A flight schedule

Finally today I received a pre-booking reference in which I had to confirm that my name, a city of departure and a city of  arrival is correct and after my confirmation an e-ticket will be shortly issued. 

I will fly with two airlines: Finnair and Eva Airways which is Taiwan's airline company and it takes the 2nd place behind China airlines in a target of Asia. I will depart on 11th of August  and arrive back in Riga on 26th of August and I'm going to have 2 stopovers in Helsinki and Hong Kong. I recognized in the schedule that the flight from Helsinki to Honk Kong will take 9 hours and 45 min. so I will see how can entertain myself for almost 10 hours. :)

I know that  upcoming trip will be quite soon but I anyway I cannot wait to go to Taiwan and to gain an experience there.

At the end here you can get acquainted with the flight schedule:

Departure:

11/08 13:50 Riga airport-11/08 14:50 Helsinki Vantaa intl airport
11/08 16:40  Helsinki Vantaa intl airport-12/08 07:25 Hong Kong intl airport
12/08 11:10  Hong Kong intl airport-12/08 12:50 Taipei (Taoyuan) airport

Arrival: 
25/08 16:40 Taipei (Taoyuan) airport-25/08 18:20 Hong Kong intl airport
26/08 00:25  Hong Kong intl airport-26/08 06:05 Helsinki Vantaa intl airport
26/08 09:45  Helsinki Vantaa intl airport-26/08 10:40 Riga airport

My hostfamily in Taiwan

Yesterday I finally received an e-mail from Alice Lin who is our contact person from the Secretariat of Round table PCO. In this letter were mentioned the contacts and a place of my hostfamily. I hope to get in touch with my hostfamily before I'll arrive in Taiwan but it's good that at least I know where I'm going to stay.I found out that my hostfamily will be in Changhua county which situates in a Central western part of Taiwan and I'm happy that I'm not in a hostfamily in a north or south side of Taiwan so that I can travel around easily.In the group "SayTaiwan: People going for the Centennial Homestay" in Facebook I recognized that we've split all over the island but I hope that I could travel together with the people from the neighbour counties not only with my hostfamily.As I'm a tourism specialist and I have a deep passion for traveling and tourism then I've already checked in a map where does Changhua county locate.

Here you can see Changhua county which is highlighted with a red colour:

So I assume that Changhua county is in a good location and is it not far away from the major touristic attractions such as: Tainan city, Taichung city, Alishan national recreation area, Lugang's historical and cultural site and others.

I've already checked what is most appealing and by what is most known in Changhua city and I found out that Changhua is a home of The greatest and tallest Buddha statue in Taiwan! It is iconic 92m-tall (!!!) statue and The Great Buddha sits on a 22m-high lotus flower base on top of Baguashan, or Eight Trigram Mountain. The statue is hollow and actually it's possible to go inside to see colorful dioramas that depict the Buddha's life. Behind the statue, it's also possible to find the massive Great Buddha Temple. The third floor is a favorite spot to watch the sunset over the city.

Here you can see a picture of The Great Buddha statue:

When I saw this picture even in this moment it looks superb but I suppose when I'm going to see in a real life it will be more fascinating.

I found out as well that Changhua was largely settled by immigrants from the Chinese Provinces of Fujian and Guangdong. They brought along their unique customs and culture, providing many of the colorful historical sites found throughout the county, such as the Lugang Longshan Temple, Lugang Old Street, and Nine-Turns Lanes.So I'll have a chance to see also some of the historical, religious and cultural sites bu the Chinese ancestors.

As I'm a big lover of different kinds of the culinary specialities then I'm happy to know that Changhua has the local food specialities which you'll not find so much in the other parts of Taiwan.

So they have the local culinary delicacies such as: the Taiwanese meatballs (which you eat them hot), the Cat mouse noodles and Oyster omeletes.

Here is the picture of some Changhua's delicacies:

This is all what I got so far but surely I'm going to do a little more research what's more worth to see around the county where I'm going to stay during my trip in Taiwan.

Have a great day and stay tuned! :)

On the way to Taiwan

I chose a famous author Mark Twain's quote : "So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." as my blog's title because the upcoming trip to Taiwan confirms that this quote works in my life which encourages the people  to see the unlimited borders of discovery and fulfillment of the dreams. How did it all start that I'm going to Taiwan?

A whole story begins with the two e-mails which I received in the mid-April when I returned back from a tourism development project "Tajik tour" in Tajikistan organized by NGO AIESEC LC Dushanbe. The first e-mail was forwarded to all AIESEC LC Riga members and the second e-mail was forwarded from my project mate Mei Chi Yun a.k.a Maggie who was together with me in Tajikistan.If they wouldn't forwarded these e-mails then I don't think so that I would know about this opportunity.

And what was written in these e-mails? Let's reveal: The Council for Cultural Affairs Republic of China (Taiwan) was organizing an international competition for the young and active people aged from 18 to 40 from all over the world to apply for the event "International Youth Week-Centennial Homestay". This event's aim is to celebrate together with the selected participants- international guests Taiwan's Centennial anniversary since its establishment. All what I had to do was to fill in an application form, add the recommendation letters and other documents which showed my previous achievements and a participation in the different kinds of activities. I did it immediately and I had to wait for 1 month and half...Waiting was quite a nerve racking because I knew that a price is tremendously great- if I would be chosen as a participant then the government of Taiwan would cover all the costs to get and to be in Taiwan: travel costs, accommodation, travel insurance and participation in the mandatory events of the celebration.

Finally in the official site of  the Council for Cultural affairs of ROC (Taiwan) on 31st of  May was published a list of the selected participants. I went trough the list quickly and finally I found my name between the selected 250 participants from around 125 countries... I don't know by which criterias they choose the participants but I'm grateful to God who has given me such a great gift. I desired to go to the exotic and unknown country however I've been in 24 countries so far and right now I have this chance to widen my traveling experience. In this moment I can only guess or desire what will happen when I will be in Taiwan but I already have a great joy in my heart knowing that I will visit and experience Taiwan only after one month...

So my dear friends and visitors the next posts are going to be published soon so I will keep updating...