First Week Back

It has been a fun yet crazy week. Sadly, we had to work on Saturday to make up the Friday we missed last week. I think it's silly, of course. The Taiwanese do not understand the meaning of "a day off". They are very hard workers here. I guess we just got used to the wonderful vacation we were having and getting back to work, especially on the weekend, seemed a little unjust.

We did get a few surprises this week that made it really special for us. It is always fun to hear from and associate with our family and friends, and this week we received TWO packages. We couldn't believe it! We requested some things from my parents (of course this is Lauren writing because I am not nearly as eloquent in writing as my better half) and we were expecting to get a package from them, but they surprised us with some Valentine goodies. Thanks guys! We also received a Christmas/Birthday/Valentines/February surprise package from Gavin and Tiffany. We have the best family in the world!

I have learned from our families examples how much it means to reach out to those we love. I will try to show more support and love to my family and friends. I know I can't send out care packages to everyone but I hope my family knows I love them.

My Parents Visit Taiwan

My parents came to Taiwan for a week long visit after we came back from Thailand (it has been an action packed vacation for us to be sure) and we had a wonderful time showing them around Daliao. We also were able to visit Taipei while they were here to visit the temple. Rob and I had never been to Taipei so it was quite an adventure for all of us. My wonderful husband has adopted the Taiwanese photographing skills so this also will be more of a photo recap. They are more fun anyways.

The first day we went to a Salvador Dali exhibit and walked around Kaohsiung a little bit. We unfortunately did not bring a camera for this trip so we don't have any pictures. I thought it was a very interesting exhibit though. That Dali is a strange duck with a gift for art. The second day was Sunday so we went to church, hung around the apartment a bit, and took a drive through some nice pineapple fields. I think, debatably, Dad's favorite part of the trip was when we went to church.

We took a picnic lunch with us to visit Chenching lake in Kaohsiung city. It is a huge park
that I would compare to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The park surrounds a large lake and has beautiful pagodas
and fun things to see. We had a wonderful afternoon just walking around this place

Mom is the ever-do-gooder and started to sweep up. These brooms are left all over the park
for easy clean up I suppose. 

There was a bird park that contained chickens, pigeons, and peacocks. I think there
were more birds on the outside then inside the cages. 

Another pretty little bridge in the park. I think my parents are quite lovely. 

We had a few meals at 7-eleven because in Taiwan the restaurants are only open
for meal times and we were running on an odd schedule. This was our little snack so our stomachs
wouldn't growl while we were in the temple. 

I love to see the temple.  

We had a wonderful time at the temple. It was very peaceful when we were
there and I was thankful for that, being in such a bustling city. 

After the temple we went to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the monuments there were HUGE.
They don't mess around when they are honoring people I guess. 

I guess you can't tell how large that building behind us is, but it is 250 ft high. There was
also an event going on while we were there and tents were everywhere. It was a big party.  

Just a cute boy playing with some pigeons. It was fun to watch the pigeons fly and everyone in the
square go chasing after them. I couldn't help but sing, "feed the birds, tuppence a bag..."

We went to Taipei 101, the largest building in Taiwan.  It was the largest building in the world for
just over five years before Dubai started building their monsters. It was fun to see the city from that high,
but I thought this was a beautiful picture of the building. 

We spent our last day at Fo Guang Shan. There is a tooth from Buddha that is held in a shrine here and the rest
of the area is dedicated to promulgating the Humanist Buddhist teachings of Venerable Master Hsing Yun.  There's a monastery, several large shrines, and a number of visitor centers and educational buildings.

Rob is usually behind the camera but I snapped this beauty of him. My mom cut his hair and I think
he is looking great. 

This is in the main worship hall and it is quite a site to see. I don't feel like the picture does it justice. 

This is the main monument where the Buddha tooth is kept. It is quite an extravagant an beautiful place to visit. 

We had a wonderful time with my parents here. I am afraid it has made me a little hungry for home and I have started counting down the days until we start our next adventure.

THAILAND!!

Oh my heavens!! I don't even know what to say about our trip to Thailand. It was such a wonderful, beautiful, exciting, and relaxing get away for us. Luckily, Rob and I took a ton of pictures so I don't need very many words :) Here it goes.... another photo recap.

