Things I am Grateful For This Vacation

Of course there are more than this.

I managed to still do my work.
Let’s be honest, here. It’s not easy to work from home when you haven’t been home for a year! Fortunately, I was able to finish due work, AND spend quality time with my loved ones.

I didn’t get sick…
until the day I had to go back to Taiwan. LOL. I don’t think it’s because I had to go back, though. I love Taiwan. At some point, your body just needs rest. And the point happened to me just a day before I had to get on the plane to Taiwan.

Ultimate Backpacking : All That and Sleeping at McDonalds (Day 2)

Where were we? Puli, 8 of us packed in a room supposedly for 4 people at Jin Shan hotel. In case you missed how we arrived there, you may read the whole story here.

When we finally got a place to sleep at 1 a.m., we all said that we wanted to sleep until 10 a.m. No one’s allowed to put on their alarm clocks. Well, all those sayings turned out to be just talk, because around 7 a.m. I could already hear the sound of some of my friends awake and talking and deciding to take a shower.

We left our hotel at 11, just on time for check-out. The plan for the day was to find some interesting tourism spots near Puli or at Taichung, and get back to Zhongli by train or bus at night. We decided to eat first near Puli bus station, and in the meantime search through the internet for information on tourist destinations around Puli.

Ultimate Backpacking : Snow, Hitchhiking, and All That (Day 1)

I’ve been ranting a lot about how irritating winter is in Northern Taiwan. Taiwan’s humidity makes cold weather difficult to bear, and it doesn’t even snow. Except in some of its high mountains, such as Hehuan mountain and Guanshan. Since winter’s almost ending, me and my friends decided to take a trip to Hehuan mountain last Wednesday and unexpectedly our trip turned into something more than just the pleasure of playing with snow.

None of us really knew the exact way to go to Hehuan Mt. by public transportation. It turned out that we had to take a bus from Taichung city to Puli town of Nantou, and from there take another bus to Hehuan Mt. Since the bus didn’t go all the way to the top, we had to find a car from our last stop. We finally got a car rental (which was pretty expensive – I think we were tricked by the driver >.< ). We didn’t really go all the way to the peak of the mountain, but pretty close to the top, I think. The total time we spent going from Taichung to the mountain top was around 7 hours. So long I know, but it was due to the long queue of cars also eager to get to the top.

Cerita Sepeda Baru

I got a bike! Gratis!

Di Taiwan, salah satu mode of transportation-nya adalah sepeda, termasuk di kampus. Sejak awal saya datang, teman-teman saya mengatakan bahwa punya sepeda akan sangat membantu, terutama karena kompleks kampus kami cukup luas. Bagi saya pribadi sebenarnya saya ngga merasa kesulitan dan keberatan berjalan kaki dari asrama ke jurusan saya (atau ke mana pun di kampus). Mungkin karena dulu juga lumayan sering jalan kaki (rute : gerbang depan-gerbang belakang ITB, serta tempat turun angkot-tempat tujuan yang ngga dilewati angkot )

Anyway, ternyata setiap tahun ada yang namanya hari bagi-bagi sepeda gratis di kampus saya. Tahun ini, pembagian sepeda dilaksanakan kemarin dari pukul 9 pagi sampai 3 sore. Sepeda yang dibagi sebenarnya adalah sepeda-sepeda yang udah ditinggal pemiliknya, mungkin karena lulus atau lainnya. Konon kalau ngantri dari pagi, bisa dapat sepeda yang masih ahey. Tapi semakin siang, sepeda yang tersisa biasanya yang butuh perbaikan ekstra. Anyway, biaya perbaikan masih lebih murah daripada biaya beli baru atau beli seond-hand, jadi pembagian sepeda ini tetap aja menarik buat diikuti. Hehee.

Berhubung saya udah lama banget ngga naik sepeda (terakhir waktu SMP – apa SD ya?? ), plus saya takut sama sepeda yang terlalu besar (takut ga bisa nginjak tanah kalo mau jatuh), akhirnya saya cuma memilih sepeda dengan satu kriteria : PENDEK. Untungnya satu-satunya sepeda yang saya temui dengan kriteria itu masih cukup bagus, hanya perlu diganti satu rem dan kawat remnya. Lebih untung lagi, ternyata teori bahwa “sekali kita bisa naik sepeda maka selamanya akan bisa naik sepeda” ternyata benar. Hahaaa.

Naik sepeda ternyata menyenangkaaan. Mudah-mudahan balik ke Indonesia, kota-kotanya udah lebih memfasilitasi orang-orang untuk naik sepeda sebagai alternatif alat transportasi. (kebayang naik sepeda di tengah kota Medan… langsung berpikir akan cepat mati ketabrak angkot ugal atau kesenggol becak yang ngelawan arah lalin >.<)

- cheers to all -