Ashley, The Hiker
WOW – It’s been a LONG weekend (starting from Friday morning), but a good one!
Friday morning, Ashley and I went on a trip to the city of HsinChu here in Taiwan, with her whole school. We rode on a bus there for about 2 hours – no not a school bus, a double decker tour bus. The bottom is for storing luggage and the top is for seats. It was very nice, comfortable seats that even laid back a little with cup holders, trash holder and TV screens. We went to a Hakka Farm. The farm itself was not very impressive – dirty, with not many animals. Just a few pigs, ducks, chickens and some kind of cow/ox that carried a cart around for the kids to ride in. It was really hot when we got there and the whole place was crowded and very disorganized. We ate lunch there – Chinese box lunch with fish and rice and veggies. It was pretty good. Ashley enjoyed herself, although I think she was disappointed that I didn’t let you play in the dirt much. There were a few moms that were really upset with the field trip and complained a lot about it. It wasn’t what we had expected, but I had also been told to keep my expectations low, so I didn’t really know what to expect. They had some planned activities, which may have been fun, if it weren’t so caotic and disorgazined – but that’s Taiwan for you. Ashley got to help make rice noodles, Hakka tea and ride on the ox cart. A cold front blew in while we were there, so it got pretty chilly – and we were ready to get on the bus when it was time. The ride back was very nice since they played “Lilo & Stitch” on the DVD player. We were both tired and I managed a little snooze, although Ashley kept poking me and saying “wake up mommy, wake up”.
We got back home around 5:00 and Anthony had just arrived with the turkey. While we were on the field trip, he had taken Liz to a work meeting at the Hyatt in the morning, then met Angie at his work so she could take Liz. Liz stayed with Angie and went to Gymboree (which she LOVED) and then her house for a nap. Angie dropped Liz off at Anthony’s work around 3 and he headed to Jason’s to pick up our prepared turkey. I cooked some mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, carrots and gravy and we had a few people over to celebrate Thanksgiving. Molson (a friend of Anthony’s who works at AMD Austin and who was here working), Lili (our Taiwanese friend), Angie and Joseph. It was a lot of fun having people over to eat dinner with us – we miss that! We even had pumpkin pie – which the store had put Christmas decorations on – for Thanksgiving! Hahaha!
Saturday was another busy day. We took the girls to the Jade Market in the morning to find some Christmas gifts for family back home. We also walked through the flower market – saw lots of poinsettas – another market in the area. The girls got lots of attention and we met some US Futsal Team Members who are here in Taiwan playing in the International Games – Futsal is indoor Soccer – they are doing really well in the playoffs and hope to make it to the finals. For lunch, we decided to eat at a traditional Chinese restaurant. They had a semi English menu – meaning it said whether it was a chicken, fish or pork meal – but that’s about it. I ordered the fish, Anthony had chicken dish (ended up being chicken soup) and the girls had pork ramen. It was all pretty good. I got my fish plate – and it was a WHOLE fish – fried up. Meaning, they took a fish, straight from cleaning it out of the river and fried it – so head, fins, everything. Anthony didn’t think I’d eat it, but I was hungry and for some reason, that doesn’t bother me as much as a chicken head. It was good and I hope to become adept at eating fish and removing the bone – as is customary here in Taiwan. Angie laughed when I told her the story of our lunch and said she’d forgotten that it’s not normal in other countries to cook fish whole.
Saturday night, I went out for mom’s night out with 5 other moms from the Parentpages playgroup. We had a lot of fun. We started out bowling – and it was packed. We saw quite a few other foreigners there too. We played two games and although my first game was awful, I bowled a 140 on the second game – although Angie still beat me by getting 148 – and she’s 7 months pregnant! We then headed over the Kama, which is a lounge bar owned by Angie’s husband, Jason. It is a really nice place, with couches and tables where you can just sit back, relax, talk and have some drinks. Jason treated us to some great food too. We sat for quite a long time, all sharing stories of life here with the kids. I didn’t get home until around 1:00 am.
