fun

Moalboal, Cebu Travel Guide

Hi Friends! My posts are all over the place I know, but I recently went to Cebu in the Philippines and this guide was actually requested so I’m just going to do a nice short travel guide so it’s not too detailed but has all the important stuff!

How to get to Cebu?

This is pretty easy! There’s only one airport on the island: Mactan–Cebu International Airport. As always, I just get my tickets from google flights because the usually have the cheapest prices and they actually tell you which airlines they aren’t showing prices for, that way you can check that airline’s ticket offerings individually to see if it’s cheaper. I booked a little over a month in advance and got roundtrip tickets for about $160 roundtrip including all of the booking and card fees that the airlines surprise you with at the end.

Note: When you leave Cebu, if you are flying internationally through Mactan–Cebu International Airport, there is an $850 Philippine peso ($16 USD) terminal fee. This isn’t a scam. It’s basically a tax issued by the Filipino government and you won’t be able to get through security until you pay. Make sure to bring enough cash for this.

There are lots of places on the island that you can go to for your vacation. If you want history and good nightlife, stay in Cebu City. If you’ve got money money and are into luxury and resorts, then the northern islands, such as
Mactan, Bantayan, Badian, Malapascua and Camotes are where you should head. If you don’t have money money but are in a bigger group or generally just want higher end accommodations, consider staying in Lapu Lapu city. If you’re like me and if you are travelling alone or in a small group and want to be off the beaten track around the locals, but also in an area that is tourist accessible, Moalboal is the place for you. Now this guide is primarily about Moalboal since that’s where I went and can speak on, but some stuff can be generally applied to other parts of Cebu.

How to get to Moalboal?

The great news about Cebu is that it’s fairly cheap and easy to get around the island! You can take a metered cab, tricycle, or Ceres Bus just about anywhere. I don’t know any of the in-depth details for getting to the north of the island or Lapu Lapu so if you’re going to Moalboal, keep reading! If not, you should probably try to find another blog with that information.

More good news! Ceres buses run 24/7 so this information can be applied no matter what time you get to Cebu.

From Airport to Moalboal by Bus: Once you get through immigration and the baggage claim, follow signs for the taxi counter. You’ll also see a bunch of other people heading that way. You can also just ask someone who works there because most everyone in the Philippines speaks English in general, especially airport employees. They’ll point you to the taxi stand. Grab a taxi. They’re metered which is nice and there is a clerk that stands near all the departing cabs and gives you a slip of paper with numbers and stuff on it fir like a review or if anything goes wrong. It was very professional. I was impressed. Tell the clerk and your taxi driver that you want to go to the South Bus Terminal. The cab should cost you about $250 php at most ($4.77 USD) which can be split between up to 4 people so try to find other people (tourists and locals) that are going to the South Bus terminal. It costs and extra 5 or 10 pesos for the taxi driver to drop you off inside the actual terminal but there’s a gas station across the street. Just tell them to drop you there. This way you don’t have to pay extra for literally crossing the street, and you can go inside the gas station to grab some snacks or beverages for the bus ride. Cross the street into the terminal, there’s a mini security screening but it’s the same as going in like a government building. nothing too serious. You can’t tell the guards that you’re going to Moalboal and ask them which direction to go in. It’s literally just straight and then you turn right at the end but it’s nicer to have them tell and point it out to you. There’s also signs that tells you where the buses are going. Look for signs that say Moalboal, or simply ask someone working the buses if they don’t ask you first. I think I arrived right when the previous bus had left because I was one of the first people on my bus, and we didn’t leave until it was almost completely full which took about 30 mins.

There are buses with and without AC. Luckily, I got an AC bus on my way to and from Moalboal. The price for an AC bus is 156 php. ($3 USD) The non-ac bus is about 120 php. ($2.30 USD) The AC is really worth the 70 cents. The ride is 3-4 hours depending on the traffic. There’s a man on the bus that will issue you a ticket and take your money when he’s ready, so just wait for him and maybe he’ll not notice you and you won’t have to pay. (This won’t happen, he scans the bus with utter focus.) The view is great and there was TV/ a movie playing on the bus screens on both of my journeys which is nice if you don’t have anything else to do. The bus stops frequently as many locals use it, but it’s so quick you barely feel it. We stopped once for a bathroom break, but it wasn’t until we were already like 2-2.5 hours in so definitely use that restroom before you get on the bus! There’s also a mini bakery and some snacks at the same place you can take your bathroom break.
When you arrive in Moalboal, the man that you paid will announce that you’re there, and if he remembers you, he’ll tell you personally. When you get off, it’s going to be a little confusing at first because the stop is in the middle of a busy intersection. Just grab your bags and look toward the market. There will be plenty of trike drivers willing to take you to your accommodation. If you’re staying by Panagsama Beach (more likely) expect to pay about 100 php for your ride. Anything more is a rip off. If you’re going to White Beach, 150 php is a fair price. They will suggest higher prices at first, but just be firm on the 100 php. If they say you have to wait for more people or they can’t do that price, just be willing to walk away and find someone else. Most of the drivers will know exactly where your accommodation is since there aren’t too many of them, but just in case, make sure you can whip out the location on a map. So, if you don’t have a roaming data plan, make sure to get the map before you leave the airport!

View from the Bus

From Airport to Moalboal by Taxi: This way is a lot more expensive and only about an hour faster than the buses. Most taxi drivers don’t go as far south as Moalboal very often so you definitely need to have a map and the address of your accommodation, so they’ll know where to go. An alternative to an airport taxi is arranged transportation through your accommodation. With either of these methods it takes about 2-3 hrs to get there depending on traffic but could cost you from 2000-3500 php ($40- 58 USD) depending on your bargaining skills and what time you’d be leaving.

What to do in Moalboal

  • Canyoneering- This is the biggest tourist attraction in all of Southern Cebu. And for good reason. Canyoneering is the technical adventure sport of traveling down steep and narrow canyons using a variety of techniques that may include hiking, scrambling, rock climbing, jumping, wading, swimming, often over waterfalls. In Moalboal all Canyoneering adventures start at the top of a mountain in Badian (the municipality right next to Moalboal) where you are jumping off of lots of cliffs and wading in beautiful turquoise water for about 5-6 hours. You are given a life vest and a helmet. They sell waterproof phone cases and drinking water at the office that you sign your waivers. They also rent out lockers and sneakers for those who didn’t come in suitable shoes. Canyoneering should be 1500 php. This is the standard price for all of the canyoneering companies, so anything higher should be avoided. It’s easiest if you book through your accommodation. They all offer it since it’s such a popular activity and you can pay before you even leave.

Canyoneering tips:

  1. Don’t wear crocs! I loooove my crocs as anyone person who has ever met me knows, but they are so slippery and had no place on these rocks. I definitely improved my balance this day but also came out with some scratches and bruises because I’d slip and bang one body part or another. Sneakers or textured water shoes are your best bet. You can always rent from the company but why do that when you can bring your own? No flip flops either! There is a pretty rigid 30 min hike before you get into the water and after you want something that’s gonna hold on when you hit the water and instead of flying off to who knows where.
  2. DO NOT BRING A BAG. It’s just going to slow you down and be something that you have to worry about. You literally don’t need anything other than your phone, gopro (but the battery will die less than halfway through) and key if you rented a locker. All of these things can fit in the little zip net pocket in the front of your life vest. You return to the same spot you started from at the end of your adventure so your towel, drinking water, and wallet will be waiting when you get back.
  3. Get a waterproof phone case/pouch. As I said before, the company sells waterproof phone pouches, but one of the girls on the trip broke and the guide had to hold it for her the whole time. I’d be terrified because it’s literally almost impossible to do this without getting wet, but I suppose the guides know all the nooks, crannies, and neat tricks. I have my own waterproof phone pouch (with a lanyard so no worries about it sinking if I wasn’t holding it) before I arrived in Cebu. I have the iPhone 8+ which is huge and there’s still a little wiggle room. It came in a set of 2 and was only $9 USD. I use it for underwater videos when I’m snorkeling too, and it works perfectly! Click here to check it and other similar products out on amazon.
  4. If you’re using a gopro, bring like 2 extra batteries. Everyone who didn’t bring their phone was so mad because they didn’t have anything to film with after their first battery died. I’d recommend putting the extra batteries in a waterproof phone pouch and just putting that in the pocket of your life vest 🙂
  5. Are you healthy enough for this? This is not for those who are loooong out of shape, recovering from an injury, or have general back problems. This excursion is extremely physically demanding and if you can’t hop, climb, jump (without hesitating) wade (the life vests are super effective so you don’t need to know how to swim, just be comfortable in water) hike, and all the other stuff that canyoneering involves, then you probably shouldn’t participate. There’s no stopping halfway through this. You have to finish and even the easiest way still isn’t easy! That being said its super fun and if you’re scared of heights, there’s an alternative route for all of the jumps.
  6. Ask for pics and make friends! There’s a million people that do this all at the same time. It’s a long activity and you’re jumping off of cliffs which can be scary. The fun thing is that it’s scary for other people too so you can’t bask in your fear while also encouraging each other to do the jumps. Don’t be afraid to ask other people or the guides for pictures and videos. The guides know all the good angles and will even get a good slow-mo video for you. Other people in your group never mind taking a picture, especially if you’re rolling solo.
  7. Don’t wear anything valuable. It’s going to fall off. Period. I was wearing forever 21 earrings when I went, so not valuable, but my ears were naked by the time I finished which means they were naked for the rest of the trip. Don’t be like me and have naked ears. Or be without your expensive sunglasses/earrings/ necklace/bracelet. You will be mad that you lost it and mad that you wore it in the first place even though they told you to take it off. Just don’t wear it morning.
  8. Follow Directions and don’t hesitate. If you’re like me and logic is how your mind works, then the pure thought that “every person that is in front of you and has jumped is fine so you will be too” will work and you will jump off that cliff without hesitating and have very videos to send to your mom later. If you’re a little different a pure money is your motivator: “if you don’t jump off of this cliff you basically paid to have people show you around to hike and swim” If you’re a positive reinforcement person just ask the people around you to cheer you on. No matter what kind of jumper you are or motivation you need, just jump! It’s so much fun and as long as you stand and jump where the guide tells you to, you’ll be fine other than some sore aches and pains in the morning.

