Taipei Bound
- Jan 2, 2019
- 3 min read
A new adventure begins today!!!
It's a trip that I have been wanting to do for years, and it's a country that I have been obsessing over for a long time, South Korea via Taiwan and I am so excited and full of nervous anticipation.
It's funny though the reactions I have had when I mention my trip, some are not surprised because of my 'little' obsession, some are WOW that's amazing and others are WHY would you want to go there?
The answer is simple really, why wouldn't I?
There is amazing food and culture, some amazing temples and palaces, beautiful scenery and people, traumatic histories that have made the nation and it's people stronger and I am satisfying a long held dream and I can't wait.
Taiwan however is interesting, it's been one of those countries that if money and time were no object that it was on my to-do list but it wasn't in the top ten, maybe not even in the top thirty but today it is stop number one on my first adventure of 2019!!!
And the reason why? Because of one of my traveling companions!!!
My partners in crime for this trip are my youngest daughter Jenna, her friend Sarah and my friend Linda. This motley bunch got together because I threw the question out to my kids one winter afternoon....'who wants to come to South Korea with me? BTW I am not paying for you to come :) '. Bryce and Samara couldn't because of work issues, Mikayla is going to Scotland in March and Jenna who is on her uni break and wanting a trip away said...'sure why not!!!'
When she told her friend Sarah (who I talk K-drama and music with) Sarah said that she wished she was coming and when Jenna mentioned that to me I said ask her and if she can afford it and wants to come than why not!!! She obviously said yes, and when Linda came home from another overseas trip I asked her if she wanted to start saving for her next trip (she always says if I have a trip planned that I need company on to let her know) and she didn't need to think long before saying yes!!!
Anyway, back to Taiwan and why this is our first port of call, and another simple reason it was a stopover on the flight we chose!!!!!
This is Jenna's first big overseas trip, she's been to New Zealand and was sadly disappointed not to get a stamp in her passport and she jokingly said that she'd love to get two stamps this trip instead of just one and if we were stopping over, why not get off the plane for a couple of days to have a look around, and who was I to refuse the chance to visit another country?
Why Taiwan?
We had other options, Bangkok and Shanghai (all within a few dollars of each other) as well as Taipei but we knocked Shanghai off straight away, not because we didn't want to go but because three days would not have been long enough and we couldn't add more days to the trip or didn't want to take time away from South Korea.
Jenna did quite a bit of research (I've already been to Bangkok so I let her make the decision because I would have been okay with going back because it's been a LONG time and if she chose Taiwan I would be thrilled because it would be somewhere else new for me). I think it was partly because it was different (lots of Australians go to Thailand for holidays but Taiwan is not really high on the cheap Asian holiday list) but also because she watched some really great vlogs and she was fascinated with the history, the food and the Maokong gondola and Jiufen which swayed her towards Taiwan.
And that is how Taiwan becomes our first stop in our 2019 Asian adventure.
Am I excited?
You bet!!!!
I have a feeling that even though it may not have been high on my list that Taiwan may become one of those places that I really want to go back to and explore in a lot more depth, but I am really looking forward to my 'sampler' trip.
Comments