Sunday, January 2, 2011

New Year & New Destination

Bye-bye Taiwan, hello Thailand!

I just arrived Thailand. I'm currently sitting at an internet cafe at Bangkok airport. I'm patiently waiting for my BFF to arrive from Sri Lanka. She will be here in about 7 hours. I have a feeling this will be a very long night. But it will be sooo worth the wait!

So, I have about an hour of internet. I feel I should blog, but there are a million things to blog about. Let's take one things at the time and see how far it takes us.

I've just spent five days with my grandma, uncle and my cousins in Taiwan. Luckily I saw my cousins last year, at my wedding, but I hadn't seen my grandma and uncle for three years. But it doesn't matter! If you're family, you're family, especially in Asia. To sum things up, I've spent the past few days eating, eating, sight-seeing and eating. There have been so many highlights, but just to mention a few, our New Year's Eve was spectacular, re-discovering my roots was amazing and I really enjoyed a 2,5 hour bike excursion (even though I couldn't sit comfortably for a while). Oh, did I mention the food?

We celebrated New Year's Eve at Taipei 101, on the 73rd floor. If you don't know, Taipei 101 was until recently the tallest building in the world. This New Year's celebration was extra special because Republic of China (Taiwan) is celebating 100 years. The fireworks was concentrated around the building itself and now I know how it feels to be inside fireworks!

Re-discovering my roots was very important to me. I know my roots very well, but this time I got to share and show my husband. We visited my birthplace, my mother's birthplace and where we all grew up. We visited my grandpa's temple and paid our respect. But the most precious moment of all was sitting on the porch of our family home, with my grandma, grandpa's best friend, my uncle and my husband, enjoying the sun with a cup of coffee and newly boiled peanuts.

On December 31st my cousins took me and and my husband out for a bike ride. It took us about 2,5 hours to bike from their home to the coast. The bike path was great and the views were amazing! However, I can't even remember when I biked 2,5 hours straight last and I definately felt the consequences for quite a while! My behind is not built for biking!

Food! I ate, ate, ate and then ate some more. I've been stuffed since the minute I arrived Taiwan. It's insane the amount I've eaten! I'm amazed I still fit into my cloths. Favorites? Taiwanese beef noodle soup! I wish I could swim in it! I also LOVE the night market foods, especially stinky tofu. And then there are all the desserts! I don't even like desserts, but then I don't get to eat desserts like these! I have a feeling I will show exactly how much I've eaten when I parade around the Thailand beaches in the very near future...

Thailand... this will be my location for the coming few weeks. As I just mentioned I'm currently waiting for my BFF. She's done an amazing trip in Sri Lanka for the past few weeks and now we are spending the next 10 days travelling around Thailand. I can't wait to hear how she's been! We celebrated New Year's last year in Vegas. We did an amazing road-trip last winter and this winter we are back-packing in Thailand. It is somewhat questionable if this is proper back-packing, we are flying between destinations and we've already booked all our hotels, but at least all our stuff is packed in back-packs.

There are actually lots more to write about, considering everything that has happened the past few days, but you know how it is (or is it just me?). When there is a lot to write about there is no time to write. When you finally get time to write, it has happened too much to capture all the details.

I will try to up-date my blog along the trip in Thailand. But don't be surprised if I'm distracted by the sun, the beaches and the general relaxation.

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