transferred to a room on the second floor with a deck facing the lake. After bringing in all our luggage, David and I walked around the small village and finding nothing we really wanted to eat, we bought two bowls of ramen noodles at the 7-11 and went back to our room to eat them while watching TV. (Luckily, there were 5 English channels which showed either news or a random assortment of movies.)
The exterior of the hotel. It had a lovely garden fulled with all sorts of animal statues, tables and candles which they lit at night. Unfortunately, it rained through much of our stay so no one ever ventured out. During the summer, this is probably a happening place.

A side view. I love all-wood buildings. They have such charm.

Our deck.

And then view from our room.

Inside the hotel, on the second floor. There were three floors. The first floor is the restaurant and cafe, and the second and third are the rooms.

While the hotel itself was beautiful and charming, the rooms were nothing special. The second night, a very large and noisy party checked in to the room right above us and since everything is wood, we heard every step and creak. The beds were hard (but all our beds in Taiwan were hard) and the bathroom left much to be desired, especially the too short tub and the shower head which was the perfect height for people under 5 feet. You know that scene in Elf where Buddy (Will Ferrell) is trying to take a shower in the North Pole and he has to splash water onto his face and shoulders? That's kind of what showering there was like (though the shower head was detachable).

Still, I enjoyed our stay in our hotel, if only because it was so peaceful, quiet and charming there. But best of all was our breakfast: two heart-shaped eggs with ham, toast and passionfruit juice. Real food is so good.

Up next: Our Day at Sun Moon Lake.

Taiwan: Days 3 and 4 (Monday and Tuesday)

Monday was an adventurous day for us though we certainly didn't intend for it to be so. We started out the morning by driving to Douliou, one of the small towns that David had served in on his mission. Apparently, Douliou is home to many crazy people, but we had no fun run-ins. We drove through the town, and stopped at the church building there and I was once again regaled with missionary stories (which is fun the first day, but after a week, it gets a little old :-).

We didn't really stop and explore in Douliou--not much to see anyway--so we decided to head elsewhere. I suggested we poke around the little mountain town of Rueili, which my tour book
described as a scenic little outpost famous for its fireflies, waterfalls, and hiking trails. None of the maps we had were very clear about how to actually get to Rueili, but we set off anyway, confident that it wouldn't be that difficult to find.

Well, we missed the road we should have taken for a direct shot at the town (which we wouldn't have seen anyway since we were on the highway, and the only way to access the road we really did need was from a local road) so we decided to head on to Alishan National Scenic Area and take the smaller country roads to reach Rueili from the back way. It sounded like a good plan at the time.

A short while into our trip, we stopped at Chukou, a small mountain town boasting a small Buddhist temple and a suspension bridge over a dried-out river bed. It was a picturesque place, so we decided to stop and check it out.

The little towns were always the most fun to stop in because we got lots of strange looks. Not many white people come through these parts, I'm sure.

We'd eaten a big breakfast that morning, and we weren't hungry yet but we bought some mountain apples at a roadside stand and bought a few snacks inside a 7-11 and then continued on our way.


The first hour of the journey was very scenic and beautiful as we climbed up twisty mountain roads. (Though not very pleasant on our stomachs as both David and I have a tendency to get carsick.)

Most of the land up in the mountains is used to grow tea. All those rows and rows of green bushes are all tea bushes and most people travel to this area to sample teas at various tea houses along the road to Alishan National Forest.

By this point, we'd been driving for awhile and had seen no signs for Rueili, so we contemplated just turning around. But David asked a few locals for directions and learned that the turn-off for the road to Rueili wasn't very far away so we decided to continue on our journey.

As we pressed on, the roads grew much more narrow and in some places, whole lanes had been washed away by recent heavy rain and landslides.

But even though we passed whole houses still sliding down mountains.....

.....and a strip of crushed buildings, we still didn't stop.

We had finally found the road to Rueili and seeing no indication that we couldn't still access the roads, we pressed on, though we saw fewer and fewer cars.

And then we came to this. The whole road was completely wiped out. And you know what? It still didn't stop us.

