We Are Young and We Are Stupid: Taiwan for New Year 2012!

I've been in Korea for 14 months now and I have decided that the time for me to really get out, see the world, and see what I'm made of, is now. It was with that in mind that I decided that I wanted to travel around Asia as much as possible while I'm here. Since I only get a couple of short breaks per year, I planned out an awesome trip to Taiwan. None of my fiends here in Daejeon were able to go with me this time around as they already had their own travel plans or were staying put for New Year's, so I decided to go by myself. As the day of the trip drew nearer, one of my friends from Seoul said that he was gonna be going to Taiwan also and that we should hang out while we were there. My solo trip had just turned into treking around a foreign island nation with a buddy which I actually didn't mind a bit because, let's face it, I'm a talker. Talking to myself gets pretty boring pretty fast. I was also scheduled to meet up with my friend Jimmy who used to live in Daejeon but is now living in Taipei, so that promised to be good.

When I got to Taiwan, I contacted my friend Jose to let him know that I was there and coordinate our meeting in Kenting, which is on the southern tip of Taiwan. We had a good first day in Taiwan as we wandered around the night market and ate everything (or almost everything) in sight. The next day, I got up and had an awesome breakfast at the hotel. I was staying at the Caesar Park, which is the first 5 star hotel I've ever stayed at, so it was a good morning meal. I met Jose on the beach right around noon and we left to go rent scooters and explore the rest of the southern shore...

That's when our entire trip turned upside down.

Not long after we rented the scooters, we were driving down the main road in Kenting and I got into a pretty bad accident, although I didn't really realize it at the time. I'm not gonna go into the details of how the accident happened because it's not a story I wish to recount or remember. My official story, for the purposes of making light of the situation, goes as follows:

"I was cruising on a Harley along the southern coast of Taiwan when a mama duck waddled onto the road with her line of ducklings trailing behind. I, trying to save the baby ducks and their mommy, swerved out of the way and subsequently fell off a cliff onto jagged rocks... Fortunately I seem to be made of tough stuff and I managed to elude death."

Obviously, it's up to you if you want to believe any of that, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it! lol.

Anyway, I'm really glad that my friend was there because I have no idea what I would've done if he weren't there. He did not leave my side the entire time and was really good at keeping me calm and focused. He even went out later that night and got me a Happy Meal from McDonald's to try to make me feel better. It did. :)

There was also a really nice couple who stopped when the accident happened. They were super awesome and helped us a lot with the entire process of translating everything, as neither Jose or I speak Chinese. They even gave Jose their phone number in case we needed them for anything after they were gone. As it turns out, we did need them again later to help clear up more of the process of the damages done to property and they went out of their way to make phone calls and even drive back to where we were. As far as Good Samaritans go, they were pretty high up there on the "good" scale. I don't know if they believe in Heaven or not, but I think they have a well-deserved spot up there. Really, I can't say enough good things about them.

The whole ordeal took up the entire day, and that didn't even include hospital time because I refused to go for a couple of reasons.

A) I didn't know if I could trust Taiwanese hospitals, and

B) I really didn't feel very hurt at the moment.

It wasn't until later that night that I started to really feel the pain in my right knee, my left arm, and my ribs.

The EMTs that had attended to me earlier in the day said that nothing seemed to be broken, so I chucked it all off to soreness, bumps and bruises, and continued to be stubborn about not going to the hospital even though Jose, and later on in the trip, my friend Jimmy, kept begging me the entire time to go to the hospital. "What if something's broken?" All I could think of was, "Broken? I can't be broken! I don't have time to be broken! I'm only in Taiwan for 5 days! I've got things to do and people to see!" I kept telling them that I was fine and we should continue on our trip as if nothing had happened. Reluctantly, they obliged and we had an awesome few days in Taiwan. Taiwan was beautiful and I was glad that I didn't miss too much of it. We even got to see the countdown and fireworks show at Taipei 101! It was awesome!

That is, of course, until I got back home to Korea and I finally went to the hospital.

Total damage to my self:

- 2 fractures on my right knee

- Severely bruised ribs

- SEVERELY bruised ego.

All of this plus 6 weeks of recovery time, the outrageous medical expenses, and the cost of damages to property. Many lessons learned.

It sounds like a pretty shitty ordeal, but I have to remember something that I've heard my mom say before: "Pero lo paseada quien me lo quita?" *

=)

Special thanks go out to Samson and Nydia for being super nice and helping us out, to my friend Jimmy for showing us around Taipei, and of course to my friend Jose for helping a gimpy old lady throughout the entire trip. Muchas gracias, de todo corazon!!

*Lose translation from Spanish to English: "Who's gonna take away the trip/fun I already had?"

OH!! And thank you, too, to my friend Nadia who has been helping me out since I got back from the trip, and to her co-worker (my new friend) Alice for going with me and Nadia to the hospital here in Korea and translating everything for us.