Traveling

Hello,

I thought today I would talk about traveling. I want to talk about where I want to travel. There are plenty of places I would like to go like Spain (with my mom), Egypt, South Africa, England, Peru, and tons of other places. I think all of us want to travel, and I think its good to do it.

Since I am here in Taiwan it makes it a little easy to travel to throughout Asia. Places I want to go here are Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Hong Kong, Australia isn't too far, and Thailand are some places I want to go. I think it would be pretty cool to travel to different countries. I like to go to a new place and check out the tourist stuff that everyone sees. A lot of people do this, and it's the only thing that they do. For example, when someone goes to NYC they might go to only the Time Square area even though they are there for a few days.

I like to do that too, but I also like to see the stuff tourists don't see. Like NYC for example, I would like to go to other places besides Time Square. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but I know that there are people that really just enjoy to see the main tourist stuff which is ok too. I think maybe a better example is with Thailand. I think most people want to go to Bangkok. I want to do this too, but if I am making an effort to go to another country and spend that time and money I want to see what I want to see. One of the things I have always wanted to see are the villages with the ladies with the long necks. I don't know exactly what they are called, but we have all seen them. I think I want to see them because of Ripley's Believe It Or Not. I use to love that when I was a kid, and I remember Robert Ripley going to see them.

Since I am not in Thailand or a different country, I have to find what to do in Taiwan. I don't know if you guys know this or not but there is actually a lot of stuff to do here. Taiwan is a very small country, and 2/3 of it are mountains. So just think right there...2/3 are mountains so that means theres lots of camping, hiking, lakes, and that kind of stuff. It is also VERY popular for people to bike around the entire country! I mean it is really popular. I don't mean only a few people do it a year. A LOT of people actually do it. They told me it takes around 10 days. Around in that area.

I don't think I could bike it because it might take me a few weeks. I'm slow at riding a bike. When I went to this area called Nantou, its in the mountains with hot springs, so the roads are very curvy and narrow. I saw so many people riding their bicyles. They are in shape too because the roads were so moutainous. Anyways, Nantou is a very nice place to visit. One of its main attractions are hot springs. The hot springs are nice if you haven't tried them. They are really really hot, and it feels great when you go in the spring and relax.

Hot springs are really popular here because Taiwan was formed from volcanoes, and under Taiwan there are volcanoes which create hot springs. It is a big business here, and if you don't want to spend the night in the mountains you can take a bus or car to a hot spring and stay for a few hours then go back home. It's only maybe about an hour drive from where I live.

There are other places I want to go in Taiwan. One is called Kenting. Look it up on the internet. It's suppose to be really really nice! Lots of people go here for spring break, summer, and vacation. You can surf, fish, swim of course, snorkel, scuba dive, and rent stuff. So there are a lot of stuff you can do there. Maybe you can do more stuff because I only you can do that from people telling me. Depending on where you live, it might take 1-4 hours to drive there. So it's not that bad.

Other things to do here is go to the eastern side of the island. Taiwan is really split up in two sides because the mountains run down the middle. The east side is more beaches and smaller cities. I have seen pictures of it and it looks like stuff from calendars. They also have villages there where you can see people living like how they did a few hundred years ago. There are also national parks and stuff on the east side. The west side has the big cities with all the big city stuff you can do.

Taiwan is also split up into counties like how the states are. Every county has its special stuff that it is known for. Taichung City, where I live, is known for its night life. At least that's what I have heard so that's pretty cool. Taichung County is known for...I'm not too sure, but I know the county has really nice stuff to see like a castle (a small one) and mountains.

But ok, here are somethings I want to do that would be a day trip...go fishing, biking at a nice park (you can rent bikes if you don't have one), hiking, and visiting the rice farmers. I mean maybe not go and talk to them, but just go and see them and what they do.

Ok that's it for now. Peace out!!!