Pingxi (平溪) Crags

I don't even know where to start. Today was awesome. So I guess I better just start getting into some photos.

After we all met up we took the metro and had awhile to hang out before the bus. So...naturally we went into the nearest convenience store with an A/C to hang out. We spent as much time there as we could, but it was pretty small so eventually we felt like we should leave. 

Secret club house!

Our bus driver was awesome! The road to the trails isn't actually even a bus stop and he totally stopped for us there! 

The bus ride was quite the windy adventure itself. 

Pingxi is famous for people going there to light off lanterns! We found them all over the place. Apparently you're supposed to write your wishes on them. This one is my favorite: 

Find a girlfriend in 2014! haha. 

Start of the hike! At the foot of the mountain. (We're all clean and full of energy!)

I can't even begin to describe how LEGIT this place was! This photo is before we even got to the really cool stuff!

Now is where it starts getting good. We knew there were three options to hike/climb the crags, so we decided to do rock, paper, scissors to decide which one to hike first!

Round 1 - Tony Loses

Round 2 - Yuan Yuan Loses

Ray is the champion!

So this is the path we would take. 

Up one of those "this trail is no longer in use" or whatever it is-type trails. haha. 

Lunch at the top. 

One of our next two stops. If you look close there are a ton of stairs. haha. 

Our next stop. 

To the top of another crag. 

The view from the third crag. 

For the hike down we could either choose to go with the normal route, or...an alternate route. Thankfully, Yuan Yuan said that we should of course take the other route! It turns out that...we ended up going on a trail that after a certain point wasn't a trail at all - which made it awesome!

Yay for forging your own trail!

It got kinda cray.. 

but don't worry, we all made it out alive! Tony felt especially grateful to have survived. As he pointed it, "這裡好滑" "It's really slippery here" 

His shoes looked really good but they were actually really bad. 

When we were nearing the bottom (or maybe halfway) we reconnected with the original trail and made it down!

After the hike we rewarded ourselves by cooling off in the river. It was sooooo nice. : )

Garlic and sausages? Yes please!

Pingxi! A very successful and fun day. 

The last three weeks (England, Wales, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, Monaco)

I haven't been doing much as far as blogging for the last three weeks because I was far too busy enjoying myself and didn't have a computer to blog with either. 

Now I'm in Taipei, it's 5:00AM and I'm awake with some really weird jet lag (stopped by the states for two days on the way over from Europe). 

Anyway, to sum up the trips: AMAZING

Highlights: 

This was taken at Seven Sisters (white cliffs near Eastbourne) That was probably the most amazing thing I saw in England and it was basically like paradise. On top of the cliffs are rolling green hills and there are rivers nearby that lead to the sea. Totally amazing. 

Mom and I took a day trip to Wales. That was probably a pretty crazy thing to do but we got a killer deal on the bus because we used the national express with their "fun fares". They're really fun because they're really cheap!

Czech Republic was nice. I didn't find Prague as fairytale like as everyone says, but I definitely enjoyed it. I had very low expectations for the food and I actually loved it! It was also fun being in a country with a pretty strong language barrier for us. We traveled to the Bohemian Paradise which was really beautiful and we hiked up a very green trail that was great. 

I have four favorite foods in the world in no particular order:

Pizza margherita from Napoli

Double Double Animal Style from IN-N-OUT

Clam chowder in a Boudin bread bowl

Kebab from Sydney, Australia 

It's always a wonderful occasion when I'm eating one of those foods. 

Back in Barcelona. Such a cool city, but I don't feel like it's the best to go and visit. I think it's more of a city to go and hang out at or maybe to live in. 

Monaco/Southern France, always as nice as ever. 

The cruise was amazing. Highlights include winning 2nd place in the speed climbing competition, and being a Top 8 Finalist for the world's sexiest man. Hahaha. We also dominated the trivia games and won enough keychains to give them away to all of our friends. 

The food was great (read: unlimited), and we definitely are into cruises when they're free. Hahaha. We're probably also into them when they are close to free and we're going to be looking in the future for discount cruise deals. 

After the cruise my family left and I went to the YSA conference. 

Allora, dopo la crociera sono andato alla conferenza dei GANS a Pescara.. MAMMA MIA!! E' stata bellissima! 

