Chinese New Year

Unlike last year when we were new to Taiwan, during the CNY holidays we took the opportunity to see the whole of Taiwan so we drove around each day.

This year having just come back after a hectic 3 weeks trip back to India I was in no mood to travel anywhere...so we decided we will stay at home .

I wanted to take the opportunity to catch up lot of homeschooling worksheets I work with Tanya and also get Riona to do more work in a more disciplined way.

So I set out with an elaborate time table and we as a family worked at home - essentially worked with our kids on their maths and English.

Even Sedj took extra care to be with Riona and get her to do a lot of things to.Riona now can write all days of the week,number names till hundred so we were really happy.

Tanya worked through over 300 pages in her worksheets .Believe me thats a lot for an eight year old....

So all in all we had a quiet hard working time at home and best of all I realised we actually can be at home a week as a family without any complaints...

Years from now I am sure one day I will wonder what did we do with a week of holidays
so this post will bring back the good old memories.

Chinese New Year - Day 3

We were warned not to travel on Day 3 as the son in laws would be visiting their wife's families...
fearing which we did not travel out....
The only outing we had was to Mister Donut for donuts for snack during the adventure journey tomorrow

Chinese New Year - Day 2

Window on China!

www.woc.com.tw

We had heard so much about Window on China and we knew very little. We left home about 9 AM all equipped for a full day of fun and adventure...After initial hiccups of getting into the wrong express way we were heading straight down to our destination...We finally arrived at 11:30 AM.....Its about an hour really from Taipei City!

Its a theme park with a lot of unique attractions!

You are lucky if you can get an English Brochure which I did finally when we were on our way out....else you keep wondering did you really cover most of the attractions or not?

The usual entrance fee is about NT620 but this weekend was about NT 399.To out amazement the place was really crowded and we were wondering was it reaaly the right time to visit such a place....Anyways we bought the tickets and were welcomed by a lion dance performance ...as we strolled along we began to see more and more interesting things...

There was a Mini Taiwan and Mini China display ...Displays were in great details and was really impressive!

Then there was Mini Asia followed by Mini Europe and AMerica....While very little kids may not enjoy the true inspiration and perfection of these little miniatures ...older children and adults will marvel at the perfection and details chalked out on every model displayed.

Then there is a train that connects to the amusement park...once you are inside after the entry ticket ,ticket holders have free access to all facilities except the coin operated facilities....

At the amusement park side you are greeted by Nile Adventure which gives you a thrill ride of taking you upto 10 storey high towards th water....and then gives you the experience of massive 6 storey high waves...

There are several other rides for both adults and most can be used by any child above 3 years....

There are restaurant options with local food. We saw two other shows one of belly dancing and one of the clowns'amusing antics

Its a good family outing destination and one can easily spend 5 to 6 hrs.

Chinese New Year - Day 1

A usual Saturday morning, really didnt feel that we have a long week of unplanned holidays ahead!

We made brownies and the girls enjoyed decorating it!

By afternoon it dawned on me that we must do something otherwise these holidays will just slip by with the usual daily chores,so we decided to see the National Palace Museum which was across our house. We arrived at 3:45PM only to be told that they are closing at 4 PM as it is the eve of Chinese New Year! We then went to Costco to do our weekly groceries as they were closing at 6 PM that day.This is the view of our apartment building in Taipei from the grounds of National Palace Museum.