TET 2017 - Wishing Wall display at my gym

For the third consecutive year, here is my annual blog for my 2017 TET 'Display at my gym' to go with the 'farming themed' display of 2016 and 'lucky money tree' display of 2015. For a refresher on those, please see the links below.

TET 2015 - Lucky money tree display at my gym

TET 2016 - Farming themed display at my gym

Below is this years display....... 'The TET wishing wall'

On its own, the 'TET wishing wall' is a pretty good idea except for the fact all they have done is recycle the Christmas wishing wall (see below).

The Christmas wishing wall - same, same but different

Instead of asking, 'what do you want for Christmas?', they are asking 'what do you want for TET?'. I'm not sure if there is any variation in requests.

The big 'Joy' with Christmas decor has been replace by a more TET themed display of flowers, watermelons and baskets.

At least they have replaced the Christmas wishes with TET wishes and the students get two changes to wish for stuff. 

Four days of work then I get 10 days off!!!!!

TET is coming - 2017

Not long now until TET holiday in Vietnam. This is great because it means there are 6 days of public holiday in a row and our University shuts for two weeks!!!! Below are the TET trees at my apartment complex. Comparing the photos with last year makes me think this is the same tree or at least from the same supplier.

I think I've decided not to go away at TET since I just got back from Taiwan. It means I'll have more holiday time to go on another trip later this year. Below are some photos form the local shopping centre. Not very good photos but I'll try and get some more over the next few weeks

 

Relaxing in Daan Park

We are going home tomorrow so my last post is of Daan Park.

Daan Park has its own metro stop and was a nice place to relax since we'd done so much walking and cycling in the past few day.

This is something that would be nice to have in Ho Chi Minh City but I doubt that will ever happen. Anyway, it was a nice afternoon before the flight back tomorrow.

I was planning on going on holiday at the end of January at TET but I'm not sure I will now as I feel pretty chilled after this trip.

Still love Taiwan. The flights are really cheap from HCMC but since I've been here twice in under 12 months I'm bot sure when I'll be back.

Taipei Zoo

So, today is our last day and since we've done pretty much everything in Taipei, we decided to go to Taipei Zoo. 

 

I'd heard that they have a very wide range of animals so it was somewhere I was interested to go and see. They had lots of animals that I'd not seen before. They had a Panda, some Hyenas and Kangaroos.

The Zoo has its own metro stop which makes it very convenient! 

 




 

Taiwan's High Speed Train

I know this is an odd thing to blog about but this as the first time I'd been on a High Speed Train. 

In order to get to Sun Moon Lake we needed to travel to a place called Tai-Chung. Tai-Chung is 106 miles from Taipei but we made the journey in 49 minutes!

This is because we took the High Speed Train which travels at 300km per hour. You could feel the speed as we were moving but it was still nice, smooth and relaxing. Its also very nice inside. It give you information on the back of the seat where you can find food and the toilets and also the sign at the front updates you on the speed of the train. Its tops speed on our journey that I was was 292km per hour.

This was a nice experience and meant we could get back early to drink beer!!!

Cycling around Sun Moon Lake

We left the mountains early so we could get to sun moon lake and have enough time so cycle the 20km around it. 

We got an early 7:30am bus and arrived in Sun Moon lake around 10am. We'd seen the place so hire bikes on our previous visit, so we looked our luggage in a locker and got a couple of bikes. 

There is a bike track that goes around the first half of the lake and it was really beautiful. There were lots of other people doing the same thing. The weather was great and we stopped lots to enjoy the scenery. 

 

Half way round the track ended but we carried on on the road. What we didn't realize is that you go up into the mountains. This wasn't expected and was very hard work!

It did provide us with more great views and the good bit about going up a hill is you have to go down the other side, which was nice. When we got to the final 5km there was another cycle path which hugged the coast and was very nice.

The total journey took about three hours and I'm so glad we cycled around hte whole lake. that evening we headed back to Taipei!

Not a bad day, we woke up in the mountains, traveled to a lake, cycled around it then traveled back to Taipei!!!

Aowanda National Park

Today we visited Aowanda National Park. 

It is basically a very large forest with some nice Hiking routes that go up into the hills. There was some fantastic scenery.

There was also a very long suspension bridge to cross a valley. It was pretty windy in the middle and its not uncommon for it to be destroyed in storms.

It was so nice to be able to walk around such a beautiful place and I.m glad we made the trip.

Its been a great few days up in the mountains. Tomorrow, we leave early so we can spend the day in Sun Moon lake before travelling back to Taipei.