Well hello Thailand...

Most of us have our mental bucket lists of at least a few breathtaking places in this world we'd like to see in our lifetimes right? Now, I'm not saying I've had this life long dream of coming to Taiwan because to be quite honest if you'd asked me anything about Taiwan a year ago the most I'd probably have been able to tell you is that it's in Asia. But Thailand has definitely been in my top 5 for a long time. I mean come on, anyone who's seen a picture of the gorgeous crystal blue waters and the tall coconut trees of Southern Thailand would agree it's obviously a slice of paradise. So  being in Taiwan I figured I've no excuse not to make my way to Thailand while I'm in the neighborhood...or at least in the hemisphere. 

Unfortunately I didn't visit Southern Thailand this time but instead met my travel group in Bangkok and then spent 9 days traveling from there up to Northern Thailand and even across the Laos border. Anyways that leaves me with a completely legitimate excuse to return to Thailand in the future right? I took hundreds of photos so obviously it would be a little difficult to share them all in one post so I've decided to split them up. So I'll start from here with Bangkok!

View from our hotel room ^ which I'll admit is anything but impressive in photos but once you stepped out of this little area and on to the main road it was completely different. Tuk tuks and food stands every where. Typical of a large city it was chaotic to say the least, loud streets (tons of honking), exotic smells, and what would be an Asian country without having at least a handful of 

7-11's in site at all times? 

Our first day touring in Bangkok was a busy one. Our transportation for the morning was a pretty loud bus with wooden floors and no AC. I think this made us all a little weary seeing as we were to be taking a 7 hour public bus ride that evening. Thankfully that one turned out to be a more comfortable, air conditioned coach. By the way in case you're interested on how a Thai native instructs you to take a public bus "When you see the bus, run!" Fortunately, the bus actually came to a stop and we didn't have to do the whole run and jump maneuver. 

Wat Pho sometimes referred to as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha was the first stop of the day. Although I'd checked out some photos of the famous reclining Buddha I certainly wasn't expecting it to be so large in person. It's feet alone are 3 meters high and it's pretty much impossible to squeeze the whole statue into a single photo. 

Surrounding the temple were tons of Buddhist stupas which are basically monuments that house people's remains. As you can see the stupas in these pictures are massive and very ornate with lots of colorful porcelain embellishments. 

Who would've thought that something which is basically a graveyard could be so picturesque? 

Just one of the walls lined with Buddhas which had come from all over Thailand. 

There was an initiation of new monks on the day we visited the temple so we got to take a peek of the monks and their families during the ceremony.

A market in China Town with tons of dried meat, fish, and who knows what else.

Later we took a long-boat tour of the Bangkok canal. Our tour guide told us it was their version of a gondola tour in Venice haha 

Well I think that's about it for Bangkok. I was only there for a couple of days so there's tons more I didn't get to see. One thing I really would've liked to see was the weekend market which I've heard is enormous. But I guess that's something else I can add to my list of reasons to return. 

Enjoy the photos there's many more to come! 

Ash

 And of course what's a stay in Bangkok without a Tuk Tuk ride?! Definitely not the most relaxing mode of transportation. I swear it took me back to my first couple of terrified rides on a scooter in Taiwan O_o

Weekend outings in Taipei

Spring has sprung and it's amazing what a little sunshine does for you. Lately I've been able to do a lot more exploring on the weekends. Well to be honest sometimes I just end up getting on the wrong train and getting lost but that's part of the fun right? On one of my outings I finally made it to one of Taiwan's most popular landmarks the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial (above) and it was so much more than I'd expected. 

FYI Taiwan definitely takes the cake for the longest changing of the guards routine I've ever seen.

The National Theater and Concert Halls (above) stand in front of the memorial. They remind me of a lot of the temples I've seen around Taiwan only much bigger. One thing I always find funny is how kids here meet up to practice "dancing" in the most random public places and apparently this is a pretty popular one. There were also a lot of people running laps around the National Theater (below) which totally blows my old running route around downtown Raleigh out of the water. Sometimes when I go to these awesome places that in no way resemble anything we have back at home I always find it amusing how normal they are to people here. One of the Taiwanese teachers at my school even asked me why I wanted to go there. Really??

And of course what's an Asian landmark without a pond full of koi fish?!

^^^La gordita that kept ruining my pics while trying to sneak 

away from her Grandma lol

In the midst of my shopping in Taipei I stumbled upon a froyo and almost freaked out! 

