I arrived at the airport on time, parked in the long term parking and jumped on the shuttle bus. As the bus drove away after a few seconds I realized I didn’t have my phone on me. Thankfully I was the only person on the bus and the driver gladly turned back around for me. There my phone was, still in the holder. Once it was time for the plane to leave there was a problem with the plane. After boarding and then deplaning they told us there there was a problem with the temps around the fuel tank. I went ahead and got on another plan. I ended up flying to Atlanta and then to LA. This may sound like a pain, but on the up side it meant no 16 hour layover in LA. Luckily my bag got there with me too. Finallly, at 12:45am, it was time to fly to Taipei. This meant it would very soon be Friday and Thursday will have been a very short day. I found out that on China Airlines, OJ and apple juice look the same in a paper white cup. A few couples around me that ordered each had to ask which was which very consistently. On the descent into Taipei I had a strange pain in the area of my eye. It made my eye painful to the touch even. I would experience the same descending into Penang but it went way both times and I didn’t experience it flying back at all. I think I got about 5 hours of sleep on LA to Taipei but that’s about it. I arrived to Penang on Friday afternoon and seeing Erika waving her arms made my day. You might be wondering who Erika is. Well, in the past few years Erika and I have become best friends and she means the world to me. Can’t even imagine a world she is not part of. Here are some pictures from Friday. Most of these are from the Taipei airport. They had themed gates. There’s also a few from my hotel and the meal we had that Erika and I had. They’re in slideshow just to not take up so much room but if you click the picture it will have arrows so you can navigate the pictures.
Saturday started off mostly a relaxed day since I caught up on some sleep. We had a fun day though. We went grocery shopping so Erika could make me lasagna and we also went to a fire show, got some dinner and went to George Town to a bar. By night time, every day I was there, I was beat. I wish I could feel the same at home. At the bar there were a couple of dogs so we were making friends. Other items of interest, the number 4 is bad luck for Chinese (notice on the elevator..no 4, no 14, no 24), it was the Chinese ghost festival while I was there so they were burning fires everywhere.
I only have a couple of pictures for Sunday. On Sunday we went to Escape water park. I didn’t make too big of a deal about this even thought I know one key fact. Erika can’t swim. For the most part this didn’t create a problem until Erika got it in her head she wan’t to go onto the “Banana Flip” slide that ends in the diving pool they have…yes, 15 feet deep. The worker was just like “ah no big deal that’s why we have the lifeguards”. so I went down there and waited. FInally she went and the guy got her out with the pole. Let’s just say my opinion holds a little more wait after her expecting to be able to touch the bottom like at the rest of the park. No experience like the real thing. It did worry the hell out of me though. Glad she survived, indeed! Oh yeah, we also saw monkeys along the road just hanging out.
Monday proved to be a very busy day. First we met with 2 of my teammates for a hike. We hiked to a cafe for breakfast and then to a very old Chinese temple. The whole way there was uphill and took easily an hour one way. Along the way I must have seen 5-6 different kind of fruit trees. At one point the girls were all trying to steal some fruit but there was little success. This would also be the day I learned to drive on the wrong side of the road and I was the driver from that point forward. I did pretty well except for the time I almost turned into the wrong way and the time i side swiped a bush and the time i took a turn to sharp and bottomed out the left side. It’s very different driving over there. I feel like driving in the US is much safer (more signs and such to make it more clear what you should do). Monday evening we met up with all my teammates and a few others for dinner at a Thai restaurant. I felt so special that they would all take time out of their day for me just to hang out and talk and have a meal. Not only was it very special but the food was probably my favorite meal of the time.
On Tuesday I got quite a bit of driving experience in. I drove all the way to the mainland and back. The biggest thing we did was go to the Buddhist temples. One was the Burmese temple and the other was the Thai reclining buddha temple. This was so amazing to me and beautiful. The whole thing was very spiritual. We got the monk to tie bracelets on our wrists and say a prayer over us. If we’re not married we’re definitely spiritually bonded. They also have these moving bowls that you can toss coins in like a wishing well. We both were successful at this on a couple of throws. I got ‘success’ and ‘good luck’. Erika got 3 or 4, she’s got skills. We also chose this day to celebrate our birthdays together. It was very special to sing to each other and make wishes.
The last day went by so fast. I wish there was a way I could have just stayed longer. Here’s some pictures of my last meal though and also of Erika and I and a couple of my teammates. My teammates surprised me and came down to the airport to say goodbye. I’m pretty sure I’m not even deserving of these people, i swear. I am pretty damn lucky. Oh yeah, as a side note, I found the worlds shortest escalator in the Taipei airport this time!
Now I’m home safe and happy to see Luna and just trying to get back on a US schedule.