taiwan
i seem to have been lacking words recently, so here’s a photo tour of my one week trip to taiwan.

i’m glad i got a chance to see both sides of my family when i visited taiwan. it’s sort of hard to see most of my family these days.. especially with both my dad and brother living out of the states. this is my dad’s side of the family. we stayed at a hot springs resort together my first two nights in taiwan.

on the last day at the hot springs resort while my family and i were waiting for our van to come pick us up, my sister and i decided to go around taking pictures of the resort. this picture is from the japanese restaurant.

this visit, i only got a chance to stay in taipei for one night. i love the street that my dad’s company is located. it’s always so busy and trendy.

in taiwan, they have company trips where the company shuts down for a few days and everyone goes on a trip together. it is supposed to be a chance for company employees to bond and build relationships, and i think it’s a great idea. it was nice to see that so many employees brought their family and some even brought their kids.

on our way down the west coast of taiwan, i snapped a few shots just to remember how green taiwan is. taiwan is so hot and humid. for some reason they love to crank up the air conditioning in the buildings, and it ends up making the outside seem even more unbearable.

our first stop was a visit to a taiwan beach. there was a seashell museum there too. i wasn’t too interested in either the museum or the beach, but i thought that the view of the beach from the museum was pretty.

on our way to dinner, we passed by a giant fountain where people were playing in to cool off.

we drove to the second largest city in taiwan, kaohsiung, and we rode in boats on the love canal. the lights from the city on the water were really pretty. here’s a shot from the boat ride.

kaohsiung recently opened up the largest mall in taiwan called “dream mall”. it is ridiculously big. it even has a car dealership inside and an amusement park on the roof. taiwan has so much more japanese and european influence than the u.s. it is really interesting looking at their styles.

on the second day, we visited a sugar cane factory. before taiwan joined the world trade organization (WTO), the sugar industry used to taiwan’s biggest industry. these trains used to carry sugar canes from the fields to the factory, and they eventually added fences and benches so people could tour the field.

my brother found mangos from mango trees at the sugar cane factory.

we visited the current president’s old home. it was interesting seeing how humble of a town city he used to live in. his mother still lives in the house today.

one of my favorite parts of my dad’s company trip was when we visited a oyster farm and a farmer took us on a boat trip around the bay.

the oysters grow on ropes hanging from these bamboo racks. the farmer even picked up a rope of oysters, and we cooked them on the boat.

on our stop during the boat trip, we climbed up a hill to get this beach. the sand was so hot, but it was definitely worth the climb.

taiwan recently built a high speed rail from the north part of taiwan to the south part of taiwan. i got the chance to ride on the train on my way back to the airport from tainan after visiting my mom’s side of the family. it was so ridiculously fast and smooth. i traveled from tainan to taipei in less than 2 hours. i heard there was a proposal to have a high speed train running from L.A. to san francisco, but i think the proposal has faced a lot of opposition because of the costs. that’s too bad because a high speed train running from socal to norcal would be so convenient.

i never got a chance to take a picture of my paint balling experience in taiwan with my dad’s employees. i must admit that although paint balling was a fun experience, i probably will never do it again. the paintball pellets shooting out of high powered air soft guns were pretty painful on my body. i have several bruises on my body from paint balling. at some point during the game, i started to really feel like i was in some sort of guerrilla war in a jungle. it’s a good story to share. i’m not going to lie.