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Thailand. The land of smiles. A country filled with mouth-watering, chili-induced food, breathtaking scenery, and chaotic but colorful cities. Yes. This was the perfect place for a little vacation.

My brother and sister took off on their month long Asia tour 2 days before the New Year and started it off in the sprawling, sweltering heat of Bangkok, Thailand. Sarah and I decided what the hay, let’s take a few days off from school and meet them there. To all of the readers of this blog and our Facebook friends, it probably looks like we’re just on a giant vacation, but in reality, teaching is exhausting. Not in a bad way, but we were definitely ready for a few days off.

So we happily took the 3.5 hour flight to Bangkok and we couldn’t have been more excited. Finally we could get some much needed vitamin D, but more importantly, we were ecstatic to see Jordy and Brittni.

We started out Thailand right. A tower of the local Chang brew, and the most famous dish and equally tasty, Pad Thai on what is probably the most famous backpacker street in the world, Khao San Road. You can literally find/do/eat anything you want on this hippie, dreadlocked backpackers road. From dirt cheap elephant T-shirts and questionable food stalls, to bamboo tattoo shops, forged diplomas, and fried scorpions on a stick, to seedy trance clubs, and the constant “would you like a massage?” from the rather manly looking girl on the corner…you can literally find it all. The road is electric with energy, although maybe a few too many people who had a few too many Changs. Other than that, it’s a great place to soak up the backpacking vibe and acclimate to the sensory overload of a vibrant Southeast Asian country.

The following day we took a short 1 hour flight to the Western, coastal town of Krabi. Krabi is the gateway to the postcard perfect islands of Thailand. Jordy and I had done quite a bit of research before arriving in Thailand and decided that Tonsai Bay and Railay beach would be ideal places to stay. After a longtail boat ride to Tonsai Bay, we were ready to chill. And we did just that. Tonsai Bay is a rock climbers paradise. The beach is surrounded by massive limestone cliffs scattered with carabiners and quick draws for the people to climb. It’s a laid back island. There’s not  a whole lot to do past dark. There’s a couple bars and restaurants but it’s mostly quiet. We played some euchre and caught up on life with our siblings.

We rented a longtail boat and driver for a day and island hopped to Koh Poda, Chicken island, Koh Tup, and Phranang Cave. Freaking paradise. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

We headed back to Krabi to catch a boat to Koh Phi Phi. Before the boat, we needed to fulfill one of Brittni’s lifelong dreams of riding an elephant. We trampled through the jungle on huge elephants and it was awesome.

Koh Phi Phi is one of the most famous islands in Thailand and rightfully so. The water looks fake it’s so blue and the beaches are impressive. It’s also incredibly touristy. Thousands of tattooed sleeved students on their gap years partying their brains out gets a little old. It was fun to get a change of pace from the chillout-ness of Tonsai, but it was loud on Phi Phi. All that aside, it was fun. It was fun to watch drunken white guy try out their Muay Thai, or Thai kickboxing skills on each other in the ring. It was fun watching the bamboo tattoo shops fill to the brim with people wanting a permanent souvenir from Thailand…after drinking a lethal bucket of Thai whiskey and red bull. Not a good idea. Luckily we didn’t see anyone with a Mike Tyson face tattoo.

We took a longtail boat tour to Monkey beach, dove off a 12 meter cliff, and visited Maya Bay, which has to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

Now, when you see a longtail boat, “safe,” or “unsinkable,” are not words that come to mind right away, but after our ride back to the island, those words turned out to be true. We noticed at Maya Bay that it was getting cloudier and real windy. We didn’t think much of it at first, but after we started making our way back, we realized this was going to be a very interesting ride. Let’s just say we were surrounded by 15 foot rolling waves and our measly longtail, who’s greasy engine looked older than dirt, was barely carving through them. It was scary. Jordy was freaking out, Brittni and Sarah were doing the laugh cry and I just couldn’t believe we were about to capsize and drown. Thankfully our driver was a BOSS. We made it back soaked to the core, but safe and sound!