Because there were signs pointing to a small dirt road that promised access to Rueili. We'd come this far, it seemed like a shame to stop now. So down muddy dirt roads we went, climbing up and down mountains, driving through big muddy puddles and squeezing through impossibly narrow spots. Our rental car was not cut out for this kind of abuse. At one point, we took a wrong turn and ended up on some guy's chicken farm. We couldn't turn around so we had to back up the hill. I was growing more and more panicked (and hungry and cranky, since we hadn't stopped for lunch) and eventually we finally decided to admit defeat and turn around.

Our poor rental car after the journey out of the bowels of the mountain valleys. It wasn't a great car to begin with but it made a lot more noises after our off-roading adventure. It was about 2 p.m. when we turned around and started to make our long journey back to our hotel. We eventually made it back about two and a half hours later and I begged David to go to McDonald's for dinner since I wanted real food after our harrowing adventure. He kindly obliged. French fries have never tasted so good.

Tuesday, by comparison, was a much calmer day. After a relaxing morning, the Qiu family picked us up at our hotel to take us out to lunch. Brother Qiu, his wife, daughter, and a family friend took us to a Japanese restaurant in Yuan-lin. (The restaurant that they had originally wanted to take us to was closed on Tuesdays.) Brother Qiu was the Branch President in Yuan-lin when David served in that area eight years ago. They were incredibly nice and friendly people and we enjoyed our lunch immensely though I didn't get to partake in much of the conversation since only the daughter spoke much English.

The food--what I did eat--was quite delicious, though there was a lot a shrimp and fish heads mixed into things. Asians just fry up whole fish and eat it, bones and scales and all. I couldn't even handle all the tiny shrimp in the fried rice. Luckily there was fried rice with chicken as well. I eat a lot more seafood than I used to, but I can't eat it the way Asians do. Also, the Taiwanese don't drink anything with their meals, except for maybe tea, and they never drink cold water since they think it messes with their digestive systems.

After our lunch, David and I headed north to Taichung, the largest city in the area. David served in the Taichung Mission which comprised the central portion of Taiwan (there used to be 3 missions in Taiwan, but now there are only 2 so Taichung now includes all of the southern half of Taiwan). We drove to the mission home which is right next to a church building and a massive department store in central Taichung. Unfortunately, most of the missionaries were not in at the time, but we talked to one Senior Missionary married couple who were there and David bought some of their new language materials. He's very determined to keep his Chinese up.

After chatting with the Senior Missionaries for awhile, David and I went to check out this massive department store before we met another of David's friends for dinner. Kevin, who lives in Taichung, was a recent convert when David first served in Taichung. Luckily, he speaks great English so I actually got to participate in this conversation. Kevin took us to a "hot pot" restaurant. Basically, each person is given a pot of boiling broth and then you can select a variety of meats, vegetables, seafood, and noodles to boil in your pot. It was quite tasty. (Plus I'm always a fan of getting to cook my own food, especially meat, to my desired doneness, which is probably why I like Korean BBQ so much.) They even had "desserts" but Asians really don't like very sweet things and so their desserts always taste bland and flavorless to me. After a good meal, we said our good-byes to Kevin and headed back to Yuan-lin for our last night there.

Next up: the old town of Lukang and Sun Moon Lake.

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.

A Guide to Traveling in Asia

Even though we've lived in Korea for 6 months, our trip to Taiwan last week taught me that I am woefully unprepared and unsuited for life in Asia. We're really spoiled here because we do have access to American products at the commissary and the PX and I get to enjoy my favorite foods on a daily basis. We have an APO address so it's quick and easy to have things shipped to us without paying exorbitant international shipping fees. My friends are all English-speakers who are either here with the military/government or teaching English. Basically I get to live in America but in a foreign country.

So spending a whole week in an Asian country with no access to a commissary, PX, or other white people was not fun.

At least not for me.

David had a ball.

So a few tips if you are considering a trip to Asia anytime soon. (These tips, however, will not apply if you come to Korea to visit me.)

