Taiwan: The good and the bad!

I recently got home from Taiwan and am recovering from jetlag. The first few days I felt like I was seasick. It´s a horrible feeling. One moment you´re fine, and the next you feel like a drunk. Taiwan was possibly the worst and the best trip I´ve ever had. I think I kind of had a feeling when I wrote on Facebook before leaving that I was "excited and scared"... I´ve been traveling for a long time - over 22 years - in more than 35 countries, but the actual plane trips back and forth are the worst I ever experienced. They had all the stress you can imagine.

• Strike among the baggage people (I didn´t even know they could strike on their own!)
• 36 hours extra of waiting, hours and hours not knowing when or if there would come a plane
• Experiencing fear of flying for the first time, I think I got exhausted and a bit delirious with all the waiting
• Waiting for my luggage for 48 hours, without having anything at all with me ("that´s what you get for packing so little the way you do," said my sister...)
• 3 plane trips being cancelled, without the airline letting me know on beforehand. Literally not being let on the plane on my way home, and almost crying and begging the flight personnel at the check-in counter to help me, without any luck (sometimes crying, or being a girl, doesn´t help...)
• Buying a new plane ticket with my own money, about $1300 (11 500 Norwegian kroner) without knowing if I will get any of it back. Spending another $170 (1500 NOK) on clothes and toiletries and $90 (800 NOK) in extra taxi expenses, (not including extra food)
• Having to travel far to an airport and then having to go back
• Needing personal assistance on an airplane
• A lot of uncertainty, and being alone all the time in it
• And now, after coming home, spending hours on the phone and writing e-mails (with my sister being much more indignant than me) trying to get money back

I think I´m slightly traumatized after this trip, haha, and I never ever want to fly again!!

That´s how it feels now anyways.


The reason I went to Taiwan in the first place, was because I think I wanted to knock on a door and see if it opened...

"What were you expecting behind that door?" my friend Ingunn asked me yesterday. I hadn´t even thought about that.

"Maybe some sort of meaning... or understanding about my life..." I answered after some thought.

I´m unsure whether Taiwan was mostly about adventure and looking for dreams, or if it actually had more to do with identity and my roots somehow. Anyhow, I didn´t find many answers, but came home with a lot more questions. Questions I´m not sure how to figure out.


I wrote it was one of my worst, but also one of my best, travels. Here are some pictures of the "best" reasons.

My good friend Kerry and I. She´s studying the Bible in a hardcore school in Taipei. Traveling around with her was so much fun. Though a lot went wrong, (like every other day!), we still managed to experience much and get to know each other better.

Have you ever experienced the plane actually turning and going back to start??!

First thing I did when I finally arrived, after 45 hours of traveling, was eating a big fat traditional Taiwanese meal!

There are temples everywhere. The Taiwanese are very religious and superstitious! They have a strong belief in spirits and offering to their forefathers. I learned so much interesting about the people, their culture, religion and politics - like how the Taiwanese people feel about the demonstrations in Hong Kong, and how it affects them.

The view from our coffee shop and stroll around the area

A Taiwanese, a girl from Hong Kong, a Korean... and me - a Norwegian? A Norwegian + a little bit Korean? I don´t quite know 

I did of course take the chance to learn some Chinese while I was there, and had 10 private lessons with two beautiful and amazing teachers that did everything to help me. We got to know each other quite well and talked about much more than Chinese. Avril and Viola (and Adam, the base Chinese leader) were so great to me and had much patience with my frustrations. I had no idea Chinese was THIS hard. But I jumped right into it at cafées and shops and made the clerks patiently wait for me to stutter through a phrase or two - like: How much does it cost? Or - I want coffee!  

Cutest Viola!

I don´t believe anymore in the phrase that "anyone can learn a language". It´s just not that simple....

Zoey, another girl I got to know!

The David Jackson, who I met in Hawaii a long time ago. Sooo good to see a familiar face. He´s into his 6th month of studying Chinese and says it´s fun, but soooo hard. 

This is the Youth with a mission base - a short term missionary organization, the same one I was with for years in Hawaii. What struck me about these guys and Taiwanese people in general, was how interested they were in getting to know you, even if it was for five minutes and they´d never see you again. That really touched me!

I love Asian markets!! I didn´t take any great pictures, but this is a place known for its food market, there must have been a hundred food boots where we just bought whatever snack or food or drinks we wanted, anything you could imagine, and ate it while strolling around. 

In general I ate a lot!! Way too much, and I tried almost everything I could, except chicken feet and something they called "stinky tofu"

Hot springs and massages

A bit of sightseeing in the capital city, Taipei. This tower is called Taipei 101 and is, with the LOVE sign (below) some of the big attractions in Taiwan. 

With LOVE from Taiwan. Will I come back? Will all my travels end with this trip? Was it a start or an end? I don´t know, only time will tell.