Day 1 Continued

We woke up in our awesome hotel room, and headed down to breakfast. Which wouldn’t be worth posting accept my hubby was thrilled that the glasses they used were actually chemistry lab beakers. He took pics, and when he got home showed all his science buddies who also got a good chuckle out of it.

Breakfast is different in Taiwan, because it’s mostly savory foods not sweet. One of my hubby’s friends explained that they believe the body is a machine, and if you want that machine to work well in the mornings then you get it warmed up you don’t eat cold things. Which I liked the idea of, especially when it came to eating yummy pot stickers, and steamed boa buns for breakfast. There bread is steamed not baked so it’s crazy soft, and yummy.

            After breakfast we headed out for the day. We walked around the area we were staying, and found an old Buddhist temple site that the Japanese had built while they occupied Taiwan during WWII. We also saw a beautiful theater that has been kept up that also was built during the same time. We then met one of my hubby’s friends, and we headed to Taipei 101. It used to be the tallest building in the world before the world Trade Towers were built in New York. It is still one of the tallest buildings in the world to this day, just not THE tallest. It has all this architecture stuff about it which you can see here…We were able to go to the top to the viewing deck, and see for miles. It was awesome to see almost every area my husband, and lived in when he first was in Taiwan. We then went to a lower deck which had an art exhibit of sculptures done in different colors of coral, and jade. If you don’t mind spending a few million, or trying to get it through the mail then these beautiful sculptures are for sale…

            A quick word about tourism in Taiwan, the Taiwanese are a modest people and also reserved. In the last three years they have finally opened their boarders to China, which is a little touchy for most Taiwanese to talk about. You could definitely tell the difference between the Taiwanese, and the Chinese. Both are lovely people, but the stereotype that Asian people love little white babies was very obvious with the Chinese tourists. They would try and pick little buddy up, or even take him from our arms. They would see him and exclaim loudly about how cute he was, and try to sneak pictures with him in it. We were in line to get in the elevator back down to the main floors, which is like waiting in line at an amusement park with how long you have to wait, and some man with a Chinese touring group was filming little buddy a few feet away the whole time he waited to get to the elevator. We even checked if that was what he was really doing by trying to hide little buddy behind us for a little, and the man stopped out side of the line, and followed us with his camera to make sure he got little buddy on film. Now for what purpose I have no idea, but even the Taiwanese people were frowning at the guy, and trying to tell him to put away the camera. So yes, the stereotypes are true, and just be a little wary when you go to foreign countries with blue-eyed blonde babies. I was never actually worried anything would happen; Still I kept a close eye on little buddy.

            Even if you have that experience remember that not EVERYONE is like that. We also had an fun time with a few high school girls who were visiting the same hotel as us a few days after, and little buddy loved all the attention. Most of the time people were polite, and would talk to us a little about our cute boy. When they wanted pictures we didn’t really mind. It was just the experiences we had where they had no boundaries that REALLY bugged us.

To Continue:

            Then we left Taipei 101, and walked around Taipei to a popular beef noodle place, which was really good. I couldn’t finish it so they put it in a plastic bag and tied it closed! Clever! We then headed to a shaved ice place it was delicious. The shaved ice is like snowflakes melting on your tongue. They also flavor the ice, and give you real fruit, and sherbet. So it wasn’t overly syrupy sweet, and perfectly refreshing. Then we went to The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints temple, and visitors center. We were able to relax, and let little buddy run around. This also was the time we found out that little buddy loved to play photographer, and for the most of the trip if we let him have the camera he was happy. Even held the camera in front of his face like he was taking pictures.

            We headed back to the Hotel, and said good bye to two wonderful people. John is the name of my hubby’s friend who took us on our journey through the city. He also brought a friend who new really good English so we were able to communicate really well. They were wonderful! John kept holding the stroller when we didn’t use it for little buddy, and answered all my questions that hopefully didn’t annoy him.

            It was perfect to have a hotel so centrally located, because then we were able to go back to it in the afternoon to rest from the heat. Oh the heat. Here is my advice for dealing with heat. First, we left Utah which was in the mid 60’s Fahrenheit and chilly. Arrived in Taiwan, which was in the upper 80’s Fahrenheit plus 100% humidity. We always carried two types of drinks with us: caffeine and an energy drink called Supow. Plus we would get bottled water every few hours. You just have to embrace it, or really let the water blanket of hot air embrace you. I would do my hair, and make-up with the thought that by lunch time my hair would be a frizzled mess, and I would have to wipe my face about a hundred times from the pool of humidity. So just go with it. You’re on an adventure. Keep hydrated, and get as much rest when you can in the air conditioning.

            Later that night we met another friend of my hubby’s named Mao. He was a ton of fun. He is a professional musician who is studying music composition for his masters. He reminds me of a lot of the theater kids in high school. He has lots of personality, honest, kind, and fun to be around. Added bonus, he knew my hubby before I met him, so he had some epic stories about how silly my hubby can be. They lived together for a few months; I think it helped us bond when we could commiserate about life living with my hubby. Mao met us at the National Concert Hall were he was going to be doing a concert that night. Which is right next to the Chiang Kia-Shek Memorial building. Apparently Chiang Kia-Shek helped shape important parts of Taiwanese politics, and bring about better trade. I couldn’t really understand ‘cause we had to race through the building reading the plaques really fast so we wouldn’t miss the taking down of the flag, which was really cool with the sunset going down at the same time.

