Getting started in Auckland

We are relaxing in the "sitting room" of Leila's house (our host from airbnb.com) after a nice lunch and another long walk around the city. One of the three cats is sleeping on the couch next to us and the sun is out. All in all, things are really great so far. Brian and I both expected that Auckland would be just another big city we'd want to get in and out of as quickly as possible, but that isn't that case. We are staying in Ponsonby, described as a hip "suburb" of Auckland. I have come to realize that "suburbs" here are not the same as those at home... I think it's actually the Kiwi word for "neighborhood." Ponsonby is wonderful. The main street, which we have walked up and down many, many times in the last 2 1/2 days is chock full of boutiques, gourmet food shops, hip restaurants and bistros and yoga studios. I feel right at home! And after realizing how wrong I was about how I'd feel about Auckland, I have the feeling I am going to fall in love with every single place we go in the next year...

After a long 24 hours of traveling we were greeted so warmly at the Auckland airport! It was almost disturbing how friendly everyone was right away- not something I'm used to at airports in the US. While going through customs, the officer was almost apologetic while asking kindly to look through a few things we had brought. All the things I've heard about Kiwis being friendly have been true so far! We were able to get a shuttle right away which dropped us off at the door of our temporary home, where our host has been accommodating, friendly, and extremely helpful with tips and maps and guidebooks.

On our first day we had a fantastic Indian dinner down the street from our house and then walked downtown and to the North Wharf to watch the sunset. It was beautiful and the pier was all decked out for the Rugby World Cup, which is an obsession in this country. We were just noticing that every single business, storefront and home has at the very least an All Blacks flag hanging up, even the banks! There are billboards and murals all over the city adorned with photos of the beloved rugby team. I was a little nervous that we'd arrive and it would just be absolute mayhem in the city, but despite the subtle buzz of excitement it seems to still be pretty relaxed. Maybe we're just too far away from the stadium to notice it. :)

Yesterday was spent tending to business... which is probably going to be the worst/most stressful part of this year, which is why we'd like to get it all over with in the first week. We are in the process of buying a car from the Backpackers Car Market and should have a Subaru Grand Legacy in our possession by Monday or Tuesday! The car market is nice because the people working there are not pushy like used car salespeople and they have no incentive to push cars on you, because backpackers are the ones who will make the profit off of the car, and they are paying the lot to hold and display their car there. One of the guys working there took us out for a test drive in the Subaru and said that he thought it was the best car on the lot that he'd seen all month and it came back from its mechanical inspection with a nearly clean bill of health (very rare). This is all great news because if we take good care of the car, we should be able to sell it back once we're done with it for the same or close to the same price we are buying it for. Now the issue is trying to get enough money out of the bank to pay for it in a timely fashion without getting ripped off with transaction fees. So far, no luck there. I'll keep you posted. If anyone has experience with a cheap way to wire money overseas... we'd love your advice! :)

One thing Brian and I are trying to work on right now is fighting the urge to get caught up in our "vacation mentality," which is difficult in such a darling neighborhood with many culinary delights to offer... Money is burning up quickly with the purchase of a car, insurance, and cell phones, with no real income in sight. We are thinking of trying to find some temporary work right away, instead of waiting a few months, so that we can replenish some of the immediate funds spent.

I am so happy here! This place is already amazing, and we're just in the big city now... I can't wait to see what the unpopulated areas of New Zealand have to offer. It turns out almost half of the entire country's population lives here in Auckland, which leaves not much to be dispersed around the rest of the islands. I know it sounds so cheesy, but it's true: there are so many new experiences and adventures to be had this year, it's almost mind blowing. I can barely wrap my brain around it. Might have to go take a nap ;)

our home at 6 Ponsonby Terrace

walking around Ponsonby

in an alley off of K Rd, Auckland's former Red Light District

view of the city center from North Wharf

Go The All Blacks

palm trees in the city

skytower reflection

happy to be here :)