Our last 2 days were spent in Bangkok walking through Buddha temples and sitting at the riverside. Our last night, my roommate from studying in Taiwan, Filip, met up with us. I’m always amazed that we live on different continents but still run into each other once or twice a year. Great times.

All in all it was a great vacation. It was so nice to spend time with my bro and sis in Thailand. Now back to Taipei we go. It’s going to be a fun 2 weeks showing them around Taipei!

Peace!

Hey everyone!

Don’t worry we’re still alive 🙂 sorry for not posting earlier. We’ve been very busy with Christmas and all the festivities!

Where to begin? I’ll start out with saying that it was a very different Christmas for us here in Taipei. It was tough being away from our families during such a wonderful time of the year. On the other hand, it was a great opportunity for Sarah and I to really focus on each other and most importantly, the TRUE meaning of Christmas, Jesus Christ. We’ve really been diving into His Word and really focusing on following His plans for us. It’s an exciting point in our lives as a couple 🙂

Anyways, back to the festivities. Unfortunately, while you were all pigging out on steak and drinking egg nog, we were teaching the wonderful children of Taiwan. Yea, Christmas isn’t an official holiday here. That was rough. Luckily, our school threw a Christmas party for the kids. We sang songs, had a talent show, and did a gift exchange. I was even able to dress up as Santa Clause!

We weren’t able to personally give gifts to family and friends at home, but as you’ve seen from previous posts, we’ve become really close to our night market family. The three little boys are so cute and we wanted to give them some gifts. We hooked them up with some sticky balls, airplanes, swords, masks and other toys. It was so fun watching their little faces light up as they unwrapped the toys. We spent Christmas Day hanging out with our “family” in Taiwan. We couldn’t ask for anything better while we’re here.

Now, Christmas wouldn’t be the same without spending it with our real families. Thank goodness for skype! We got our butts out of bed early so we could spend Christmas with them via skype. It was almost like the real thing. We took turns opening our stockings and gifts and had just as much fun as we would have had at home. Dad, you’d be proud. I even had Sarah do a scavenger hunt for her presents 🙂 We would like to thank all our friends and family who sent us Christmas cards, gifts, notes, and star wars chopsticks! You’ve all made us feel very special this Christmas away.

We have an exciting few weeks ahead of us! My brother and sister are on their way to Asia as I type this blog. We will be meeting them in Thailand for a nice vacation and then they will be coming back with us to Taiwan for a couple weeks! Although it’s hard being away from family, we’ve been fortunate to have families take the time to come visit us.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Kyle and Sarah

Yo!

2 weeks ago we had the Brower invasion here in Taipei and the day they left for home, we were able to open the parent Doors to Asia! My Mom and Dad came to visit us in Taipei last week 🙂

My parents have had an interest in Taiwan ever since I studied abroad here in 2011. They’ve seen the pictures, heard the stories, watched the Anthony Bourdain episode, and decided it was now or never! My Dad agrees with me whole heartedly when it comes to visiting a new place….get the inside track. After 4 months of living in Taiwan, we’ve got it down pretty well.

Just like the Brower’s, the Door’s took the long trip from GR to Taipei and landed at Taoyuan International Airport. I was there to welcome them to Taiwan and get them back to our place. It’s fun to see everyone’s faces when they get out of the airport and take the taxi into downtown Taipei. They’ve all been traveling for 24 hours and should be dead tired, but when I look back from the passenger seat, all I see are big, wide eyes and looks of pure wonder as they gaze out the windows at an untrodden place. What a rush!

