Great Escape 2012

The Greatest Adventure

So, its year two of The Global Scavenger Hunt and I am no more prepared than the new comers! But with all the excitement in the world, knowing what we are in for in the coming weeks keeps me in the running. Angel is perhaps the most excited of anyone or just the most vocal about it, but is already a hit among other teams as I knew he would be. So here we go- off and running! Expectations and spirits soaring while we scavenge our way slightly blind from place to place. Is it possible to have the greatest adventure of a life time more than once?

Good Morning San Francisco!

To stretch our legs a bit Bill had us do a test run of scavenges in San Francisco. "You must do 10 scavenges from the booklet and everyone will start off even with 1 point." ONLY 10? Well i never considered myself and overachiever until that announcement came. The book of over 30 scavenges had too many interesting and intriguing activities to limit ourselves to 10 only! So Angel went through a full days training course of the best way to dissect the mind of booklet creator Bill. We ended the day in San Francisco rounding out at a total of 20 scavenges completed. World look out! We started out in China town with our mandatory eating challenge and a map/plotting session with dad and zoe. Then we found what was cooking in Ross alley- fortune cookies! (PICTURE) We ducked into the tight fortune cookie heaven and had handfuls of warm cookies shoved into our hands. "Try this try this" And yet they did not need to tell me twice. We paused just long enough to take a picture for proof later on and then devoured our treats. The best yet and in a spot i never would have thought! As the morning chugged past angel and I found our way to the other China town area scavenges. Back out on the streets of San Francisco I'm sure we must have made a handful of circles after realizing more than once the next scavenge was in an area we had just left! And yet by the time we ran back into dad and zoe a few hours later, we had completed a good number of scavenges including visiting the crookedest street in San Fran, post street riddle, our zodiacs, etc.  The highlight of the day was for sure walking the Golden Gate Bridge. It was cold, the bicyclists were a bit too reckless and cavalier for my taste, but if those are the only complaints i can come up with then we had a pretty amazing time! The size alone of the bridge was overwhelming from a far but once on the bridge, the views of Alcatraz, the never ending blue of the meeting of sky and ocean, and the city scape itself was idyllic. No offense to the bridge itself but all my open mouthed awe was transferred to the views from its obliging lookout spots. Next was tea at top of the mark with more great views, followed by some strategic rushing about to wrap up the day. Anyone a Full House fan? You will be pleased to find we made sure to include in our day what San Franciscans call the painted ladies aka the colorful houses in the background of the end of opening credits for Full House! Fun fact #1! Announcement: We are going to Taipei, Taiwan!!

Taipei, Taiwan! "No no, don't just Taiwan, tie both shoes or you will fall!"

Alas the best news of all "12 hour plane ride at one in the morning San Francisco time!" or maybe not the best of news… but spirits still high! So at 1:30 am our motley crew of exhausted world travelers boarded our China Airlines flight into Taipei. If anyone of our group was as tired as Angel and I then they too were passed out before the plane even took off. After a full 12 or so hours of a nights rest aboard the plane we left Taipei airport at about seven in the morning headed for our hotel, The Regent. Fabulous buffet style breakfast combining the best of East and West at the hotel, a quick shower and clean clothes, and it was scavenge time. Bill handed out the books and told us to be back by nine pm or else! And set us loose at about 9 am. Although it was raining out it did not slow us down. We hopped in a cab right away with dad and zoe and headed for the train station to do our chosen bonus which was to travel by high speed rail out to Hsinchu City and visit the temple, the east gate, and eat lunch wherever our cabbie wanted to take us. Check, check, and check! The lunch spot he took us to was very nice. There were two fairly shallow hot coal pits in the center of the table and we ordered the veggies and meat we wanted and then were able to cook it to our liking right there in front of us! Angel, feeling very adventurous, tore right into some pig cheek slices while zoe sipped on a drink known as cow piss? Maybe i just don't have very good taste but I stuck with some fabulous grilled veggies and a tall Taiwanese beer. Deeelish! Another hour train ride back to Taipei and we split with dad and zoe. From there we took the MRT blue line to Longshan temple to burn incense in prayer before walking across the street to have our fortune tole by birds- yes, no type-o… birds! The small white birds were right next to where we were sitting at the fortune tellers table and when she put a box of cards in front of one, it hopped out of the cage, perched on the edge of the box of cards, picked out 4 or 5 cards at random, and hopped right back into the cage. Impossible! And yet i had seen it for myself from start to finish. Forcing my attention back to the woman in front of us we listened as she told us a few things of no real relevance to us but interesting none the less. A few minutes later and we were back out on the street. We got a few pictures we needed and ended up at the Shilin night market for some stinky (literally) tofu and fried squid followed by a knife massage. All in all we came walking in the door to our hotel right at 8:30 with just enough time to fall with a huff into an open arm chair in the lobby bar to wait for our meeting with Bill. And the long days of non stop go go go have truly begun! A few words from Bill and a meeting time for the next morning of 9 am, some swapping of stories between the group, and that was it. I hit those sheets and was out! Up bright and early with another filling breakfast and we were once again out the door at 9:02 am in a cab to the train station. This time to take a not so fast 2 and a half hour train there and 3 hours back to the beautiful Taroko Gorge outside Taipei. We walked the tunnel of nine turns and had the most amazing views as far up and down as we could see. It took us all day to get there, walk the gorge, and come back but let me tell you it was worth every minute! The juxtaposition of dense forest and rocky cliff mixed with the bright blue pools of water and smooth river rocks below had us having ahh ha moments at every turn. Truly another great find by Bill thank you very much! By the time we were back in Taipei not only was it already 7:15 when we had to be back at 8:30, but we had all officially hit our wall on the long train ride home. Some Boba tea pulled us out of our groggy state for a bit though while we squeezed in a few more scavenges. Some BBQ rattlesnake (PICTURE) eaten by Angel finished up our full last day in Taipei and as we sat in our meeting with Bill waiting for our next destination, I must say we felt no regrets! We had started out well in my opinion going and going without stopping even when we felt we were just too tired to go to one more spot, we did. And because of that, we saw so many wonderful things we would not have seen otherwise. Luckily for us, we have three full weeks of this recurring feeling of pure mind blowing experiences. What a hard life I live right?? 

To Myanmar 

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