A Walk Around the Hotel

The view from our room was lovely - ocean, mountains, boats. Sunrise was my favorite time to hang out on the balcony as the city was waking up to a new day.

As soon as you left the resort you were in the midst of third world life. Of course there was no reason to leave the resort, so I don't think it was common for guests to walk the streets of this area.

The photo on the right is a pay for water machine. There is a stack of plastic bags (think 1 qt. size) that people filled to get their drinking water.

These are the gas meters for all the bamboo and corrugated metal shacks.

Food stands lined our walk. We got a bit of fruit, some pop and sausages that we watched being cooked.

There was a line of Christmas decorations in the town center area. They were all made out of recycled or natural products.

Seashells

There were a few shops that sold seashells. Their main business wasn't tourists walking by, rather they export to places like Miami.

Roosters

We were confused by all the beautiful roosters we saw tied up with little shelters.They had about 1' of string holding them to their stake. Eggs were for sale everywhere, but we didn't see a single hen. I finally asked someone about the roosters. There was a long explanation and I finally realized they are for cock fighting. Considering how many we saw, it must be a pretty big form of entertainment.

Children

The kids are so happy and just want to trail along. They loved having their picture taken and wanted to impress us with smiles and giggles. As you can see, Elena attracted a following.

Transportation

Motorcycles serve as taxis. From grabbing a ride on the back of one to these side cars with awnings, they are an easy way to get from point A to point B. These trucks have benches along each side. The driver and a collector sit in the front. When you get on you just hand your money through the back window. We took one on the end of our walk to get back to the hotel.

These little babies were 6 weeks old. Their moms let me hold them. 

Christmas Party

Our walk ended in a basketball court area that seemed to be used for community events as well. The place was full of women and children. They were dancing and having fun. When they asked me to join I thought why not? I jumped in to their cheers and danced away. 

Mactan Island, Philippines

We left Cebu for a day to swim with the whale sharks. We visited a waterfall afterwards. To get to the waterfall, we parked then rented moped rides up the mountain. The driver waited for us at the top and took us back down when we were done.

A Christmas tree made of coconuts.

A glimpse of Cebu from the highway

We stayed at the Movenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu. I would recommend this hotel. They booked our whale shark tour for us. Purchase the breakfast buffet in the package because there aren't any other choices nearby.

Urban Backpacking in Taipei

View of Taipei from our hammocks

I don't know if there even is such a thing as "urban backpacking" but that's what I'm going to call our latest getaway. A day off means a day to rest, relax and enjoy the country we live in. A few weeks ago  we were hiking when we stumbled across this spot overlooking the city. We commented how perfect it would be to hang some hammocks and spend the night. Now that I'm working full time, a day off means a day to get all those little nagging things done so we didn't want to take a full weekend to get away. We packed the bare necessities and walked out of our apartment, across some busy streets where we connected to a road that wound up the mountain. We passed a temple then came to a trail that took us to an awesome look-out. 30 minutes after leaving  our apartment we were hanging the hammocks between some trees. We spent the evening staring at the city. No computers, no cell phones, just simple quiet. 

Mid Autumn Festival

Mid Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival, is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. The full moon fell on October 4 this year. The festival began long ago as a celebration of harvest and rejuvenation at the time of the full moon. 

A popular fairy tale helps explain the story of the Moon Festival: 

"A hero names Hou Yi saved his people by shooting down the other nine suns that burned his people to death. He was then bestowed with the elixir of immortality by the Queen Mother of the West. 

He did not want to consume the elixir and leave his beautiful but very mortal wife, Chang Er, so he gave the elixir to his wife for safekeeping. Unfortunately, Hou Yi's disloyal apprentice forced Chang Er to swallow the elixir. She then became a supernatural being. She flew to the moon, and from there watched her husband. 

Knowing that his wife had now been separated from him, Hou Yi was crazed with grief. Looking up at the moon one night, he saw a figure like his wife. He hurriedly took cakes and succade (preserves in sugar, whether fruits, vegetables, or confections) as offerings to his wife. 

Upon hearing this, people developed the custom of watching the moon and eating moon cakes annually on this day."

http://www.officeholidays.com/countries/china/midautumn_festival.php

Today the Moon Festival is celebrated with eating moon cakes, family gatherings, moon gazing and lanterns. Lanterns were not part of the original celebration, but have come to be a festive activity that I had a chance to experience this year. 

