Taipei Holiday

Since I have replied to nobody lately, and don't have enough time to do it all now, I'm making a simple blog entry to catch up. More coming in 2009! I have been so busy lately with life, it's hard to keep up with everything. I love you all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Christmas eve in Vietnam:
Woke up late because I'd gone dancing the night before, but I was in time for the amazing gourmet breakfast buffet at the Hilton. I mainly ate six different kinds of cheese, dates and nuts, along with oatmeal, a custom-made omlette, fresh fruit salad, homemade yogurt with mango and blackberry puree, roasted tomatoes and soft tofu soup with tea. I was supposed to meet my friend Nadia for lunch, but I was stuffed and wanted to fast a little before the big Christmas dinner. I took a motorbike taxi to the Indian embassy to pick up my passport with the new visa (thank god it was ready!) and then arrange for a taxi to take me to the airport the next morning. Then I met up with Nadia and had coffee, and afterwards we went to get massages together. An hour of bliss for only $10! Later that night was the five course Christmas dinner, which was not as wonderful as I was anticipating and we sang way too many Christmas carols. One of two would have been fine, but the singing went on forever. I decided to skip out early and take advantage of the sauna before it closed. I got a handmade birthday card from the group, 5 pairs of earrings, a skirt and a shirt from my friends.

My friend Rachael made some fabulous Frothy Orgasms, which will now replace Buttered Rum as my cocktail of choice. Delicious! I wrote down the recipe:

1 york peppermint or andes mint chocolate
1 packet of hot chocolate
Shot of bailey's
Shot of creme de mint or peppermint schnapps

The next morning, I caught the morning plane to Taipei, and James was waiting for me at the airport. His dad drove us to his grandparent's house, where a tree was set up. I had the most presents under the tree, ironically. His dad and stepmom got me some lotions, a wallet, some bath salts and a cell phone case. James got me a beautiful handmade skirt from the Saturday market in Portland, and his mom got me a jade necklace. I got him some special Vietnamese wine, which looked almost as discusting as it tasted. Inside the bottle was a hooded snake with a scorpian in its mouth. It definately had an animal aftertaste, so I guess it will just be a display and not for actual consumption. We had dinner at home with his relatives, and it was a pleasant Christmas.

Two days later, we left for Hua Lian on the train. James had arranged everything, so it was a nice suprise when we checked into a hostel by the sea. We were disapointed that we couldn't rent a motorbike because neither of us had our licenses. We had planned to take it into the national park and to our next lodging, an organic farm. Not to be deterred, we rented regular bikes and rode them around for the next three days. We went to a music festival, a mochi factory, and the farm.

At the farm bed and breakfast, we stayed in a cozy little straw hut made mostly of wood. James was breaking out in hives, having a horribly upset stomach and getting a fever, which was too bad. We befriended the farm dog, as well as two pigs, a goose, a goat, and a cat. There were also chickens and a rabbit, but they weren't really our friends. We ate lobster for dinner and biked back the next morning.

We hired a taxi to take us to the national park, where we stopped to hike. The best part was that we discovered a haunted cave late at night, which was full of frogs at the end of the tunnel. James was a bit scared, and we were both dripping with sweat by the time we made it back to our taxi. That night we stayed at another nice bed and breakfast, but James was still very sick.

So now we are back in Taipei. We celebrated my birthday last night at a Thai restauraunt and today we are going to see Twilight.