Dad, you’re going to be mad, but I need to start with a little preface before getting into more detail. Randy Door, for those of you who don’t know him, is my Father. He likes to know where he is, he loves meeting new people, and likes to know where his food is coming from. He does not like getting clobbered by scooters, roaming around second-tier foreign cities, or getting lost in a sea of people. Welcome to Taiwan, Dad…This should be fun 😉 Going into the trip, I knew my Dad would be faced with some uncomfortable situations. Who wouldn’t? He could have been on Mars for all he knew. Although it was hard for him to talk to people, and scooters always seemed to miss him by a hair, we’re confident he had a great time here!

Back to the week. Sarah and I showed my parents a lot of the same things as the Brower’s because they are the most popular things to see in Taiwan. Unlike the Brower’s, we didn’t go anywhere too far away, so we were able to spend some more time around Taipei and nearby cities.

Our first day started with the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall and Elephant Mountain. I’ve mentioned Chiang Kai Shek in previous posts, so I won’t elaborate anymore on that, but Elephant Mountain is a must-see for any visitor to Taipei. After taking the MRT to the end of the red line, it’s a 30 minute walk and a 30 minute stair climb to a breathtaking view of Taipei. The weather in Taipei right now can’t decide what it wants to do. One day it’s freezing and rainy, the next it’s scorching and humid! This particular day was scorching and humid…it was a long, sweaty 30 minute stair climb. Good thing the views are worth every drop of sweat!

We were trying to think of a day trip we could do that wasn’t too far away from Taipei, yet different. Keelung was the perfect choice….or so we thought 🙂 My parents arrived late Friday night and Saturday was the pretty classic sightseeing day. Monday was Keelung. I had been to Keelung during my first stint in Taipei so I was pretty familiar with it, but I didn’t realize how culture-shocking it could be for people who have barely left the US. We got off the bus to high winds and rain on a side street full of little Chinese shops and food stands. WHAM.

I should say something about my Mom here, too. My Mom is pretty even keeled. She’s not as vocal about being uncomfortable, she just likes to soak it all in. I think I get my adventurous side from her. She may have been just as uncomfortable in Keelung as my Dad, but she took it in like a champ!

Keelung was fun. We were able to check out the famous seafood night market, although the famous lanterns weren’t lit up 😦 We made my parents try sushi and even got them to eat some night market food. I’m glad we took this trip as it was eye-opening for them and got them further out of their comfort zone. Great experience in Taiwan.

The rest of the week was spent showing them our favorite spots in Taipei. We took them to our favorite restaurants, our night market, Shilin night market, and went to my old stomping grounds in Gongguan/Shida where I went to school. I have to say it was nice to get my Mom back for all the torture she put me through growing up with eating…”Mom, you have to sit there until you finish your plate!!” 🙂 We soaked in the hot springs of Beitou, and took them up to one of the Brower’s favorite spots, Maokong, also known as Tea Mountain. We also took them to our favorite temple, Bishan Temple and hiked around the mountains of Neihu.

Having our families visit us in Taiwan was awesome. It was so fun to catch up with everyone and show them our lives in Taipei. The two trips were also very different. With the Brower’s, it was fun sampling all the crazy food and hanging out with our night market buddies. With my family, it was fun showing them a completely new place. We loved having visitors!

Now we have 3 weeks before we head out to Thailand to meet my brother and sister! We will be traveling in Thailand together for 10 days and they will becoming back to Taipei! Going to be a great few weeks again 🙂

Kyle and Sarah

 

 

2 weeks late…I know. Good thing we have a really good excuse. We had a fantastic week last week! After 3 months of Sarah and I hanging out all by ourselves, everyday, every minute….every second, we finally got some visitors! Don’t get me wrong, Sarah and I love hanging out together, but it was nice to have some others around 🙂 Sarah’s sister Abby, brother Matt, and sister-in-law Lara, made the long trip from Michigan to Taipei, Taiwan to visit us!