I'll be honest, our group was run with such Taiwanese efficiency that much of the fun was sucked out of it. Our group of 80 arrived on two buses to Pingxi, an old mining town near Taipei that is known for its lantern festivals. We were ushered from the buses to a school classroom where we waited for about 30 minutes. We could see and hear the festival beginning in the courtyard below, but they kept us in the room, afraid that we might loose the group. From the room we were taken to a gymnasium where they divided us into lines and gave instructions on how to "do" the lantern process. While waiting in the gym, we saw the first batch of 100 lanterns be released. There was a collective "ohhh" as we watched them float past the windows. Right after the lanterns disappeared, we were taken single file out to a large courtyard where 100 squares were taped onto the cement. 3-4 people stood in each square with a helper to give us our lantern and instruct us. 

Once in our square, we were given our lantern and a marker to write wishes for the year to come on it. We then held the four corners of the lantern while the helper lit the flame in the base. We lowered the lantern to the ground and stepped on the rim to keep it from floating away while the air began to heat and pull the lantern upwards. A group next to us somehow tipped their lantern and it burst into flames. Soon the group was given the signal to release our lanterns. It was beautiful to see the lights in the night sky. They grew smaller and smaller until they mingled with the stars in the distance. Just as they were disappearing from sight, we were ushered back to our bus. We didn't get to see the next group go before we were safely driving away. All in all, I'm glad I went and enjoyed the evening with my friends. It was fun being part of the festival and sending up a lantern, but I really would have enjoyed the opportunity to watch a few other groups release theirs. 

The Second Graduation of the Year

I'm feeling nostalgic, four months after graduation. Summer has passed, visitors have come and gone, she's been taken to college and is off to a good start. So I sit here in a quiet house, looking at these pictures, graduation seems so long past but really it was only a few short months ago. 

Elena graduated from the IB program at the Taipei American School. It was a great day filled with family, friends and pure joy. Grandma and Grandpa came to Taiwan to celebrate with us. I'm so proud of her. The International Baccalaureate program is a rigorous two year curriculum culminating with intense exams at the end. I've watched all my kids go through it and I'm glad I never had to myself! So we had reason to celebrate and dance and sing. We closed this chapter in her book of life with a few tears on mom's cheeks. There's another empty spot in our home, but we are excited for the next chapter to be written as she heads off to MSU.

Michigan State University!

Kimonos in Kyoto

Last weekend, Elena and I went to Japan. It was a quick 2-day trip to get me out of Taiwan because I don’t have a visa. We did Osaka the first day, and a quick day trip to Kyoto the second day. Elena had told me all about her first trip to Japan in the spring, and as soon as she mentioned that many people rented kimonos and wore them around the city, I knew that was something that I would love to do. When I was little, I adored playing dress-up, and even now I still do.

Kyoto is the main city in which to dress up in kimonos, and I did substantial research into a shop that was in the right location. I managed to find one store (https://kyoetsu-gion.com/en/) that was near a metro stop and Gion street, our final destination in Kyoto, making it easy to return them.

We walked into Kyoetsu kimono shop at 9am, fresh off the train, ready to start. After taking off our shoes, we had to choose between wearing a kimono and a yukata. They explained that a kimono is worn all year round, though mostly during the winter since it is made of a heavier material and more layers are worn underneath. Yukatas, on the other hand, are worn during the summer as they are made of a lighter material and require fewer layers of clothing underneath. After remembering how hot the previous day in Osaka had been, Elena and I both opted for the yukatas. We had fun going through the dozens of colorful yukatas hanging on racks, and choosing ones that coordinated.

After choosing yukatas, we picked out matching belts from the stacks sitting against another wall. Then we took all of our things upstairs to a big room for getting ready. They gave us skirts and a thin garment that looked like a cross between a dress and a bathrobe to put on before we slipped into our yukatas. From there, they wrapped all kinds of things around our waists—a towel, a rope (to keep the towel in place), some kind of stretchy string that reminded me of a bungy cord (to hold the yukata in place), a plate of thin plastic (to keep the belt flat), and finally, the belt or obi. When all was said and done, the obi was quite tight around my waist and a little uncomfortable.

They also did our hair for us and took our picture before we picked out pairs of clunky wooden flip flops and sending us out into the city. The whole process took about an hour. We shuffled our way to the metro, off to Arashiyama bamboo grove and Fushimi Inari Taisha temple to take lots of pictures. Funnily enough, we saw many Asian girls in kimonos, as well as a few men, but only two or three other white people, whom we shared a knowing smile with.

After all day of taking small steps in our skirts and teetering on the little blocks of wood, we finally decided around 3pm, after Arashiyama, to head straight back to the kimono place before going to Gion street because we were so hot and uncomfortable. We had a lot of fun parading around the city in kimonos, but it was a relief to be back in normal clothes—they felt so light and free! I would definitely recommend this experience to anyone visiting Kyoto, though.

A little practical information about our kimono experience:
Website: https://kyoetsu-gion.com/en/
Location: Kawaramachiten
Cost: about $30/person for the basic yukata, town walk plan, and free hairstyle (with reservations)

~Maddie