My mother arrived from Canada on the first day of the Chinese New Year, so Matthew and I picked her up from the airport. Her trip didn't get off to a great start; she got stopped and pulled into an office at customs. We spent an extra hour waiting for her because she was being questioned. Why was she being questioned? Most likely because she has a Canadian passport but speaks perfect Mandarin (she's originally from Singapore). Basically, while traveling to a country where you know the language, don't use it; speak English. The Taiwanese' English ability isn't that great and I have found that they don't want to waste time trying to communicate. If my mom spoke English to them instead of Mandarin, they would have let her through no problem. It's an unfortunate reality. If you want to avoid any hassle, just speak English and don't even attempt to use their language if you know how.
It took forever, and even an official called me on my cell asking me stuff in Mandarin even though I don't speak it and my mother made that clear. I hate bureaucracy. Finally she comes walking through the doors and I didn't even recognize her; it was Matthew who had to point her out to me and they had never met before. We soon headed to the car for the 2.5 hour drive back to Erlin. My mom rested for the first day, the jet lag is a killer and with a more than 12 hour difference, it's hard to adjust quickly. We decided to head up to Taipei and traffic was horrendous; I'm pretty sure every inhabitant was driving northbound that day. We got into Taipei after dinner time and got a bite to eat at a "famous" restaurant that some Taiwanese actors dine at - it's not like a Hollywood restaurant. My mom tried stinky tofu there and she hated it.
Afterwards, we hit up a night market and ate some more, shopped, and got a face threading - where they use thread to remove all the little hairs on your face, including the peach fuzz; it hurts.
Lastly, we went in for a foot massage but all of sudden my mom chickened out. Once we were almost done she decided to get one as well, so I got a shoulder/neck and arm massage while I waited for her.
My mother also got some kind of meat/leg pounding massage. The man who calls himself a Chinese medicine "doctor" used a rubber mallet and hit my mom's legs hard enough to leave bruises everywhere. It was gross looking and painful. He told her that it will help with her back pain. Of course it will!!! Your legs are now in so much pain, you can't feel pain anywhere else! My mother has become so westernized in so many aspects, but she still buys into all the silly Chinese/herbal medicine stuff. After that enjoyable and painful experience, we drove around for hours looking for an available place to stay, but everywhere we checked they were fully booked. Take note, do not try to travel without pre-arranged accommodations during the Chinese New Year.
We finally found a hostel that would let us stay the night, but we had to sleep in the office so we slept like crap as you can imagine because there were always people coming and going, or maids getting cleaning supplies, etc.
The next morning we headed to an area of Taipei that Matthew was familiar with, it is where he did a run with a group back when we first arrived in Taiwan. It was a hot day, the weather had been nice for most of the holiday week so we checked out a river. There was a suspension bridge and even paddle boats you could rent, the place was busy.
We crossed the suspension bridge and climbed some narrow, crooked stairs and found a quaint tea shop looking down on the river. We took shelter from the blazing heat there while enjoying a hot pot of handpicked tea from the mountains, it was refreshing. There is a specific way to serve this kind of tea, so it was a neat learning experience.
We later headed into the financial district and checked out some tourist spots, like Taipei 101, some shopping malls, a huge Eslite bookstore, etc.
After having fully explored the financial district, we headed back downtown to see the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, a place to commemorate a former president of Taiwan. It is beautiful at night, but my camera is old and can't seem to take any good pictures. The park is free and accessible 24/7.
We then drove all the way back to Erlin for a good nights sleep in our own beds. The next day we brought my mom to the coast to see how oysters are farmed, and we showed her the biggest temple in the area, which is unfinished because they ran out of money and couldn't complete it; it's huge. We then drove onwards to Lukang to show her the old town, and this place was packed. Cars, people, dogs, children, everything and everyone was jam packed in the streets while a parade was also trying to get through. There was one interesting aspect during the parade. As a mini temple float was coming through, people would rush into the street and crouch down on the ground as the temple passed above them. Once it had passed they would stand up and bow towards the float. I had never seen that happen before, it might be something specific to whichever god that temple float was dedicated to, but I am not sure.