All'inizio mi aspettavo di andare a divertirmi un sacco con i miei vecchi amici,,,poi quando ci ho pensato un po' di piu' volevo anche riprendermi un po' spiritualmente e riguardare le mie mete spirituali. 

La conferenza e' stata veramente piu' bella di quanto avessi mai immaginato. C'erano piu' cari amici li', mi sono divertito di piu', ho imparato piu' cose spirituali, e ho trovato anche nuovi amici! Una cosa che non mi aspettavo. 

Sono grato per la mia appartenenza alla chiesa di Gesu' Cristo e per tutte le cose che so di essere vere. E' fantastico che possiamo comunicare direttamente con il nostro Padre Celeste, e questo mi porta sempre molta felicita'. :D

Le ultime tre settimane sono state bellissime e sono sicuro che i prossimi mesi saranno anche bellissimi. 

I'll try to keep up my blog as much as I can while in Taiwan!

Seoul - 서울시

Finally made it to Seoul! I say finally because it's such a major Asian city and somehow I never made it there until now.

Went to some random store to grab a bite to eat. They had some sort of buns filled with different ingredients, and of course one of them was: Kimchi! So I had to get that. It was pretty good. 

 

 Ignore the statue. Check out those kids in the bottom left! They were super funny. 

 

These were signal beacons used in ancient times to communicate across the whole region. Depending on how many were lit there were different meanings. Basically, if all five were on fire then they were in really big trouble and the battling had begun. 

 

 This is Hoshi! She's awesome. On the left is me. haha. That's right: Eating Korean BBQ, in Korea, with a Korean. So great! 

To help you realize how awesome Hoshi is: Her favorite pasta her whole life was pasta alla carbonara (that's the one made with pancetta and eggs). Anyway, in Korea instead of using eggs they just use sauce! So she found out her carbonara was fake! She saved up her money and traveled to Italy to try real carbonara, and spent three months going throughout all the regions eating their best food.

How cool is that?! I asked her about all kinds of places where I served my mission and if she tried foods there and she totally had tried it all! Amazing.

My friend Tony from college told me that I needed to make sure I tried Jun while I was in Seoul. So even though we had just eaten, we ate some more! What a fantastic day! : D

 Okay, so I had to get a photo of these apartments because they seriously all look the same. I had a pretty tough time finding my way home.

The airport in Seoul is the best in the world. I mean, it's literally the best in the world. It even says so!

In the above photo you're looking at free massage chairs that are provided for everyone. In the photo below is a room full of La-Z-Boys in front of a big screen playing movies. 

 Next is their rest area: 

And of course a free blanket, book and even tablet. That's right. This is airport is ridiculous. It is so awesome.

Okay, so that's my blog post on Seoul, but if you really want to get a feel for my visit you have to check out the video I made. Being in Korea it only made sense to me that I would make a PSY video. Check it out: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrTZ69VDepw

Singapore...again!

So coming back to Singapore I contacted Cloud (she's in the back left of this picture, haha) to see if she knew anyone who could host me for a night. I stayed with Dai Xi! He's awesome. He kind of wants to come to the U.S. to get his master's and I think he should totally do it because he would have a blast.

After church I went and hung out with Ada. We grabbed some lunch and then went exploring!

At first we were using google maps, but then we were like, whatever, we just have to head towards the water. Haha. So we started hopping fences and walking through back alleys to get us to the water as fast as we could. It was pretty fun and definitely my way of seeing a city. Once we got to the beach we rented some bikes and biked around a little.

That night we went over to Clarke Quay. This extra day in Singapore really helped sell me on it. It has some pretty cool places to hang out and it's a fun place.

 

That's it! Now I'm off to Korea!

Kuala Lumpur

After a great visit to Kuala Terengganu (apart from feeling a little sick I think from the sun), I took a night bus to KL. It was alright. Buses are never that great. 

I only had a day to see KL, but fortunately there aren't too many big sites so I was able to quickly go see the main ones!

The Petronas Twin Towers. Probably a couple of the most famous buildings in the world. They definitely reflect the modern side of Malaysia and the bottom is all filled with high class shopping. 