Taiwan

Hi everyone! After a very long hiatus I have decided to attempt to update this thing again! Since it seems like everyone and their mother (literally...) has facebook these days, you guys have already had access to the better part of my millions of pics from this trip, so I probably won't post many on here. It has been a few months since Brian and I got back from our month-long trip to SE Asia, but if you're still at all curious about what we did, here's some pieces from the journal I kept semi-regularly :)

Day 1

We arrived in Taipei early in the AM and a driver was there to pick us up at the airport, just what I've always wanted! Brian's cousin Sarah arranged for our ride, since we were staying at her apartment. I can't remember the name of the district in Taipei she lives in but it is the next 'hood down from Shilin. We walked a 20 min walk to her work, which is an International School and then wandered around in the rain for a few hours. We ate dumplings and drank sweet soymilk at what would turn out to be a daily hangout spot for us next door to Sarah's apartment. Explored more, played on one of the many calisthenics courses in a park, then got hum bow (I know that's not how it's spelled or probably the correct name for it, but you know what I mean) and went home for a well deserved nap (we didn't even get lost once!).

Sarah and Maria (Maria is Sarah's sister and Brian's other cousin living and working in Taipei as well) came back from work and we went for our first dinner. We ate 2 kinds of beef, spinach, fried squid and a chicken dish, and everything was sooooooo so delicious and cheap! After hanging out and chatting at Maria's place for a bit, Brian and I took the metro to the Shilin Night Market, which was pretty insane. Tons of people, carnival games, food, clothes, stands selling everything (and most of the stands were all the same). We wandered around for a few hours and had a few more snacks (you will soon notice a trend here) and then came home.

Sarah's apartment was really nice and made for an extra easy, comfortable transition for us. We had our own bathroom and bedroom with A/C and a key so we could come and go as we pleased. Thanks to Sarah for being such a gracious host!!

Day 2

Got a little bit of a late start, still felt a little jetlagged (in retrospect, the transition into Asia was so so easy compared to the nightmare of readjusting to our own time zone when we got back to the US, which took me at least 2 weeks). We met the girls and walked to their favorite hand-shaven noodle house so that a dan-dan noodle conessueir like myself could judge these authentic noodles and compare the two. :) We ate green onion pancakes, "exploding dumpling," green beans and cucumbers, and I had non-soup shaved noodles while everyone else had soup. It was really great but to be honest, dan dan noodles from Seven Stars Pepper here in Seattle REALLY take the cake.... to outshine the noodles in Taiwan really says something, and believe it or not, after being picked up from the airport in Seattle when we got home, we drove straight to Seven Stars Pepper for dan dan noodles before we even stopped at home! :)

After a nap we took the MRT to a hotspring called Xin Beitou. It was totally packed but really fun and cool (well, scorching hot actually). Brian fully submerged, twice, in the second hottest pool that my sensitive skin couldn't even step foot in! We got pretty lightheaded during the hotspring session, because it was still really hot outside and then getting into a hot pool instantly dehydrates you. There were also cool pools though so we could take a rest in those whenever we needed a break. The best part about the hotspring was that it was only a few metro stops away... if I lived in Taipei I would probably want to go there every single day. So sweet.

After the pools we took the MRT to another neighborhood to find a Lonely Planet-recommended restaurant and ended up getting all mixed up and turned around and I don't think the restaurant exists anymore. It was one of those too-hungry-getting-very-grumpy moments for me and we just ended up having to go to some random over-priced place, but I do kind of feel like there is no bad food in Taiwan anywhere.... so it ended up being fine. :) A little more wandering around after dinner and then off to sleep.

Day 3: Taipei to Sun Moon Lake

We took the high speed rail to Sun Moon Lake for an overnight trip with Sarah and Maria and their friend Virginia. the HSR went 200-something km/hr and we got there pretty quick. We were going to take the bus but it turned out to be a huge ordeal and we wandered around Taipei Main Station for an hour and couldn't get a straight answer about what we were supposed to do. All part of the adventure! :) We got a couple rooms in a nice hotel with a great outdoor patio with a view of the whole lake. Of course it started pouring rain the minute we arrived and we took a yacht tour in the pouring rain. It was kind of funny, it dropped us off at 2 different spots where we just walked around and there was a bunch of touristy stands selling stuff and food. We spent a couple of hours wandering in the rain taking pics; it kind of reminded me of those Hawaiian "cruises" that end in a luau- cheesy but fun. Sun Moon Lake overall was really touristy but it was beautiful anyway. After the boat tour we had dinner that featured local food/seafood and had some water fern-looking thing called "dragon's beard" that was amazing. We had a low-key night watching a little TV and listening to the fireworks outside (it was 10-10-10 which is a holiday there) and then went to bed.