We had a long lay over in Hong Kong so we found this little restaurant and camped out for a few
hours and watched The Big Sleep. We definitely paid for the table by the time we were done, but it was worth it.

We arrived in Koh Samui at seven in the morning and had some time to kill before our ferry.
We wander to this market area and found these two guys waiting to greet us. How nice. 

My interpretation of the Big Buddha. 

You can see Koh Phangan in the distance on the right side. These were the boats
that we took to get to the island. 

After quite a trip we finally were settled in our room with this spectacular view.
The ocean was only about fifty yards away. 

The first day was a bit rainy so we got to enjoy our books.
Rob read about six books on our trip while I made it through Treasure Island
and started Robinson Crusoe. I thought they were very appropriate books
to read on an island. 

This is a picture of our beach. Our resort is located in the bottom left corner
of the picture. It was beautiful. 

Another beautiful picture of the neighboring beach. It is 300 Baht ($10) per person on a good day
to take a taxi (boat or truck) to the main beach. We were somewhat stubborn and somewhat adventurous
in deciding instead just to hike over the mountain. We had taken the truck into our resort and knew how
insane the mountain was. Straight up and down. People even told us not to do it because we'd get lost. 

I think Rob did a really nice job on taking this picture. I am swinging on a rope swing and I am not
a very good model in pictures. 

Here we are at the TOP!! It was ridiculous getting here though.  Switch backs are a wonderful thing
that have not yet reached this island I guess. The hike was really pretty fun but the mosquitoes almost drove me
crazy. I couldn't stop to catch my breath because there would be twenty just waiting to bite me. 

There is the jungle we hiked through. 

The jungle was pretty thick and it was hard to see the path sometimes, but it was fun finding our way.

The difference in the kind of people that we saw at each beach was funny. This is a picture of the main
beach where the full moon party happens and the beach is like powder with perfect rolling waves. This beach
has a lot of college aged travelers that wore a lot of neon colors and were there to party. Our beach had a lot of soul searching hippies that woke up to do yoga at 6 am and ate nothing but juiced vegetables.  

One of the few pictures that we had someone else take. 

We decided to take the taxi boat back and it was a wild ride. I wish we had a picture of the
waves we went over. The drivers were totally fearless and weren't even phased by the tipping boat. 

I just couldn't resist putting this one on the blog. Love it. 

Just another picture of the mountain we conquered and my beautiful husband.  

Birthday Lunch! Yes I did order all three dishes and a drink. Although, I didn't quite
make it through them all by myself. (love the sunburned guy behind me)

I had a fantastic birthday of yoga, swimming in the ocean, eating great Thai food, and
enjoying it all with my favorite boy. 

My first coconut. This was a great little spot to eat, watch the waves, and read. It was
also really close to our room. 

Proof that Rob can find a bookstore anywhere. 

I had a banana shake for almost every meal I had and sometimes two.
They were really really good. I can't wait to be reunited with a blender so I can make them.

I had to get a banana shake before I left Koh Phangan so I rushed to this little place
before getting on the ferry. I downed the shake and jumped on the boat. I have never had any
sort of motion sickness before, but the waves were really rough and sure enough I tossed my cookies
right over the boat. Sadly, the wind was quite strong (rough waves) and some girls were standing a little too close.
Something tells me this was not the first time they had seen someone sick on this trip because they just got out their
cameras to take a picture of the "seasick girl". It all turned out to be really funny and I was fine after. It'll be a memory. 

We just couldn't resist riding a scooter for our one day on Koh Samui. We got to see a lot of the island this way. 

This is just one of the cool things we found on our scooter exploration. 

Rob with Ganesh, the Hindu god of wisdom. Very fitting. 

Our last morning in paradise. We ate at that little corner stand where we found some great Thai people
who were cooking up some really good food including fried bananas, sweet potato, and little balls of
goodness with peanuts in the center. 

Just to top of our trip we were given first class so that we could make our connecting flight in Bangkok.
It was all so wonderful and I can't believe it went by so fast. 

Hope you enjoyed!