Can't get anywhere in Southeast Asia without running into these guys!

Outside the Batu Caves. 

I wasn't all that impressed by the caves, especially considering the 272 steps I had to walk up with my backpack on. Here's a picture where my head isn't blocking the view of the steps: 

Malaysian is a super funny language. As I walked around looking at signs everywhere it seemed like they would just copy English but spell things wrong. Lift? "Lif" Taxi? "Teksi" Promotion? "Promosi" 

Okay, so this was awesome: I've always thought that in the U.S. it would be super cool if you could just buy some fruit on the go. You know, sort of like fast food? I know McDonald's technically has apple slices or something, but they're so small and unnatural that I feel like it ruins the point. Anyway, in the KL train station there was this stand that has pre-sliced fruit! Want some Papaya? 50 cents. Want some Mango? 65 cents. Want to get whatever other random fruit? They have it! 

I was stoked to get something healthy going into my body. haha. 

After all the fruit I definitely had to go get myself a Big Mac Meal. It's just too hard to resist when it only costs about $3.00 USD! Anywhere in the world with Big Mac Meals around that price is a great place if you ask me. Unfortunately Taiwan is one of those places so it's going to be hard for me to resist going there all the time this summer while I'm there on my internship. 

Anyway, you may notice in the photo that even the McDonald's is Halal!! What does that mean? Basically it means that the food had to be prepared by a Muslim or else they can't eat it! For a more detailed definition, here is what I got from wikipedia: 

The food must come from a supplier that uses halal practices. Specifically, the slaughter must be performed by a Muslim, who must precede the slaughter by invoking the name of Allah, most commonly by saying "Bismillah" ("In the name of God") and then three times "Allahu akbar" (God is the greatest). Then, the animal must be slaughtered with a sharp knife by cutting the throat, windpipe and the blood vessels in the neck (while the animal is conscious), causing the animal’s death without cutting the spinal cord. Lastly, the blood from the veins must be drained.

Isn't that awesome?? Malaysia is super muslim and so it makes sense that even McDonald's would make sure that their food is Halal. You'll find similar signs posted around Singapore. 

That's it for KL! I would have stayed longer but I actually really wanted to get back to Singapore to hang out with my new friends that I had met at FHE on Monday. I would arrive Saturday night - just in time for church the next day!

Kuala Terengganu and Pulau Kapas

After a long bus ride I made it to Kuala Terengganu!! I made a couple new friends on the bus and we decided to get some McDonald's together after the ride because we were hungry and wanted something easy. 

It's always funny to me to see how long I go without McDonald's on a trip. This time I made it...about 4 days! I think that's a new record! :P

The next day the first thing I went to see was the Crystal Mosque. Kuala Terengganu is interesting because pretty much everyone there is Muslim. It was also interesting because there was a major language barrier with most people because they only spoke Malay.

One of the beautiful things about mosques are all their symmetry. Above is a photo of the roof. 

 

After the mosque I went to spend my day on Pulau Kapas, cotton island. It got that name because of the soft, white sand. I don't think it was the whitest sand I've ever been on, but it was definitely the softest! It was like walking around on powdered sugar or something. It was great.

Unfortunately it was so comfortable that I fell asleep for a couple hours on the beach!! I actually got sunburned and felt a little sick, so I went and found a hammock under a tree where I could relax and spend the rest of my afternoon.  

 

Me on my hammock. It was a needed break. 

 

This guy is awesome. His name is ALee and he is the first person I think I've ever met from Iraq! He's actually from Baghdad! I had a great time chatting with him and it was super interesting. He and his family actually moved away from Baghdad because it got too dangerous, and they went to Syria. Then in Syria, Arab Spring happened (basically civil war broke out), and so they moved back to Baghdad! What a crazy life! He made a good choice in moving away to Malaysia. 

One thing I really liked is I got to get his perspective on the war in Iraq. I asked him what he thought of America going to Iraq and he said that he thought it was a really good thing because otherwise they would never have been able to overthrow their dictator. I thought that was pretty cool. He was a really nice guy and I hope to see him again someday. 

I don't think Kuala Terengganu is really much of a tourist destination and there's not a whole lot to see, but it was definitely worth making the trip up there just to meet ALee! So great.