Day 4: Sun Moon Lake to Taipei

We got up early and had a breakfast at the hotel- congee porridge with veggies, etc. It was a buffet style and pretty tasty. We ate on the patio overlooking the lake and it was gorgeous and sunny and hot that day. After breakfast we just wandered around on the boardwalk for awhile and took lots of pictures. It was really nice out and good and sunburny :) Had hot pot for lunch and guess what, Seven Stars Pepper takes the cake again! Love that place. Any Seattle-ites who haven't eaten there... do yourself a favor and get yourself there NOW. 12th and Jackson in the International Dist. Anyway, we enjoyed some passionfruit tea (my new favorite slimy fruit) and then headed back to Taipei by bus and speed train.

When we got home we took MRT to Taipei 101, the 2nd tallest building in the world. I had some ATM problems (of course) before we went up, so by the time we got to the observation deck it was dark. Wah wah. Oh well, it was still fun :) We hurried back to the apartment to try to catch Sarah and Maria for dinner but we missed them so we walked down the street in search of our dinner. We found a non-descript, unmarked street stand and I pointed to what the vendor was making for another customer, and he made it for us. It was incredible.... noodles and veggies and more of that sweet soy milk thing. More wandering around the neighborhood after dinner and a late night dumpling run right before bed!

Day 5: attempt at Taroko Gorge

**Sidenote: it has now been over 6 months since this trip and I really want to start updating this again, but at this rate of detail it will take me another 6 months! So from here on out- just the highlights. The pictures tell great stories anyway- see facebook for the best pics :)**

This day was kind of a hilarious disaster. Got a late start to the day, accidentally dined and ditched on our breakfast (I swear it was an accident!), couldn't figure out how to get a ticket to the gorge, but finally got one. The train dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, but an English speaking tour guide offered to let us ride in his tour bus! We got on and were greeted ver warmly, and just like in my China tour group, we were taken to all the "best" spots and spent more time driving than exploring. On the way back, after driving past the train station, the bus pulled over and the guide told us we were being dropped off. "Thank you! Bye!" He said, leaving us stranded in an unknown place. We wandered aimlessly, frustrated and hungry, til finally a taxi drove by and took us to the train. We made it home and ended up eating the hottest of hot pots for dinner, followed by falling into bed after our emotionally tiring day!

Day 6: Jaioshi

We went to this town with the intention of going in hot springs, but it was scorching hot outside and we really wanted to hike. We took a shuttle up to a waterfall and hiked around for a few hours, but ran out of time to go in the pools (it felt WAY too hot to do that anyway), then got noodles at a local spot and took the train home to get ready for THAILAND!

China- Part I: Beijing

Hey friends and family, I hope everyone is doing well! I just got back from a 9-day trip in China with a group of 28 people from the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce, with which I was connected through Owen. He went on the trip too, which ended up being even more of a life-saver than I thought because we were on the same page while the rest of the group had a different agenda. The price was (really, really) right for this trip, so I decided to go even though it was in a tour group which is not really my style. Since the entire package was inclusive (5 star hotels, all meals, flights & transportation), it turned out to be a little too good to be true. We found ourselves touring China via factories (ie. pearl, silk, embroidery, cloisanne) and eating at the restaurants adjoined to each factory after a demonstration of how each of these things was made. After the demonstration there was a lot of pressure from the billions of employees in each gift shop to buy one of the wares, followed by a meal no Chinese person could stomach. Well, perhaps I'm being overdramatic, but I've never had Chinese food this bad, which seems to say a lot seeing as I was in China. But, the trip wasn't bad and definitely had some great highlights. So, without further ado, let me give you a little run-down of what we did.







