I am so fortunate and have made friends all over the world during my journey the last one and a half year. Right now am I visiting my dear friend Chien in Taiwan. Chien and I became friends in Thailand last year. It is soo good to see her again and the right chemistry is there between us from the first second we meet.
Chien takes the time to travel from her hometown Yuanlin 2,5 hours by train outside Taipei to meet me the day I arrived. Through Facebook have I arranged a dinner appointment with another friend of mine from my stay in Mysore Jessica Kao, that happens to be in Taipei that evening. The three of us go to the famous Dumpling Restaurant Tin Dai Fung together.
We start the day after with yoga at Space Yoga before breakfast. After breakfast do we walk along the streets of Taipei and watch the street life. My favourite way to see a new city:-)
We have the time to visit Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall in the picture above, before we finish of our visit in Taipei with lunch in another dumpling restaurant. After lunch is it of to the train station to catch the train to Chien’s hometown Yuanlin.
We had to get up early the day after because we where driving up to the mountains to spend some time. Two happy girls on Hehuan mountain:-)
No doubt that Chien is doing everything she can to make my stay in Taiwan as interesting for me as possible. She definitely knows that a trip to the mountains makes me HAPPY. We go to bed the first evening excited about climbing another mountaintop the next morning. Change of plans!!! When I wake up the next morning turns it out that my friend has got altitude sickness. She is so unhappy because she can not climb the mountain together with me this day. I have to explain to her that even though I love to be up int the mountains and climb peaks, is the most important thing for me that she gets well as fast as possible. We drive down to lower altitude after breakfast and Chien is getting better.
The next stop for the day is a Sun Moon Lake a beautiful and relaxing place to spend the afternoon doing nothing in Nentou county.
We stay overnight in small town by the Sun Moon Lake and the day after do we return to Chien’s hometown Yuanlin. On our trip do we have a good and open discussion about my expectations to my visit to Taiwan. I tell her that what is important for me is that I get the opportunity to share the good friendship we have in person, and not only through messages and Facebook. That the best experiences I have is gaining good interactions with local people, and get the opportunity of taking part in everyday life. I just want to be together with my friend.
Chien has the idea that her everyday life in this “unknown” town in Taiwan is boring. In my next blog am I going to write about the boring life together with Chien and her family in Yuanlin. I can already reveal that her everyday life is not as boring as she thinks it is:-)