  • Oslob Whale Sharks- This is an extremely controversial topic. Whale sharks are a very docile species of shark that migrate in areas around the Philippines. In Oslob, the sharks are fed so that tourists can snorkel and take pictures with them up close. After reading up a little more on the topic I decided against the Whale shark excursion in Oslob, however I still want to see them! Someday in the future, when I return to the Philippines, I’ll try to find a boat to take me to see them in the wild, but I just didn’t agree with the artificial environment that has been created in Oslob. Here are two posts that really helped with my decision: WHY WE CHOOSE NOT TO SWIM WITH WHALE SHARKS IN CEBU & WHY WE DO NOT SWIM WITH WHALE SHARKS IN OSLOB. I’m not telling anyone not to do it, I just wanted to make it clear why I chose not to do it and also exaggerate that there’s other, more natural ways of seeing these beautiful creatures. Animal conservation is one of my lowkey passions and before I do any activity involving animals, I do extensive research to make sure that it is ethical, and the animals are being treated well. If you do choose to do the whale sharks as a day trip, it can be arranged with most accommodations and costs 2000 php. It’s about a 2 hr drive to Oslob so you will be picked up around 7 am so be ready for an early morning! The good news is that you’re only snorkeling for about 15 min with the sharks and then you’re headed back to Moalboal. Most Whale Shark day trippers are back by 12 or 1 so they have plenty to do for the rest of the day!
  • Osmena Peak- This is a hiking trip up to the highest point in all of Cebu. I didn’t go to an island with a bunch of beautiful beaches to hike, but some people are into that! I know that the peak is in Dalaguete (municipality next to Badian) so you’d have to pay for transport there and back and a guide if you’re not too experienced with hiking. Lots of people like to go here for sunrise and sunset (mostly sunrise before it gets too hot.) I can’t provide too much info about this trip but if you’re interested in a pretty sunrise hike at Osmena peak, the front desk or travel office at your accommodation will know all about it.
  • Lambug Beach- I personally haven’t gone to this beach but I heard it was very similar to White Beach. It’s just less crowded and has less garbage/sea gunk. It’s in south in Badian which is about a 35 min drive away from Panagsama.
  • Kawasan Falls- There is where you end up at the end of your canyoneering adventure, but you can go to the falls just to swim and picnic like most of the locals if you don’t feel like or physically can’t go canyoneering. There are lots of little BBQ stands and snack counters if you don’t bring your own food and they offer life vest rentals at the entrance because there are some spots at the falls that you aren’t allowed to swim in without a vest.
  • I’m sure there’s plenty of other fun stuff to do. This is just the stuff I’ve experienced or heard about from other backpackers. Ask around with the locals, your accommodation’s owner or front desk, or even other backpackers.

How to get around Moalboal

The easiest and most common way of getting around Moalboal and its surrounding municipalities is by tricycle. It’s basically a motorcycle or bike (don’t get on one with a bike) and a little carriage that can hold 2-6 people. It’s not the cheapest option if you’re travelling a lot over the course of the day, but if you’re just taking a short trip to the main street from the beach or maybe a roundtrip from Panagsama to White Beach, taking a strike is your best bet. Make sure to try and haggle down the drivers because they’re going to start with a really high price. Stay firm on a price that you think is fair, and if they don’t like it, find someone else. There are a million trikes in Moalboal. From the bus stop in Moalboal to Panagsama is about 100 pesos and to White Beach it’s about 150 pesos. If you’re trips are longer than this, measure the distance and compare it to come up with a price that you think is fair, or just ask someone what the price should be.

The other main way of getting around Moalboal is by scooter. This is a huge mode of transportation in all of Asia, but in many other destinations, it’s very dangerous to be on a scooter because of the amount of traffic and the aggressive drivers. Surprisingly, it’s not like this in Moalboal. The traffic is pretty chill and definitely manageable. When you get to the side streets, there are very few other cars and some scooters, so even a beginner like me was absolutely fine. There’s definitely a learning curve, so I’d recommend looking up some videos on how to ride a scooter before you try it yourself, but if you plan to take longer trips like a visit to Lambug beach or Kawasan falls, or visiting multiple destinations in one day, a scooter is going to be a lot cheaper. Renting a scooter in Moalboal should be about 200-300 pesos a day. If you’re accommodation doesn’t rent them out, try to find someone on the street that does. If you can’t find anyone on the street, just ask other hotels and hostels nearby to ask if they rent out scooters to non-guests.

Food & Nightlife in Moalboal

As with any tourist destination, there are many restaurants in Moalboal (primarily on Panagsama beach) that serve both traditional Filipino food as well as western food. You’ll see lots of grilled seafood. Fresh fruit juice/shakes are also a big thing in Moalboal. There’s lots of pasta/pizza. If you just want traditional Filipino food to get the full experience (like me) they of course have that too, but it’s actually kind of hard to find, and is the same price as the western food. Most dishes in Moalboal range from 150-350 pesos depending on the restaurant you got to. Finding anything under 200 is a bit of a challenge. While 200 is still less than $4 USD, I hate spending more than $10 USD a day (I do have a budget ya know) and I like to try different things for variety and I usually eat twice a day. There’s a few restaurants and food shops on Moalboal’s main street near where the market is but I didn’t make it to any of those. At the market a half kilogram of Mangos (about 3 small mangos) was 50 pesos (96 cents!)

There are a few small bars in Panagsama but there’s one notable one where most of the tourists and some locals go for a good night. It’s called Chili’s. It’s just down the road with the rest of the restaurants. You can basically ask anyone in Panagsama where it is, and they’ll point you to it. The night I went here the music was really good! Unfortunately, cigarette smoke makes the place reek and the drinks we American prices, so I only got one. It was still fun because I went with some friends, I’d met that day and ran into both the people that treated me to lunch that day as well as they guys, I went canyoneering with. It was a great night!

Where to stay in Moalboal

As previously mentioned, Moalboal is where people on a budget go, so you’re not going to find too many luxury resorts down here. There are some cottages and inns that you can look into depending on how many people are in your group, but the cheapest option is always going to be in a hostel.

Booking.com and Hostelworld.com are great tools for finding good hostels, but they feature hotels and resorts as well. Airbnb is always a viable option as well. I’d say my most valuable tips would be to

  1. Book a refundable accommodation as far in advance if you can because a lot of this places fill up to a month in advance!
  2. If you are comparting the number ratings on these websites, you need to do a relative comparison. A lot of places in Moalboal don’t have higher than an 8.5 rating which compared to other destinations can be considered low. Decide what features (Wi-Fi, cleanliness, A/C etc.) are important to you and find the place with as much of these features as possible.
  3. READ THE REVIEWS! Reviews are so important and can really prepare you for any things about the place that you might not like, or something that it doesn’t list that you might love.

I personally stayed at Moho hostel near Panagsama beach. My stay wasn’t bad at all. There were pros and cons like everything and overall I’d give it a 7.5/10 stay, but I will warn that even though I didn’t see or get bit by any, they do have a bed bug problem in one of their rooms, and have had the problem for a few months.

Getting Back to the Airport

Getting back to the airport is basically the same as leaving it but in reverse. I had an early 8 am flight on Tuesday morning. I booked a hostel in Cebu city for Monday night so that I wouldn’t have to get on a 3-hour bus ride at 2 am then go straight to the airport. If you’re not in Moalboal, take a trike or cab to the closest bus stop, then just tell the bus attendant that you want to go to Cebu city/Airport and go wherever he tells you.

If you are in Moalboal then basically do the same thing (ask), but you might be led astray as I was. The bus stop for arriving Moalboal and leaving Moalboal are different! To go back to Cebu city on the Ceres bus, take a trike back to the bus stop. When you arrive, pass the stop that you arrived to, and keep walking on straight on Panagsama road. It’s only about a block up but there is a little stop with an awning and some chairs. You can also ask the locals if you’re in the right place. I guarantee at least one person nearby will speak English. The bus should be going NORTH. When back to the city at the south bus terminal, there will be cabs that are waiting as soon as you get off of the bus. If you are going to the airport, just tell them the airport, but if you are going to a hotel/other hostel, make sure to have the address and map location of your accommodation pulled up and ready! I didn’t do this, and my hostel was in the cut, so I definitely ended up paying like 30 extra php because my driver was driving around aimlessly trying to find this place before eventually asking someone if they knew where it was because my google maps was acting up. When you have Wi-Fi (preferably before you even get to Cebu) download GRAB which is basically Uber for SE Asia, but you can pay in cash. In the morning another girl that was leaving for the airport at the same time and I shared a GRAB to get to the airport and its was about a 25-30 min drive because there wasn’t that much traffic at 5 am but if you leave midday, allow for 1 hour of travel time in the city.

There’s also public transport and tuk tuks that you can take if you’re travelling in the city midday, but they’re not much cheaper and much less reliable so I’d definitely recommend a cab in Cebu. If you can get a white one, those are much cheaper than the yellow ones.

Planning for Bali

A fun guide for a short trip to Bali!

Ticket Planning

If you are new to the blog, I am a student currently studying abroad in Taiwan. Since that was my beginning destination, flights might vary depending on your country of origin.

I started planning this trip almost as soon as I got to Taiwan. I knew that I would have quite a few weekends to go to different places so the best tool for my situation was google maps. There are several different features to help you choose when/ where you want to go. For Bali specifically- I knew the exact weekend I wanted to go because of my school’s spring break. I just put into google flights the dates and airport that I was leaving from and google flights shows you several nearby destinations and their prices for your dates. If the prices for a destination are cheaper than usual for your dates google flights puts them at the top of the list.

Denpasar happened to be one of these destinations for my dates. I didn’t know what Denpasar was, so I looked it up and it turned out to be Bali! At this point I was sold because I’d already seen so many amazing pictures of Bali and people are always talking about how it’s “goals” and on their bucket lists. I’m pretty sure I’d said this myself at some point, so after about a week of research for flights and exacting my dates I decided to use google flights and book my round-trip flight with Scoot.

I can’t stress this enough! Scoot and google flights have a partnership so that some tickets are cheaper if you use google flights to find them rather than going straight onto the Scoot website. Make sure to click the link on google flights so you can get the best price.

My flight was $8,601 TWD which is about $287 USD. I was provided 10kg (~22 lbs) of combined carry-on baggage (a big bag and a personal bag). Scoot is a budget airline, so any more carry-on weight, any check-in bags, seat selection, and food are all extra. I departed on a Thursday and would be returning on a Tuesday (cheapest days to fly) This is a little expensive compared to some other destinations in SE Asia, but both the price and the time of this flight were amazing when compared to America, so I was content. Both of my flights included layovers in Singapore. There first was a 2.5 layover (10 hr trip in total.) For my trip back to Taiwan I paid a little extra to have a 11 hr layover in Singapore from noon-midnight. This gave me a chance to use my layover time to explore Singapore and enjoy the city! I arrived back in Taipei at 6 am on Tuesday which gave me plenty of time to get back to campus, shower, and nap before my 1 pm Tuesday class.

Picking a Place to Stay in Bali

I did not enjoy my experience at all with my hotel. It was actually an Airbnb. A lot of hotels and hostels are beginning to do this- list their rooms on Airbnb. I chose to stay at Bisma Suites in Legian. Here were my biggest problems on the Airbnb side of things: 1. The suite is actually listed as a guesthouse. This isn’t true. It was what you would expect in a regular hotel room- minus and mini-fridge and microwave. 2. The pictures are not at all what was actually provided, and Airbnb should be more on top of this 3. The suite is listed to be in Kuta in Airbnb’s website, but it is actually in Legian which is about 4 km (2 mi) away, making it hard to enjoy any of the Kuta food or nightlife unless you’d like to pay for transportation. In total I paid $89.5 for 5 nights, 4 of which I split with a friend. There were plenty of other, more specific problems that I had with this accommodation, but those will be detailed in my Week 7/ Bali post.

