Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.

We have returned! Returned to our cozy apartment in Japan. It is nice to come 'home.'

Here's our travel route:
Thailand: Bangkok - Phuket - Bangkok
Taiwan: Taipei - Chaiyi

We were gone a total of 18 days, used two currencies, passed through immigration 6 times, and used every form of transportation known to man!

Here are some pictures from our vacation. It was so amazing! We were so relaxed we didn't even know what day it was, and really didn't care.

Bangkok highlights:

Riding in a Tuk Tuk (an open air taxi)



Famous temple: Wat Pho. All the structures are elaborately decorated with mosiac tiles...it's crazy.







Largest buddha lying down and putting small coins in these cool buckets.






Riding in a longtail boat. Similar to Venice, the choice form of transportation in certain areas of Bangkok.








Seeing a 'floating market'



Chinatown. There were so many people we couldn't move. I got burned by a motorcycle tailpipe on my leg. Not exactly the souvenir I was looking for...



Watching hundreds of people come to the park to do step aerobics. Free!



Shawn flipping mud onto his back with his flip flops.





Phuket Highlights:

the BEACH!!! and all that comes with it:















Riding and feeding an elephant!









Spending New Year's on the beach. We drank wine, ate M&Ms and smoked a cuban cigar.







Seeing traditional lanterns flying in the sky. These are rectangular tissue paper hot-air-balloon-type-things. You light the flames and wait for the hot air to fill the tissue paper..soon after it's flying away! There were hundreds all over the sky. Beautiful. Fuzzy picture, but you get the idea.



We could have stayed in Phuket forever. Alas, we figured out what day it was and moved on to Taiwan. We spent the first two nights in Taipei.

Taipei 101: Tallest building in the world and fastest elevator in the world. Nice views of the city.









National Palace Museum in Taipei. When the communists took over China the nationalists fled to Taiwan and took all the valuable historical artifacts with them. It's all in this museum. It's said that if you want to see traditional Chinese culture, Taiwan is the place to do it, not China. Weird, aye?



Then, we went to Chaiyi in Taiwan. Our friend from school, Jen, teaches English there and she showed us around. First we 'scooted' up to the Purple Cloud Temple on top of some mountains. Yes, that is right, we rented a scooter! I rode on the back of Jen's while Shawn got used to navigating. This may have been my favorite part of the trip, going through the mountains on a scooter. It was gorgeous!











We hiked down to the "1000 Step Waterfall." Seemed like there were more than 1000 steps! I wanted to count but forgot, and I probably can't count that high anyway. Shawn and Jen took a refreshing dip in the waterfall.





And that concludes our pictures, for now! I think tomorrow at school I may write down some more details about how the people/countries are, but now you know what we've been doing for the past three weeks!

A fabulous vacation! Happy New Year!