            Then we headed back to the hotel. It was crazy how much we fit into each day, but I think it helped with the jet lag.

Here are the pics:

Day 1, Part 1:

Woke up at 6 a.m. with the sun shinen, and us all ready for an epic adventure. I rolled over looking at my cute Lil Buddy cuddled in my arms, and my handsome hubby playing games on his phone. I felt the smile slowly wash over my face as I remembered where we were. “We’re in Taiwan!” I whispered excitedly to my husband. He looked back at me with a huge grin. ”We’re  in Taiwan!” He whispered back in happy confirmation. “We’re half way across the world!” He smiled and whispered the same back to me. That was what I found myself randomly saying to him every so often through out the day.

Let me say our hotel was awesome! The bed was two double sized mattresses pushed together to form basically one GIANT bed, I rolled around on that sucker for a good few seconds. We co-sleep with Lil Buddy on a Queen size mattress at home. It’s not bad, but it hella ain’t a king size mattress. I have not had that much space to sleep in in…NEVER. 

Here are pics of our hotel:

My hubby had picked the place it is called the Amba Hotel in Taipei. If you happen to go to Taiwan this is the place to stay. It is right in the middle of the hip part of downtown. The streets close down at night so people can walk around, and shop. Some of my favorite shops turned out to be in this area. Plus it is also a five-minute walk to the MRT, which is the train station that EVERYONE uses to get around.

           

Funny story about how we got to the hotel:

           It was 9:30 at night when our ride dropped us off at a street corner near our hotel. We had our luggage, stroller, and car seat dragging behind us as we walked around trying to figure out where our hotel was. As we were walking down a street there where mopeds zipping by us, and cars that were driving down a road that looked more like a side walk. We're walking down this street and I see in big white lights on the side of a building the words AMBA. My husband being the leader he is, and our guide for this trip is supposed to be finding the hotel. I didn’t say anything, because I thought, “well maybe it’s just really big, and he is trying to find the entrance.” As we walk a few more city blocks I realize he didn’t see it. So as I see him looking lost around for a few seconds I say,”Honey I think it was back that way..” He looks at me, and says. “ I am pretty sure it’s this way actually.” I respond, “Really? Because I just saw the word AMBA in huge white letters a few blocks back.” He just shook his head, and said we could try it. As we walked two blocks back we come to one side of the hotel with HUGE white letters that say Amba…..Yeah, we were tired…plus this is a common thing in our marriage.

 Even half way across the world some things don’t change.

The Dreaded Flying With A Baby

 I did a lot of reading to get ready to handle jet lag for my little family. Mostly the information all added up to diet, sunlight, and sleep prep. Please remember always ask a doctor first before doing anything different to your diet, or trying any of those interesting jet lag solutions some blogs suggest.
        
       The week before we were leaving for Taiwan I put Lil Buddy to bed three hours later then his usual bed-time. The four days leading up to us leaving I upped our water intake, started eating salads, and fruits only for my meal. My evening meal being my biggest, and having most of my carbs.

         For the first leg of our journey we started at 8 in the morning from Salt Lake international to San Francisco. Lil Buddy did an awesome job on this first part. I liked to think of it as our testing flight. I took note of anything I felt would make the longer flight easier as I watched his reaction to flying.

         The next leg was San Fran International to Tokyo. This was the part I was most anxious about. I really, really, didn't want a screaming angry baby who gets sick halfway through the flight. So I packed our carry on with tons of diapers, children's Tylenol, diaper rash cream, and some things I thought would keep him happy. Thankfully my Lil Buddy is a curious creature so having a plane to watch out the window was a perfect distraction while I had to hold him in my lap. I made sure to wait to nurse him till take off or landing to make sure his ears did well with the pressure change. I ended up having to use spiffy ear plugs we ordered off of Amazon for the first part of the journey to help with the pressure change. They were a HUGE help, because as soon as we took off from Salt Lake my ears got a sharp pain. 

Going from Salt Lake International to San Francisco.

         I really feel that the secret to us having almost no Jet lag is that we didn't sleep much. We had to get up at 5 a.m. to be at the airport by 6, so we had enough time for checking in, which ended up being the perfect amount of time, because the airline we booked with ended up not actually registering Lil buddy when we bought the tickets. We wondered if this might happen especially because we had registered him for sitting on our laps for the flight. So after dealing with the check out counter for an hour we finally got our luggage checked in, and one of the awesome things about traveling with a babe is that the check out is a lot quicker. Most airports use a pre-check, or a family check for doing the security check in. It is so much faster, and you don't have to take out all your food or electronics. 
        