1. Bring American food and snacks - I really enjoy Korean food. A lot. But we've found a nice restaurant near our home that we really enjoy and trust to give us tasty food everytime. You won't always be so lucky with traveling to different areas of Asia. I don't think Americans have any expectations about Korean food because not a lot of people have ever really eaten Korean food. But we've eaten a lot of Chinese food--or what we call Chinese food--but it doesn't even remotely resemble the food that is consumed in Taiwan and, I assume, mainland China. David spent two years living in Taiwan, and he grew to love this cuisine. I, on the other hand, was quite surprised to discover that I couldn't stomach a lot of it. Some of it was quite good but a lot of it was just plain weird and/or suspicious. I think I was overly cautious because David had warned me that food poisoning is a constant threat and I was reluctant to eat food at the tiny hole-in-the-wall places that David wanted to eat at (because he ate at those places on his mission). I was saved, however, by 7-11, McDonald's, and the pack of granola bars I had brought along. So if you want to be assured that you'll have some food and snacks to eat when nothing around you looks good, bring some food with you.

There are, of course, McDonald's, Pizza Huts, KFCs and Burger Kings all across Asia but you don't want to travel to an Asian country to only eat American food. I was also pleased to discover that Taiwan is far more international in the products it sells in its convenience stores. While Korea tends to only sell Korean products (and a few American/European ones at an exorbitant price), Taiwan had a whole array of snacks like Kinder eggs and Oreos. (I haven't seen Kinder products since I lived in Italy.) But you'll be thankful for a few comforts from home.

Especially when something like this shows up on your plate. (And this is not even remotely the worst thing I saw. Just the only thing I happened to take a picture of.)

2. Practice squatting - Behold the squatter toilet. I've had the good luck to mostly avoid having to use squatter toilets in Korea but squatter toilets are the rule rather than the exception in Taiwan and probably throughout most of Asia. Asians view the squatter toilet has far more hygienic than a regular toilet but I found the concept of my bare bum hanging out while I desperately tried to stay upright in a squatting position to be rather onerous. Not to mention that it's rather difficult to position yourself just so to ensure that nothing else (i.e. your pants) gets in the way.

This toilet even had this helpful drawing. But I found the bar to be far more helpful. (It was the only one like it that I ever encountered.) Now, there are regular toilets. Homes, hotel rooms, and handicapped stalls are all equipped with your standard toilet. So if I couldn't bear to bare my bum, I'd wait to use the handicapped stall. Some stalls even helpfully show what kind of toilet can be found within which was much appreciated.

3. Bring toilet paper - The majority of public restrooms do not provide toilet paper so you must bring your own if you find a dry bum to be preferable to a wet one. Most stores carry little packs. The gas stations hand them out when you fill up for some reason. I found the mini-packs of facial tissue to be quite helpful. However, if you use a squatter toilet, chances are you can't flush the toilet paper down. Most Asians throw the toilet paper into a trash can. Weird, but otherwise, the toilet paper doesn't go down.

4. And soap. - Add soap and/or Purell to that list. Public restrooms also very rarely provide soap or hand dryers/paper towels for washing your hands. They are plenty of sinks, just no way to do a good job of washing your hands.

5. Speak the language or stick to the cities - Since we haven't left Seoul, and since the majority of people here speak some English, I haven't found it very difficult to get around on my own. All the signs are written in Hangul (Korean writing) and English. Same with Taiwan. But we would have been screwed as soon as we left Taipei if David didn't speak Chinese. So either you have to be an incredibly patient person, have a translator, or stick to the cities. Otherwise, navigating through Asia can be a bit tricky. (But maybe less so if you only take public transportation. We rented a car and ended up in some far away towns way off the beaten path where they probably hardly ever saw white people if the amount of stares we received are any indication.)

While David was very sad to leave Taiwan, I couldn't want to get back to my Americanized version of Korea. It's so nice to eat normal food again. And sleep in a bed with a soft mattress. (All our hotel beds were unusually hard, probably because most Asians typically sleep on a thin mat on the floor.) I definitely enjoyed our chance to see more of Asia, and especially for David to return to the cities where he served his mission, but next time I leave Seoul, I'll be much better prepared.

Up next: the exciting recap of our week's events. I promise there will be no more pictures of toilets, just giant Buddhas and a lot--and I mean a lot-- of Buddist temples.