They landed on Tuesday night at Taoyuan International airport. I picked them up from the airport as the taxi drivers never know how to get to our apartment. Granted, we do live on a tiny, hidden street, the taxi drivers just never know how to get our place.  Landing in a completely foreign country after 24 hours of travel and getting lost in an enormous city isn’t on anyone’s top list of fun things to do. Well, we made it back fine and started the week off with a family-style Chinese meal at one of our favorite restaurants. The Brower clan did very well with the chopsticks, but were a tad apprehensive about the food. Great start to a very fun-filled week!

The first full day consisted of showing the family the ins and outs of daily life for us in our slice of Taipei. We started the day with one of the most popular drinks in Taiwan and staple for any visit to the country, bubble milk tea. Sarah and I could drink this everyday, but apparently it’s a bit of an acquired taste as the Brower’s were a little weirded out by the bubbles. We visited our local day market, parks, and lakes around our area. Abby was even able to experience the SQUATTY POTTY! Definitely need to have good aim. It was a very nice introduction to a very unfamiliar country for our visitors.

The next few days were spent from riding the famous Gondola up to Tea Mountain to taste the different teas (Lara’s favorite!), to learning about Chiang Kai Shek’s leadership at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.  The girls also shopped to their hearts desires at the clothing market and we savored the legendary snacks at Shilin Night Market.

Taiwan’s number one tourist attraction is Taroko Gorge. It is a beautiful George. It’s an incredible scenic 2.5 hour train ride through mountains and hills the eastern side of Taiwan. Taroko Gorge offers stunning views of the Liwu river that cuts through the marble rock of the gorge. The trails are plentiful, and views are abundant. As I always say, Taiwan has some of the best natural beauty in the whole world…as you can tell by the following photos!

Instead of staying in a hostel near Taroko Gorge, we decided to stay in a second tier city in Taiwan called Hualien. I love the smaller cities. They have such a different/foreign feel to them. After a full day of hiking and sightseeing, we were ready to get to our hostel. Matt booked a great hostel called the Secret Base. Sounded sketchy, but we couldn’t pass up a room with 3 big beds all lined up!

We had fun exploring Hualien, although I’ve come to notice the Brower’s develop hangriness. A new word I invented.. when someone gets so hungry that they get angry. Watch out. Everyone wanted a break from Chinese food, but no one wanted to admit it, so everyone was getting hangrier and hangrier. Luckily, we found a decent place to eat that satisfied everyone’s hangriness!

Friday night couldn’t have been spent any other way….with our local night market buddies. As you’ve read from previous posts, we’ve become very good friends with the people at our night market. Matt, Lara, and Abby needed to experience the Taiwanese hospitality. Let’s just say we ate some very strange food that night. You can’t push it away either, because every time you turn around a new plate is put in front of you and everyone wants to see you eat their dish! We ate everything from clams, snails, and dumplings to peanut rolls, fried squid, and oyster pie. Have you ever had that feeling in your throat where you’re about to throw up? Your cheeks expand and you start to heave a little? Yea, the oyster cakes were not good.

As a lesson learned from 2 weeks prior, I warned everyone to stay away from the Taiwanese liquor. Everyone agreed that that was a good idea, but we slowly watched everyone else get a little friendlier and friendlier. By the end of the night, we had given everyone an English name and we were getting kissed from literally every single person! It was definitely the most memorable night for us…you never know what’s going to happen at the good ol’ night market. 🙂

It was such a fun week having the Brower’s in Taipei. We laughed our butt’s off, tried betel nut with the locals, and even got the crap scared out of us by an earthquake! It was a super busy week, but there was so much to see! I’m sure we’ll be reminiscing about this trip for the next 50 years 🙂

Yo,

Great week this week! We also have a couple super exciting weeks coming ahead as we are getting visitors! Sarah’s brother, sister-in-law, and sister will be in Taipei on Tuesday, and my parents will be here the week after they leave. We are so pumped to have family visit!

