Welcome to the Rainy Season

You know you're right in the middle of a good storm when the thunder seems to be coming from all directions at once. I woke up this morning to a battering of thunder but a complete absence of rain. It took a few minutes for the precipitation to catch up, but once it did, it hit with full force. If you know me at all, you know that I love storms. They're so powerful yet strangely comforting. The perfect excuse to stay in your pajamas, curl up on the couch and do some solid vegging. It's pretty ideal for my "in-city" weekend because I don't feel guilty about doing a whole lot of nothing.

Recent trips have been pretty exciting. I went to an island called Xiao Liochiu with my friends Sarah, Trevor, and Joel. It's a completely coral island off the southwest coast of Taiwan. We got to the peer in Dongang just an hour before the last ferry was scheduled to leave and decided to grab some dinner before the boat departed. We realized we were cutting it a little close so started hurrying back to the peer when we were intercepted by a guy on a scooter who told us to run. I never figured out if he worked there or if they just sent some random man to look for foreigners on the street. He drove ahead to let them know we were coming and we were hurried along on by all of the fruit/veggie stand workers along the road. I guess everyone in the town was meant to pass on the message of our tardiness.

Traditional Chinese graveyard

The highlights of the island included some amazing convoluted caves and trails that you can get through if you don't mind contorting you body in all sorts of weird angles and drinking outside a little temple on a cliff overlooking the ocean before setting up camp down at the beach. We also had an interesting karaoke experience with some locals. You can imagine how extensive the English collection was since our first and arguably best song was "Doe Re Mi". Trying to get home was a pretty epic adventure in itself. We started at the wrong pier, practically drowned in the rainstorm that followed, and then almost got separated when the guys loaded the bikes onto the boat while Sarah and I waited with everyone else. They stopped letting people on but luckily Joel came to the rescue and ran back in through a side entrance and led us around the hoards of people waiting to get onto the boat. We ran on just as they were about to remove the ramp and then feigned innocence while people argued in Taiwanese (which almost always replaces Mandarin when tempers are raised). Luckily they let us stay but the sea was less forgiving than the ferry workers. Our last minute boarding meant we got to stand outside with the bikes while the wind and waves rocked us. There were a few instances where I could clearly imagine one of the huge waves sweeping us right off the deck.

My next trip to the hot spings at Chihben was quite different because we were able to partake in some serious pampering. We stayed in a nice hotel with hotsprings built on the side of a mountain overlooking a river. My biggest concerns for the weekend were whether to go into the 26 or 29 degree pool, whether I wanted to sit in the bubble chair or head to the massaging jets. Yes. Yes. Y-E-S. Yesss

I think they feed a mixture of cocaine/steroids to these coy