The Rowlands

1 child + 2 graduate degrees + 3 countries + 4 apartments (not counting the two hotels we lived in) = 5 busy, stressful, rewarding, exhausting, fulfilling, exciting, crazy, and wonderful years of marriage


To celebrate we opted to go to The Top, a Chinese restaurant on Yangmingshan mountain. We had never been there, so naturally I kept asking Cody what I should where. He told me he was going to wear what he wore to work--meaning slacks, dress shirt, and tie. I figured it would be a little bit dressier, but that didn't help much; a whole range of women's clothing could be worn to match his formality.

When he called to tell me he was on his way, I asked again: "What should I wear??" Again, the typical male response: "I don't know." Okay. "Should I wear that dress from Casey's wedding?" It is fairly dressy (to see it, scroll down to the pic on the sidebar of the blog), so I thought I'd throw it out there to see how formal we were talking. I expected to hear a "no, that is too fancy." But instead, Cody immediately replied with a "yes, wear that one." Surprised, yet convinced by his quick approval, I said okay and put it on. When he got home and came into the bathroom where I was getting ready, all he said was "whoa!" I thought it was in reaction to the toilet paper all over the floor. I had allowed Jadyn to play with it to distract her, so she would let me get ready. :) But no, Cody was talking about the dress; he hadn't even noticed the TP everywhere. "You might be too dressed up." Me: "What?? You told me to wear this one!!!" "I did?" I reiterated the conversation to him. Cody: "Oh, I thought you said 'the dress from JC Penney' not 'the dress from Casey's wedding!'" Me: "What dress from JC Penney???" Cody: "I dunno." Me: "Then why didn't you say anything?" Cody: "I dunno."

I quickly changed into one of the back-up outfits I had strewn on the bed and we headed out the door.


Cody had made reservations, so when we arrived we were immediately escorted to our table--or rather, our tent. We thought it was pretty sweet to have our own comfortable room to ourselves. Then we found out we had to spend a minimum of NT$3,000 (just under US$100) to use it.

Apparently, The Top only takes reservations for indoor seating, which are all in canopies meant for groups. Thus the NT$3,000 minimum. I asked Cody, "Didn't they say something about it on the phone?" Cody: "I thought they said NT$300, so I figured it wasn't a big deal." (Like I mentioned before, enough Chinese to get himself into trouble.) We weighed our option of moving tables, but we would have to get in line for another one. We decided to stay put and enjoy an expensive anniversary dinner.

After some explanation (in Chinese), Cody found out we had to order enough food to spend at least NT$3,000. So we did. We had mango and vanilla smoothies, sweet and sour shrimp, crab (a first for me), cheesecake, and more. It was all sooo delicious! Then we even had enough left to spend to take dinner home for the next night. I told Cody that was a great anniversary gift: to not have to cook for two nights. The Top was incredible; I loved it so much! The atmosphere was so hip and trendy, with an awesome view. We had such a fun night out celebrating our five years, even with our little communication blunders.

Our first full day in Kenting, before the typhoon hit, was a great day. We started out by taking a tour of the rock formations just past Sail Rock.

When we finished the tour, it was lunch time. Lucky for us there was a little restaurant right across the road from where we parked.


After a little debate, we decided to be brave and check it out. We knew it would mostly be sea food, but we figured we could always fall back on fried rice. After reading the menu hanging on a poster from the ceiling and speaking with the hostess, Cody had the great idea of ordering an NT$100 lobster--that is approximately US$3. The rest of us were pretty easy to convince at such a reasonable price for a lobster! Paul and Cody proceeded to select their lovely lobster.

After pointing out their prey, the hostess took the lobster to the scale. Immediately we realized we were in trouble. The price was NT$100 per ...whatever unit of measurement they use. Our lobster lunch quickly went from US$3 to US$35. Probably the most expensive lunch we had while in Kenting... and we were eating in a carport!!! Cody and Paul like to say they know enough Chinese to get themselves into trouble. We all had a good laugh at Cody's expense, including Cody.

I guess it was a good thing the lobster was delicious. And so was the fried rice. Jadyn also liked watching all the "beautiful" sea creatures.

We spent the rest of the day body surfing; in case you are wondering, the eve of a storm brings perfect waves for it!