We are not excited about this flight














Flying over Siberia!!!


















I played this game for like 5 hours, ugh






The first two days were somehow spent traveling, as we crossed the international dateline and mysteriously lost day 2 of our trip into the abyss. When we arrived in Beijing in the evening our tour guide, Julia took us to a dumpling restaurant, which was very tasty. We watched the kitchen staff assemble the dumplings through a window. Then we went to our very nice hotel and Owen and I picked up some unbelievably cheap beer (3 yuan, which is like 50 cents) and relaxed in our room.







Dumpling dinner





















The next morning we ate a buffet breakfast that impressed us in our hotel (so far so good...), and then went to the Summer Palace. It was here that we discovered we were horribly underdressed (and underpacked) for the temperature, which was around freezing with very strong winds. With the wind chill, Beijing remained around 25 degrees or so the entire time we were there... wah wah. :) It was beautiful anyway and I wondered if it had all been rumors about the smog in Beijing because it was gorgeous with blue skies the whole time we were there.







View from our hotel window












Driving through Beijing


































Gate to Summer Palace












Once inside the gate




























What a beautiful day!













































Owen



























At least our group didn't have orange hats













Teapot window















A secret door we found...
















...and getting kicked out of the secret door
































Being a tourist







After lunch we went to a pearl factory, where Owen and I had our grand realization of why the trip was so cheap. After listening to a talk about pearls, we spent an obscenely long time walking around the store area, where everyone else on the tour proceeded to buy as much pearl jewelry as they could carry. I am not a fan of pearls, so there wasn't much in it for me. The lunch was almost inedible.







This girl's English was great! And look how cute!



















The inside of an oyster







Next we went somewhere, but I can't remember what temple it was. Along the way we saw some key Beijing buildings. Then we were off to the Forbidden City, which was awesome. Owen and I immediately got lost from the group and were found about 30 minutes later (somehow... I have no idea how because this place is HUGE). I felt guilty that one of the guides had to come looking for us, but we were genuinely lost in the maze.


























Where the Olympics were held











Where the pool is, I think
















Temple gate












I accidentally took a picture of this










































































This restaurant is called "Easy Time" and that sign says "characteristics cuisine"



























Such vivid colors












































This is the sign we had to follow around for 9 days

















Handstand in the Forbidden City










The Forbidden City was followed by Tianenmen Square, which was pretty awe-inspiring. It is intense seeing the big picture of Chairman Mao in person! I was disappointed to see the square relatively empty, which I think was a result of the sun being on its way down. I ended up getting another chance to see it later, so that was fine.






First view of the square
































































After leaving the square and being followed/stalked by vendors all the way to the bus, we were on our way back to the hotel. We had a forgettable (I have no idea where we went) dinner, and then relaxed for the evening. Owen and I ventured out to a little tiny restaurant/bar near our hotel that night, and ate what skewers of what may or may not have been intestines and liver of something. We also drank some mystery liquor. When in Rome, right? :)

Because this is very time consuming (and I have over 500 photos...), I think I'll post separately for different segments of the trip. I will continue next posting with the Great Wall of China, which was definitely the highlight of the trip!! Thanks for reading and I hope this finds you well! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Shan

Update from Home...

Hey guys, I just wanted to post a little note to tell everyone that although I started to be kind of lazy about posting on here, I have been able to upload my newly resized photos very quickly onto my picasa page. Soooo... I know I never posted anything here about my trip to Uruguay, which was amazing and filled with great stories, I DID post a lot of my photos to Picasa. Nate and I also just got back from a 10 day trip to California, and whether or not I get around to posting about it, there are pictures up already from the first leg of the trip, which was Yosemite. AMAZING!!! Definitely check out the pics and I will try to be better about posting now that i figured out my photo woes (The pictures on my camera were ginormous, if you hadn't noticed, but I figured out how to resize them all). Hope you're all doing well, and keep checking back for the next adventure... CHINA (leaving Nov 15...)

Love, Shan

p.s. here's the link again, just in case...

My Picasa Albums