Tien Yuan Temple

Day 4 in Taiwan began with rain and ended with rain. With ponchos and more new umbrellas, we set out for Tamsui to see the Taiwanese coast and visit the Tien Yuan temple. Upon arriving in Tamsui, we grabbed some coffee and started up a Venice Beach-like boardwalk in search of lunch. There were countless vendors selling fruit, meat-on-stick, and sausages the size of my forearm. 

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Yilan Beach BBQ

Early on the 20^th of September, we boarded the subway to meet Kenny and make the trip to his family’s house. After a short ride and a 10 minute walk, we found ourselves in Uncle’s home. Uncle was a jolly man of short stature and an infectious laugh who took every opportunity to have his nephew translate his questions to us.

Lion’s Head Mountain

On our first full day in Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei, we decided to explore the outdoors by taking a hike. Living in Seoul, we are unaccustomed to the flora and fauna of a tropical climate, so we were enthusiastic about getting out boots dirty and searching for spectacular views from atop the numerous mountains on the horizon.

Moon Festival Parade

We are back from Taiwan! As mentioned in our previous post, last week was the Chuseok holiday here in Korea and we had a five day vacation from work. We decided to make the best of it and booked two tickets to Taiwan. We were beyond excited to have our first real vacation since arriving in Korea in February, and couldn’t wait to explore a new country.

Stamps in our passports… Taiwan!

As some of you may know, next week Korea celebrates Chuseok. Chuseok is kind of like the Korean equivalent to Thanksgiving in the states. It is a harvest festival and people here celebrate it by going to their ancestral hometowns and eating a feast of traditional foods. The three day holiday this year starts on Wednesday next week.  From what we hear, Seoul, a city of just under eleven million people, empties out and becomes a ghost town.