Taiwan!!!

David was able to come to our house in Hong Kong for Christmas – hooray!!! We spent Christmas Eve on the beach and afterwards feasted on Sushi that Chef Ryan made. We had a nice Christmas Day and enjoyed the company of seven “family-less” people at our Christmas Feast. The next day we packed up and flew to Taiwan. David served his mission there and speaks Mandarin fluently. Scott is now in Taiwan serving his mission, but he's in the north instead of the south, like David.

We arrived in Kaohsiung on Dec. 26, 2009, exactly 6 months to the day that David left it! After picking up our rental car and checking in at our hotel, we had enough time to take a taxi and a ferry out to an island - Qi Jin. There we walked the streets, tried on silly hats, and ate some street food - calamari on a stick, shrimp, strawberries, mango milk, and something that sounds like the word "guabao" - it's meat in a bun. David used to eat it while living there.

The next day was Sunday and we went to church in Fengshan. We met many people David knew and taught. Most he had taught new member lessons to. David translated at church, but found it difficult when the speakers would jump from subject to subject, but I didn't care. I thought he did an excellent job as translator (and navigator – we rented a car and did a LOT of driving!) on the entire trip. I LOVED it!!!

After church we drove to Lotus Lake and walked through and around the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas.

We then went back to town to meet a family that David had taught. Their home was in the back of the Chiropractic shop they ran. We sat in the waiting room chairs and visited with the family of 4, and 2 of their extended family members. A patient came in and the dad closed the curtain and worked on the man while we chatted. We could tell the family enjoyed David’s company – and that it seemed to be special for them to meet his family as well.

We then drove to Meinong to look for an umbrella shop where all the missionaries would buy these really nice bamboo umbrellas with nice paintings on them - purely decorative. We had trouble finding the shop so stopped at a "Seven" (7-11) to get some directions. David was in there for a while and finally came out with one of the employees. I wondered why this guy was coming to the car. It turned out to be Kyle, the Bishop's son – a young man David knew. That was very random - what are the chances - at one particular 7-11 out of many, in this one city, on a Sunday evening???

The next day we drove to Tainan, David's last area. We ate at a hot pot restaurant with 3 converts - Paul, Terrance and Wesley (those are their English names). All joined the church in 2009 (in about April, May and July). David had taught them new member lessons. We tried to get them to practice their English. We had a nice visit. It was fun to see David with all these people he knew. Somehow I was just amazed to listen to him speak Mandarin with everyone. We shopped at Carrefour – a store that is similar to WalMart. We drove through Fangliao and saw places David lived and served. That was the end of touring the places he served.

Then we drove down to Kenting - the beach. David had been there on a mission trip. We ate hamburgers at Smokey Joes - it was good. We ate breakfast the next morning at a local breakfast shop. David wanted us to try all sorts of foods that he normally ate. I liked the little breakfast burrito things they served.

While we tried many different foods, we also enjoyed laughing at (and wondering about) the translations of the menus, including:

“Fried crisp the chicken leg”

“The diverse beer buys two get one free”

“Crispy Guts … and … Guts with Spicy Sauce”

I actually have pictures of menus with these phrases!

We had limited time to get up north and lots of driving to do, so we chose to drive up the coast instead of the inland route as it was supposedly faster. So we didn't go through Fuli or Yuli, where Scott recently served. I think that's my biggest regret as it is the most beautiful country as Scott and others have told us. But it was probably a good decision as we got in to Hualien pretty late. And the roads were still very narrow and winding. It was a pretty drive, but had much road damage from the typhoon. We stopped and took pictures on the Tropic of Cancer. David had done the same on the line on the west side of Taiwan.

After checking in to a hotel, we asked the hotel staff where we could get a bite to eat. He suggested a famous dumpling shop around the corner where the President eats. So we went there and while eating, who walks in but two families we know from Hong Kong (with a total of 10 small children). We knew they'd be in Taiwan at the same time, but didn't know in which city what days. What are the chances to meet branch members from HK in the same town, same restaurant at the same time???!!! A cute story that happened that night: at the dumpling shop, we ordered near the front door, got our receipt and found a table. The food was later delivered. While waiting, David was reading all the characters on our order receipt and got a real chuckle out of their description for us. It simply said "Foreigners". He thought it was amazing that they had that character on their machine.

After dinner, David made more phone calls of people he knew - including Lin Zheng, a fellow missionary. David hoped to meet up with him the next day, but he had to work. So, the next morning we went to Taroko Gorge. We drove around, went on several hikes, walked across swinging bridges and took lots of pictures. It was really beautiful. After spending several hours there, we started driving out of the area and saw a bridge we had missed and stopped to walk across it. As we parked, Lin Zheng pulls up on his scooter. He got off work, drove about an hour to see if he could find us - and he DID!!! Isn't that amazing? We had so many little things happen to find people David knew.

After the gorge, we drove that evening to Yilan. The drive was longer (and more rigorous) than we thought and it was dark and rainy with LOTS of bad roads, but we got there safely and slept well. The next morning (Dec. 31) we continued on and arrived in Taipei. We first went to the equivalent of the US Consulate (called the American Institute of Taiwan) and Arvid went in to say hello to the Med. Unit workers. Only one of their staff was in - Lynn, a nurse. She took us to lunch at a Dim Sum place. Yummy! She tried to help us find a hotel, as we didn't have one lined up. No luck! Who knew most hotels would have been booked for New Year's Eve? We sure didn't.

We then drove to the LDS Temple and looked around there. We didn't go into the Taipei Mission home, which is Scott’s mission, but it was nice to see these places that he is familiar with. Scott’s Mission President denied our request to take him and his companion out to lunch one day. He wants the missionaries to focus on why they are there, and not to be potentially distracted by family. We respected those wishes and just enjoyed being in the country in which Scott serves (and very near where he currently lives).

We stood at the little LDS gift shop on the corner there while David talked with a woman who was trying to help us find a hotel. Nothing was found, so she talked us into staying in little dorm rooms in Banciao that she lets out to students. So that's where we ended up on New Year's Eve. I asked David how these rooms compared to his mission apartments. He said most of his places were nicer. It was on the 5^th (and top) floor of a little, old building. Of course there was no elevator. It was an adventure!

That evening we went to Taipei 101 (for years, the tallest building in the world) and had dinner at Macaroni Grill. (I guess we’d had our fill of Chinese food.) Afterwards, Dad, Ryan and I were chilly and tired and didn't really want to wait for a couple hours for the big fireworks show. And it was SO crowded. David decided he just had to stay, but the rest of us decided to go home as we knew it would take awhile to get there – about a half hour subway ride along with LOTS of walking. Once “home” we settled in and all 3 of us had the lights out before midnight, so didn't see any fireworks but heard lots of firecrackers. And we saw the Taipei 101 "show" on youtube later- does that count as ringing in the New Year? David got in about 2 am, so I'm not too disappointed that I didn't stay.

The next morning before flying home on New Year's Day, we visited the Longshan Temple. It was bustling with people praying, giving offerings and burning incense. One picture shows three very different building styles from diverse time periods. Enjoy!

That is pretty much the run-down of our holiday. I am so glad we were able to see many of the places David and Scott will have spent 2 years of their lives. And mostly it was wonderful to meet so many humble, good Taiwanese people – our brothers and sisters in our great big world.