Thanksgiving in Taiwan

I believe this is the first time I've had Thanksgiving without one or both of my daughters since they were born. I decided, a while back, that I wanted to take a little trip during our four days off. It's the first real break we've had since I started at the beginning of August so I was excited to get outside of Kaohsiung.

On Thanksgiving morning, which was like any other morning in Kaohsiung (80º and humid), a small group of us took the train up to Hualien, which is located in northeast Taiwan.

We got to this huge main station in Kaohsiung called Zuoying where you can catch the high speed rail. There is no high speed rail to Hualien from Kaohsiung so we took the slow train that takes about 5 hours.

Here is the inside of our lovely, old-fashioned train which was pretty comfy. The attendants come through once or twice to offer food and they come through a few times during the trip to collect any trash you may have. Nice huh?

It was a beautiful day so the trip up had some amazing vistas. We headed south toward Kenting then curved and went up the east coast of the island. There is this HUGE mountain range that runs down the middle of Taiwan so you basically have to get around that.

 You don't see a lot of big, puffy clouds in Kaohsiung so I enjoyed taking photos of them hovering over the mountain tops.

Once you get out of Kaohsiung, you see so much farmland and different crops being grown along the way. They use every inch of growing space in this country to feed a large population of people.

So on my side of the train I was seeing mountains on the way south until we turned the corner and started heading north. Then the ocean was on my side of the train. It's quite dramatic!

Look at the color of the water! There were layers of blues I have never seen before!

You look to the left and you see the mountains. You look to the right and you see ocean! The mountains are so lush and green and truly glorious!

We got into Hualien station and immediately saw sculptures, images and art that represents the local culture and aboriginal peoples.

We checked into the Azure Hotel, which was decorated for Christmas. The hotel is located near the heart of downtown Hualien so we could walk to everything quite easily.

 This was my lovely room overlooking the mountains.

 THIS was the view from my room! Happy Thanksgiving!

 My friend TW (a fellow teacher) and his daughter Claire hamming it up outside the hotel.

It was pointed out to me, by several people, that I don't have many images of myself in my blog. I tried to remedy that. I am not one to take selfies (I usually don't capture what I want to capture and I look like I escaped from the insane asylum in all of them) so I made a point of asking my friends to snap a photo here and there.

 One our way into the heart of Hualien, we passed by a phone booth. Remember these?!

 You can imagine that it didn't feel much like Thanksgiving here when it was well into the 80's and everything is blooming and so vibrant.

After lunch we walked down colorful streets and made our way to the ocean. There is a walking/bike trail that runs the entire length of the town and you see the Pacific before you and mountains frame the land around you.

The sun was setting, the breeze was blowing and I felt so lucky to be standing in such a beautiful place.

This was the stairway down to the shore from the walking path above. It was made completely of rock and driftwood and was truly a work of art!

The shore is strewn with rocks of every color. There is jade and marble and other stones that local artisans use in their sculptures and jewelry. My purse weighed a good 5 pounds more by the time I left the beach.

On our way back to the hotel, we decided to grab dinner and I got to eat sushi (for Thanksgiving) at this cool sushi bar. There is a conveyor belt that runs along the bar and around the entire restaurant. You grab what you want off of the moving conveyor and pay $30NT (about $1) a plate. I spent $7 for amazing food!

The conveyor never stops moving and is being constantly replenished by the sushi ninjas working there. It may not have been a traditional Thanksgiving meal but I loved every bite!

Although I miss having my friends and family around, I get to go to these amazing places and am building a family of friends here. I am grateful and thankful for that.