I am not recommending completely passing over Airbnb. There are plenty of properties that are worth the money. Here are some tips on finding a good place on Airbnb:

  1. Only choose properties with a good cancellation policy! You can reserve far in advance for security but cancel if you find somewhere you like better.
  2. Read the reviews (especially the most recent ones very carefully.) If the same problem is mention in numerous reviews, you can assume that it’ll be your problem too. Also, if it’s bad enough for them to mention in the review, it’s probably something that’s also going to bother you while you’re there.
  3. Do not rely on ratings. Of course, you’re going to want to only look at properties with a larger amount of higher ratings, but some people just put 5 stars to get it over with. The ratings are definitely skewed.
  4. Be prepared for mediocre or even bad English. Hotels and resorts purposefully hire people who can speak English because they are in the international business and have more at stake compared regarding customer service and experience. Many Airbnb accommodations are family owned or are very small businesses. It’s a little easier to get away with things for them, and they don’t usual hire outside of family or friends even if the people working can’t speak English. There’s definitely going to be lots of talking with your hands.
  5. Try to find a property with a super host or Airbnb plus status. These are the most reliable accommodations as they have been thoroughly vetted by Airbnb.

If you’re going to Bali alone the sad truth that no backpacker ever wants to hear is that: there aren’t that many hostels. Bali is a huge tourist destination and is jam packed with hotels and resorts. Like my Airbnb, many of these places are $25-40 USD a night. You can go anywhere from these low budget (but still good quality) inns to the luxury resorts. There really is one thing for everybody in Bali. My tip is to at least have your own room (even if you stay in a hostel.) Days in Bali are long and tiring so you’re going to want to have air conditioning, a personal bathroom, and a nice bed with privacy at the very least.

My preferences when looking for a place to stay in general:

  1. A pool- There are several beach clubs in Bali where you can pay to spend the day there, but if you’re already paying for accommodations, why not kill two birds with one stone?
  2. A bar- This is actually a tricky one in Bali. For some reason real alcohol in Bali is outrageously expensive and hard to get your hands on. Many bars and restaurants use fake alcohol in their drink specials. If a bar is usually a criterion for your accommodation, I would think about forgoing it this time and just buying something at Duty Free so you can have your own party without spending too much.
  3. Housekeeping- My suite was supposed to be cleaned everyday with fresh towels (as listed on the Airbnb description) but this wasn’t the case at all. My towels were actually stained, and they didn’t even have enough towels to change ours out until two days after we asked for new ones. This is a primary reason I’d recommend a private suite in a larger hotel. There’s going to be sand and dirt everywhere (and you’ll probably smell like cigarette smoke) from being out all day. You’re going to want to be in a clean environment when you get back to your room. If you stay somewhere smaller take a close look at the reviews and even, ask the management about the cleanliness of the accommodation.
  4. Location- I don’t mind walking and I don’t like paying for transportation, so I usually try to find accommodations close enough to the beach/ city center where I’m comfortable getting there alone any time of day but far enough out so that the buzz of it all doesn’t disturb me. While Legian was decent in this aspect, all the food that was close by was touristy and expensive compared to the traditional Indonesian restaurants that are more common in Kuta. Before you book or at least are no longer able to cancel, I’d ask the management of your accommodation how long it takes to get to popular beaches/restaurants/venues by foot and how much it’d be for transportation.
  5. Air conditioning- I mentioned this before, and it seems like a given, but you’d be surprised at how many places don’t have it! You’re not going to want to suffer in that Bali heat without some help.
  6. Laundry- If you plan on staying in Bali for longer than a week but plan to only bring carry-on luggage, you’re probably going to need to do laundry at some point. At some accommodations it’s self-service, and at other places they’ll do it for you. Either way, make sure they at least have a washer machine and you’ll be fine. If they don’t have a dryer, they’ll have a drying rack/ hanging lines. This method is more common among the local Balinese anyways.

Where in Bali should you stay? What should you do?

  • That’s a great question. There are so many options. The answer really depends on how long you’re going to be in Bali. I’d say a good way to split it up is two different locations for every week you’re there. The most popular destinations are Kuta, Ubud, Seminyak, Legian, Uluwatu, Nusa Dua, and the Gili islands. Of course. there’s a bunch of other places too but these are where everything is happening.
  • You should choose your place to stay depending on what your activities are going to be. Bali is very hectic, and everything starts super early in the morning, so it’s best to plan all of your excursions before you get there. This helps because 1. You avoid getting scammed which is a prevalent pattern in Bali 2. It’s easy to avoid transport fees if your accommodation is near your excursion. I highly recommend Airbnb experiences for this. It is very easy, organized, and you can pay with USD to avoid nasty bank fees and using up all the money you got from the ATM when leaving the airport. You can also use TripAdvisor to find some notable companies with good reviews. Sometimes you can book on their website, sometimes you just give them your details, show up, and pay upon arrival. It depends on the company. However planning in advance is always better in Bali because the prices are set online (no bargaining with a local that’s trying to rip you off), you can do currency conversions and budgeting before you even book, you can your whole day rather than walking around trying to google what to do next.
  • For a short trip (1 week) I recommend staying in Kuta and Ubud. For my trip I went surfing in Kuta, did a Nusa Penida snorkeling tour, batik class, Temple tour, and finally a wood carving class. While I did plan all of my experiences in advance, I didn’t plan my transport, nor did I change the location of my accommodation. This caused a lot of grief and if I’d known what I’m telling you all my life would’ve been much easier. A sample itinerary of what I should’ve done (with the activities and accommodations I actually had booked.
  • Wednesday Morning arrival in Bali
    • Local Taxi to Legian-10:30 am ($80,000 IDR) -MAKE SURE that you have change i.e. bills smaller than 50,000 IDR because drivers notoriously never have change!
    • Bag drop off at hotel- 11 am- Check-in wasn’t until 2 so I booked my surf lesson for 11:30
    • Surf lesson– 11:30-2- I went to U2PU Surf School (Airbnb) for my 2 hr surf lesson. It was only $11, and the instructors are awesome. Water and free pictures are provided
    • Lunch- 2-3 pm- There’s of course a bunch of restaurants near the beach. Most of them have western food with almost western prices. They had a buy one get one specialty drink happy hour but that’s when I learned that the alcohol was bad.
    • Check-in & Chill out- 3:15 until the end of the day- I was super tired because I had literally finished 12 hrs of traveling then went straight to a surf lesson so I took a nap by the pool, but I also could’ve gone back to the beach to chill there. After my nap I decided to walk on the beach for awhile. There aren’t many Warungs (local restaurants) in Legian, but once you get to the edge of Kuta (about 1 mi. away) you’ll start getting to the cheaper food. Many of these restaurants have live music as well.
  • Thursday
    • Nusa Penida Trip– $107 All day- This was also booked on Airbnb. It included an optional breakfast, free sea sickness pills, boat trip to manta bay, crystal bay, and a coral reef for snorkeling, land trip to Kelingking beach, and lunch. We finished around 5 pm and were returned to our respective accommodations. Since I was staying in Legian, transportation was included, but there’s an extra charge for those staying in northern Bali such as Ubud.
    • Shower & Comfort- 6pm- I got cozy! All I was gonna do was eat dinner and sleep, so I made sure I was clean then I walked to dinner, back home, and slept!
  • Friday- This is where I am changing from what I did to what I should’ve done
    • Morning- Taken a Kura Kura bus to Ubud. The ride on the bus from Kuta to Bali is about 2 hrs. (1-way trip is 80,000 but I recommend a 3-day pass which is 150,000) You have to buy these tickets online before you get to the bus. I recommend screenshotting you ticket, or day pass so that if you don’t have internet, you won’t have a problem getting on the bus.
    • Drop my bags off at my chosen hotel/hostel. Depending on how far it was I’d probably walk. If it’s too far, try your best to hassle an ojek (street motorbike) down to a reasonable price. Don’t be afraid to walk away if they’re trying to scam you. There’s always another one.  It’d be a little early for me to check-in, but most accommodations let you store your bags so that you can still be out and about without your luggage holding you back.
    • Afternoon- Grab another ojek to take me to my Balinese Batik class. The location of this class is actually outside of central Ubud so there’s no way to casually catch a taxi or ojek. Ask your rider to come back for you about 30 mins. after the scheduled ending time of your class.
    • Go back to your hotel & check-in. If it’s in central Ubud then you can walk around and check out the temples and even the Monkey Forest (80,000 IDR) or the Tegenungan Waterfall (15.000 IDR)
    • Eat Dinner! Chill out! Have a good time for your first night in Ubud.
  • Saturday
    • Culture Walk! – This will be a 13 hr tour with pickup at 6:30 am. You wander all around Bali’s most picturesque landscapes. A lunch buffet is included in the price. There are lots of tours like this all throughout Bali, but this tour has consistently great reviews for all of the guides and a great value.
    • Dinner- Try something you haven’t had before! Listen to the abundance of live music that is offered all around Ubud and Bali itself.
  • Sunday
    • Morning/Early afternoon- Grab a taxi or Ojek to get to the Art Studio. The ride is a little over 15 min and anything over $140,000 IDR roundtrip (because you have to ask them to come back) is a scam. Again, tell the driver to come back about 30 mins after your scheduled ending time so you have some wiggle room.
    • Wood Carving– Make your own personal wood carving. You can choose from a turtle, different types of masks, or different types of flowers. It’s a lot of work in the first place, but for this class specifically, the teacher does a lot of carving for you. If you like to be independent (even if your work is trash) I’d recommend looking into other classes but if you know you’ll be worn out because chopping at wood is intense, then this is the class for you!
    • Make sure your driver came back! If they didn’t, the studio is actually right outside of Ubud so you can call a gojek. The only problem with this is that some drivers are afraid to go into the city (since it’s not allowed.) You might have to have them take you as far as they can and either grab an ojek or taxi to take you to your next destination.
    • Spa day– Book this as far in advance as you can because it fills up quickly. If you interested in a flower bath but don’t need anything too fancy, Karsa spa is the place to go! Everyone says that a massage followed by a flower bath is amazing. Karsa has several spa packages that manicure/pedicure, different kinds of massages, body scrubs, facials, hair treatments, healing practices, and more! The Saraswati package includes either a manicure or pedicure, a 75 min intuitive heart massage, followed by a body scrub & bath combination, and the either a facial or hair treatment. This package lasts 4 hours and is $850,000 IDR. (~$60 USD)
    • Whoever dropped you off, make sure you tell them to come back again! Karsa is a little bit in the cut so you’re not going to easily find someone to take you back to central Ubud. The trip is only about 10 mins though so don’t pay more than $50,000 IDR.
    • It’s dinner time! You know what to do. Walk and eat. Just walk then eat. Take a dip in the pool when you get back to your accommodation if it has one!
  • Monday
    • Go home. That’s it. That’s the whole bullet.
      • Jkjk, for my social media aficionados, I hope you got that. If not, it’s not the end of the world but just know it’s a thing.
    • Anyways, it’s time to get back to the airport! Depending on what time your flight is there are a few different options.
    • Leaving before 2 pm–
      • Check out about 3 hours before you flight leaves. I don’t recommend getting a super early morning flight (Before 10) because the prices to get to the airport are going to be outrageous.
      • If you have a 10 am flight, be packed up and ready to go by 7. You’ll have time for a quick breakfast and should be leaving Ubud by 7:30. It takes an hour to get to the airport by ojek, maybe allot 15 extra minutes for taxi. You should be at the airport no later than 8:45.
      • The drop-off is actually somewhat far from the airport, but there are lots of signs in English that will tell you where to go from there, or just follow the other people that are walking there. After that, you’re on your way home!
    • Leaving after 2 pm– Leaving after 2 pm allows for a little more flexibility with getting to the airport.
      • 1. The easiest way is by Kura Kura bus. If you bought the 3-day pass and are still within 72 hrs of when you first used it, you should be fine. If you’re not within the 72 hrs you can either buy a new one-way ticket for $80,000 IDR or use a different method. If you are taking the Kura Kura bus, you should be on the bus 4 hours before your flight leaves. Check the timetable on their website because there’s only 4 buses from Ubud to Kuta a day. From the DFS bus bay, just take a gojek, or a taxi (bluebird if your bargaining skills are weak) to get to the airport. Another 20 min ride. Dropoff rules are the same as the leaving Before 2 pm.
      • 2. Another method is the easiest but also most expensive method. You can pre-arrange transportation which will usually run you about $200,000+ IDR if you book with your accommodation. You could also just get a taxi/ojek on the street which would be about the same or a little let that the cheapest private transport. If you’re doing this, you should leave about 3 hrs before your flight leaves.
      • 3. The most difficult but also the cheapest option to get to the airport is for stubborn and frugal people like me who like to scam the scammers. For this option you should be travelling alone and travelling light. From your accommodation take an ojek to the Bali zoo. From the zoo just call a gojek to the airport. It’s not too difficult but may take up a bit of time since you have to haggle down the ojek driver, then wait for the gojek driver to arrive once you get to the zoo. By doing this, you can get to the airport for as low as $80,000 IDR. The zoo is only about 15 mins outside of Ubud so it’s close but gojeks are allowed there. If you’re doing this leave about 3.5 hrs before your flight leaves. There’s a good chance you’d get to the airport early, but you want to allot time in case something doesn’t go to plan. You’ll go straight to the airport, and again, drop-off is the same.