In the few days before typhoon Morakot hit, we enjoyed the scenery in Alishan. We started our trek by riding the Alishan Forest Railway. This old, historic (operations began in 1912) train takes almost four hours to make a journey of just over 53 miles. The train climbs from 98 feet to 7,460 feet, while passing through over 40 tunnels and bridges, and moving through three distinct climatic zones. Hopefully, you can get a feel of how rickety (and loud) the narrow, old train was by watching this video. The shaking is not the cameraman's doing.



The best part was when I couldn't "hold it" any more and I had to use the TINY bathroom (at least it wasn't a squatter). Let's just say it was disgusting and difficult (as the train was rocking so much and conveniently went through several DARK tunnels while I was in there). NEVER do I want to do that again (the day we rode back I didn't drink anything all morning so I wouldn't have to).

The next best part was when the train stopped and we had to take a small hike to the next train, because apparently it can't make it through that one spot.

The whole reason we made the trek up to Alishan was to watch the sunrise over the mountains and "sea of clouds." We woke around 3:45 a.m. to catch the train to the scenic overlook. Pictures on the left, top to bottom: our tired little family waiting for the train; the mass of people passing the "5:36 a.m. sunrise" sign to stake out a viewing spot; watching the sun come up; "sea of clouds." Pictures on the right, top to bottom: the sunrise over the mountain and "sea of clouds"; "sea of clouds" and all the spectators; family pic with the risen sun; one more pic before we hike back down to the hotel and our hard Chinese beds.

After a long nap, we did some more hiking to view the thousand to two thousand year-old trees and other amazing landscape (see pics here). Then it was one more night on the hardest bed ever (we're pretty certain we were actually sleeping on a box spring, not a mattress), and then we headed back down the mountain on the train.

We had to take a couple more pictures to document our little "in between trains" hike and our arrival back at the train station.


Come to find out, we were incredibly blessed once again. My father-in-law found this article about the damage Alishan sustained from the typhoon. If we would have been a few days later, we could have been stuck up there for awhile, or would not have been able to see the breathtaking sunrise at all. You can read it here: http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1032640&lang=eng_news&cate_img=49.jpg&cate_rss=news_Society.

Last night at dinner Jade had a lot to talk about. After she went on for about five to ten minutes, I finally decided it was too cute not to record. She kept on talking for about three more minutes. Then she had a lot more to say when Daddy got home! I just love her little stories so much, I had to share!

Those of you who know me well know that I have very minimal to no musical talent whatsoever (unless, of course, you count my mad dancing skills... and my Jingle, Jingle, Jingle routine). While we were touring the Lin Family Mansion with Cody's parents the day after they arrived, I had the privilege of showing off some of that [non-existent] talent. We arrived just in time to see some of this:



We were about to go tour the rest of the mansion when some Chinese lady approached Christy and me. She told us we could go up there and play the drums. I think I probably replied with an, "oh, really?" Partly being polite, but partly thinking she was just some crazy Chinese lady. Then, before I could do anything else, she grabbed my arm and dragged me to one of the drums. Mind you Cody and Paul had already started to leave. Apparently it didn't take them long to discover the magic that was happening, because they caught this:



Please notice in the first part, I am the only person drumming besides the demonstrator. That is because I still don't understand Chinese. I was just looking around trying to figure out when I was supposed to start. Notice in the third part, I am the only person going crazy on the drums. That is because the children drummers' instructor was standing off to the side motioning to me to drum really fast (you can kind of see her for a split second in the lower left corner of the screen). It was actually pretty funny. She was giving me a great, big, encouraging smile and was really serious about her drumming gestures, like she really wanted me to succeed at this (it made me feel like I was seven). That is when I noticed I was the only non-child up there; well, other than the crazy Chinese lady that pulled me up there in the first place. I may or may not have been the first one to leave my drum. I didn't know what they were saying, so I just tried to exit when I thought I was supposed to. They gave me (and everyone else) a pack of postcards for my excellent drumming. (Maybe if you leave a comment and e-mail me your address, I will send you one.) And yes, I was grinning from ear to ear after my performance. It was so much fun! The rest of the Lin Family Mansion was pretty sweet too.

While Cody's parents (Paul and Christy) were visiting, we decided to spend some time on Taiwan's southern tip in Kenting National Park. Kenting straddles Taiwan's southern tip, bordered by ocean on three sides. According to The Rough Guide to Taiwan, it has a warm tropical climate, magnificent white-sand beaches, and a complex network of low-lying mountains, grassy meadows, steep cliffs, sand dunes, and elaborate coral formations. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? We didn't get to see much of that.

