Our first "road trip" in Taiwan -- To Ikea in Taipei

The second morning in our new apartment we were all still adjusting to the time change.  As a result, the kids woke up at 3:30am and that meant that one of us had to get up as well.  Chris had taken the previous "night shift" so I got up with the kids and a couple hours later we watched the sun come up out of Andrew's bedroom window.  It was quite beautiful.

 

After moving into the apartment, although it is furnished, we realized there were quite a few things we needed to live comfortably (sheets and dishes, for example) so we decided that this nice, now long day, could be productive.  We took our first "road trip" to Taipei to go to Ikea. With every street sign in Chinese we ended up having to use both our Garmen and IPhone to find Ikea.  It was an adventure!  I had mentioned in the previous post that stores out here are taller than they are wide.  So as a result, you either park on the top of the building or under the building.  For convenience (rather than everyone using an elevator) they install these wide escalators that you take your cart up and down with you.  I've found these to actually be somewhat of a workout as by the time I get to the top my calves are already sore.  So now I can add shopping as my daily workout, right?!?

On our way home from Ikea I noticed while looking at the map that the ocean was really close so we decided to be even more adventurous and veer off course.  After listening to "Please make the next legal U-turn" and "Recalculating" more than a few times, we turned off the Garmen and followed our instincts.  Down highway 61 you can see bits and pieces of the ocean to your right as you're driving South.  Most of the coast has been turned into farming property or has not been kept up so vegetation grows right up to the water.  Where there are open spaces the beaches tend to be quite rocky.   

We did happen to look out in the distance and see what resembled a beach and so we thought we would drive in that direction.  We ended up in a very rural location.  Chris turned to me and said, "this is creepy, I'm turning around" I replied, "just a bit further, we have locks on the doors if we need them".  And we couldn't turn around if we tried, the street was so narrow.  So, we drove down a dirt road with the most beautiful canopy of trees and it opened up to a "local" beach. (this picture does not do justice to how beautiful the road really was!)

Although the beach was not extremely beautiful, the atmosphere was amazing!  There had to be over 100 people there and a type of outdoor flea market.  You can only imagine what the locals must have felt seeing this blonde hair, fair skinned, English speaking family pull up. It is not very common to see young white children here which means that we get stared at quite a bit.  And I'm sure they didn't see a family like ours everyday at this beach as it was very much off the beaten path.  And to top it off, we didn't have any bathing suits or towels. 

The beach ended up being a black sand beach and the water was about 85 degrees (like bath water).  There was no sea weed on this part of the beach and the levels dropped off here and there so we had to be very careful where we let the kids play.  We waded out into the water and before long, our swimmer, Lilly, had plopped down in the water with her dress on.  We gave Drew a nod and he was next.  The kids had so much fun splashing around (much more fun than we had trying to clean and dry them off afterwards) and the locals had a good time watching and laughing at us.  They must have thought we were crazy!  The most beautiful site was when two men showed up on their horses and ran them along the beach.  The day was super packed and after waking up at 3:30 in the morning and then swimming, the kids were beat.

 

(On the beach a man had about 6 four wheelers that he rented out.  To his left was the flea market where locals sold various food, drinks, and trinkets.  Also, large water trucks were parked on the edge of the sand and you could spend 40NT to wash up).

As I sit and type this post I'm watching a man sweap leaves out of the bushes in front of our apartment and I can't help but think about the pride that the Tiawanese have in their country.  Although the streets are blackened and dirty from use they are swept every morning, there seems to be less litter along the streets than in larger cities in the US, it's very rare to see grafity in most places, and most restaurants and stores have recycling bins.  I can count the number of frowns I have seen on one hand so far (amazing) and at night the buildings are lit up like Las Vegas.  Families walk around until midnight taking advantage of the night markets and cooler air and the streets are safe, being patrolled by the police constantly.  I am reminded over and over again what a beautiful place I have been given the opportunity to live in for the next year.