Chuseok (추석) or Korean Thanksgiving fell on a Sunday this year. Monday and Wednesday were both holidays, but for whatever reason Tuesday was not (for most that is). Luckily I had Tuesday off. My original plan was to go on a group trip to Ullegendo and Dokdo. Dokdo is a rock island that Korea and Japan fight over. There's nothing there, but it's important to Koreans. Ullegendo was listed on CNN as one of the top 50 spots to see in Korea and it did look absolutely stunning. In the end I decided to go to Taiwan with 2 friends.
My friends and I spent a good 2 weeks listing what we wanted to see and how we could fit it all in in the 4 full days we had in Taipei. My friends booked a flight from a different website then I used. We were on different flights to and home from Taiwan. On my way to the airport I got a call from my friend telling me the airline didn't have their reservations. He sounded hopeful that they could get it figured out and be on a later flight to Taiwan.
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| in the park |
I arrived in Taiwan and turned on my phone to see if I had any messages from my friends. I was bummed to see that they might have been scammed, which meant they probably weren't joining me in Taiwan. Luckily I knew my neighbor was also vacationing in Taipei, so I messaged her to figure out a time to meet up.
Despite the minor set back of not having travel companions, it ended up being a really great time. My plans completely changed. I got to see most of Taipei and do a day trip. I met a lot of great people in the 4 days I spent there. It was a popular destination for other teachers on break for Chuseok. I jumped on a bus to my hostel with another girl and spent the ride getting to know her and talking about teaching and such. I met lots of Koreans that instead of spending time with their families, also decided to leave the country.
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| Chiang Ke Shek Memorial area |
My hostel was decent. A little dirty and I may or may not have gotten some weird red spots from there (they are on my arms and legs... not sure where they came from). There was a girl in my hostel room who was a lot of fun to talk to and it turned out we both had a mutual friend in common, who previously lived in my town (he left about a year ago). Small world! This girl and I were on the same flight back to Korea. We traveled to the airport together and requested to sit next to each other on the plane,which ended up making the 2 hr 25 minute trip home, fly by! We talked non stop from the time we left the bus terminal to the time we landed in Seoul.
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| Taipei 101 building... |
I made a day trip to a place called Wulai, just outside of Taipei (or in Taipei, I don't really know). It's famous for its hot springs and a beautiful waterfall. My 2 friends and I walked for awhile in search of the waterfall. It was so green and gorgeous in this little town. We took a gondola up closer to the waterfall and hiked around the area for a good part of the afternoon. 2 couples were coming down the one path speaking Mandarin to each other. They stopped to say hi and ask where we were from. I started talking to them and told them I'm from Pa. They began to ask whereabouts in PA and I told them. The one couple looked at each other and then at me and said "We graduated from Penn State!" It was so random, a little town in Taiwan that I would run into this couple!
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| Wulai waterfall |
The food was decent, though I didn't eat as much as other people have (or get very good stuff). I ended up getting a stomach bug or something so I barely ate and when I did in the afternoon it usually made me feel sick.
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| stream in the woods |
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| swings! |
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| by far the most beautiful temple I've seen! |
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| Modern Toilet restaurant. I once saw this on the Food Channel, ya know where they go to bizarre places around the world. |
All my Taiwan pictures are posted here: https://picasaweb.google.com/MeganLyn15/Taiwan?authkey=Gv1sRgCICPvPbaxfD6kQE
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