Southbound to Kenting

We've been experimenting with Voicethread.com so thought you'd like to see and hear a slideshow about our recent trip to Kenting, Taiwan. We had a blast at the very family-friendly Howard hotel, swam a lot, ate lunches concoted from things at the 7-11, played arcade games and generally relaxed. We managed to snap a few pictures, so click on my smiling face beside the image to start the commentary and the arrows to browse through the pictures. The kids add their own thoughts later in the show (you'll see their icons appear)--Enjoy!



During the voicethread, I mentioned our cramped return journey to the train station, but I had to quote from my friend Kim's account to her extended family:

It was a great vacation. Well, until we all decided to pile 8 of us in a Ford Escape for our 2 hour trip to the train station. Yes, our friends who had rented this very compact SUV somehow convinced us that it would save on having to hire a driver to take us back to the train station 2 hours away. I have a 6-letter word for that, STUPID. But we all climbed in, 2 men in front, and of course, since the ladies have smaller derrieres, we got to sit in the back with a kid in each lap and 2 in between. (Remember there are no seatbelt laws in Taiwan and in most cases you can't even find the seatbelts in the cars). I will never get in a back seat again unless I have checked for air vents. Cassia and I both gave it each other the “what the heck have we done” look after about 30 minutes of driving. I was already nauseous from the magnification of heat through the sunny window , 98.6 body that had fallen asleep on top of me, and lack of air circulation, when Barret announced he might get sick. We quickly had to shuffle kids around so that should he need to hurl he was closet to the window. Air quickly got turned up from the front. You can only imagine after trying to entertain kids in a sardine can for an hour and a half how well-mannered and calm they are. While we still had the “I’m a little bit nauseous” feeling going on from 2 of us, Nick woke up and decided he should be able to get up and play in the ½ inch space I had between my knees and the drivers seat. Then, Caroline started crying that she was hungry and (I noted) she was drenched with sweat, when Jacob announced quite loudly with his hands over his ears, “These people are annoying me. When can we get in a nice quiet cab??” It continued to escalate at that point only to hear from the front, “Did we miss a sign?” Shoot me now was all I could think. I am, however, happy to say it was a very minor error, and as we pulled up to the train station my hand was on the door handle awaiting the great “escape” from the nightmarish journey into the fresh, polluted, but cool air of Taiwan. What a relief, and we are all still friends.

Poor Kim! She was so traumatized that she forgot to mention that McLeod faced his own bit of trauma while driving. He ran over a pigeon in the road. But never fear. After the thump-bump under the wheels, he looked back in horror to see the bird pop up like a weeble-wobble or one of those blow-up clown boxing dummies we all had as kids. Yes, it was a fake: a rubber pigeon placed in the road by an enterprising veggie-stand man as a ploy to slow motorists. Then, he could wow them with his bins and bins of onions. With the carsick moans, kiddie bickering, complaints about the air vents and general unpleasantness in the backseat, I can see why McLeod didn't brake for the pigeon, much less the onion stand. Just get these miserable people out of this car and on the train!