We arrived late Wednesday night, it was really windy on Thursday, then Thursday night it started to rain, and got worse from there. A typhoon was predicted to hit Taipei on Friday night. We thought what a better place to be, than as far from it as possible without leaving the island? This was our view out the hotel window before the typhoon stormed through:
Thursday night it was hard to sleep because of the howling wind and crashing rain on the balcony window (or more so the glass wall, as it made up the entire west side of the room). The storm was so large, it engulfed all of Taiwan, not just Taipei. In fact, Southern Taiwan was pounded much, much harder than Taipei. The image to the left is a satellite picture of the storm as it hit Taiwan. I circled Taiwan in red, so it would be easier to see (the country's borders are in yellow).














Friday the wind and rain was so bad, we were stuck in our hotel all day. It was extremely loud in our rooms. The storm measured about 1,600 kilometers (about 1,000 miles) across, with winds clocked at 118 kilometers per hour (73 mph) in its eye. This was the view from our hotel on Friday:
We weighed our options: wait out the storm or try to get home. Our experiences with typhoons in Hong Kong were they would blow through in about a day. We opted to wait out the storm. We soon found we actually didn't have a choice, as the trains back up to Taipei were all suspended. Predictions kept changing when the eye of the storm was to hit: Friday night, Saturday morning... the storm was being elusive. Even so, word was the trains would be running again by noon on Saturday. So, we waited. We were in a small hotel without a restaurant, so Paul and Cody ran down the street in the storm to the 7-Eleven for food and water. Waiting out the storm was a little scary, but mostly disappointing (as it was ruining our long-awaited vacation) and slightly boring. We basically sat there all day, observing the waves crash up over the beach, watching the glass wall bend and bow, and feeling the wind shake the entire building (which was practically constructed entirely of concrete).


This is how it was all Friday. The glass wall facing the ocean was bowing and shaking from the force of the wind. Rain water was leaking in from all sides of the glass. The balcony was flooded with water. The tarps across the street were ripped to shreds. The power went out on the second floor (where our room was). We hoped for the best as we went to bed Friday night as the storm was not letting up yet (the image to the left is Friday night at 11:30 p.m.; as you can guess, our hotel was dead center of the dark red spot looming over the southern tip of Taiwan).

The plan was to get up to Kaohsiung to catch a train as soon as possible on Saturday. I figured if I could just get to sleep, I would wake up to the storm lifted, and we would be on our way. It was hard to sleep again that night though, especially since Cody couldn't relax. He seemed to be pacing the room and the halls, keeping vigil over the storm and his family. Every time I'd fall asleep he would come back in the room or get up to peer out at the gusts of rain. He obviously couldn't sleep. He was making me nervous. As I drifted in and out of sleep, more was happening outside our room.

The hotel owner called my in-laws' room on the third floor (we were right below them, on the second floor). He was worried about the safety of their room, and told them to move down to an inner room on the second floor, which had one small window instead of an ocean view. After his parents were moved and settled, Cody finally decided to lay down. I fell back asleep. Not much later, Christy came bursting into our room in a panic. It was about 1 a.m. "C'mon, get in our room. Bring your pillows and blankets. We can sleep crosswise." The storm had grown louder, and seemingly more violent; our building was shaking a lot more now and the excessive bowing of the windows was really starting to worry us. We moved into their small substitute-room. After getting Jadyn settled back down in her bed, we all finally fell asleep: Cody on the floor in the small space between the wall and the bed; Christy at the head of the bed with her feet up on the nightstand; Paul at a 90 degree angle from her head with his feet hanging over the bed's edge; and me next to Paul with my feet up on a chair pushed up next to the bed. By midnight Friday it had rained about 300 mm in Kenting (see image to the right); that is almost 12 inches in ONE DAY!!

