From Toronto to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Taipei. A 21 hour voyage through the clouds, over the mountains and across the ocean to get back to what is, for now, home.
A morning cup of cereal as we wait for our plane to arrive. We brought our own heritage O's and grabbed some cow juice and a cup, perhaps stole the latter, and sat down to a nice last meal in Canada as we watched the morning come to Toronto, and the neverending airport buzz go on and on like it always does.
The highlight, for sure, was this view of Mt. Fuji as we made our way southward past Japan.
Bam - landed, check in at our hotel, walk the well worn path to XiMen district and sit down for a nice cold Taiwan beer. However, lost in translation somewhere along the way was our true intent - Taiwan beer, which in Chinese is "Tai-Pi". What we got insead was what the bartended thought we were asking for, in English - "Thai-Pi". We asked for Taiwan beer, he thought we wanted Thailand beer. Tai, Thai....
So, while we were speaking perfect chinese, he thought we were speaking half english ("Thai" for Thailand) and half chinese ("pi", which is short for beer in chinese). He thought we wanted "Thai-Pi". As he opened the first bottle of a Thailand beer we realized this in complete horror (we like Thai beer, dont get us wrong, but we waited ever so patiently all summer for our next Taiwan beer that this was a horrible reality facing us....truly!). I lunged toward him and pleaded my case, stammering out in rapid chinese that I dodnt want what he had already opened....we both realized what went wrong, and the remedy was quick. However, I did take that one opened bottle which, if your paying attention to the picture above, is why my bottle is different than Crystals which is obviously a Taiwan Beer bottle....
Then, the move. Last year when we left we were allowed to keep all our stuff in our old house. Packed and boxed in a corner, it stood idle for the summer. Then, we promised, when we arrived back in Taiwan we would immediately return to pick it up. That required us, a van, our friend Peter and his car and a beautiful sunny, scaldingly hot day to pack, transport and carry all of our belongings up five flights of stairs. Three hours of up and down, trails of sweat along the staircase, and then finally completion. Our rented van was returned (renting a vehicle here is as easy as "can I rent your van, Ill bring it back tonight" "ok, $2500NT for the day" "ok" "here are the keys....goodbye"). So, then, that is us in our rental van on our way to our old village to get our stuff.
The morning view, complete with the setting moon, early this very morning...
So, we are here now. Moved in, mostly unpacked and found some neat running routes along the ocean. If we get to the ocean before the sun gets up, we are ok. If the sun beats us, then it,well, beats the heck out of us with its heat. We have a 10 minute window where if we take too long brushing our teeth or getting dressed in the morning to go for a run - torture. If we are on task and get right to it - a placid morning jog along the crashing waves.
So here goes year three on the island nation of Taiwan!
