After I arrived on July 5th, we started the project 3 days later, Monday July 8th. Before that, I went to a short trip to
Taipei! I was so excited to see the capital. I planned to go on Saturday evening and meet some Indonesian friends there. Unfortunately it was raining so hard. It was hard to get to nearest town and catch the bus. In the end, I & Mike decided to just go by scooter in the rain.
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| Stupid, unnecessary selfie on scooter. |
We arrived safely at the bus station, and we were off for 2 hours drive to Taipei!
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Taipei MRT
The bus stopped at the main station and we went ahead to the neighboring MRT. That was my first time to take MRT, never even in Singapore. It was great! Fast, cheap, and convenient. Everything has a system and everyone obeys it, rare scene for typical Indonesian. Even though it is common in a lot of the modern cities of the world, this is my first time to experience it firsthand (not much of a traveler). I couldn't see many security guards to monitor the situation, but everyone obey the rules. Indonesians should do things like this :). Here are the examples:
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| Inside MRT. Eating and drinking are prohibited inside the MRT & station. |
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| Taipei Main Station |
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| The waiting line are on the sides of the door, creating space for people to exit the MRT first |
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| People stand on the right side on the escalator. Left side is for those who need to rush and walk ahead. |
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Meeting up with fellow Indonesians
I took the MRT to Jiantan and headed for the famous Shihlin Night Market. It was around 8pm. We were glad that we finally found each other! There were Vira, Tommy, Vania, and a Taiwanese friend named Lut!
Lut is a nice guy and he speaks good
english. We met at the entrance and headed inside to look for food. Everyone had a long day and was too tired, so we tried to find a place to sit. It was so crowded! We had no choice but to settle inside the KFC. I know. It's sad. Thousand miles away from home and still KFC.
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| Lut, Me, Vania, and Vira. Tommy went to the toilet lol. |
We had a great time catching up with each other. And finally it's getting late and I need to find a hostel to stay. I asked Lut where can i find the hostel, and he said "just stay and my house".
I was surprised. I just met him for maybe an hour and he offered me his house to stay. It was so kind. That was my first time to experience Taiwanese hospitality, and I had more along the way! Taiwanese are so helpful, kind, and amazing. I'll tell you other stories in the upcoming posts.
After that we went to look around the market, and headed home at 11pm.
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| Morning view of Lut's Apartment. Xindian, July 7 2013. |
We stayed up late at Lut's apartment watching Iron Man 2.
Next morning I woke up, and found that
Lut's parents bought me breakfast. So kind of them. It was chicken hamburger, they knew I can't eat pork. It was so good, and felt thankful.
In the afternoon, I said goodbye to the family and headed for Ximending Market.
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| Ximending, July 7 2013 |
I met my project partners, Katya (Russia), Hui Zhen (Singapore), and Yingying (Malaysia) at Ximen. We walked around the place until 3pm. It was a really great place to shop! But I realized that I need to save up, so window shopping is enough for me.
We took the bus at 4 and headed back to the farm in Zhudong.
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| Katya & Popo. Dinner at Zhudong. |
Jacky and Popo picked us up at Zhudong bus station. We had my first traditional
chinese dinner in Taiwan. Of course, I couldn't eat anything. Everything was pork. It was okay, I grabbed a quick dinner beside the restaurant and headed back to the farm after that with
scooter. It was Katya's first time in scooter! We took pictures of her wearing the Helmet.
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| Katya's first time on Scooter! |
We arrived at the farm and sleep, because the day after is the 1st day of Farming Camp. Our first day of the project!
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1st Day of Farming Camp
It was finally the day! The kids started to arrive on 12pm. They are really small! Mostly 10-13 years old. I will tell you the story of the camp in the next post. But here are the photos of my team!
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| My kids! Vivian, Cindy, and Ale. 10-year-old kids! |
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| Team Indonesia! |
Follow my instagram for more pictures of my journey in Taiwan.
Note: Pictures taken with my phone camera, Google Nexus 4
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