Today, we decided to try out hiking. We’ve heard that there are some great hiking trails around here, due to the very mountainous region that this is. One nearby place is called “Elephant Mountain”. I bought a used backpack carrier this weekend and we figured we should try it out. We left the apartment, thinking we’d take a taxi to the entrance, but no taxi seemed to be able to understand the words elephant mountain hiking (in Chinese) – so we asked the guard at our apartment, who then asked a few other people and found a guy who walked with us towards the mountain. He then pointed down a street and said some stuff in Chinese, so off we headed. We passed a park and let the girls wander around a bit. Then headed up some stairs and up this alley/street and after walking uphill at a very steep angle, finally found a trail. It was steep – many, many stairs, straight up, it seemed, so we headed up. It was a very interesting trail – along the way up, there would be little sitting areas, with roof covers and courts for playing badminton (BIG sport here). There was even an area with slides (for kids) on the mountain! It seemed a bit dangerous to me, so we didn’t let Ashley go on them. We stopped quite a few times on the way up to rest. We had ended up taking a middle trail up to the top, not one of the main trails, which are nicely paved, instead of unevenly paved stairs. At the top, we had a gorgeous view of Taipei City and some of the surrounding areas. It really was beautiful. The trails were really nice up there, little bridges, steep stairs, signs in Chinese writing, little sitting areas to picnic and even a little workout area complete with chin-up bars. We are both very proud of Ashley, since she walked up the entire way. From what we can tell, the top of Elephant Mountain is only 180 meters, very small for a “mountain”, but it was good for us first time hikers, with 2 kiddos. We really enjoyed the hike and hope to continue to take the girls out for some more hiking.
The rest of Sunday was spent recovering from the long weekend. We did go over to Taipei 101 for a little shopping and noticed they are starting to decorate for Christmas. They have a big reindeer and gold Christmas tree outside and lots of lights inside. It’s nice to see all the decorations.
Friday morning, Ashley and I went on a trip to the city of HsinChu here in Taiwan, with her whole school. We rode on a bus there for about 2 hours – no not a school bus, a double decker tour bus. The bottom is for storing luggage and the top is for seats. It was very nice, comfortable seats that even laid back a little with cup holders, trash holder and TV screens. We went to a Hakka Farm. The farm itself was not very impressive – dirty, with not many animals. Just a few pigs, ducks, chickens and some kind of cow/ox that carried a cart around for the kids to ride in. It was really hot when we got there and the whole place was crowded and very disorganized. We ate lunch there – Chinese box lunch with fish and rice and veggies. It was pretty good. Ashley enjoyed herself, although I think she was disappointed that I didn’t let you play in the dirt much. There were a few moms that were really upset with the field trip and complained a lot about it. It wasn’t what we had expected, but I had also been told to keep my expectations low, so I didn’t really know what to expect. They had some planned activities, which may have been fun, if it weren’t so caotic and disorgazined – but that’s Taiwan for you. Ashley got to help make rice noodles, Hakka tea and ride on the ox cart. A cold front blew in while we were there, so it got pretty chilly – and we were ready to get on the bus when it was time. The ride back was very nice since they played “Lilo & Stitch” on the DVD player. We were both tired and I managed a little snooze, although Ashley kept poking me and saying “wake up mommy, wake up”.
We got back home around 5:00 and Anthony had just arrived with the turkey. While we were on the field trip, he had taken Liz to a work meeting at the Hyatt in the morning, then met Angie at his work so she could take Liz. Liz stayed with Angie and went to Gymboree (which she LOVED) and then her house for a nap. Angie dropped Liz off at Anthony’s work around 3 and he headed to Jason’s to pick up our prepared turkey. I cooked some mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, carrots and gravy and we had a few people over to celebrate Thanksgiving. Molson (a friend of Anthony’s who works at AMD Austin and who was here working), Lili (our Taiwanese friend), Angie and Joseph. It was a lot of fun having people over to eat dinner with us – we miss that! We even had pumpkin pie – which the store had put Christmas decorations on – for Thanksgiving! Hahaha!