So there was this place that I had been dying to go to. This place is actually pretty close to our apartment, just never went! I never would have thought that HARLEY DAVIDSON would be in Taipei, let alone a 15 minute walk from our house! I definitely miss riding with the guys, so it was fun to drool over all the bikes.

As you know, we’ve really been enjoying our local night market. A couple posts ago we introduced you to our favorite cook, Terry. This past week we officially gave him that English name…he just looks like a Terry, doesn’t he? Well this past week we got to know him really well because our friend Yvonne joined us for supper. Terry speaks Chinese very fast, so it’s hard for me to have a legitimate conversation with him. Thankfully Yvonne was there to lend a hand. A group of Terry’s friends were also eating and drinking at his place and we were invited to join in the festivities. Let’s just say these guys knew how to throw back their 高粱酒 (the local liquor), and were more than excited to be sharing it with their new American friends. Long story short, my Chinese became quite good and everyone had a great time 🙂

Clams and steam roasted/soggy peanuts.

That is pig intestine. How does that look Sarah? Turned about to be a little rubbery…

Sarah and Terry. Terry is a BOSS.

Our night market kiddo’s!

We also took an unexpected trip to the coastal town, Danshui. Danshui is a small town about an hour MRT ride from Taipei. You could compare it to Holland or Grand Haven for all you Michiganders. We didn’t have a lot of time to spend there, but it was fun to walk around the waterfront and sample the local burning squid! As I always say, it’s nice to get out of Taipei from time to time. It can be so easy to just stay in Taipei, but Taiwan has so much to offer outside of Taipei!

We ended the week with a home cooked meal with Yvonne’s family! After eating out so much over the past 3 months, it was so nice to eat a home cooked meal! Yvonne’s mom made so many dishes and each one was delicious!

Beef, shredded pork, bamboo chutes, edamame, oysters, Chinese vegetables, fish, tofu, chilies, and some others I’m probably forgetting…but so yummy!

Stay tuned for an exciting blog post next week!

Kyle and Sarah

 

 

Hey all,

Today is officially the 3 month mark. We packed up and came to Taiwan 3 months ago…time sure does fly. November is going to be a super fun month for us. Sarah’s brother, sister, and sister-in-law are visiting in a week and a half! Then the day they leave, my parents are visiting. It’s going to be a blast showing our families our life in Taipei. My brother and sister also booked their tickets to come visit in January! It’s going to be awesome.

Nothing huge happened this week. We started the open houses at school this week, which was pretty nerve-wracking. The parents of the kids come sit in the classroom and watch us teach for 45 minutes. Awkward turtle! Afterwards, we have to sit with the parents and our school director to talk about the kids. It’s not one on one like the parent/teacher conferences are back at home. It’s tough to talk about each kid while every other parent is listening. You want to tell each parent how their kid is doing, but you have to be careful not to insult the other kids. It’s just different, weird, and a little awkward. On the other hand, it was really nice to meet the parents and see their concern for their kids learning. Thankfully I can sit back and relax because I’m done! Sarah has all three of hers yet 🙂

Tuesday night we went to a place called The Brass Monkey to meet up with my old classmate from the Mandarin Training Center from my first time in Taiwan. He’s working in Shanghai but comes to Taiwan frequently to see his girlfriend. It was great to see him and catch up!

Sarah was able to learn a little salsa dancing from a local Taiwanese guy haha.

This weekend we decided to explore some more of the hiking trails in Neihu. We found the waterfall we were looking for last time and did some river trekking as well. It’s so nice to be able to walk to the trailheads and escape the hustle and bustle of Taipei.

We also checked out one of the few breweries in Taipei. Beer and Cheese sells the best beer we’ve come across in Taipei. They had just finished brewing the hoppiest IPA Taiwan has ever seen and I was able to get the first taste of the first keg! It was delicious.

I also love sitting on the shore of Bihu lake with my beautiful wife at night 🙂

Have a great week!

