first holiday....

so... i have a LLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTT of catching up to do since my last post.. First... a couple of updates which i don't have pictures for...

• diet.. FAIL!! ...like crazy... so crazy that lydia forgot she was on a diet ... o__O
• a couple weeks ago... my aunt let me borrow her bike during my stay here in taiwan.. it got stolen last week ... until i found it yesterday in another spot .. it made my day :) ... and speaking of bikes... i've realized i get worse road rage riding on a bike than driving through traffic back in LA .. i'm sure my weaving around all the pedestrians pisses off many locals :)
• surprisingly i'm pretty studious... i've been at my chinese textbooks and rewriting my notes for the past two weeks... that's why i haven't been blogging... sbi :)

so many pixes!!!

this was wednesday date #3 with pupu... we went to ximending with goals .. none of which were accomplished... such as finding the cart with the amazing 大腸包小腸 (small sausage wrapped in big sausage), pupu's boat shoes and her nonexistent, only-in-her-head black heels... but we still had an adventure... like always :)

she's on an undying quest to find a hat that fits on her fracking big head .. i think this is a good look for you da bien :)

that main guy from boys over flowers...

besides giraffes, da bien kinda has a HUGE obsession for butter lion... with good reason... he's pretty cute :) especially since his hair looks like a mister donut

this is what brick toast looks like in taiwan.... a lot smaller and not as sweet... but still derish... and we ate it at the same swing restaurant i went last time.. with all the huge stuffed animals we weren't supposed to take pixes of -__-

This year, we thought it'd be special to celebrate our moon festival weekend at sun moon lake, which is smack dab in the middle of taiwan. Apparently every year, the moon festival's this huge celebration there.. so we wanted in on the festivities.. we got there friday night... which is when the huge party was...

due to my poor planning... we had to take the train last minute instead of my original plan of taking a bus that got us directly from taipei to sun moon lake ... the girls were such troopers... we stood for two hours on the unbelievably packed train.. to top off the experience.... there was a cart that kept coming back and forth selling bento boxes -__-

thanks for putting up with my haphazard planning girls :)...

after we got off the train, we frantically walked around mid taiwan trying to find the bus that would take us towards sun moon lake... we were so lucky that night because we got on every bus we needed to get there :)

when we got there.... the stage crew was already taking everything down :( .... it was barely 10pm .. we watched fireworks on the bus as we got closer to the concert grounds...

this was our dainty little room.. it was so cute.. and the bed comfortably fit all four of us that night :)

the bathroom... so cute... and it's so smart how the shampoo and body wash is in dispensers instead of individually packaged in mini bottles... very environmentally efficient :)

we were all pretty exhausted from the travelling... oops :) ... they stayed in that position for a good hour watching tv

then we went out to explore the nightlife of sun moon lake... little did we know that every stand and store in this little village normally closes at 9pm :/ ... so... i guess we discovered the lack of nightlife at SML

but we saw some pretty cool stuff... like this grasshopper made out of... some sort of leaves... bamboo leaves?

grasshopper couple

this is how the lake looks like at night...

from another angle... :)

one of the piers of sun moon lake... so pretty

this is the moon... the second brightest and biggest moon of the year :)

sooooooooo sad we missed out on a free show with A-Mei, wilber pan, jiou ge and other taiwanese pop celebs... :( the girl taking care of us at our homestay told us JAY CHOU almost came this year.... i would have jumped into the lake or skinny-dip suicided if he had come this year and i missed out...

so since we were still hungry and all the food stands were closed... we settled for ramen... those hi chews were mine... i bought two bags that day :)

we played mahjong before we went to bed...

since no one knew how to play besides pupu, she taught us the rules.. except she wasn't sure about some ... like how many tiles we're constantly supposed to have :/

so i won our first "real" round ... i think this combo is all wrong because my terrible mahjong teacher isn't sure how to play herself.. :) just kidding da bien.. <3>

oh yah... and we were playing with a mini mahjong set...

the next day... we set off to ride around the perimeter of the lake on electric scooters... we all practice rode the bikes... i failed miserably and gave up...

yuki's a natural :)

we really didn't all ride our own... we had two ... so i was one of the two who rode back seat...

taro cakes! da bien's breakfast

so we set off after breakfast for a stroll around the lake.... we were blessed with a very sunny day :)

so lush and green!

we weren't supposed to stop here because we were on a highway... oh well...

gorg!

palm trees!

there were temples scattered all around the lake...

our vehicular companion for the day :O)

real stop #1

striking a pose... da bien looks so intense :)

there was a lil island in the middle of the lake...

1st temple constructed at sun moon lake to connect sun lake and moon lake :)

there were statues of all the animal signs...

the weather got progressively worse...

yup... we were there :)

from here on... most of these pixes were taken while we were riding the scooter...

a plantation of some sort....

yup.. while we were riding on the highway ... i guess i value a pix of us more than our lives :)

they drove up to us :)

i did this on purpose... it looks pretty cool :)

yuki's so intense when she's driving the scooter :)

a bike tunnel back to sun moon lake... i think..

back to the lake :)... we weren't sure if we went the right way

the big temple :)

we thought this was the famous temple... we spent a little too much time here....

Ten Ren's and Starbucks... so commercialized!

they're famous for their black tea

not sure what this is but we were watching this while waiting for our food to come

a specialty only at sun moon lake... shen hua... so good :)

mmmm.. lunch :) these were all specialty dishes of SML

fattie!

sharing is caring :)

back on the road...

a rock

the real deal temple... the two dragons here are the biggest dragon statues in all of taiwan.. too bad we didn't have time to stop and go in... but i guess i got a pretty good shot considering i was riding in the back of an electric scooter going 20 mph ..

sometimes i amaze myself at how fantabulous of a photographer i am...

the tribal village we stayed at...

don't know where this is...

but it's cute inside :)

and then we were off back to taipei.... on our way back... just like how we got there.. i didn't plan enough ahead transportation wise... so we panicked trying to get to the other side of the lake so that we could catch the bus back to taipei... so 45 minutes before our bus was leaving for taipei...which is also the last bus of the day leaving for taipei, the four of us girls were sitting in a police station because the popo was trying to help arrange a ride for us... finally ... a taxi in the form of a huge family van pulls up and takes us to another stop that was closer to the station... we got there literally a minute before the bus showed up.... we lucked out again :) although a 4 hour bus ride.... it took us directly to taipei.. and our prepaid bus tix ended up not going to waste..

despite poorly thought out transportation sitch.. the trip was super fun, but short... definitely wanna go back before i leave taiwan... i'll be so much more prepared and do stuff that we missed out on this past trip...like visiting a famous brewery around the area .. and windsurfing.. or just hanging out on the lake :) ...

after getting back to ntu.... da bien and i were on a mission to find moon cake last minute... success after bakery #2 .. then went to hang out with her bffn bar-owner friend for barbeque...the karens met up with us afterwards... apparently that's how most people celebrate the moon festival... barbequing with friends and family while watching the moon, eating moon cake, and sipping on beer :)

so we celebrated the moon festival in the most unconventional way possible.... but i wouldn't have wanted it any other way :)