There are lots of other things to do in Bali that weren’t included in my itinerary! Feel free to search both Airbnb, Tripadvisor, and other blogs for excursions if you just want to get a feel of what Bali has to offer, or if you’d prefer booking them online. If you like to go with the flow, you can always book in person when you get to Bali or just wait until last minute because some activities online don’t actually fill up. Other than the activities that I name, other popular Bali activities include: spending a few days in the Gili islands, cooking classes, Mount Batur hike, white water rafting, waterfall tours, ATV rides, pretty much any water sport, and so much more!

Budgeting and Money exchange

If you ain’t talkin money I don’t wanna talk.

-Young Dolph
  • Roundtrip flight from Taiwan- $287 USD
  • 5 nights at shared Airbnb- $85.5 USD
  • Excursions- If you do everything, I included from the sample itinerary, it should set you back about $290 USD
  • Spending money- For 6 days a 5 nights in Bali, I’d recommend bring about $250-$300 USD in spending money. In all actuality I only spent about $200, but my itinerary was different, I am very good at haggling, I didn’t buy too things while I was there, and I tried to not spend that much on food!

I was being conscientious of money because I only withdrew $200 USD worth of IDR at the airport and wanted it to last me the entire time I was there. I did a lot of walking instead of transport and was very selective with the things I spent money on. If you want a genuine vacation where you don’t want to have to worry about funds, I recommend just bringing the $300 (if travelling alone, less if you’re travelling with others.) You’ll probably have some left over anyways if you’re not frivolous.

All in all, for a low-budget, but action-packed Bali trip (from Taiwan), plan to spend about $965 USD.

Best Way to Get/ Exchange Money in Bali– is in the airport!

If you’re coming from the country where your debit card was issued, I’d suggest taking your money out at an ATM before you leave. Then exchanging your currency at the airport. There are a ton of money changers in Bali but they’re all trying to scam you. The best rates are in the airport and this is probably where it’s easiest so you can just change your money right after you get out of customs.

If you’re coming from a different country than where your debit card was issued, like me, I’d recommend bring a bit of cash with you to use in the airports. Then, when you arrive in Bali, withdraw your desired ($300) from an ATM over there. Yes, there are fees, but you already knew that. Everything in SE Asia is cash based so it’s necessary. If you’re going to be abroad for a long period of time, try to find a bank that will reimburse your international ATM fees. With PNC’s student account, I am charged $5 every time I make an international withdrawal, but I am refunded for two of those fees at the end of my period. So, I always withdraw big amounts at the ATM, so I only have to use it twice a month and don’t incur any extra fees.

There’s also ATMs all over Bali. If you go this route, just make sure to always pull on the card reader to prevent credit-card theft. It’s a thing no matter where you go.

Phew!

All in all, this is the meat of what you need to know while planning your Bali trip! What to expect when you actually get there, and the chronicles of my individual adventure are going to be in two separate posts that are coming in the near future.

If you have any questions, think I missed anything, or enjoyed this post, feel free to comment on this post or send me a message using the toolbar. I love hearing from you all!

Week 6

Party people! This week was much better than Week 5. Week 6 overall is still pretty boring, but my weekly post is more for me to keep track of my progress and my mother who wants to know every detail of what I’m doing at all times. I also had the Two Day Trip over the weekend which was a blast! Made lots of friends and memories but you’ll see all that if you just read. WOop woOP

Sunday- I felt slightly better after posting my How am I doing (Week 5 post) but not as good as I thought I would. Not as many people reached out as I expected, and I hurt some people in the process. In many ways it was a cry for attention more than for help, but I wasn’t quite sure how else to do it. I’d been reaching out and felt like I wasn’t being received. So I used this platform. It is something that is accessible to all, but takes time and effort to go on the site and read. I thought that only the people that care would read it, and they’d see how I was really feeling. The people that don’t care, would just go about their day. This is somewhat what happened. Sunday night, Maddie came to my room and we talked everything out. She told me that she (and apparently other people?) read the blog too. I’m not really sure why I was surprised, because I sent the link to everyone a few weeks back. I guess I just wondered why you would want to read the daily life of someone you don’t like. idk idk. Anyways Maddie told me nothing she did was malicious, and she wishes I’d came to her privately so that we could’ve talked it out. Our bridge hasn’t been burned and she wants to help me in my quest for friends! I apologized for hurting her feelings, as that wasn’t my intention, I’m just speaking my truth. Sometimes my truth involves being scared to have a face to face conversation about ~feelings~ as I am a person that doesn’t like ~feelings~. I was also made aware that I can come off as aggressive (I think a better word is blunt) which might be part of what is making my friend quest so difficult, but that’s really just the basis of my whole personality and not really anything I plan or even want to change. I think that one is kind of take it or leave it. Oh! I was also told that apparently part of my exclusion is because I am late everywhere which makes people think I don’t care. While that’s fair because I AM late everywhere, I run on CPT so even when I try my hardest to be on time, I am late. I could literally leave an hour earlier than I need to and still somehow be late because the world is against me. I’d like to make it clear to everyone that I do care about the program and CIEE, it’s just that Black culture in America is polychronic and it just be like that. I thought asian cultures were polychronic too but apparently not. Anyways, this talk was the highlight of my Sunday. I got some feedback and communicated in a positive manner. Woop! Shoutout to Maddie because she came to me in a calm manner to tell me how she felt and wanted to know how she could help me. (Also please recall Maddie’s part in the uber situation) That’s some good communication. GOALS

Monday- No class on Mondays, but I teach an English language corner at the NCCU affiliated high school. Now I left, on time, fairly early even, but the bus I was supposed to take never came. I didn’t want to be late, so I looked up the high school again on google maps. It said that it was only a 15 min walk which is fairly strange considering the bus ride is usually like 7 mins, but I just went with it. Mind you it’s super gross outside. It’s lightly raining but also like 68 degrees and I had my heavy jacket on so I was sweaTING. After a smooth 600 m I arrived at what google said was my destination. However it wasn’t what I was looking for. It’s actually the affiliated elementary school instead of the affiliated high school. I take a lap around the block just to double check and make sure I was in the wrong place. I was. So I google the high school’s name in Chinese and found it on google maps. Guess what? It was an additional 23 min walk. It was also all uphill. Eventually I got there, but not before seeing one of my students walk by me and we kind of both awkwardly put our heads down and kept walking. Right before walking into the school, I saw another one of my students. There only would’ve been 15 mins left in the class anyways so I assumed the just let the students go home. I get into the school and this was, in fact, the case. They still let me sign my attendance sheet (so I could get my transportation reimbursement even though I walked the whole friggin’way. I waited the 15 minutes because Maddie and I were going to go to 公館 （gongguan) to grab dinner and do some work. Thus bus ride is about 30-40 mins depending on traffic. We walked around for a really long time because we couldn’t decide where we wanted to go so I just pointed to a little restaurant on the street and that’s where we went. The food was good, it was just fish, rice, and an array of veggies as many Taiwanese meals are. We looked for a cafe for a while but lots of them were pricey (compared to the rest of Taiwanese things but in general still fairly cheap) so we settled on Starbucks. They didn’t have chai and nothing else was worth paying a bunch of money for so I just got some water. It took me forever to figure out how to connect to the wifi because it’s different here, but eventually I figured it out and didn’t even get that much actual work done in the 1.5 hours that we were there. It’s fine. I went home and watched GOT until an ungodly hour. (I’m trying to rewatch the entire series before the new season premiere)

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday- I really ain’t do nothing but go to class eat food, and watch Games of Thrones. At this point I’m fairly addicted to GOT and I’m going to sleepat 4-5 am and waking up at like 1-2 pm. Except for Thursday where I really struggled to wake up at 9 am. I also went to the gym on a Tuesday and Thursday if that is of any interest whatsoever.

Friday- I went on a mini hike! I decided that I need to get out of my dark room and see more of Taiwan. I still woke up pretty late (Around 12) but I didn’t have to be anywhere until 5:35 so I decided to hike up one of the mountains near campus. There are several, including the one that I live on. I went up to Zhinan temple. It’s about 30 mins. away from my dorm and a 20 min walk away from the where the actual trail begins. It wasn’t really difficult as far as hiking goes because it’s paved the entire way and there’s even some benches on the flatter parts of the trail. The most difficult part is that most of the climb is purely stairs. It’s a lot of stairs for 20 mins straight and can be a little difficult for those who haven’t been to the gym in awhile… or ever. When I got to the top, an older chinese couple started talking to me, and I was answering. There were surprised at how well I spoke, and honestly I was surprised myself. I was having a whole conversation with native speakers without any especially long pauses to try and translate in my head. It was coming natural. When the couple went on their way I kind of just sat on the stairs of the temple and took in the view. It was cloudy, but I could still see a great skyline and most if not all of Muzha. (木柵）(The suburb that my school is in.) I was really proud of myself for the conversation I’d just had. While it was simple, it was still the first time I’d ever experienced speaking fluently, so it was something of which I could be proud. After reflecting on my conversation I still sat on the stairs of the temple and began to go through my social media. I was tired from the hike and didn’t have anywhere else to pass the time, so temple stairs were just fine for the time being. I thought about getting some tea because the temple offers it for free. However, they only use cups that were brought in as donations and I also just theard that the tea was gross so I took a pass on that one.

