We traveled to Ilan, where my mom is from, and saw the beach and sand castles.

We stayed at the Shangri La Leisure Farm Hotel, which was located on top of a mountain, so it had an amazing view with trails throughout the orchards filled with fun surprises like swings and drums on a cliff.

At night, the hotel provided sky lanterns that we could write messages on and send off into the sky.

Back in Taipei, we also did the obligatory trip up Taipei 101, but this time, I got to go out on the 91st floor outdoor observatory. It was always closed all those other times. But there really isn’t much of a view. You mostly see big bars.

All in all, it was a good time. I don’t know when I’ll get to see my parents and brother again. Hopefully, by the end of this year!

We went on the Maokong Gondola, which I thought was going to be one of those short cable car rides to the top of a hill, but it was a rather long (about 20 minutes) ride to the top of Mt. Everest (or at least it felt like it.). If you’re brave enough, you can take the glass-bottom bar. There are four stops along the ride, and it only cost $50NT ($1.50USD) for a one-way ride all the way to the top, and once you make it to the top, you can walk around in Maokong or take it back down and stop in the zoo for a tour.

On Friday night, we decided to take my 20-year-old brother out to the Taiwan Beer Factory, which was hopping by the way, and after a couple of drinks, a bit after 10pm, we hailed a cab to head back home. Just as we’re about to merge on the highway, the entire back side of the cab was smashed in, and my brother and I were thrown against the front seats, hitting our heads with glass shattering all around us. Some car had hit a scooter, dragged it along for a few meters, then slammed into our cab (which also ended up hitting another car due to the force of impact), and continued on to bump into a third car before finally coming to a stop a ways ahead.

The police and ambulances got here pretty quickly. They took us to the hospital and had us checked into the ER, x-rays taken, seen a doctor within 15 minutes. The scooter guy hit his arm and all his skin was rubbed off for being dragged along, but he was okay. The driver of the rampant car was pretty injured.  Our x-rays were fine, just a bump on the head and some scratches from the glass, and soreness is to be expected.  We had to stay at the hospital for a couple more hours for observation and the paperwork to be settled. Luckily the fees weren’t bad; I have health insurance so mine was just $300NT ($10USD), and my brother’s, as a tourist, was about $1100NT ($40USD) for x-rays and doctor’s fees.

My poor brother, he has the worst luck with cabs. The last time he was back, he got clipped by one when walking in an alley, and this time, he gets beaten up in one. It’s also scary that seat belts are not required here in the backseat, just in the front, so a lot of cabs don’t even have them even if you wanted to buckle up.

Then Saturday night, the dinner of my parents and the boyfriend’s parents first meeting took place. It was stressful, but at least we got that first meeting over with, and both sides approve of us and all is good in the world.

Anyways, I got a Thai massage and went to a wedding on Saturday.

I highly do not recommend getting Thai massages if you’re looking for a relaxing, spa-like massage where you can drift off to sleep as they oil and massage your body with their soft kneading hands as Enya plays in the background and the scent of lavender in the air. Unfortunately, that was what I was looking for so I chose the Thai oil massage over the traditional Thai massage. You know how in the commercials for tourists to Thailand, you see people getting relaxing massages with satisfied smiles on their faces in those cute little wooden huts by the beach? Yeah, it’s not like that at all.

HOWEVER, if you’re looking for a massage where the masseuses use their elbows and knees to pummel you to death, and then pull your arms and legs in every direction while holding you down and standing on your back, or pull you airborne over their knees reminiscent to a WWF move, then by all means, I do highly recommend a Thai massage. There was oil involved but only to help the masseuse locate all the supposed knots in my muscles and literally squash them to death with her hammer of a thumb. There were also many groans and yelps of pain involved. At many moments throughout the two hours, I thought she had mistaken my bones for  knots and was trying to massage my bones away , but no, she said that I had many many knots all over my body. Today, I am very sore. It hurts to move.

Long story short: Don’t think I’ll be getting another one of those any time soon.

After the fun two hours, Michael and I went to a wedding of a friend’s sister. It was a traditional Chinese wedding with the typical 10 dishes and lots of red wine. (Fun Fact:) Here in Taiwan, when one gets married, there are no registries, and the guests don’t buy presents. They just show up to the reception with red envelopes containing money. The amount of money is given in increments of even numbers and no 4′s (cause 4 sounds like death in Chinese so it’s a bad number). For example, you could give $800NT, 1200NT, 1600NT, etc. The amount also depends on the venue (a nicer venue would probably require a higher amount) and how close you are to the bride and/or groom.

(Notice the hint of an Asian flush?)

The bride and groom had photo sticker booths set up so the guests could take pictures and then exchange them in the little books that the bride&groom had provided. It was a great idea, and we had a lot of fun with those.

(The two on the right are with the bride’s brother/our friend.)

FUN TIMES

Ironically, even though there’s no culture of tipping here, the service here is still very excellent. I would say in about 90% of the places that I’ve ever been here in Taiwan from hair salons to fast food restaurants that required service of some sort, all the employees have always been very thorough and polite.

We drove to a road down by the National Palace Museum full of indoor shrimp farms where you can get a rod and bait for $300NT($10USD)/1 hr, $500NT($16USD)/2 hr, $700NT($22USD)/3hr.

The bait consists of chicken liver (gross) or smaller processed shrimps (cannibals!!).

Then you set up a spot next to their indoor pools and wait for the shrimp to bite.

We paid for one rod for two hours because we had no idea what we’re doing. After one hour of lots of waiting and nothing happening, I finally caught one! It was a freakin’ huge one, and it fought hard. But here’s a picture of Michael with it since I was a bit freaked about touching it (and it kinda had pinchers too).

After two hours, that was the only shrimp that we caught. They provide nets that you hook to the side to keep the shrimp as you catch them. Some guy walked by as he was leaving and gave us his two shrimps that he caught. So with our one shrimp and the guy’s two sympathy shrimps, we had a grand total of three. Located in the front of the shrimp farm was an area with sinks, skewers, and ovens… so we washed our shrimps, skewered them, covered them in salt, and cooked them (and you have to do all this they were still alive, unfortunately, but you gotta do what you gotta do.) You only see two because one of the sympathy shrimps looked really dead, and we didn’t want to risk food poisoning so we only cooked the fresh ones.

Although the skewering and cooking part was a bit cruel and sadistic, the shrimp did turn out to be pretty tasty, especially considering those babies you’re looking at are worth $250NT ($7.86USD) each. (The better you are and the more you catch, of course the lower in value they become, but that goes without saying.)