Laos - Temples, Mountains and Booze

Helloooo all! John has invited me to guest write on his blog or in other words he's just too lazy to write them all. This blog is about our travels in Laos!

Thailand - Beaches, Jungles and Booze

Hello!!  I've been very lax about my updates again. It kinda seems a bit pointless now because we'll be home next week but I'll plow on regardless.  This one is about the gigantic tourist trap that is Thailand. That's not meant to as negative as it sounds but it's the perfect way to describe this beautiful country.

Malaysia - Beaches, Temples and Food

Hello again! I've been really lazy about writing in this ever since we started traveling. I had great plans at the start to give a detailed account of every single place we visited and to let everyone know about the good, the better and the best. How much like hard work does that sound?

Singapore - Welcome to the Woooorld of Tomorrow!:

The first leg of our trip was Singapore. I'd heard a lot about the city so I was very much looking forward to seeing it. If I could pick one word it would be: modern.

About our Travels

As I said last time out, we left Taipei for Singapore on the 29th of March. This was the first leg of the 'journey of a lifetime'. At least, that's what it feels like to us. Basically, we are going to travel across South East Asia and see if it's as beautiful as everyone says; purely for research of course.

Joy to the World

So, we left Taiwan on March 29th on a flight bound for Singapore. I left Taiwan with mixed emotions. It's been a pretty crazy 6 months for us since we left Ireland on the Stena Line to England. I've mentioned all the new things that have happened to us so I won't go into it again but I will say that the experience has had a huge impact on me personally.

I've learned a lot about myself and how I deal with different situations which are thrown at me. Our whole time in Taiwan has been brilliant. Yes, some things really annoyed us at times but everyone loves to complain, right? Right.

Overall, we met brilliant people and have great memories from Taiwan. Along with how much I actually enjoyed living in Taiwan, the teaching was an unexpected surprise. It took me a little while to get into it but I ended up really enjoying it.

I haven't spoken a whole lot about the actual job we did in Taiwan so I'll try to explain it a bit more now.

The End of the Road

We finished work on March 19th. We decided to take a couple of days and travel around Taiwan before we went home to travel around Taiwan. We're kind of operating on the principle that we won't be in Asia again so we want to make the most of it while we can.

We have done a fair few trips down the west coast of Taiwan and have seen a lot of Taipei in our time here. So, we decided to head down the east coast which is much less populated and see what it was like. Everyone told us to see Hualien and Ylan so we booked 3 nights in the former and 1 night in the latter.

A Town Called Jhunan

(Disclaimer: I might veer off into a rant about our town at some stage but I genuinely love it here. I think the 'thin line between love and hate' perfectly describes our relationship with Jhunan. We complain about it sometimes but still love it. And if someone who doesn't live here complains about it then we defend it to the hilt! It's a lovely little town and has been very good to us.)

Funny Story No. 1: The Demented Taxi Man

As you can imagine, we've built up a few funny stories while we've been living here. Mostly they're related to cultural differences and not being able to speak the same language as loads of people. I'm going to try and write up any funny ones that I can think of during work and post them up here once a week or so. The main reason I want to get them written out is so that I don't forget them because some of them are actually hilarious.

Things We'll Miss from Taiwan

We are leaving Taiwan at the end of next month (March 29th). By the time we leave we will have been here 6 months. It's probably not a massive amount of time to live somewhere in the grand scheme of things but it seems like a long time to me. 

It's been a pretty big six months for us after all. It's the first time I've lived abroad (I'd never even been to Asia before this), first time I've worked as a teacher and it's the longest time I've worked in the same job - in fact it's my first 'proper' job really. (It's also the first time myself and Katie have lived together, so that's also been a pretty big deal).

The Tourist Side of Taiwan

This post is more about providing a bit of information about Taiwan for anyone who'd like to know. I think it has a bit of a bad rep - the only thing people said when I was coming here was "at least you'll get loads of cheap crap". The information I could find before I got here was sketchy at best and didn't really give me an accurate picture of the place I was about to move to.

So, in a way I'm trying to right the wrongs against my current home!

We've done a fair amount of touristy things in the time we've been here but probably haven't seen as much as we could (and maybe should have). It's always hard to act like a tourist and get stuff done when you're living in a place for a relatively long period of time.

Food in Taiwan

One thing we all need, everyday, is food. We're supposed to eat three times a day to have a healthy diet and when we don't eat we're hungry, tired and irritable. So, it's pretty important.

Which makes it weird that I wasn't worried about how different the food would be in Taiwan. "Sure, I'll eat anything", I thought to myself. I would regard myself as a pretty good eater at home and I thought I'd just kinda be grand with whatever was available here. I've noticed a common theme about things I thought before I got here - they were all wrong.

A Foreigner's View of Taiwan

tTaiwan as a country is pretty fascinating. From a foreign point of view, it's a study in contrast. It sounds cliched but it really is a clash of the old world and the new. Our friends live on the 18th floor of their apartment building in Jhunan and the view from their place kind of gives a picture of Taiwan. 

Out one window, you can see the sea and all the natural beauty that accompanies it. The other side shows you a mass of grey buildings as far as the eye can see during the day and what seems like a city of lights at night, at least to me. The funniest part is that all of this is overlooked by two temples set high over the city. 

Random Stuff Blurted Down About Taiwan so far......

First of all, I want to apologize for being so lax in my communication. I think people who are away from home expect everyone else to make the effort to stay in touch. I certainly thought to myself that 'there's only one of me, and countless amounts of them. I should be able to just sit here and everyone will be dying to talk to me'. 

But as we all know, that's not how it goes. Everyone has their own lives so it's up to me to make an effort too. Hopefully, this will be the first of many posts that will at least open up the lines of communication between me and anyone else who cares!

So, where to start?