After a little while I decided to make the trek back down the mountain. I just went to my room, cleaned up a little bit and the took a shower. Since I was already bored and was making a point of being on time (since my chronic lateness is so matic here) I left 20 minutes early. I get to the meet up spot early so I wait until 5:35 to text anybody. I texted the ambassador that invited and he told me that he had class but everyone else would be there soon. Finally 10 mins. later I see one of the ambassadors that was also going to dinner. We talk while everyone else trickles in. FINALLY, at 5:55 the last person gets there and we go to dinner. I’d realized that I’d been duped. The ambassador that invited me to come 10 minutes early probably did so so that I’d end up getting there on time. Now don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t really be mad because I did deserve it. However it was irritating that I sat there for 30 mins. doing nothing. I also had nothing else to do which is another reason I wasn’t even mad. We went to dinner about 2 blocks away and I had some grilled fish! It was a nice change up because there’s so much red meat in Taiwan. Whenever I happen to find anywhere with fish, it’s usually fried and even though I haven’t even been here that long I am starting to hear my liver groan. We ate, we talked, we left to go to Mahjong. We were running a little late so some people started to run but I was not that pressed so I just picked up to a quick walk. We got to our Mahjong room and everyone was already in there and some people had already started to play!

Now for my Americans reading this, the mahjong that we usually think of is the matching game that we can play online or on our phones. This is not the same thing. This is traditional Chinese Mahjong （麻將） that I’m talking about. It looks like this:

Image result for traditional mahjong

It’s not difficult to play and is a lot of fun. I think I’m gonna ask my mom for a set. They’re a little pricey but they last forever and the whole family can play. While the whole event was fun and were trying to have a competition, there was a problem. We didn’t really have a consistent winner at our table that we could send to the “Mahjong Championship.” Not really because people were tied in their number of wins or there was suspicion of cheating, BUT RATHER, it was the chair. The chair kept winning. We probably play somewhere between 7-9 games of Mahjong. For every, single one of these games, whoever was sitting in this chair won. There were 3-4 people that sat in the chair. We shuffled. We moved the tile around. I even switched other variables including the tile pushers, but no! The chair was either magical or cheating somehow I literally have no clue, but it was creepy. Anyways, the chair was the winner at our table, I got to share the prize (a desert soup) with another CIEE student. I didn’t really like the soup anyways so I ate a little but just to try it but not much after that. I had a great time at Mahjong but I was mad that I never won because I happened to be at the table with the magical chair. Yes, I could’ve moved but I wanted to be there when the chair finally lost. But the chair never lost. I did. I took several L’s that night. After Mahjong I just went back to my dorm, and guess what I did? Yes I watched GOT to yet another ungodly hour even though I had to be somewhere at 7:30 am.

Saturday- As a result of staying up until the ungodly hour I had a hard time getting up in the morning. I think I got like 3 or 4 hrs of sleep. As a result I was like 15 mins late getting to the bus for the International Youth trip. However, they called me while I was walking there and I told them I was on my way so they waited for me. They rock. Anyways I get on the bus with my super bulky bag, sit in the only free seat next to who I’d soon learn to be a Japanese exchange student then we were on our way to Yilan! The bus ride is 1-2 hrs. I have transportation induced narcolepsy and was also just exhausted so I slept almost the whole way. The primary reason I didn’t sleep the “entire” way is because we were having bus karaoke. One of these songs included the native singing of “Finlandia.” Finlandia is a very famous, very traditional and very long song that is recognized as the unofficial Finnish national anthem. While I was amuse because they guy that was singing it was very invested, I was also very tired and would have loved to sleep in peace. Our first stop was the 林美石磐 trail (mu mei shi pan) It was nice. Lots of green which is the usual in Taiwan. There were some streams and a nice waterfall. Overall it was a nice little trail. It was fairly short, but nice nonetheless.

After the trail we went to Yilan’s very own National Center for Traditional Arts. As implied by the title it’s basically a huge DIY museum for Taiwanese traditional arts. There’s a bunch of stuff to see, do, and buy here, but our International Youth group had prepared for us to do the Indigo Blue Dye activity. This is basically dyeing a cloth, but traditionally from the dye created by indigo leaves. WARNING: This dye smells like fish. Not terrible for me but I loooove fish and seafood and even the smell, but some people were not happy to say the least. I made a cloth, which I will use as a bandana/extremely small tapestry. The process is very similar to ti-dying. First, you get your cloth and choose the design you want. I chose a star design with a few little bullseyes on the outside for a little bit of extra flavour. For the star design, there’s a special way of folding , then you use popsicle sticks and rubber bands to place the design. You just need rubber bands for the bullseye. After you’re done designing you got to the dyeing area where you will be constructed to soak your cloth in a solution to prepare it for dyeing. Mine only sat in the for about 3 minutes. After that, you’re ready to dye. Throw on your apron and your gloves and get to the dying pots.

Once you get to the pots, you spend about five minutes submerging your cloth in the dye and massaging it paying special attention to to displace any popsicle sticks or rubber bands. After the nice massage, the cloth should be blue and green. Mostly green since this is only the first round. You are then instructed to proceed over to the sinks so you can wash out the cloth. Again, you’re massaging you cloth, but this time under water and there might be some scrubbing involved. Over at the sinks, the objective is to wash out the cloth until there’s no more green. Boom. No more green. You go back to the pots and repeat this process two more times. When all the green is finally out, one of the nice ladies working the will but your creation in the spinner to dry it out. Then you can go over to a little table with scissors so you can take off all the rubber bands and popsicle sticks to see your creation! Mine turned out pretty dang nifty in my opinion, but I ti-dye all the time so I’d be disappointed if it was looking rachet.

After Blue Dye we got a chance to walk around the center and do whatever while the other groups dyed. I went off on my own because I’m too impatient to wait for other people so I trekked around, stopped in the Chinese medicine store to see if I could ask some questions because ya know research and all that jazz, but it was pretty crowded and the nobody spoke English so I just moved on. I was walking around trying to find another DIY because that’s my jam but apparently you have to sign up for everything in advance but we didn’t do that so no DIY for me. The only thing you didn’t have to sign up in advance for was the stone work, but all you really did was polish a piece of black jade. It started at about 300 NT$ ($10 USD) for a small rock and you can make it into a necklace or something else, but I knew I wasn’t going to wear a bulky rock everyday and I didn’t want to pay to polish a small rock that I wasn’t going to wear. The cool thing about black jade though, is that it is green under a flashlight! (Again, when would i ever be under a flashlight? I wasn’t going to spend money on this, but it was cool.) There was a play being performed on the stage in the middle of the center. I didn’t really know what was going on because I went mid-way through but the amount of makeup that everyone (including men) as well as the extremely dramatic actors were funny so I enjoyed it for the short time I watched. After a little while it was time to go, so myself as well as the other people in my group that were also watching the play made our way to the front gate. I stopped for some soft serve ice cream because I saw other people around the grounds eating it. The first little stand I stopped at only had milk flavor. Now I don’t even really drink milk like that, so why in the world would would I not only eat something that is milk/cream based but the flavor is purely milk! No thanks man. Thankfully, about 3 feet away was a little shop and they had peanut flavored soft serve! I am absolutely a fan of peanut butter soft serve but I wasn’t too sure about peanut, but I took a chance. It was actually really tasty and not as creamy as peanut butter but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

We left the center, went to our hotel, spent a little while there. Then it was night market time! I had Yilan night market’s famous scallion pancake which is literally just fried dough with scallions in it but it was yummy. I also had so chicken wings, and fresh watermelon juice because I am a simple lady. By the time we got back it was Saturday night which means partay! I’ not going to go into the details because it was a relatively wild night but it was the first night that I was able to drink with friends in a long time and we were dancing in that tiny hotel room. I had a really great time and am thankful for that experience, especially since don’t know the next time it’s going to happen. After our mini-party had died down I went on a little walk outside with one of my American friends and one of my new Taiwanese friends that was apart of International Youth. We weren’t out for that long but we were just talking, laughing and I was messing with this super weird guy from tinder. It was a good time.

Fast Forward to the next morning, a day night of only 3-4 hours of sleep but I didn’t want to hold anybody up again so I got my booty up, got dressed because I’d showered the night before and went to the lobby for breakfast. It was McDonald’s 😦 I ate it though cuz ya girl was not tryna starve. It was just a chicken sandwich and I paid for it later but it did its job when it was supposed to. We had a decently long bus ride to our first destination of the day- the rice farm! The farm’s owner brought us all in, gave us this really long speech on what I think was the history but it was really early in the morning, I was tired, and he was just talking a lot so I am not going to lie and say I paid attention. Anyways after a long talk inside then a long talk outside, we got to doing! We got a feel of what it was like to carry the rice plants (technically a really farmer would’ve been carrying 3 times the weight but we are students, not farmers.) Then like 4 different people tried to fire up the rice wagon and all brutally failed, even the manly men that thought they could do it even though the previous person could not. The farmer did it and made it look easy. He asked for volunteers to hop on the rice wagon so I did! Then some of my amigos hopped on as well and we rode about 50 feet away at a slower rate than the people walking. It was fun though! We were in a little grassy area so the farmer showed us how to walk and plant the rice seeds then we made our way to ….. mud. I really don’t what I was expecting, but I utterly hate mud and only have about 2 minutes to mentally prepare for 1/3 of my legs to be completely submerged in it. Just walking over there was dangerous. I think I almost slipped like 3 times. Anyways I pulled my pant legs all the way up and got to work!

When we finished the farmer washed our legs off with a power washer which was unexpectedly painful but it did the job. We then started to put some already harvested rice in what seems to be a drainer? I’m not quite sure, but you got to spin a thingy and it was fun. After that we started to make the rice noodles that we were going to eat. We put the rice in the grinder/noodle maker , pushed the little lever and out came noodles into the boiling water! When they were ready we at them with some premade savory soup and then some cold sweet soup! There were super tasty.

After our soup, we had a catered lunch that wasn’t that great but ya girl was hungry so I ate it. We then went to a beer factory that wasn’t really interesting at all and I just sat and chilled on my phone until we left. After that we went to the beach because it stopped raining but the beach was rocky, it was still cold, and I was super tired so I sat in the little cafe that overlooked the beach, ordered a pizza to share with a friend and once again lollygagged on my phone. When it was finally time to go I was excited because again, I was tired. We finally got home around 7 and by this time y’all should know what I did when I got back. If you don’t I watched GOT. That’s is my life as of right now.

Monday- I wake up at some outrageously late hour and then just started watching GOT again. I’m in Season 4 or 5 so getting close to the end. I don’t have class on Monday, but I did have teaching which I completely forgot about. They called me and asked me if I forgot and I told the that I surely did. They just moved my kids to a different class and I felt bad because I missed last week because I was late, missed this week because I forgot and was missing the next week because I’d be on vacation. Wow, I’m the worst. Anyways, I just continued on my little GOT binge for the rest of the day.

Tuesday- I went to my Chinese class in the morning. It was good as usual. I got to speak conversationally, talk about things that I enjoyed talking about and practice the things that I have trouble with. After that I actually didn’t have my usual Lit class, so I went back to my room took a shower and a little nap. After my nap, I decided to pack! I was leaving later that night for Bali and I didn’t want to be packing last minute. It actually took a long time to pack because I had to pack up all my toiletries and stuff like that but I’ll put packing details in my Bali post. Anyways when I was done, I didn’t really have time to go down to the main street and look for/buy a selfie stick like I wanted to so I put on my travel clothes, grabbed some quick dumplings and bubble tea and headed for the bus to take me to the airport!

