We then had the pleasure of hanging out in what I will consider the worst airport I have ever been in....Taiwan International Airport. Small, smelly and like something out of a bad 70s movie. We weren't there for long and enjoyed another game of phase 10 (the game of the trip!) We walked around, enjoyed the duty free shop and wanted to donate oh so badly to....help Taiwan, help you.
We finally arrive! It is about 8pm. We take a taxi to our hotel, check in and head right back out onto the town. It is Christmas Eve after all and we are ready to celebrate as much as 3 people who spent the day on an airplane can! The city is totally insane!! There are people everywhere. We are fearing for our lives as we cross the street (the idea is just to go-weave your way between cars!). We wander around...not really knowing the city yet and totally lost in the stream of people. There was a HUGE stage being built for a huge New Years celebration and a few Christmas decorations around. We took in some of the street shopping, people watching and street food.And this wasn't even the crowded part of the street:
The Christmas decorations were lovely. There were lights in nearly all the trees and this giant "Happy New Year" sign in the middle of the street:
There was also this dome. It was sponsored by Heineken and had a train running around it that I don't think you can see in the picture. Everyone was in this town square area, taking pictures and celebrating.
Children we also all dressed up. There were little Santas everywhere. They were so cute. Something that we could not explain (or ever get a good picture of) is that the children (and young adults) all wore devil's horns that would light up. We don't know why...not really in the Christmas spirit but it was funny to us none the less.
We were starting to get hungry and there is no better way to experience that eating from the streets...especially when you have NO idea what you are eating. We bought these...thinking there was meat in them. They had some sortof sea food...we never did figure it out. Either way...they were SO good!
Don't know what the sauces were either...the orange one was spicy!
American born idea...Tooty Fruity. I have found my favorite frozen yogurt place in the WORLD. You pick a cup, fill it with as much frozen yogurt as you want, get all the toppings you want from the topings bar and then pay by weight. I LOVED my mango ice cream with oreos. yummy!
People in Vietnam were so friendly towards us. People were constantly shouting "Merry Christmas" and "Hello" at us. We always shouted "Merry Christmas" in return. After a few hours of this, Courtney decided we need to take a picture with the next people who shout at us. These junior high school kids pulled the short straw. They were in total shock when we turned around and asked. They refused at first but we convinced them. The girl next to me is the one that orginally shouted at us. She was so embarassed!
I am all for safe sex campaigns and sexuality education! Vietnam believes so too...there were many signs that talked about AIDS and this famous post we saw around the country. We learned...condoms equal love.
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