So of course I had to take a snack break.

If I haven't mentioned it before people in Taiwan are obsessed with all things cute. So of course the subway is decorated with bunnies and ice skating piggies!

Welp, that's all for now folks :-)
Cheers!
Ash

Sky Lantern Time

To say this post is way overdue would be a huge understatement so I'll just skip all the excuses and get right to it. Let me start by saying that when I first started considering the possibility of coming to Taiwan, instead of China as I had originally planned, one of the first things I did was go straight to google, type in Taiwan and clicked on images. A lot of the pictures that popped up were of an annual event called the Sky Lantern Festival that happens at Chinese New Year. I won't say that's what sold me BUT it was definitely one of the first things on my Taiwan bucket list. So by time Chinese New Year rolled around I was super excited. Unfortunately the official festival was in the middle of the week when I had to work and no where near where I live. But I did finally get to go to Pingxi the week after and partake in the sky lantern tradition. Because it was still around CNY season there were a lot of people there doing the same but not quite enough to see the sky as full of lanterns as the picture I'd seen. (see what I mean here http://www.commercialappeal.com/photos/galleries/2012/jan/28/day-pictures---january-28-2012/48410/) Nevertheless I had an awesome time and was so excited to check off something else from my list.

Here are some pics of the lantern festivities and the cute little town, Pingxi, where we spent the day.

^Painting our lantern. You get to chose out of 9 colors of paper lanterns and they all have a different meanings like romance, good luck for school/tests, growth, hope and of course money. We chose the most traditional: red for good fortune (that should cover everything right?).

There were more lanterns in the sky but most of the pics that I got didn't come out too great because it was raining. But it was definitely a beautiful sight to see all the glowing lanterns floating in the sky. Some even had fire cracks tied to them, which actually was more scary than anything.


I hope every one is enjoying the beginnings of another beautiful Spring season!

God bless,
^_^ Ashley

Fireworks anyone?

Last weekend we had the most amazing weather. I was actually fooled for a couple days into thinking that Spring might just be around the corner. Then Tuesday arrived and the temperature and rain started falling. But fortunately I was able to enjoy the sunshine for a little while. I even got to go to the Circus! I'm not sure where the circus was from because none of the performers seemed to be Asian so I will be kind to Taiwan by not calling it a Taiwanese circus. We weren't supposed to take photos so the only one I got is below. And I'll just be honest you ain't missing nothing. No crazy acrobats and no animals at all! WTF?! Does that even count as a circus! I think my friend could see the disappointment painted on my face when she excitedly asked me if I had seen anything like it before. My response? "No actually I can't say I've seen anything quite like this." hehe

But hey one more thing to scratch off the list right?! :-)

Sunday I went to the beach which I was warned in advance was not a particularly beautiful beach but it was a sunny day so I figured it couldn't be that bad. It was pretty windy and chilly but next time I definitely want to ride one of the tandem bikes they rent out.

This is the city's historic East Gate. I posted a pic before in my first post but it's probably one of my favorite places in Hsinchu because it's one of the things that stands out between all the department stores and fast food places and says HEY! Just in case you forgot you're in Taiwan! To everyone else it's just as boring as any out dated brick building would be to me back home but every time I pass it I smile a little to myself. Well...actually that's a big lie because as you can see it's in the middle of a crazy traffic circle and usually I'm on the back of a scooter in the midst of the chaos and my life starts flashing before my eyes. But after I escape from the traffic circle then I smile ;-)

Maybe some of you know this already but Monday was the day of the Lantern Festivals. I don't live in a major city like Taipei so our festival was pretty small but I got a few pics of all the cool lanterns. I must say these people are obsessed with fireworks! And if there is one reason I'm glad Chinese New Years is over it's those damn fireworks. I don't exaggerate when I say they were setting of fireworks everyday for the past two weeks. Even in the mornings! People set out food or offerings (I think) in front of their houses and then set off fire crackers to "welcome" the New Year. Anyways, fireworks rant ends now. 

These pictures are at the festival they had at the park across the street from my apartment building.

By the way 2 posts within 2 weeks! Who's bad? lol I'm getting better though right? Thanks to my parents for the new camera (which my dad warned me comes with a special feature- it will self destruct if not used frequently).

Hope you're all having a great week!

Ashley