I’ll detail getting to the airport in my Bali post too, but while Saturday/ Sunday was technically the conclusion of Week 6 and Monday/Tuesday are Week 7, most of Week 7 is going to be the fun Bali stuff which is going to be split into 2 posts. A actual Bali guide on how I packed, got to/from the airport,what I did, where I stayed, how I got around, and all that fun travel stuff. The other post is just going to be my thoughts/opinions and some extra details of my excursions. Sorry this post took so long to come out but GOT took over my life and I’m finally caught up so the blog is definitely going to be the focus now. Can’t wait for you guys to see what I put out in the next few weeks. 🙂

Week 3 Pt. 2 & Week 4


Friday and Saturday of week 3 and all of week 4 weren’t too exciting so, we’re just going to put everything together!

Week 3 Friday: I may or may not have the best temper, and I don’t let things go too easy. As a result of this, I’m still very upset in the morning. My roommate said nothing to me, so I said nothing to her. I just spend the day trying to figure out my current class schedule, planning classes at Pitt next semester, working on my Chinese homework, and exploring google flights for more places to go (my favorite past time.) I really just got a lot of work done on Friday. Since I had just made some new friends the same day, I had lost some, I decided to reach out. I asked my new friends if they were doing anything fun on Saturday and if I could come. They said yes. They were going to Jiufen. I got excited to go out with my new friends and explore a new part of Taiwan.

Week 3 Saturday: I went to Jiufen! It was raining that day, but also hot. I was a little late going down the mountain. I knew I’d probably be taking pictures, so I wanted to make sure I was practical and cute. Had to make sure to hit the double whammy. It took a while to get there. We had to take a public bus, then the train. then another public bus (but it looked a felt like a charter bus.) It took about 2 hrs. to get there by public transportation. and was a little less than 150 NT$ which is about $5 USD. I’m going to be honest and say that I thought I was going to die a few times, but I have what I like to call transportation-induced narcolepsy. I always get so tired when someone is driving me around. The roads were slippery, we were up on the mountains, and they bus we were on was big and had to make some sharp turns. I was fine though. Thank goodness for sleep. I think it solves all problems. When we got there, we didn’t do anything other than eat, drink, and walk around, but that’s all you really do anywhere in Taiwan. It was extremely foggy, but the scenery was still breathtaking. There is so much greenery and fresh air in Taiwan because of the lack of development on the island. I have a Taiwanese friend who would vehemently disagree with that statement, but he’s a whole other story. I drank so tasty Jasmine tea right out of a teapot, ate yummy Taro Balls (get the hot ones not the cold ones), had some good 小笼包, tasted a mountain of ice cream and you guys….. I did it. I ate a piece of intestines. I already don’t like spicy food and don’t drink milk tea. I really don’t like being THAT American that’s not open to trying new things, so I tried the intestines just like I tried the stinky tofu. As I suspected, I didn’t like it, so at least I can say I’ve tried it and don’t like it as opposed to me refusing to eat it. We sat and ate some other stuff, took more pictures, and waited a lot. There were a million Japanese and Korean tourists there so we would all me walking in these narrow outdoor stairwells and streets, but people would stop to take a picture every 10 steps, and there’s no room to go around them, so it took forever to get any one place. One of the friends I made is actually going to Bali the same time I am so we’re going to meet up and hang out. I’m excited! Over all, I had a great time and was excited to meet some new people!

Week 4 Sunday: I went on a date with two tinder guys. FYI: Hookup culture is very different in Taiwan and Tinder works differently. While some people are on there for the traditional purposes of the app, several Taiwanese people are on there to meet foreigners and make friends: which is why I downloaded it again. I met this one Taiwanese guy that lived in Seattle for a while. His English is really good, and while he’s a character, he’s cool for the most part. This is the guy that thinks Taiwanese air quality is bad, smh. However, he did take me to this amazing Beef Noodle Shop: 老外一品牛肉面 in the Zhongshan district. It’s Taiwanese beef noodles cooked by a Persian chef who came to Taiwan a brick ago, speaks perfect Chinese and is married to a Taiwanese woman. When I tell those noodles were BIG POPPIN! Whew Chile, it was like it wasn’t spicy, but it was spiced, and I felt like the beef was so fresh, the owner had a butcher shop in the back. Those noodles, and his bone soup, and his dumplings are all so delicious. This man has cultural appreciation down to a TEE. It’s also super affordable, only around 135 NT$. The closest MRT station is the Xingtian temple station. Go go go!!! After we were done eating, he drove me to my next stop for date #2. Hehehe yes, I am a finesser like that. The other guy confused me and is boring so we’re not even going to talk about that one. I will say that I had to buy my own drink and it was like 200 NT$ for a lemon drop that tasted like lemonade with no alcohol. A LEMON DROP IS SUPPOSED TO BE A SHOT. At least I learned not to go back to that bar or text that guy again. Neither of them is worth my time. We love a good learning experience. Still haven’t spoken to my roommate and I just leave the room because #1 when I’m mad, I try to remove myself from the situation because that person’s presence just makes me madder and #2, I never get any work done in my room.

The rest of the week: I don’t remember what happened on what day and it doesn’t really matter so I’m just gonna word vomit here. I went to one of the cultural ambassador’s hip hop dance class. I can’t hip hop dance for my life, however it was fun to watch everyone else get really into it.

I got a ton of fricking mosquito bites in the two days that it was really warm, and the sun was out. Surprisingly none on my arms, but ya girl decided to wear a dress and shorts so there were 29 in total on my legs.

My roommate and I didn’t talk the entire week until Thursday when she said she was moving out, but she wanted us to be cool. At this point I wasn’t made anymore so I was super open when she asked to talk, because I was going to ask her the same thing the next day. She said she didn’t really realize what happened, just that I wasn’t in the room and wasn’t talking to her, so she felt the tension. (I also did something else that was slightly petty. We all have minor slip-ups that resemble to our younger, less-wise selves) Now mind you, she hadn’t said anything to me either, but this was forgiveness time, not argument time. I told her the situation through my eyes, and she told me her side- where she basically said that she didn’t know what was going on, which is dumb because she was standing there the whole time and she could’ve asked me at any point buuuuuuut NO DRAMA. I have a class with this girl 6 hours a week and we’re going to be the only ones that are here in June. (Even though that won’t make a difference for me because everyone has already been excluding me from everything for the last week) Ok! I’m done being shady! Sometimes you just gotta get these things out ya know. Also, this is a personal blog, not a super professional one. I make lots of mistakes, and I’m documenting them all here, so I learn from them. One of my biggest goals over the past year and a half and for this trip has been self-growth especially regarding communication and destructive behaviors. My current me is less shady and less petty that previous me and hopefully future me can cut all of that bad stuff out in due time, but for now a bit of shade might be thrown out here and there.

My old roomie moved in down the hall with one of the CIEE ICLC girls. She is doing the academic year program instead of the semester program. I don’t know if that has anything to do with her not getting a roommate at first, but it might. Apparently, she was getting a roommate soon, so now I’m just getting whatever roommate she was going to get. I’m nervous because, this person could be any student at NCCU. I highly doubt that it’s an international student, because the majority of international students have their housing situation settled long before they even come to Taiwan. It’s most likely going to be a Taiwanese (or maybe another nationality) girl that straight up attends NCCU. The nervousness stems from the possibility that this person might not speak English. I’m sure you can imagine possible problems that might arise when you and the person you’re sharing a room and bathroom with can’t even speak the same language. I went to April to ask if I could move to I-house or possibly get a single room. I knew both of them were long shots, but it never hurts to ask. I-house was full with an already long waitlist as expected, and apparently single rooms are only for Doctoral Students. The doctoral student thing doesn’t make any sense to me because why would a person in the late twenties want to be living in a college dorm, but NCCU is far from everything. I still don’t get it, but alas, it is a battle that I am not equipped nor willing to fight. I also don’t get why someone would be moving in a dorm 1 month after school starts but apparently there’s a long waiting list. That doesn’t make any sense to me either though, because if there’s a long waiting list for the dorms too, then why didn’t the other CIEE girl from before not have a roommate? This are all questions I have and have thought about, but I just take everything day by day and hope that I won’t get another roommate. For some reason, I have a gut feeling that that’s not gonna happen and I will get another one, so I’m keeping all of my stuff in my closet and on my side. Whether I do or don’t get another roommate I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts, and if it has to end, I’ll try to be friends with her and make the best out of the situation.

Saturday was our Scavenger hunt! We went around the city and solved little puzzles and ate famous food and got good bubble tea. Ngl, I was lowkey tired and hangry the whole time, but I was putting in SO much effort to be happy and have a good time because one of the ambassadors, Ian worked really hard to put it all together and I didn’t want to bring anyone else down just because I was a grump. Fun fact: It rained basically all of weeks 3 & 4, so it was real gloomy which I think contributed to my grouchiness in these weeks. I do, however, feel like I am more naturally grouchy than most people. I do not know why. Maybe I watch too many Oscar the grouch scenes from Sesame street and also The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland was one of lil’ Brit’s favorite movies. I dare you to ask my mother how many times she’s seen that movie. If you triple it, that’s probably my watch number. Watch your children watch people, it could model their whole life. Anyways, we went to 3 different places: Gongguan (which I’ve been to quite a few times), Dongmen, and Raohe night market. I’ll detail all of my awesome food in my food post that will be coming in the next week or two so stay tuned. It was beautiful, again I had fun. It was a really good ending to a mediocre week.

Don’t forget to use the fund Widgets at the top! Are you from another country? The google translate button translates the entire page. The calendar counting down the days until I come home. Recent Comments show what are people are telling me and asking me!

There’s also a social media button where you can donate to my gofundme and connect with me on most forms of social media. HMU!

Week 2

Hello Hello Hello! Week 2 is over and it’s time for me to tell you about it.

Yay! So, at the end of last week, Sunday to be specific, all of the students from the other Taipei program, Intensive Chinese Language+ Culture (ICLC), arrived. The biggest difference between these programs is that the CBPE program includes actually NCCU courses so we are enrolled at the university like any other exchange student. The ICLC students are enrolled through CIEE because they’re only taking Chinese classes and once a week Art in China class offered by a professor that used to work in CIEE.

At first, Danielle and I (my roommate and only other CBPE student) were nervous for the other students to come, but it’s been really nice. We were nervous because we had all of our ambassador’s attention to ourselves. So, when the ICLC students and the ambassadors/our new friends’ actual “buddies” (each student gets 2 ambassadors to be their buddies) they would drop us and go be friends with the new people. Luckily this wasn’t the case. There’s something like 25 ambassadors for only 9 CIEE students. We have come to realize that there is enough love for everybody.

On Sunday and Monday (24th and 25th), when they first got here, there orientation was very similar to the CBPE program orientation. Since Danielle and I had already done the orientation packet and power points, we opted into ICLC meals, but we left when they were doing other stuff. We’ve been finding some other cafes and cool spots to hang out in while we’re on lower campus waiting to do something.