On another day we headed to Taichung city to go for dinner, a lot of the restaurants were at full capacity and we were supposed to meet other friends, but instead Matthew, my mother and I went for one last teriyaki dinner, Matthew's favourite; he was leaving the next day. We later met up with our friends (the ones we met with for the Moon Festival) at a tea shop and chatted for one last time together. Goodbyes can really drag on. We headed home a lot later than intended but it was a good visit. The next day I drove Matthew to the airport and he went on his way to Hong Kong and then later to China to visit his old friends.
My mother was left to her own vices for the week and once the weekend came round, we drove down to Kaohsiung. We went to the Dream Mall and I finally got to ride the Ferris wheel that is on top of the mall; there is actually a mini-theme park at the top. It pretty small and most of the rides are for children, but you get an amazing view of the city from the Ferris wheel (I had forgotten my camera so the pictures are on my mom's which I forgot to transfer). It was pretty cheap and quick to get all the way around, but my mom chickened out so I did it alone. Each car is made from plexi-glass so you get a great view, even the floor was a window.
We found a motel and spent the night there. It was a pretty fancy motel, each room had it's own private garage and a door from inside the garage to access the room. The room had its own little kitchenette, a soaker jet tub, stand alone shower with jets spraying at you from all directions; it was fancy and all for a measly $93 CAD/night. They even served breakfast right to you in the morning. They just open your garage and place the tray on a table outside your room door, the weight of the tray pushes down on a button that lights up a sign in your room to let you know your breakfast is ready for when you wake up. The breakfast was nothing special, it was from McDonald's actually. This motel though is totally meant for couples, like a romantic getaway. The room provided condoms, lube, free porn on the televisions, and it even had a "sex chair". It's deceiving. It looks like a lazy-boy type massage chair but it doesn't massage you. It has varying speeds and just moves back and forth; it's meant to make having sex easier. As the woman, you can sit in the chair and put your legs up on the stirrups, the man kneels on the footstool and you can adjust the speed at which he enters you.
I have never seen such a chair but my mom and I certainly had a laugh. I was surprised they actually bought one for each room. It's funny how different motels can be in foreign countries.
After our night at the fancy motel, we drove southbound towards Kenting to visit the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium.
The weather in the south is much nicer than the rest of Taiwan; it's always hotter and sunnier and there's a lot less rain. From the parking lot the aquarium didn't look too bad, but once inside it was very busy. One of the first things you see is an open aquarium where you can touch certain animals, like starfish, sea cucumbers, etc. It was very fun and there were plenty of pretty fish to look at.
There are even sections of the aquarium where you walk through underwater tunnels, just like the one in Okinawa, Japan and on Sentosa island in Singapore. The one in Taiwan had a section that was dedicated to arctic animals, so we even got to see penguins in Taiwan.
The arctic section was interesting as it was pretty cold, obviously. The interesting part wasn't really the penguins for me, but watching the Taiwanese peoples' expressions and reactions as most of them have never seen penguins before nor have they ever seen snow, other than in pictures. People were squished up to the glass trying to get close and get the best pictures of the penguins. After fully exploring the aquarium, we drove all the way back to Erlin. The next day was my mom's last day of visiting, so it was mostly spent packing and taking it easy. The next morning was a pretty boring one that involved some confusion when it came to the airport service; which ended up being late and I just drove my mom instead. Now, being without my mother and without Matthew, I get to spend the last three weeks of my time in Taiwan to do whatever I want, and deal with those last errands like selling the car.
We stopped at a different shop and I saw a cubic watermelon. To be honest, I don't believe this one is real but I know that they do grow them in that area. This one was used for more decorative purposes. 
I was really trying to convince my friend and co-worker, Elaine, to buy a new cactus plat as she had recently knocked hers off of her desk and broke it. I thought one of these might have been cute.
