... that we went to Taiwan: Day 4

Monday morning we woke up nice and early to catch a train ride up to Taipei and Toroko Gorge. Luckily mom packed us all a delicious breakfast of cinnamon rolls, frosting, and milk for the train station:

Some things never change.

The ride to Taipei was around 2 hours long and filled with the most beautiful and interesting scenery. Cities, mountains, shacks, fields, ocean, temples, and of course tetris rice paddies for days!

We finally arrived in Taipei and walked around the city a bit. First stop: the temple.

Then we walked to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial

We made it (literally) just in time to watch the changing of the guards ceremony, which reminded me a lot of the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington.

Then we visited the one place that dad still recognized from his own mission 40 years ago: a little restaurant that he ate at as a young 19 year old missionary.

The food was super delicious and it was so fun to think of dad eating there at that same place as an elder! We stopped at the temple again for a quick potty and picture break

Then headed out in search of the jewel of Taipei: Bing!!!

Taiwanese shaved ice is called Bing and it is DELICIOUS. Just look at Fin's face when she can't reach it hahahahahahaha!

After we stuffed ourselves, we took a quick subway ride up to Taipei 101, the 5th (?) tallest building in the world.

Very impressive. We jumped back on the train and kept going north to:

Matt found heaven in the middle of the train station

And then we were shuttled off to our "hotels" for the night...

Kell and Jer were taxied off to some place else, and we got to stay here with mom and dad. Looks adorable right?? Not so much. Turns out that mom and dad had randomly found this guy that rents out his house and bicycles to tourists going to Toroko Gorge. Maybe it was the heat, or the mosquitoes, or that we couldn't get the air conditioning to work at first, or I was just tired... or the slippers we had to wear because no shoes were allowed in the house,

Or the strangely bizarre decor,

Or the bathroom that was OUTSIDE on the balcony and had a completely open shower so that the entire bathroom was soaked and dripping since humidity is 1000% in Taiwan and nothing is ever dry ever,

Or maybe it was all those things combined, but I was... less than thrilled at our accommodations. When we finally left to go pick up Kell and Jer, we found that they had been put in an "actual hotel," which they were complaining about as well until I begged them to switch rooms with us hahahahaha. In all reality, it wasn't that bad, I was just super grumpy. But a trip down to the local beach improved my mood immensely.

So beautiful!!! When it started to get dark, we walked back into town in search of dinner... And things might have gone back downhill a little again hahahaha. I think I first started to become concerned when I noticed that the rest of the town seemed to be completely deserted and all the other restaurants and shops were closing up for the night... at 7:30. I asked mom several times where we were going to eat since everything looked closed, and she reassured me that our place would be open. I wish it hadn't been.

Fakest smile award goes to: All of us except Cutterman, who seems to be the only one not hiding his true emotions about this... "restaurant."

Oh my sketchy. We were not sure what type of meat was on the noodles, we didn't know how long this food had been sitting in the display window, and we couldn't tell what was in the vegetables besides hundreds of tiny fish. Our saving grace was the rice, which was edible, but still tainted by the horror of the other dishes hahahaha. We ate as much as we dared and got the heck out of there. A few days later, Dad told us kids that Mom had finally admitted to him that the food at this place was not good, and added, "So you know it was REALLY bad, cause she never ever complains about the food here!" Complaining, justified. Or as Matt put it, "I'm gonna make fun of that place all I want, now that even your mom doesn't like it!"

To close out a wonderful evening, I tried for 20 minutes to take a shower, but the lovely people renting out the other rooms in the house must have been trying to shower at the same time too, because there was not a drop of warm water to be had and the water pressure was all over the place. I ended up splashing myself down as best I could and calling it a night.

We love... "adventures."

... that we went to Taiwan: Day 3

The next day was Sunday. We went to church with mom and dad at a local English branch. There were a lot of Americans, but also a lot of visitors from all over! We went to Sunday school with a few investigators from Mongolia and there were a few people who came just to practice English.

This girl was so funny. She came up after Sunday school and started chatting with me, told me how beautiful I was, then asked if she could take my picture, and then a picture of me and Matt. I thought for sure that she would then ask Kell and Jer for their picture, but she didn't HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! She also asked me to explain to her how Twitter and Instagram work hahaha.

After church, we enjoyed a quiet Sunday at home with mom and dad and had some homemade curry for dinner. It was nice to have a day to relax after all the running around we'd been doing!

We love Sunday!

... that we went to Taiwan: Day 2

The next day, we took a trip to Monkey Mountain!

 

There were signs everywhere that said "Do Not Feed the Monkeys," but do you think that would stop Sister Blickenstaff?? The housekeeper (yes, they have a housekeeper) had cut up a GIGANTIC bag full of carrot sticks and Cutter was literally throwing handfulls of them at the small band of ravenous little monsters. One of them took a swipe at poor Fin while she was trying to feed them, so she was a little more wary.