NCCU classes started this week. Classes work a little different here when compared to Pitt or most American schools. For a 3-credit class, instead of having it 3 times a week for 50 mins, I have a 3-hr. class once a week. As a result of this I don’t have classes on Monday or Friday. I am truly living my best life. That’s not even the best part. Yes, it is, but there’s another good part. (2 of them actually) Firstly, the only class that I have on Tuesday is my Chinese class, and for some reason of which I do not know, Chinese classes weren’t staring until the next week. Woohoo! The other good part is that for some reason NCCU decided to have the first week of school at the exact same time as a major holiday. Thursday was Taiwanese Memorial Day and Friday was a deferred holiday. So yes reader, you guessed it. I only had class on Wednesday for my first week of school. It was my Social Media and the Digital Narrative class. The gist of the class is just to look at how social media has affected different aspects of society. It’s more work than I was hoping for, but again. This semester is about self-care, and C’s get degrees! (Only when you’re abroad and can only get transfer credit. If your GPA transfers back to your home school, you should work very hard.)

So, before this week started, I made some goals. I wanted to start going to the gym every day and speak as much Chinese as possible. Since I have so much free time this semester, I have really made a point out of trying to develop healthy habits. I floss my teeth every day. I’m drinking lots of water. (Yet, somehow, I’m still always dehydrated) I’m not over/under eating. I’m reaching out to people more often. These are things that I have struggled with doing in the past, mostly because I didn’t prioritize them and didn’t have time to focus on things that weren’t priorities. Now they are my priorities and I feel great! I went to the gym on Mon-Wed which is every day that we were on campus. I tried to speak as much Chinese as I could, but since it’s been awhile since my last class, not too many coherent sentences were coming out. I put a hold on that goal until I started Chinese classes and could beef up on my skills. Other than these fun things, I watched some Netflix & Hulu, planned my trip to BALI -more on this in the future, and just doing other boring planning stuff for things in my life. I like to plan. I’m a planner even though nothing actually ever goes to plan. I’m a good adapter too hehe.

Tuesday night, we went to 通化夜市 or the Tonghua Night Market. Taiwan has lots of night markets. They’re kind of like a bunch of small shops that sell food, bags, clothes, souvenirs, and other small things. There are also a lot of carnival games and prizes at the night markets. I feel bad for parents because I know the kids that go want to play everything. All of the food was very unique to Asian cultures. While most of everything was Taiwanese or Chinese, there was the occasional Japanese or Malaysian booth. One of the dishes I tried was 臭豆腐 or stinky tofu. As one can draw from the title, it’s tofu and it expels a pungent odor. It’s extremely popular in Taiwan so I ate it for the sake of trying. Surprise Surprise! It was nasty. We are told to say that if we don’t like something, to say we’re not used to it. （不习惯）Usually I’d love to be polite and I said I was going to look at all the differences in culture with the perspective of the Taiwanese, but y’all this stuff smells so bad and it tastes almost as bad. That’s all I’ll say on the subject but just know Brittany is not a fan of stinky tofu. Other than stinky tofu I was prodded to try some other things such as pork intestines/pork lung. While I’m sure they’re just as tasty as can be, I have to draw the line somewhere and I shouldn’t be eating pork anyways so those were a no for me.

On Wednesday, after my class, I met up with some of the ambassadors (we all had late classes) and took the bus to to Welcome Dinner. The food was pretty good, we played 3 truths and a lie, and one of the ambassadors- Ian danced for us! It was a good time. After dinner, we departed to begin our 3-day excursion. The CIEE Taipei center planned this to coincide with the holiday so everyone could go, and no classes would be missed. Here is the schedule of our trip:

The CIEE center rented a coach bus (smaller and nicer than American ones) to take us to all of our locations during the excursion. After about an hour-long bus ride, we arrived in 较细 Jiaoxi and checked into our hotels. Since there were about 30 people on the trip, we had to split into two different hotels that were about a 5-minute walk from each other. Jiaoxi is famous for the hot springs and skin eating fish. Now I’m not talking about Piranhas, I’m talking about the small little fish that were all the rage in America a few years ago. Several nail salons offered a new service where customers could pay to get a pedicure from fish that would simply eat the dead skin off of your feet. Now I haven’t heard anything about that in years, so I’m assuming the FDA was like “naw” and must’ve made it really hard to be able to have that at American salons, but they’re everywhere in Jiaoxi! It’s a lot different though because the fish tanks are as big as a carnival tent and a bunch of people all have their feet in at the same time. As most things in Taiwan, it was pretty cheap to get it done. (I can’t remember the exact price but less around $5 USD) We were only in Jiaoxi that evening so I didn’t have time to do it, but if I’m being honest, I probably wouldn’t have done it anyways. When I do things in everyday life, I try to live by “WWJD.” “What would Joy do?” If you didn’t already know, Joy is my mother and if I wouldn’t want to tell her about something I did while I was here, especially if it could affect my health, I probably shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. I’m pretty sure my mommy would deem an unregulated fish tank full of dead skin a no no, so I just passed on that.

The other thing that Jiaoxis is famous for is their hot springs. Here I was thinking that these hot springs were going to be like the springs that run off of the Arenal volcano in Costa Rica, but no. They’re just ginormous bathtubs in whatever hotel you decide to stay in. While I probably should’ve taken one of the huge baths- as I was extremely sore from the gym and having the experience itself wouldn’t hurt, I was too tired and went to sleep before I could, and we left too early in the morning (Around 9) for me to take a relaxing bath. Why was I so tired you ask? Well friends, as soon as everyone had settled in their hotel rooms, we decided to go out on the town and walk around Jiaoxi. After enough walking, we went to 7-11 and got some beer and a small (really small) bottle of vodka to share! We went back to the nicer hotel and somehow squeeze 30 people in the decently sized room. They had a loft! We played a bunch of simple drinking games and mafia (one of my faves.) I actually got too tired to actually drink more than one beer, and my roommate and I left around 12:30. Some people were apparently up until 3 am but I would’ve been dead so again, a no for me.

The next morning, we had a weird breakfast in a shack in the parking lot next to our hotel, then headed out for the Yilan Cake Factory. Yilan is very famous for their Yilan Ox tongue cookies. They’re just super thin very long cookies that can be made of just cheese and dough (what we made) or other ingredients that the factory makes and sells, in their cookies.

Making my cookies. Any anger that I may have had, I got out by smashing this dough.

After getting our cookies, we headed left out for lunch. I think we had a little extra time on our hands so made a stop and spent some time visiting the 妈祖 temple in 南天. (Mazu and Nantian) There was a boat yard, so we walked around that a bit then went to take a look at the temple. I love temples because I believe that Chinese Religion is very interesting (I’m taking a class about it this semester) and the art in the temples is simply breathtaking. Every single thing in these temples was handmade or hand carved and any picture from any camera could not do the amount of detail justice. Many temples are very similar, but I never get tired of the art.

After we left 南天 we made our way to Taroko Gorge. A gorge is basically a canyon with a river running through it. It was so beautiful. Mostly unbothered nature at its finest. We were more toward the bottom so the cliffs we SO tall. It makes definitely humbled me when it comes to how small I am in comparison to the rest of the world. (BUT BEST BELEIVE IMMA MAKE MY MARK/ A DIFFERENCE SOME WAY SOME HOW) Somewhat scary, but absolutely an experience I enjoyed and would do again.

We left the gorge and made our way to 花莲. (Hualian) Once again we were in the hotel for a very short amount of time, but we arrived much earlier. We were on our own for dinner this night, but there was a night market and 很有名的小笼包 (very famous steamed buns) a few blocks away. It was raining cats and dogs so Ta’ Morra (an ICLC student with CIEE) and I got very tired and lowkey just wanted to get something quick and not outside. She ended up getting noodles, but I didn’t want those, so I got those super tasty steamed buns and some dumplings to go with it. The rain lightened up and the ambassadors that we were with wanted to go back to the night market so that’s what we did. We walked around and ate, and window shopped like any person at a night market would. As we were about to leave, I wanted to stop at a mini seafood place with raw and fresh oysters and clams. (my absolute FAVORITE) At first, I was just waiting in line just to ask the cashier guy how much everything was and while we were waiting there were 2 guys on the grill. Both of them were tatted up and one was kind of cute ngl. We tried to ask them how much everything was (in Chinese) but then they just pointed to the guy we were already waiting to talk to. This really isn’t relevant to the story or the weekend at all but the not cute guy on the grill was holding a blowtorch to one of the giant oysters. He was working on the oyster the entire like 7 mins that we were standing there so props to those guys for putting in the work but also, I want to taste blowtorched oyster. I feel like it’s a delicacy. Back to the story- a few minutes after we asked the guys, the cute one passes me an oyster bigger than my head with salsa on it. At first, I was panicking because 1. I didn’t know if it was free and didn’t want to have to pay for it when I didn’t order it 2. I didn’t know how spicy the salsa was, so I really could’ve died. From the body language that I was getting from the guy and the ambassadors I just assumed it was free, so I SLURPED the heck out of that oysters. It had to take it in two slurps because it was so big. The salsa was slightly spicy but definitely tolerable. Right after I finished the oyster, the cashier guy told me the prices (I don’t remember how much the clams were, but the giant oysters were 200 NT$ each which is fair. I was full from my buns, dumplings, and other night market food the ambassadors bought that I tried, so I took a pass on staying out for longer just to spend a rack and be glutinous. However, that oyster was shapoppin’ and mark my words. I WILL be back.

During this whole day I was also in a lot of pain because my muscles hate me and even if I stretch before and after a hard workout, they fill up with lactic acid and are hard as rocks (in a bad way.) So, when I got back, I decided to take a bath before I took a shower to get these babies to soak. I had another long day ahead of me the next day and I didn’t want it to be as bad. After my bath and shower (you can’t get clean if you just sit in dirt), I hit the hay.

The next day I actually don’t remember at all what we had for breakfast, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say food. We started the day’s adventures with the Sugar refinery. The most interesting thing about it was the general scene and the ice cream. We only spent about an hour there. Then we went to the Wetlands. It was basically a bunch of grass and water. It was land that was wet. Not too much going on but it’s so refreshing to see all the green and breathe such fresh air. Those mosquitoes were ruthless. I work jeans and they bit me through my pants. Be careful out here in these skreets. After the wetlands we had lunch at a very mediocre restaurant then made our way to the beach.

The beach was a rock beach, but you weren’t allowed to take rocks from the beach, or you could get fined. Me being me, I hear the word “fined” and run the other direction, so I didn’t take any rocks home, but I did buy a coconut. They had guys near the parking lot with carts full of coconuts. I love real coconut water and cannot drink and of that stuff in the boxes of America, so I was so happy when I bought mine. I named him Larry and we really enjoyed our time together while we still had it. We took lots of pictures at the beach then finally started our 2.5 hr. journey back to NCCU.

For some reason my leg muscles were fine on this day but I’m pretty sure I slept on my back and shoulder wrong the night before and they were still sore so again, I was in a lot of pain. I finally gave in a took some strong Advil from a friend so that I could make it to NCCU and buy some tiger balm before my body gave up on me. We had a meal box on the bus on were just chilling when we got back. On Saturday, I was so tired that I went and got lunch around 12 then went back to my room and actually stayed there for the rest of the day/night. It was my recovery day. I feel like I was slightly more productive on Sunday but not enough so that I can actually remember what I did. Anyways, this is the conclusion of Week 2. It was long and tiring but I had a great time!

