A Family Affair in Asia!

What a fantastic holiday season! I can't believe that we're already into 2012 - time just keeps moving. It was the first time I haven't been home for Christmas, but it was worth it because my parents came to visit me in Taipei! We had a wonderful time, despite the travel disasters at the beginning - their flight out of Denver was delayed and THEN they got stuck in Tokyo for a night! So 40 hours after their expected arrival time, they got here. We hit the ground running because of the loss of time, and managed to fit in more sightseeing than I've done the whole time I've lived here. We visited the tea plantations, Chiang Kai Sheik Memorial Hall, the night market, the National Palace Museum, and even the Taiwanese movies :) We even managed to make the traditional Kuisle Christmas breakfast casserole in my little apartment oven. It was great!

Mom and Dad ready for their first ride on the MRT!

Successful ride up to the tea plantations and ready for our first legit Taiwanese tea ceremony.

Family pic at the Chiang Kai Sheik Memorial Hall!

Posing with the dragon :)

Of course we had to take a pic with the Japanese cut-out man at the ramen place!

So glad he survived all those delays to make it to Asia!

Fancy Christmas Eve dinner at the W hotel!

Done with dinner and ready to go home and make our breakfast casserole for xmas morning!

The day after Christmas, Dad headed home and Mom and I headed to Vietnam! I have always wanted to visit Hanoi, and I was jumping at the chance to get to go this Christmas. We head a fabulous time in the city staying at the fancy Hilton Opera (executive floor = free drinks...ballin!) and going shopping. We also made it to Ha Long Bay (one of the coolest places I've ever visited) and spent a night on a Junk - really cool! I definitely would recommend it to anyone who wants to go. The other thing we did that was amazing was a bike tour through the countryside outside of Hanoi. We had a really cute little tour guide, Hue, who took us all over the local national park and some cool old towns. It was super fun, but I'll admit that both of us were happy when the van picked us up and we didn't have to bike home! We got back to Taipei just in time to watch Taipei 101 explode with fireworks on NYE. What a great end to the crazy year of 2011!

Hoan Kiem Lake - please take notice of the excellent photo skills.

Ready for our first Hanoi museum! Pretty ghetto to tell the truth.

Yummy Vietnamese food!

We crashed the Metropole Sofitel Hotel  for some photo opps. We loved our hotel, but definitely could have stayed at this one...

First afternoon in Ha Long Bay - ready for some kayak action!

Mom paddled while I was in charge of taking pictures...I guess I'm the lazy one :)

Breezy day pic in our life jackets!

How awesome is this backdrop?!?

Indochina Sails! Our trusty ship.

Caving! Creepy and cool at the same time.

Ready for some bike action! I can't even remember the last time I wore a helmet like this.

Another picture taking victory courtesy of my new, fancy camera! 

Hue probably got tired of taking our picture.

Couldn't help capturing this shot!

Can't believe we're actually in Vietnam! Such a cool bike ride.

Visiting the Temple of Literature in Hanoi.

We got accosted on the street by a banana selling lady who suddenly put all of her props on Mom.

And managed to put them on me as well! I was not very pleased about the hat.

Trying to capture the essence of traffic in Hanoi - fancy camera style.