When we woke Saturday morning, not much had changed. The wind was still blowing and it was still raining. It seemed to lighten a little, then heighten again. We looked up the train schedule; trains appeared to be running. We needed to get home that day; the Rowland's flight was leaving first thing Sunday morning. We hurried to get ready (in cold showers, as the hot water had been out since Friday morning, and with minimal electricity, as some lights and outlets were working and some weren't). After getting packed up, we dragged all our luggage down to the hotel lobby. The owner informed us the roads to Kaohsiung were closed. There was no way out of Kenting. Other hotel guests had tried to call taxis, but none could get through--the roads were all flooded or destroyed. Then the owner told us we wouldn't be able to stay in our rooms again that night; they weren't safe because of the glass walls off the balcony.

We decided to head up the road to a larger hotel and resort, where we could bunker down in the middle of a large, low-lying complex, with access to A/C, internet, hot showers, and food. Paul backed the rental mini van right up to our hotel entrance. In the two seconds I ran from the hotel door into the car, I was drenched as if I had taken a shower with my clothes on. You can see by the image to the right how much rain Taiwan received. We were on the very southern tip. This chart is just for Saturday; Kenting had 400 mm + of rain (that is almost 28 inches of rain in just two days)!!

We managed to pass the time at the larger hotel, keeping Jadyn entertained by letting her run up and down the halls. We got more rest that night; we felt safer; we couldn't hear the storm just outside our window as we had before.

After getting some breakfast Sunday morning, we checked the status of the roads and trains. They were open and running! AND it had stopped raining! Let's go!!! We didn't even pause for a shower. We threw everything into our suitcases, loaded them in the car, and we were on our way. It was just after 10 a.m. On our way to Kaohsiung, we saw a lot of flooding and wreckage.

We actually had several unexpected road closures and required detours. Problem with that was, we didn't know where to go without following the directions we were given. Luckily, a few cars in front and behind us seemed to be headed our same direction, so we followed them (in faith they really were headed to the train station). They lead us down a narrow road through some rice fields. We started getting a little nervous until they stopped to ask some locals for directions. There were still two or three cars behind us, waiting to follow too. After several detours, we made it to Kaohsiung around 2 p.m. (it should have only taken an hour and a half).

As we were waiting for the rental car to get checked, Cody ran across the street to the high speed rail station. A few minutes later he called my cell. No trains are running from Kaohsiung today--both the high speed and the normal train were shut down due to storm damage. Immediately we turned around to the car rental guy to see what he could do for us. Nothing. Neither could the rental place next door to him. We hopped in a couple taxis to the bus station. They took us to the "close" one. That bus company had no available seats. After waiting for another taxi, we back-tracked to the main bus station area. By now it was well after 3 p.m. Cody hurried to check out several other bus companies. Each of them were completely sold out that day and the earliest buses with seats available going out the next day were 3:00 p.m. Consequently, they were only giving out numbers to wait in line to have a slight chance of buying a standby ticket. We were #350. The last bus company we tried was selling actual standby tickets, again by number. We were #152; they were on #30. By that time we were still unsure if we would even make it home that night. It was an absolute madhouse and we were definitely not in the mood for it. After an uncomfortable few hours of waiting, wondering, and listening to people yell and scream at each other (and become borderline violent), we were finally able to get on a bus that had been called down from Taipei to handle the copious amount of standby passengers. We pulled out of the station just after 6 p.m.

On our way we saw an incredible amount of flooding and damage. It was dark, so we weren't able to take pictures, but it looked something like these ones I copied from msn.com. There were rivers far wider than they should be, water encircling houses, flooded fields and crops, cars parked all the way down freeway exit ramps--up to where the water starts/ends, and right lanes of the freeway covered in water (as we passed on the left). The bus driver booked it to Taipei, and we made it to the bus stop at about 10:30 p.m. (the high speed rail would have taken an hour and a half). After a short taxi ride to our apartment, we were FINALLY home--around 11 p.m. What a long three days it had been!

Once we were back to our apartment, my in-laws purchased new plane tickets for Monday around noon. They landed safely back in Utah Tuesday morning, Taiwan time (Monday night, Utah time). Hopefully they will finally get a good night's sleep.

As I think back to our experience, read news articles about the typhoon, and view pictures and videos online, I can only be grateful for how smooth everything went for us. As I was viewing this slideshow, I felt tears welling in my eyes. We were so lucky to not be trapped with no food or water, or worse. We are lucky to not be among those that are still trapped. I know Heavenly Father was watching out for us, guiding us home and providing a way for us to get on a bus. He certainly answered our prayers.





To read more about typhoon Morakot, follow the links below:
NASA
NASA II
CNN
MSN