Getting to Taiwan

Whew Chile, let me tell you. It was a long day+. (I put the plus because technically it was more than 24 hours of travel, but it all felt grouped together, so we are going to say one day.) So, the supposed itinerary was supposed to be this:

Saturday 2/16/2019 ||| New York EST
  • 5 am- Leave for the Airport
  • 6 am- Arrive at the Airport, Check Bags, Say Goodbye
  • 8:15 am- Board Flight for San Francisco
  • 8:40 am- Depart for San Francisco
  • 3 pm- Arrive in San Francisco
  • 4:30 pm- Board Flight for Taiwan
  • 5 pm- Depart for Taiwan
Sunday 2/17/2019 ||| New York EST
  • 7 am- Arrive in Taiwan
  • 7:30 am -Depart from Airport
  • 7:45 am -Arrive at Hostel

Total Travel Time: 26 hrs 45 mins. Now this is what was SUPPOSED to happen. However, this is me that we are talking about so this is what actually happened:

Saturday 2/16/2019 ||| Eastern Standard Time & Pacific Standard Time
  • 5:30 am (EST)- Supposedly leave for the Airport
  • 5:35 am- Stop at CVS
  • 6:05 am- Actually leave for the airport
  • 7 am- Arrive at the Airport, Check Bags, Say Goodbye
  • 8:15 am- Board Flight for San Francisco
  • 8:40 am (EST)- Depart for San Francisco
  • 12 pm (PST)- Arrive in San Francisco
  • 3 pm- Board Flight for Taiwan
  • 3:30 pm (PST)- Depart for Taiwan
Sunday 2/17/2019 ||| Taiwan Time
  • 9 pm- Arrive in Taiwan
  • 10 pm -Depart from Airport
  • 10:30 pm -Arrive at Hostel
Me during the whole trip

So, let me tell y’all what happened. My day never really began or ended. I’d left my home at like 1 am on Friday (the day before I left) to engage in my last day tomfoolery. I went to sleep and the next morning I got to see my Zeus one last time and hang out with some friends that I had not seen in a while before I left. I then went to a friends’ house to get my hair done. I wanted to get it braided before I left and 1. it took me forever to find someone who would do it for cheap 2. I want it to be as fresh as possible so it would last longer. My hair took ALL NIGHT. We didn’t finish until I want to say 1 am on Saturday. I then had to drive from there (Silver spring) to DC to grab some things. I drove back to my mother’s house where all of my luggage was. (at this point I am tired because I haven’t slept in 24+ hours but I thought that it would be good to not sleep before the plane so I could sleep a great deal when I was on the plane.)

I finished packing and cleaning my room around 5:15 and we were out the door by 5:30. Since I’d been busy on Friday, I didn’t have time to pick up a prescription that I needed while I was abroad, so we stopped at our CVS across the street to pick it up. There was only one pharmacist there and homegirl had an attitude that I really didn’t appreciate. I stood there arguing with her and calling my insurance for a half hour because they messed up the pricing even though I’d called them 2 days prior about it and they said it’s be fine. We couldn’t even talk to a representative at the insurance company because it was 5 am, they were updating the system and didn’t have access to any of the records. Just my like, huh? Anyways, we paid the ridiculous amount of money for my medicine because there really was no other choice and went on our way. At this point I was stressed out because I was tired, hungry, mad that CVS is full of bozos, and the fact that my mother insists that I will miss my flight if I do not arrive at the airport 3 hours before departure.

We finally left for the airport and said goodbye. Everything was smooth sailing at IAD, and I waited to board for about an hour. During this time, I checked my ridiculously heavy carry-on at the gate FOR FREE. (y’all know I love me some free anything) You can usually do this with any airline, just make sure that everything in this bag can pass through TSA. Even though you’re checking it, you’ve got to make it through security, to the gate first. When I sat down, I was talking to this lady sitting next to me who was complaining about how long the flight was, and I told her I had a 14 hr flight right after this one and she said, “Oh goodness, then I guess I better shut up.” We chuckled and made the occasional small talk until we boarded. It turns out she was sitting in my row, but she was in the aisle seat and I was in the window seat. I slept almost the entire flight, which was nice because I forgot to nab some om my mom’s melatonin pills.

When I arrived in San Francisco, I was on a QUEST. I was hungry as all get out and I wanted a burger. Not breakfast food, not a panini or assorted fruit. A good ole American burger and some fries. I’m usually not a burger person but I have acknowledged that it would not be likely that I’d have access to one in Taiwan so I that it what I was craving. Before I set out on my quest, I wanted to find my gate for the next flight and set my bag down. The international terminal was a way away so I’m glad I did that first. Once I found a spot where I didn’t think my bag was going to get stolen or picked up by Airport security on account of it being suspicious, I started looking. I literally explored the entire international terminal and went back to the domestic terminal where I got off of my first stop looking for a burger. I was in the airport so of course everything was expensive, but again, I am me, so I was going to get the cheapest on. I went to a restaurant and got in line for takeout even though my plane was definitely going to start boarding in like 20 minutes. They host that was there then told everyone in line that if they didn’t have at least 40 minutes to wait, they should probably go somewhere else. So that is what I did. By that time my plane was going to start boarding in 10 minutes, so I no longer had time for the oh so precious burger that I had desired. I gave up on that and just went to one of the faster places that just warmed up pre-heated food, and I was going to get mac n’ cheese. It looked pretty fancy. That is when I got a glorious text. My plane had been delayed by 30 mins. Apparently, they couldn’t find a gate for it? Idk but I wasn’t mad. So then, I decided I had the time, a smooth 30 minutes before boarding began, and since I had a seat assignment already and overhead carry-on I could actually just show up at the end of boarding and be fine. So, I went to Gordon Biersch, which was less busy and similarly priced to buy my $18 burger.

When I bought the burger I also bought and orange as well as a Mighty Mango NAKED smoothie for the plane ride. I sat down at the bar to wait and this strange man comes to sit next to me. I forget his name so we’re going to call him Gary because he looks like he could be a Gary. Gary has on what looks to be very similar to a surgical cap, but I have watched enough Grey’s anatomy to know the difference. He orders some sort of alcoholic beverage and kind of just looks around for a while. Eventually the bartender asks him what he wants, and he says he doesn’t know- mind you they gave him the menu 5 mins ago and he hadn’t bothered to look at it. Exactly 15 secs later he stops he and says he does know. He wants mac n’ cheese. The bartender says it’s a kids’ size, is that ok? He proceeds to say that he wants 2 of them since they are small. I chuckle. This full-grown man in regular clothes wearing a phony surgical cap orders 2 mac n’ cheeses for like $8 each which are probably going to be fake cheese (since it’s for kids) 15 seconds after he told the bartender he didn’t know what he wanted. He then acknowledges my chuckle and we get to talking. Rather, he gets to talking. While still waiting for my burger, he tells me that he’s wearing the cap because he’s just had surgery. Apparently, he had started balding in his early 20’s (he was like 28-32 or something like that) and he’d always been self-conscious about it. He now had a stable job, so he flew to Florida to get hair surgery and was on his way back home. He asked me if I wanted to see his head, and I said “No, it’s all right” but he showed me anyway. He also told me how he was lowkey heartbroken because he was going through a “mild breakup.” This girl that he had only been on 2 dates with had apparently been stringing him along, but just told him that their “relations” (this is a PG blog so I’m paraphrasing his words) weren’t good so she thinks they should just be friends. He was upset because there was potential, but when they tried to have “relations” he had too much to drink which resulted in a lack of “relations.” After all of this and of course some other unsolicited information about his life my burger came out. I wished him good luck and hit the mom walk to get to my gate. Yes. Yes, he was.

As I was entering the international terminal, I looked at the schedule board to find out that my plane had been delayed another half hour for a total for one hour. So, I finished my walk to the gate with a leisurely pace and find a good place to plop down until it was time to board. Right as everyone was lining up, the flight got delayed another half hour. The people line up were pretty upset but I was glad to have time to eat my burger without being cramped or rushed, walk around before this long flight, and be able to call my loved ones to update them on my status. I finished my burger and finally boarded my flight after 1.5 hours in delays.

I had another window seat, and there was a Taiwanese girl next to me and somewhat of a redneck but very friendly man in our aisle seat. I was excited for this flight because I remembered from my flight to/from China that long flights such as this one that I was on have AMAZING movies and TV shows. It’s all the new stuff, which is exciting because I have not ventured outside of Netflix in a long time. However, as soon as I sat down, I realized that I did not have a single pair of headphones that was compatible with the TV. I brought 3 pairs, but 2 of them were Bluetooth and my only pair with wires was for my newer iPhone and I didn’t have the adapter. So, I had to use United’s crappy earphones and could barely even hear what was being said in the movie. I watched Crazy Rich Asians. Thank goodness for subtitles and I can’t wait to visit Singapore. This flight was 14 hrs long so I slept a lot, I worked on some blog posts, I watched that movie, and I was also working on a research proposal for a grant that I applied for. They gave us some weird crackers for snacks and drinks like any other flight. We were also given meals, I had chicken with veggies. It didn’t taste awful, but my stomach was definitely in pain when I got off the flight.

When I did get off the flight, I had to go through customs, which took a while. They didn’t rescreen my bag which was nice but just waiting in line to get my fingerprints scanned and my passport stamped felt like a lifetime. When I got through customs, I had to exchange money. That line wasn’t too long. I was please to find out the 30-1 exchange rate. When I finished exchanging, I headed to the baggage claims and all three of my bags were already on the belt. I grabbed them and headed toward the exit. I first went to the information help desk to find out the best way to get to my hostel my bus. (Again, I am cheap.) The lady and I were talking for like 10 mins. After she told me everything I needed to do, I realized that I had way too much stuff to get on the bus, so I just decided to take the L and grab a taxi. I went to my hostel confirmation email where I then saw that apparently the latest time for me to check in was 8 pm. (it was 10) After that my reservation would be cancelled and I wouldn’t get a refund. Before I started to freak out, I just decided to call hoping to goodness that someone would answer. Someone did answer! Instead he offered to pick me up for a similar price to the taxi, so I agreed and waited about 10 mins for him to get to the airport.

His name was Rex. I don’t know if he owned or just managed the hostel, but he was super friendly and cracked so many jokes. He brought me to a convenience store and helped me to pick some snacks before we made our way to the hostel. He told me they usually wouldn’t have answered the phone, but since my program coordinator, April, had called to notify them of the car that was picking me up in the morning, they knew that I was probably still coming. Wow, thank goodness for April! Anyways I arrived at the hostel, ate my Taiwanese version of Ramen/ talked with the Korean boys that were in the common area, took a shower, and headed to bed. I didn’t actually sleep that much, because, ya know, jet lag but I did some more work and called my favorite people around 7 am because it’d be 6 pm at home and everyone would at home would still be awake without it being an outrageous time for a phone call here in Taiwan. At 10 am, the car April had sent arrived, and I had a terrible stomach ache still (I was also getting over being sick) so I was a little car sick, but I got to NCCU, and my first day started, but that’s a whole other story.

Sorry this took so long to get up, but thanks for tuning in folks. My next post: My first day will be coming soon!