CNY 2016 - Taipei Taiwan - Day 1 Monday

Day 1 Feb 1st

We left around 6:30 in the morning.  We were so tired because we didn't make it to bed until after 1:30am.  This is one of the challenges of trips that we still haven't mastered.  We just can't seem to get ready early.  When we made it down to the waiting van, there were six available seats (meaning six seat belts) instead of seven.  This is a regular challenge we face living in China, and super frustrating.  At this point there wasn't much we could do.  So, two kids were buckled together.

Marcus has been sick.  He has had a bad cold.  This morning Ainsley has come down with the same cold.  Poor thing.  She feels awful.  When we made it to Hong Kong immigration the driver told us three people needed to get out of the van and go through immigration through the building while the rest of us did the drive-thru method.  I guess there is some limit on the number of people in a vehicle?  Anyway, another first for us.  Marcus and the two older girls climbed out and went inside while I kept the three youngest in the car with me.

Checking into the airport is somewhat of an ordeal for us but this time went okay.  Maybe we are getting the hang of this (knock on wood).  The flight also went really well.  The kids had their own screen which is always fun when it happens.

When we arrived in Taiwan we were able to get sim cards and get through immigration pretty easily.  We had friends arrange a driver for us and so that was awesome to have a good driver waiting and when we arrived at our airbnb it was awesome so we are feeling pretty great about that.  The beds are soft and the bathroom is nice and the kitchen is great also so we are thrilled.  Ainsley was feeling awful at this point.

Our adventure for the night was going to dinner.  We were hoping for some good food without a lot of time/effort.  It had been a long day and Marcus and Ainsley were not feeling fantastic.  We were all tired.  I found an Indian restaurant on trip adviser that seemed pretty close.  We called one Uber driver and I jumped in to take half the family and Marcus was grabbing a taxi with the rest of the family.  Traffic was awful and our short drive ended up taking more than 30 minutes.  Then my driver got into a small accident.  Luckily the other driver ended up handing our driver money and we were on our way.  My driver kept apologizing.  We finally made it to the address but couldn't find the restaurant.  It was at this point that I realized I had no money, no phone (my new phone of three weeks broke completely the day before) and no way to contact Marcus.  I also had no address of where we were staying and no keys.  Panic quickly set in.  I couldn't believe we were so crazy to split up without being more prepared.  That is what happens when you are traveling with five kids and very hungry.

Luckily, I had a very kind driver that felt bad about the recent wreck:).  He let me use his phone (except I didn't know Marcus' number because he had gotten the sim card that day), download wechat, and find and add Marcus so we could contact him.  It was a long additional 30 minutes but we found each other and finally found the restaurant as well.  The kids had been out in the rainy night and we were all beat.  Honestly, I don't know what we would have done without the kindness of our driver.

The Indian restaurant was amazing.  The name is the Balle Balle.  If you are ever in Taipei, this is the place to go.  The owner took such great care of us.  The waitress came to take our order but she spoke zero English and so we were really struggling.  The owner was there and quickly picked up on the problem and came over to help us.  He asked some questions about spiciness and made some recommendations and then just asked if he could order what he thought would work well for us (and we LOVED it). While we were waiting for our food we discovered that Zach had a blowout.  Also, we discovered that Will had had an accident in the taxi (he had fallen asleep on the longer than expected drive).  He didn't say anything to us until the restaurant.  We ended up tying a jacket around his waist.

When our food came it was delicious.  Seriously SO GOOD.  Fresh naan of different flavors, mmmm.  I was impressed that even though we were all tired and hungry (not to mention all the other craziness) we had a great experience. And everyone liked something.  We all left with full bellies.  The owner also quickly helped us get rides home.


These pictures are from reviews on trip adviser but sum up our experience perfectly.
  

Zach has been a trooper throughout the craziness of the day.  Really, all of the kids have been great.

Other things I wanted to document:

-I told a driver that we had four kids instead of five.  I also realized I told the airbnb lady we were a family of six instead of seven (not a big deal unless you are being charged by the number of people).

-Marcus was feeling awful and used every ounce of energy to run out and grab some juice for us before bed.  He really wanted some juice and so did Ainsley.  Marcus found a little shop and loaded up on what he thought were juices.  When he got home the kids quickly opened everything up to discover he had purchased tea.  He was so discouraged.  He did manage to grab one orange juice that was an actual juice so he and Ainsley split that.  Poor guy.