So fun! And just up the street from the monkeys was a temple where they just happened to be having some sort of festival, which included a parade, food stands, incense, and even a dancing/sword fighting performance.
 

Chinese architecture is so beautiful! On our way back past the food trucks, Matt spotted this stand that was selling snails. Yes, snails.



The guy was selling them by the cupfull. DISGUSTING. Matt spent 5 minutes trying to ask the guy if he could buy just one snail, and the guy kept trying to sell him a whole cup. Finally, mom explained that he wanted to try just one, and the guy gave in. And Matt sucked the tiny snail right out of that disgusting shell. Did I mention disgusting?
 

Matt said it wasn't that bad.

After a quick stop for some real lunch, we met up with a friend of mom and dad's who wanted to get us into a children's museum for the kids...

And, also for Matt.

We had fun messing around for a little bit and I was reunited with an old friend:

The Squatter. Took me right back to high school when our jazz choir traveled to China. Good times!

We ran back home and then ventured out again to get some dinner from "this great Chinese place we eat at all the time."
 

Welcome to Sketchville.
Population: Us.

It was actually pretty good though hahaha. We decided we hadn't had enough adventuring, so after the kids were down, the Rexs and Harrisons went out again in search of... more treats. We found this stand that had a huge line in it, so whatever it was HAD to be good! It ended up being basically a sweet roll with a pad of butter in it the size of a sheet of paper... so pretty good! We also rounded out the night with some gelato.
 

We love all the food!!!

... that we went to Taiwan: Day 1

There are only 3 words to describe Taiwan: hot, humid, mosquitoes.

Every day. All day long.

By the time we got home from the airport it was super late and we were exhausted, so we all just crashed. The next morning, I was feeling a little tiny bit better, but still hadn't eaten anything besides half a taco and a handful of Triscuits in the last 24 hours. Thankfully, I just KNEW that my mommy would have exactly what I needed to make me feel better:

TSU!!! I had my mommy and a hot bowl of tsu, and all was right in the world.

I was still feeling a little weak, so I took a nice relaxing shower while everyone else went out to get some breakfast at the morning market. By the time they came back, I was feeling better and ready to go out! We took a little walk around mom and dad's neighborhood:

We walked to a huge mall close to the house and grabbed some peanut butter burgers for lunch! And by we, I mean everyone else but me because I was still scared to eat real food. But I sure wanted to, because FreenBurger looked delicious!!! Who knew peanut butter and cucumbers could be so good on a hamburger???
 

Course you could put just about anything on a burger and Matt would eat it. All-American over here.

After lunch we took a little longer hike up to a scenic view of the valley

Fin is such a crack up with her "funny face!" And she sure does love her Uncle Mott!
 

After our hike (of which I totally forgot to even take a picture of the view... -__-),  we walked around the night markets a little bit. Three night markets to be exact.
 

Asia is awesome. Every night, the city opens up and every major road has a night market on it. It's like a street fair, but EVERY NIGHT. Asians know how to party! The first market was more of an outdoor mall area with enough Christmas lights to rival Whoville.
 

We picked up some cotton candy, then made our way to night market #2:
 

This scene was a little more authenic. Tons of little booths and shops lining the street selling almost anything you could think of. Jam packed crowded with people, food carts, and scooters that would run you down if you weren't paying attention. It was awesome!!! I LIVE for this stuff! I love the hustle and bustle of busy crowded window/treat shopping in a big city! I think Matt would have liked it too if he hadn't been so preoccupied with making sure I didn't get run over by anything hahaha. Mom and dad pointed out a fried rice stand that they like, and we got a few orders to take back home. I decided I was ready to try some real food, and I'm so glad I did because OH MY DELICIOUS.
 

This was also the fateful night that mom and dad introduced us to Taiwan's finest treat of all: Donggua Moussa
 

A "winter melon herbal iced tea" drink that could bring world peace and solve the energy crisis. I think we ordered at least three of these every day for the rest of the week.

After putting the kids down, it was time for night market #3:
 

Also super authentic and even more crowded than the last market! This was more of a large lot with rows and rows of just food carts and trucks. AWESOME.

I'm pretty sure this is where 95% of the country eats dinner every night. Because everyone in the whole country was there! And it was just a regular Thursday! Although I'm not sure you would actually want to eat here every night...

FREAKY!!! But dad was on a mission for one thing and one thing only: Indian burritos.

Yes, we flew halfway around the world to eat Indian food wrapped into a burrito. Mom and dad kept saying that authentic Taiwanese food was not that great anyway hahahaha. But we did find this super legit guy who sold us a box of dumplings

And Kell had a hankering for some fried chicken
 

Don't be fooled by our jackets and pants: it was hot and muggy and sweaty! But the jackets were the only way to keep the mosquitos away! We went home exhausted, but full. Such a fun night!

I love Taiwan!!!