Blonde in the East!

Well I'm here safely! I met Melanie, Angela and Marion at 11.30am at Manchester airport and we successfully checked in! We had a flight from manchester to London Heathrow where I fell in love with a Calvin Klein handbag in Harrods but as I couldn't afford the sale price of £175 I left it where it was! Then we flew from London to Hong Kong which was a bit of a hurendous journey as couldn't get to sleep or get comfy. Slept for about an hour in total which is why I'm sooo tired now! However, the three movies I watched on the flight helped me through my time on the plane. Watched the proposal, ghosts of girlfriends pasts and ice age: return of the dinosaurs! :D We also ate tea and breakfast on the plane, and as I was wandering around the plane not being able to sleep I happened to look out of the window and saw the desert underneath me which I have to say was a pretty amazing sight! Once arriving at Hong Kong we had a very quick change onto a plane to Taipei (the capital of Taiwan) which was ok, not too much to see as it was mostly just cloud but had a nice chat with Marion all the same and a cup of apple juice. When we arrived in Taipei I was pretty excited as we were about to meet Ben and Stephen who will be our hosts for the week! They put us onto a shuttle bus down to the High Speed Rail train where we boarded the train down to Chiayi which is where we're up to now. We drove to the hotel which is absolutely stunning (pictures to follow but too tired now!) and quickly dropped our bags off before going out again for some tea. When arriving at the restaurant we were asked to pick a type of meat and me not being so brave yet went for chicken! the waitresses later returned with firstly a bowl of salad, and then a tray with a burner with chicken in abowl on top and everything else you could possibly imagine, ranging from clams to unusual vegetables! Next to this was some rice, chives with chicken and egg, chinese leaf with spring onions and another dish which I can't describe! I was so full so was relieved to see just a small pot of tea brought out but then another glass of cold tea this time, rose flavoured. then to my disbelief they followed it with a COFFEE JELLY and fruit!!!! I was so stuffed by the time I left the restaurant, all I want to do is go to sleep! Also, whilst on the HSR we had a bruilliant conversation with Ben about him escaping from Taiwan as an adolescent after running away from the Government who were after him for having stuck up and published an article about the way they were treating the samll tribes! We also discussed about the typhoons and disaster areas in Taiwan that we will be visiting later this week but will explain about that latwer this week! So, so far so good, absolutly loving it, everything is very bizarre though, timers on the traffic lights, moped only lanes, driving on the right hand side but is still brill! Am very tired now, been up for 35 hours with only 1 broken hours sleep and its 10.30pm here so good night everyone! Speak tomorrow! x