Kyle and Sarah

 

Happy November! Also, happy birthday to my beautiful wife today 🙂

It’s finally getting “cooler” here. We’ve hit the 70’s! It’s so much nicer and easier to be outside when it’s 75 degrees. I hear it’s getting pretty cold back in Michigan…even some snow? We definitely won’t miss the snow, but Fall sure does look great. Enjoy it for us!

We had a fun week at school this week as we celebrated Halloween with the kids. Halloween isn’t technically a holiday here, well I guess I’m not even sure if it’s technically a holiday back at home, but a lot of people don’t celebrate it here. Our school on the other hand, turns it into quite the event! The week consisted of many Halloween themed coloring sheets, word searches, pipe cleaner spiders, and homemade pumpkin masks. The kids had their English mid-term exams early this week, so it was fun to end the week with all the Halloween stuff.

Friday was the big Halloween day at school. The teachers were given their costumes as you can see below. Sarah was a gingerbread man and I was some sort of Chinese ninja haha!

The kids came all dressed up as batmans, firefighters, and the characters from Frozen…their all time favorite movie. The kids had to try and find candy in the “scary box,” a box filled with fake mice, and a bunch of other icky things. Since the kids don’t trick or treat in Taiwan, the school gave candy to the local businesses to pass out to the kids while they sang their Halloween songs that we learned over the past couple weeks. My favorite part of the day was telling the ghost stories. I’m sure you’ve all heard the “HUMANS CAN LICK, TOO!” ghost story. The one about the “dog” underneath the bed? Anyways, my kids told me they weren’t scared of anything, so I told them that story with the lights off and a flashlight under my chin. Let’s just say the toughest boys in my class were scared crapless at the end! The kids had a blast and it was a nice change of pace for the teachers as well.

Friday night we joined the hordes of all the other young people downtown Xinyi. Most of the bars had costume parties so we checked a few out with our skeleton and demon costumes. We were getting lots of crazy looks on that MRT ride in!

Today is Sarah’s 25th birthday! We celebrated with going out to eat to an All-American restaurant so Sarah could get a giant salad with…RANCH DRESSING! She’s missed that so much being over here haha.We also went to our favorite food stand in our local night market to get one of our favorite meals.

Sarah walks around Bihu Lake every afternoon, and she’s become good friends with a guy we call Terry. He is the owner and cook of our favorite food stand! It’s always fun to interact with their grandchildren and eat a delicious meal 🙂

Until next Sunday…see you!

Kyle and Sarah

Hi everyone!

Nothing too exciting to write about this week…just a normal week living life in Taipei.

Our weekdays are pretty normal here, just like any day would be back home. We teach, exercise, eat, watch movies, practice Chinese, read, and hang out! We try to make the weekends as exciting as possible. I caught a nasty cold this past week, so we decided to stay in Taipei…so nothing too exciting this weekend.

Thursdays. We’re usually pretty tired from teaching, so we’ve dubbed it the “our night to explore new restaurants in Taipei,” night. We finally decided to try Korean BBQ. We’ve been meaning to try it since we arrived, just hadn’t done it. It was AMAZING! All you can eat for two hours. Lamb, chicken, beef, Korean beef, smoked bacon, kimchee, calamari, shrimp, you name it, you can eat it. You have a grill in front of you and the servers bring plate after plate of whatever you want to stuff yourself with. So good.

