Day 1: Taipei and the Temple by the Sea

May 3, 2018
Our first day on our Bali adventure has come to a close, and it was pretty successful.

First thing first, we had to get off the North American continent, which meant boarding a plane at 1:30 in the morning and flying across the Pacific for 12 hours. The flight wasn't bad all told. Basically no turbulence the whole way, and some very legit airplane food.

The tray was filled with dishes, we got a hot roll with butter for each meal, real metal silverware, a hot entree, some sort of salad appetizer, and a delicious dessert.

They also came around with hot tea, and real slices of lemon to grab with little tongs. I was impressed.

I think I racked up about 7 hours of sleep, which was about what I was aiming for. A couple bathroom breaks and a movie later and we were landing in Taipei. 

A slight delay at takeoff and a headwind during the flight meant we ate into our 5 hour layover so we ended up with not quite enough time to leave the airport and see the fishing harbor we wanted to, but the airport itself turned out to be pretty interesting.

If you must suspend something from the ceiling, nothing better than oranges and tomatoes.

Hot air balloons in one of the food courts

There were themed waiting areas sprinkled through the concourses, including Hello Kitty, which is the one I had heard about beforehand.

It was really adorable. Everything was pink, as it should be. There was some sort of Hello Kitty music playing too, which made me really glad I didn't actually have to wait at the gate.

Miss Kitty is now a very stylish pilot

Of course I had to get a selfie with Miss Kitty.

Other gate themes included:
An E-library gate. All around the gate name were circuit board parts which I thought was pretty cool.

A cultural gate with fun things suspended from the ceiling.

A food themed one with sitting cushions that were steam baskets of dumplings.

And my favorite, a post office themed one

They had a mascot of course, and a display with the history of the post in Taiwan. There were some old postal carrier bicycles, old mailboxes, and the ceiling lights were part of a paper airplane trail.

There seems to be a movement in Taiwan to raise awareness about the black bears, what appears to be part of a conservation effort to me. There were signs and displays about it, and bears have been cartooned into spokes bear figures. In one such area this happened:

We had a 5 hour hop from Taipei to Bali, which included more food and a nap. A taxi from the airport got us to our hotel through the nutso traffic and throng of motorbikes. We then had a quick turnaround to put on shorts, find a taxi, and drive south as fast as we could to try to catch sunset at Ulu Watu temple.

We knew we were going to be cutting it close on time, and unfortunately there was a broken down bus in the road causing delays, so we saw the best part of the sunset from the car instead of the temple.

When we arrived at Pura Ulu Watu there was just a little color left in the sky. Still worth it. Ulu Watu is set on the edge of shear cliffs, which even in fading light made for some spectacular views.

We also found our first of what will undoubtedly be many monkeys. These ones were incredibly fat, I'm sure from ill-gotten gains from the tourist population.

Once we made it back to the hotel through the traffic, we found some dinner, Keith (Shay's dad) headed for bed, and Shay and I walked the 4 blocks to the beach. I didn't want to end the day before getting my feet wet in Bali. Once that was completed, I was more than happy to pour myself into bed and call it good.

More days and more adventures lie ahead of us, but we fit a good amount into day 1.