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!😄