Anyways, a couple posts ago we mentioned the church we started attending called Bread of Life Taipei. The pastor told everyone about a worship concert that was being held at a local college. Turns out the worship was lead by a pretty famous worship band out of Redding, California…Bethel Worship. Have you heard of them? The lead singer wrote the song “One Thing Remains,” probably one of the most famous praise songs. We decided to check it out and it was a great decision! The worship was awesome. Huge stage, a ton of people, and amazing music. Sarah and I sat towards the front along the aisle, and during the sermon, the lead singer came up to Sarah and me and shook our hands. He must’ve spotted our heads towering above the sea of Asians as he said we were the only people that looked like we were from America, haha! I think the band was a little jet lagged and culturally shocked. I guess he wanted to say hi to some “familiar” faces 🙂

Sunday…should’ve taken the train to some ancient town or temple. but we decided to go to….COSTCO! Yay! It’s the closest thing we will get to the Meijer experience. Our friend Yvonne was so nice to take us there as we don’t have a membership. It’s about the exact same experience as it is at home…a ton of people, a ton of food we couldn’t find anywhere else in Taipei, and the Costco deli…awesome! We splurged and picked up some familiar food. Pretzels, tortilla shells, oreos, and cheese, we are so excited!

Off to make some quesadillas. Bye bye!

Kyle and Sarah

 

 

你好，

It’s that time of the week again!

Another great week in Taiwan. Tuesdays are days where Sarah and I both work later in the afternoon, so we have time to walk around and get things done. This past Tuesday we had to make a run to the immigration bureau to pick up our passports and officially become residents of Taiwan! Now we can apply for our resident card and open a bank account. Near the bureau is the 中正紀念堂 Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. It’s a very famous monument and landmark in Taiwan dedicated to the former president of Taiwan. It’s a beautiful park and monument displaying exquisite Asian architecture.

On Saturday we strolled down to the Taipei 101 area to grab some food and meet up with a few co-workers at a brewery downtown. It’s always a fun time when we’re near the 101…just love that building. We hung out for awhile and had a couple tasty IPA’s.

Now Sunday. I was tracking the weather all week making sure it was going to be a sunny day to travel to 金瓜石 Jinguashi to hike Teapot Mountain. We’ve been reading up on the many hikes in Taiwan and this was deemed a must see. The weather forecast looked perfect, so we hopped on the train to 瑞芳 Ruifang and grabbed a bus to 金瓜石 Jinguashi. Upon arrival, we were welcomed with clouds and rain 😦 Such a let down at first because the scenery looked amazing. We decided to make the best of it and do it anyways! So, welcome to “Hiking Teapot Mountain in the Rain.” “In the Sun,” will be coming later this year hopefully!

Anyways, we started the trail at the Jingaushi Gold Ecological Park. It started out with a bunch of stairs which kind of made us mad. We were trying to get away from the trails that were man made…we wanted to do a legit hike! Stairs upon stairs upon stairs. Finally we made it to one of the first summits. The stairs ended and made way for remarkable views of the surrounding mountains and ocean. We kept wondering what it would look like if the sun was shining down…just wasn’t happening today. The views were still unbelievable!

Now, I’m not a huge fan of heights or being in situations where my life could be over if I moved my foot an inch the wrong way, but we definitely experienced this today. We had to make a decision after summiting Teapot Mountain. Did we want to summit an even bigger mountain to complete the circle or go back down the way we came? This was a tough decision because it was starting to pour and we couldn’t even see the top of the next mountain because of the fog.

Again, we decided to just do it. We’re here, let’s do it. Sarah and I are not hardcore hikers, but we do enjoy a challenge. This was challenging. The people that had climbed Teapot Mountain had dispersed and we were all alone on this trail with it starting to downpour. We kept plugging along and came to this. This is one of those situations where I do not feel comfortable at all.

“Just don’t look down, you’ll be alright,” I said to myself as I looked down at Sarah making sure she was alright. In reality, it wasn’t an incredibly tough climb, but it was raining hard and it was so slippery. One little move the wrong way and we were going to be tumbling for awhile. “Just make it to the top and you’ll be alright,” I kept saying to myself and Sarah. We made it to the top and had to encounter this. Yay. A rock scramble along the edge of the summit in the pouring rain! We weren’t sure if it was more scary because we literally couldn’t see anything and knowing we were at the top of this huge mountain or if it was the rock scramble…not sure. We just wanted to get to the other side on solid ground.