Saturday was another busy day. We took the girls to the Jade Market in the morning to find some Christmas gifts for family back home. We also walked through the flower market – saw lots of poinsettas – another market in the area. The girls got lots of attention and we met some US Futsal Team Members who are here in Taiwan playing in the International Games – Futsal is indoor Soccer – they are doing really well in the playoffs and hope to make it to the finals. For lunch, we decided to eat at a traditional Chinese restaurant. They had a semi English menu – meaning it said whether it was a chicken, fish or pork meal – but that’s about it. I ordered the fish, Anthony had chicken dish (ended up being chicken soup) and the girls had pork ramen. It was all pretty good. I got my fish plate – and it was a WHOLE fish – fried up. Meaning, they took a fish, straight from cleaning it out of the river and fried it – so head, fins, everything. Anthony didn’t think I’d eat it, but I was hungry and for some reason, that doesn’t bother me as much as a chicken head. It was good and I hope to become adept at eating fish and removing the bone – as is customary here in Taiwan. Angie laughed when I told her the story of our lunch and said she’d forgotten that it’s not normal in other countries to cook fish whole.
Saturday night, I went out for mom’s night out with 5 other moms from the Parentpages playgroup. We had a lot of fun. We started out bowling – and it was packed. We saw quite a few other foreigners there too. We played two games and although my first game was awful, I bowled a 140 on the second game – although Angie still beat me by getting 148 – and she’s 7 months pregnant! We then headed over the Kama, which is a lounge bar owned by Angie’s husband, Jason. It is a really nice place, with couches and tables where you can just sit back, relax, talk and have some drinks. Jason treated us to some great food too. We sat for quite a long time, all sharing stories of life here with the kids. I didn’t get home until around 1:00 am.
Today, we decided to try out hiking. We’ve heard that there are some great hiking trails around here, due to the very mountainous region that this is. One nearby place is called “Elephant Mountain”. I bought a used backpack carrier this weekend and we figured we should try it out. We left the apartment, thinking we’d take a taxi to the entrance, but no taxi seemed to be able to understand the words elephant mountain hiking (in Chinese) – so we asked the guard at our apartment, who then asked a few other people and found a guy who walked with us towards the mountain. He then pointed down a street and said some stuff in Chinese, so off we headed. We passed a park and let the girls wander around a bit. Then headed up some stairs and up this alley/street and after walking uphill at a very steep angle, finally found a trail. It was steep – many, many stairs, straight up, it seemed, so we headed up. It was a very interesting trail – along the way up, there would be little sitting areas, with roof covers and courts for playing badminton (BIG sport here). There was even an area with slides (for kids) on the mountain! It seemed a bit dangerous to me, so we didn’t let Ashley go on them. We stopped quite a few times on the way up to rest. We had ended up taking a middle trail up to the top, not one of the main trails, which are nicely paved, instead of unevenly paved stairs. At the top, we had a gorgeous view of Taipei City and some of the surrounding areas. It really was beautiful. The trails were really nice up there, little bridges, steep stairs, signs in Chinese writing, little sitting areas to picnic and even a little workout area complete with chin-up bars. We are both very proud of Ashley, since she walked up the entire way. From what we can tell, the top of Elephant Mountain is only 180 meters, very small for a “mountain”, but it was good for us first time hikers, with 2 kiddos. We really enjoyed the hike and hope to continue to take the girls out for some more hiking.
The rest of Sunday was spent recovering from the long weekend. We did go over to Taipei 101 for a little shopping and noticed they are starting to decorate for Christmas. They have a big reindeer and gold Christmas tree outside and lots of lights inside. It’s nice to see all the decorations.
posted by The Armstrongs at
11/28/2004
