Taiwan Day 2

On Tuesday Greg and I went hiking. We started off the morning with some delicious Chinese food.





We then went to the tallest peak in the Taipei area, Mt. Cising. It was an interesting hike, based solely on the fact that the hiking path up Mt. Cising is comprised almost completely of stairs.

Once we got closer to the peak the stairs changed

As we got closer to the peak the view got even better and better. Can you spot Taipei 101?

Yep, Taipei 101 again

More stairs

Taipei 101 in the background again



Taipei 101

Hurray! Only 120 meters to go!

View of the adjacent mountains

Yay! At the top!






Some more delicious Chinese food. This was fried pork and some vegetables wrapped in rice. It was very yummy.



Ever since I started yoga I do yoga in very odd places.


The winds and clouds were kicking in

I am absolutely drenched from my sweat. It was SOOOO humid!

After our hike Greg and I went to some hot springs to relax and cool down. These are private hot springs, where the men are on one side and the women in the other, and everyone went into the springs naked. I gave all the Taiwanese women a good laugh because after the very hot pool I went into another pool (also thinking it was hot), only to find to my shock that it was freezing. I yelped and jumped out of there while all the women laughed. It was embarrassing, to be sure, but that ended up being a good ice breaker. Some of the older women spoke enough English where they conversed with me, and helped to tell me about the benefits of each pool and some of the other things in the room to help relax.

Greg and I went to some hot springs to cool off and relax after our hike. This was the entrance (as I obviously couldn't take pictures inside because everyone is naked)

Once done with the hot springs Greg and I met a nice young Taiwanese woman with an Australian boyfriend. She said she would drive us to the subway stop (since, to get to the springs, Greg and I had to take a 20 minute bus ride from the subway stop). She and her boyfriend were very nice to us, although I will admit she was QUITE ditzy.

After the hot springs Greg and I enjoyed some more Chinese cuisine. This is a beef stew with noodles and vegetables. Very filling. We ate this once the Taiwanese girl and her boyfriend dropped us off.

Once I got back to my hostel I was invited by the other people there to go clubbing. Now, as much as I love dancing I was completely exhausted from the hike and all of the day's activities. I was pretty much in bed by midnight to get rested up for the next day's activities (which involved going to a museum and then clubbing, but that is another entry).

-AALA

Taiwan Day 1

As promised, here is my first entry for Taiwan.

Pretty much from the moment I landed that Sunday night I got the sense that Taiwanese people were extremely nice and friendly (and very interested in foreigners). I was super dressed up at the airport (leggings, nice long white button down, heels), which got me a lot of attention for 2 reasons: I looked good, and I was taller than most of the people there. When I was at Incheon airport in Korea I got a lot of looks that to me meant people were thinking, "Holy crap! Godzilla! But a good looking one!" After I went through customs in the airport in Taiwan, I sat down to wait for my friend, Greg (the high school friend now living in Taiwan). I had barely sat for 15 seconds when a nice Taiwanese middle aged man approached me, asking me where I'm from. I told him America, to which he replies, "Oh, that is interesting. You look Spanish, so I thought you were from Spain." I laughed, and told him it was quite understandable why he would think that as I am part Argentine. He started to get flirtatious, but right at that moment Greg showed up.

The next morning I did some of the more touristy things in Taipei with a guy named Juan, whom I had met in the hostel I was staying at. Juan is an interesting character. He's Colombian, and apparently works for Delta Airlines doing their payroll in Taiwan. He also makes moves on literally any breathing female within inches of him. I was no exception. Unfortunately, most women fell for it. I'm happy to say that I think I brought him down to reality with my rejection, even if it was short-lived (he went on to the next living female once he realized he wasn't going to get anything worthwhile from me).

The first thing I did was go to Taipei 101, the building formerly known as the tallest building in the world up until the unveiling of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai earlier this year.

View of Taipei 101 (or Taipei" ee-ling-ee" in Chinese)

View from the 89th floor

Then Juan took me to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial building. Sun Yat-sen is known as the father of modern China, so he is very much revered among the Chinese/Taiwanese people.

Statue of Sun Yat-sen

From outside the Sun Yat-sen memorial. You can see Taipei 101 is right behind me

Afterwards Juan and I went to get Mexican food in Taipei. We headed back to the hostel where I hung out with some of the other people I had met, and then Greg, Juan and I headed to the Shilin night market that was a short walk away from the hostel.

We tried out this fried chicken at the night market. It a big piece of chicken (bones and all) fried, and some sweet spices put on top. Very delicious!

-AALA

Jeju Island

Alright, so first off: Jeju Island.

In July Yelena and I headed to Jeju Island, an island off the southern coast of Korea. As soon as we arrived we went to one of the major attractions in Jeju: Love Land. Now, as I have said before, I highly suggest that you DON'T read this entry anywhere terribly public, like your work desk. Just as a reminder Love Land is a sex-themed sculpture park. I also warn you that Yelena and I may have had too much fun here...

Right before entering

The doorknobs of the bathrooms. The one to the women's bathroom is exactly what you think it is. As you can tell I could not keep a straight face during this.

The doorknob to the men's bathroom is comprised of those 2 circles... you can't tell, but they're supposed to be boobs.

The park is covered in arrows shaped like penises.

Yelena and I had been doing yoga for a while, so now every time we leave for an extended period of time we tend to do yoga poses in awkward places.

I like this one a lot.

After taking this picture Yelena and I both realized that the position of the statue's hand is in a very compromising position in relation to my nether regions.

This is a bicycle with some rubber things jutting out that apparently are supposed to stimulate down there... as you can probably tell from my face, it is an interesting feeling.

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Once Love Land was over we headed to our hotel. The view was really nice.






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The next day Yelena and I and some people headed to one of the many waterfalls.

Yelena and me.

Me doing the "Sorry Sorry" dance from Super Junior.

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And then we did some hiking where we saw a jagged rock jutting out from the coast. It is part of Korean lore, and plays a part in some stories. I don't quite remember the story, but I'm sure it has to do with someone turning into a rock for whatever reason and thus the jagges rock stands. Unfortunately, Yelena and I called it the Penis Rock because, well, see for yourself:

The trip was unfortunately poorly planned by our organizers. It rained for most of our stay, and they had no back-up plan (we were supposed to go on a submarine tour and horseback riding, but the rain didn't let us do it). Our organizers then had us go to the airport 2 hours early (it's a small airport; there was no reason for us to be there that early). I asked the information desk what we could do nearby for an hour and a half, and a tour guide heard us and told us he was going home, and an area of interest to us was on the way, so he'd drop us off right there for free. We took him up on it. He took us to the coast, and called the taxi company to pick us up an hour later.










And thus was my weekend trip to Jeju.

-AALA

No Taiwan or Jeju entry yet

Sorry, I'm afraid I haven't had the time nor the motivation to post anything significant yet. I caught a little bug in Taiwan, and have been sick since I arrived to Korea. I think I felt the worst of it today... hopefully. It is 10:30pm here, and I am hoping to go to bed within the next half hour. Last night I went to bed by 10:30 and slept like a rock the entire night, that's how exhausted and sick I was. So once I feel less under the weather I will post up the promised entries. Until then, keep checking back!

-AALA