We made it across and continued the trail down the other side of the mountain and onto solid ground. It was a fantastic/intimidating/hair-raising hike to say the least, but we are so glad we did it! We can’t wait to give it another go when the weather cooperates.

Cheers!

Kyle and Sarah

 

Yo yo yo!

I’ll jump right to it. Nothing too exciting happened this week, so I’ll hop right to this weekend.

A little preface. We had this past Friday and Saturday off of school because Friday was a national holiday here in Taiwan. Vacation, YES. I had been daydreaming of what we could do, where we could go, and who we could meet for the past 4 weeks. Maybe we could fly off to a different country? Not enough time to make it worth it. Maybe we could go to one of the Taiwanese islands? Wanted to, but our passports are being held prisoner at the immigration office so we can officially be residents in Taiwan. I know! We could go see an ancient city on the coast of Taiwan! Really wanted to do that, but the torrential rain this past weekend made it impossible to really go see anything outside of Taipei. Poop. It seemed like we were going to waste a perfect opportunity to see Taiwan.

I’m glad I was wrong! The rain didn’t stop us from seeing some of the great attractions near home. Friday it rained like cats and dogs. Honestly, we didn’t do much. On Saturday, we got our rear ends out of bed on time and decided to do something! Ever since I told Sarah about this massive clothing market called 五分埔 (Wufenpu), she’s been DYING to go. We grabbed our rain gear and decided to go! Wufenpu is an enormous wholesale market selling every type of clothing you can think of. There’s over a 100 stall and shops crammed into tiny streets and alleyways. I’m pretty sure Sarah was in heaven 🙂

After shopping our hearts away, we made our way to 饒河街觀光夜市 Raohe Street Night Market. I’ve been wanting to go here ever since we’ve been in Taipei not only to see the market but check out the amazing temple that is next to it. I had never seen the Ciyou temple before…it was stunning. It’s situated literally in the heart of Taipei surrounded by the Raohe night market and tall residential buildings. Absolutely stunning.

Sunday, we again woke up early and wanted to check out a different church we had heard about from a friend. It’s called Bread of Life Taipei, and it offers English services on Sunday morning. We loved it. The music was great, and they actually had a drum set, guitars, and a keyboard! The praise band played familiar songs from Hillsong and the Bethel praise band. Definitely made me miss playing music. I think we’ll make this church our home church in Taipei. I forgot to take some pictures!

Now, we don’t exactly live in the heart of Taipei. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t live far from downtown…it’s merely a short ride in via tram, but we live a little more on the outskirts. At first, I was a little worried about this because we couldn’t just walk to the Taipei 101, but I’ve learned to love our part of Taipei. We have mountains. We have hiking trails. We have fresh air. We have waterfalls. We have nature. I’ve never been huge into hiking. Thank goodness I have a wife that loves to walk and hike or else I wouldn’t experience the natural beauty of Taipei. We really see ourselves getting into hiking this next year. Neihu, our slice of Taipei, is home to many mountains and hiking trails and we decided to check a few out today. We can literally walk to the trailhead that serves countless trails through the rainforest and mountains on the outskirts of Taipei. I never knew escaping the hustle and bustle of Taipei was so close to our home. First, we hiked up Bishan Mountain to an amazing temple called Bishan Temple. Bishan temple is a Daoist temple dedicated to Chen Yuanguang, a Tang dynasty general. The temple was strikingly beautiful. The colors and architecture are breathtaking. Not only is the temple beautiful, but the view it offered was spectacular. The temple is perched high on top of Bishan mountain. You could see everything from up there.

On the way down we explored the Danshui river and some of the smaller waterfalls along the river. It was an amazing Sunday to say the least. We are thrilled that we’ve found so many trails to explore so close to home. On top of the trails in Taipei, Taiwan is home to many more trails and mountains to explore….we can’t wait to trek through them all.

Have a great week!

Kyle and Sarah