Taiwan!

I just got back from a very eventful and fun trip to Taiwan. I decided to go when I found a super cheap ticket over Golden Week (last week, a string of national holidays occur back to back so there is almost a full week of time off work, called Golden Week). I met up with some friends from UNC, Wendy and Ryan, who have been living in Taiwan for about a year, and are both currently teaching English at a Kindergarten. I also saw my other good friend Ryan who has been in Taiwan for awhile and is also teaching English at a cram school. I spend about 4 days in total in the capital, Taipei, and headed out into the countryside for day trips and a single overnight stay in a hot spring town. It was a very exciting trip, aside from getting bitten by a dog and getting a cold. Of course those things also made the trip exciting!

The Taipei 101, which until the construction of the Burj Dubai was the tallest building in the world.




The view from the top.


Inside the mall in the Taipei 101.


A guard who's job as far as I could tell was to stand perfectly still for several hours a day in front of a massive statue at the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall in Taipei.


A beach we went to north of Danshui in the north part of Taiwan.


A did a 25 kilometer bike ride in the small town of Pinglin. This photo was taken halfway up the mountain.


This is a mountain stream I swam in after a long day of bike riding.


The aboriginal, hot spring town of Wulai.


Another mountain river I swam in in Wulai.

All in all it was a wonderful trip, although the dog bite had me worried for a little while until I went to the doctor and was told that there have not been any cases of rabies in Taiwan for over 50 years. It was a very interesting country, and of course the food was delicious!