       Once on the plane Lil Buddy took his usual afternoon nap, and then another two hour nap on the plane. Then he finally passed out from exhaustion at the last leg of our journey, which was a four hour flight from Tokyo to Taipei.

 

       In between the sleeping we walked Lil Buddy around the plane, read books, watched movies from the kid friendly movie selection menu. I don't know if it was on purpose, but the row we were in had all kids. On almost all the flights it was arranged like that. It was awesome because then the kiddos would all stumble to the aisle have there teddy Bears, and chat with each other. It was like a little baby conference meeting with teddy bears.

     On our flight from Tokyo to Taipei, out of pure exhaustion, hubby and I finally got some sleep. We landed, and a good friend of my Hubby's picked us up. We got a SIM card for our phones, and some cash then headed to our hotel with all of our luggage, car seat included.(Yes, unlike most stereo types about Asia, you do in fact need a car seat if you are going to be riding in non public transportation like Taxis) Rarely in all my travels have I had all my luggage arrive on time, or safe. The airline surprised us though, and when we landed our luggage was all there. On the drive to our hotel, which was a 15 minute drive from the airport, Lil Buddy and I passed out in the back seat. Finally we got to the hotel, and crashed after making the room nice and dark.

From Tokyo airport to Taipei. Little buddy passed out!

The next day we woke up at 7 in the morning local time, and just went through the day living on the local time schedule. We made sure we were out in the sunlight for most of the day, and we didn't take any naps. In order to help with the exhaustion we did go back to the hotel around four to take showers, and relax for an hour before we headed out again. I really feel like all the preparation helped, and kept me calm while adapting to what ever came our way.

I was really impressed with our stewardesses, and plane rides with ANA air. They have one of the best flight records, and ratings for flying with Asian flights. Shout out to them for being patient with baby and not loosing our luggage!😄

Tickets! Tickets! Every body get your tickets!

We have a week, and a half before we leave for Taiwan.(What?!!) Yeah, a week, and a half. I make my sister tell me that randomly through out the day so it will sink in. It still hasn't sunk into my mind that I am finally going over seas, out of the country, on a great adventure. I honestly don't think it will until the morning after we arrive in Taiwan.

To begin our adventure we of course had to get tickets. Even Bilbo Baggins had to sign a contract.

I like to call this, The Close Call:
 
    First, We started looking back in January. Surprisingly to me prices for flying to Taiwan are cheaper then if you wanted to fly to Europe if you buy at the right time.(apparently people don't want to have a 20 hr trip) We wanted to go just before it got to hot, but just after the heavy winter rains. Luckily, my husband had lived there for two years serving a mission for our church six years ago. He still kept in contact with some of the people he came to know, and with what he remembered we figured May would be the sweet spot.

   After looking online at prices on different websites for a few weeks, we finally decided we were going to buy the tickets! That's when we started to notice something..interesting happening with our Facebook pages. We have pop-up blockers for our web browser, but of course that doesn't stop Facebook from flooding your news feed with things it has noticed you have been looking for.

   At first it was just annoying, and then I came across this article from USA Today. The article states company's will use your browsing history through your browser, and then offer prices according to how often you have been looking up items. We checked the prices after looking on our usual browser, and then we went to our Safari browser. The article was right. There was almost a $500 difference between the web browser we had been using to find tickets, and the browser that we used for the first time that day.
                                                                 

  Looking at a new browser we started finding really good deals. We compared prices on a few of the cheaper airline sites. After searching for a few minutes....the price jumped a thousand dollars..

                                                   This was pretty much our reaction

Seeing our potential dream vacation out of our reach, Shizzznitsssss!!!

  Thankfully, I have a very handsome, very smart husband(have I mentioned that before?), who figured out that if we changed the date to the next week, not only would the price go down it would go back to the prices we had seen quoted in January.

TAKE THAT INTERNETS!!

If you want to plan a trip, and you have been finding the same problems. I would suggest trying the method that we learned. Some times you really can have your cake, and eat it too.

Something New

     
      I am still not sure exactly what I want this blog to be all encompassing. Something I do want is for my words to be inspirational, and honest. Mostly honest. So let me be honest about something. Having anxiety means over thinking to the 'nth degree. As an example I would like to share my exploits of trying to fulfill my "bucket list." This list of mine has some pretty epic things in my point of view. The problem is in order to accomplish them I will over think, over dramatize, and some times(most of the time) I consider the worst worst worst case scenario.

    The latest item off my bucket list is that I really want to do a trip over seas. Now I have dreamed of traveling the world most of my life. I am pretty sure I have mentioned this below, a few times. So what do I do as some one who deals with anxiety disorder? I plan...I plan the crap out of this trip. I know it doesn't necessarily make sense, but go with it. As the planning commences I will update everyone on what does and does not work. What to do for those with anxiety and depression. Also how to eventually sit back, and finally realize that sooner or later you just have to go with the flow.

     Until then here is a meme of what I basically look like when saying, "I plan the crap out of this trip."

Credited to the movie She's The Man. 

Fall at Bells Canyon, Utah

Took this hike Sep'14 with family