my very first backpacking trip!

it was aweeeeeeeeesooooooome!!! I couldn't find better words to describe my feeling right now! 7 days of surreal experience, 7 days together, 7 days away from the world, it was one awesome experience!

a trip to taiwan, each with a 7 kg backpack,
the four of us, a senior of mine, a friend of his and another high school friend of mine, off we went as foreigners. On day one, we don't know each other, in fact, one has never met us before. nevertheless, we had the time of our lives! the first 3 days felt like weeks...and when it was time to leave, without knowing if we'll ever meet again, we know, we're so gonna miss this trip!

The very first day, we almost miss our flight. After breakfast, we lined up at the counter that we thought it was THE counter, not until we heard the announcement calling our names, we ran to the plane with our bags and cameras... It was one special experience. what a dramatic way to begin our trip!

moving on to booking a weird stinky motel online, upon reaching there, the weird scent was horrifying.so, we decided to go for another one instead. Although we have only knew each other for like 8 hours, we spent the night squeezing in a room full of mirrors... ironically, from how the room look in reality, the room really proves how photos can be deceiving. From photos and videos, the room looked somewhat like a palace, yet, in reality, hmm....it was quite nasty... We then went to the famous night market and bought ourselves a whole lot of food since we were starving like wolves! All of a sudden, it began to rain, and we packed all our food from the table. However, the rain stopped after just a few drops, so when we wanted to go back to the seat to continue eating, we realized that we had no more food. Due to the chaos caused by the rain, one of us got the food mixed up with trash, and threw it all away into the dustbin. The four of us sat there with no food in hand, laughing at our own silliness.

The first 2 days went by really slow, and not to forget tiring. We walked and walked and walked and walked. and it rained and rained and rained and rained...Blisters started attacking my toes, and we were all messy and dirty..finally feeling like a backpacker.... We tasted awful food, tasteless food, and finally when we were all exhausted, we ate the best food while standing.

Moving on to 3rd day, we moved from the city to a seaside town, carrying our heavy backpack with a few new clothes added, we dragged our feet up the slope to a small little cabin hidden in an old apartment. though little, the room was quite cozy. After dropping our backpacks there, off we go to explore the town. The day went by really quickly because we were rushing from places to places. You can say that we're ambitious, or greedy, but to God's blessing, we managed to get to every places. There, i had my best cycling experience ever! =D

Day 4, we spent most of our time traveling. From train to bus, from bus to cab, we went from the seaside town to a seaside hill. The scenery was just simply amazing! It was beautiful beyond description. it was somewhat a Greece-like town. With houses all built on hill, each with various shape and form. the architectures were stacked on hills just like those in Greece. From the place we stayed in, we can climb up to the roof top, and from there, we can see the entire town, with the view of the sea ahead of us. I love this place the best. The locals there were really friendly, and they rest really early, shops were all close after the sun set. But the night view was mesmerizing. At night, when everyone was asleep, we went exploring the town with our cameras on hand. i think we were the noisiest bunch in town! and despite spending half the night chatting on the rooftop, at 5am, we got up to climb the hill in order to try our luck to capture the sunrise. it was just great!

Day 5 and 6 were a little boring. We moved from North to the Center of Taiwan, from the seaside hill to the lakeside hill. Though the view there was quite beautiful, but there weren't much activities to do. We spent the first night wandering around and playing cards in room. The place was really boring, but we had fun cycling. We were even stopped by the local policemen twice, due to our dangerous way of cycling! What an experience.

Day 7, the final day in town, we went onto every transport at the very last minute. Thank God we managed to get pass every single one on time. From bus, to cruise, to train, to plane, we went onto every single one just seconds before it take off. Speaking about taking risk !!!!

Back at the airport, we had dinner at Old town white coffee, from there we begin our trip, and from there we ended it. Sitting back at that cafe, with 7 days in between, we were 4 different people altogether. The first time we sat there, we were awkwardly quiet, 7 days after, back at the same place, we were laughing away like we've known each other for years.




Thank you Father Lord Jesus for everything that You've given to me.
Thank you Lord for the wonderful family that You've blessed me with.
For the millionth time i thanked You for them, i thank you again.
Thank you Lord for the protection that You've blessed us with.
Thank you Lord for the miracles that You've done in our lives.
Thank you Lord for the awesome trip that You've given to me,
and the fantastic friends to travel with.
Thank you Lord for everything, and everyone and every blessing!
Amen