2018 Year Review
April 24th, 2019
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Posts Tagged ‘taiwan’
Cebu Wedding & Taipei Layover
July 27th, 2018
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At the start of the New Year we were in the Philippines. The day before we left to return home we had dinner with a good friend and she told us that it was her goal to get married in 2018. We counseled her not to agree to get married to the first guy that she meets and to really make sure that she chooses the right one for her and not worry about a deadline. So, you can imagine how surprised we were to find out that she got engaged about two weeks after we had dinner with her, to a guy we never met from Indonesia. In March, Matt & I flew out to attend the wedding; where I kind of played the role of the “Mother of the Bride” since her own mother passed away a year ago. With two days of activities prebooked and the use of Uber, we made the most of our time in Cebu, Philippines. And as an added bonus, we booked a tour guide for our layover in Taiwan, so it was like two vacations in one. This felt like a “second honeymoon” for us and we still really like being with each other after 15 years of marriage!
Day 1
Swimming with whale sharks
Five minute hike to Tumalog Falls
Canyoneering – where you hike through nature and jump off waterfalls
Day 2
Scuba diving in Moalboal where we swam with sardine bait balls
We stopped by Pro Foods factory and bought a bunch of dried fruit
Day 3
The married couple are happy and in love.
Day 4-6
Relaxing at Plantation Bay Resort
Shooting Range at Plantation Bay
Somebody may have gotten the Emperor’s massage
8 hour layover in Taipei, Taiwan
Instead of staying at the airport for 8 hours, we booked a tour guide through Viator.com and got Nancy who we were very happy with.
Our first stop was to the National Taiwan Museum
Our friend told us about Mango Ice and it was so yummy
Lanterns in front of Songshan Ciyou Temple
Taiwan Vacation
January 26th, 2014
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A few weeks after returning from California, Matt and I had a “couple’s get-away” to Taiwan. His birthday is in November, so we used that as an excuse to get away for a weekend. One of the perks of having trusted house help is leaving your kids for an extended “date night(s)” in a neighboring country! We have really come to LOVE having a tour guide when we visit countries since they know the language and how to get from place to place. So, we found Donna on Viator and were happy with all that we were able to see and do in the 3 full days that we were there.
Day 1:
First impression of Taiwan is that it is clean. This lady was mopping the sidewalk outside of her store!
If you are going to stand on an escalator, stay to the right…everyone follows this rule
Some street food that we tried that was pretty good
Traveling with a Tech-Savvy guy like I do means checking out electronics. However this was not like Fry’s. Many small electronic stores, but at least they were all near enough to each other at an area called “3C”
SCORE! We found the padfone…one of the reasons why we chose Taiwan as a get-away.
Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversary…all in one with a new phone and dock/tablet
Dinner at Din Tai Fung Dumpling House. Really yummy food and a pretty famous restaurant
After dinner, we asked our tour guide if she knew where the “Mormon Temple” was at and she took us right to it. We have a friend serving an LDS mission there now, but sadly we didn’t see our friend.
Ended the day by watching a puppet show and opera at Taipei Eye. We got to take photos with members of the cast at intermission
Day 2:
Started off the day by visiting Mengjia Longshan Temple
Outside of the National Palace Museum with our guide…no photography allowed inside
Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall grounds. He was the former president of the Republic of China.
We were able to watch the changing of the guards in front of the Chiang Kai-shek statue.
Beitou hot-springs. You could smell the sulfur and supposedly you can boil an egg in seconds there at the main source.
We opted for our own private hot-springs at Villa 32…and it was a perfectly romantic location; away from the free and/or public hot-springs.
Last stop of the day was at the Shilin Night Market. We have so much fun trying to get the best deal on things.
Day 3:
We rented a car and drove north-east to the mountains and ocean. The wind and water created these cool rock formations.
From the minerals in the water, these are known as the “Golden Waterfalls” in Jinguashi.
The three of us explored Jinguashi mining grounds.
We walked through the crowded Jiufen market.
We walked around Ping Hsi “Pingxi” branch rail where we saw people “play sky lantern”. They would write sayings or wishes on a paper sky lantern and then release it.
We walked to Shifen falls and it was lovely. If it was warmer we may have been tempted to swim there, but it was a chilly day.
We ended the day by having dinner at Taipei 101. We had this whole room to ourselves for about half of our 7-course meal.
Taipei 101 is super tall with 101 floors…we ate on the 86th floor (or there about).
Good-bye Taipei, Taiwan. It was a wonderful weekend get-away.
More photos of our Taiwan vacation here.
