Moutains, Markets, Museums and Motorboats...

As the final stop on our mini-vacation Alison and I took a boat from Danshuai, the once largest port in Taiwan, located North of Taipei city at the Northern tip of Taiwan, to Bali, a straight of mountainous land that divides Dashuai river from the ocean. The view here is from Bali to Danshuai (or Tamsui) and Taipei county. To the left you can see a yellow-orange line that cuts across the buildings, that's the MRT (subway). The middle mountain, that is difficult to see, is Yangmingshan mountain, where we were with Mark on Saturday.

Me in heaven. A small shop full of treasures.

The windy ride from Dansheui to Bali.

Temple in Danshui

Street snake in Dansheui.

Me enjoying my first experience with Stinky Tofu... it was ok, not so good, not so terrible. F.Y.I - Stinky Tofu is everywhere here. When it is cooking, it is among the worst smells you have ever smelled. When you smell it, you think you may vomit, and it freaks you out that something you eat, could possibly smell that bad.

The National Palace Museum

Alison and some very old calligraphy tools.

Buddha exhibition - if you can believe it.

Me and Confucius, the greatest teacher of all time, outside the Museum.

Day 2: Alison posing for a picture outside the National Palace Museum. Rumor has it that all the treasures inside were stolen from around Asia while Taiwan was under Shankai Shek's rule and it takes 15 years to do a full-rotation of all the goods. (Mark headed to Chungli to visit Jay Saturday night.)

If you look closely you will notice there is a girl sticking her head in that lantern. You wait in line stick your head up and make a wish. This one was for health and there was another for money and children.

Longshan Temple, around the corner from Snake Alley and our last stop of the day.

A very patient and steady handed calligrapher at Snake Alley.

Pickled Snake?

The entrance to 'Snake Alley', a market that boasts regular snake slaughters. We caught a couple as we were leaving. A man stands at the front of his restaurant and demonstrates how to kill a snake (hold it by the tail and crack it's head off the floor) and how to drain it's blood (hang it from a noose, slit it from mid-section to neck, pull out it's major arteries and cut them while holding a pitcher to catch the blood). You could drink the blood or eat the snake. Pictures prohibited.

Stopping for a rest at the 'flower clock'

Everyone was given a little tag that you could write a wish on and then tie to a tree. A flower festival tradition.

Posing in front of a Yangmingshan waterfall.

Not the natural-scape you would find in one of Canada's national parks but Taiwanese-style. The park had paved paths, all kinds of little man-made structures and even a few small homes.

Lookout tower

At the lookout point.

Mark looking down at Alison and I from the lookout tower.

Mark, Alison and I outside of Yangmingshan park at the flower festival last Saturday - Yangmingshan is one of Taiwan's 5 national parks and is popular because of it's azelea's and cherry blossom trees.

Mark and Alison subway riding in Taipei. We left Taichung Saturday morning for the weekend to check out some of Taipei's highlights. A fabulous weekend - thanks to my partner in language crime - Alison!

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere.

Bridget, Adam, Adrienne and I decided to take a mini-day-trip to the Botanical gardens in Taichung. This is the girls posing out front of the glass bio-dome. It was full of beautiful flowers, if your not a flower person you might aswell skip over this section of the site... This one is for you Uncle Bill!

Bean sprout flowers?

Paradise in a Bubble.

The biggest fish anyone has ever seen. I don't know what the deal was with these fish but they were in a relatively tiny tank in the gardens. They looked half-alligator, half-frankenstein. Not the pretty fish you would see at home.

Bridget, Adrianne and I - A little freaked out by the big fishies at the Botanical gardens. These are also the two girls I will be going to Malaysia with in 3 weeks...!!!

St. Patty's Day at Fisherman's Wharf

The girls and our 60 NT Carlsbergs.

Lisa giving us the shivers.

The entertainment - Adam and Michael

Things are getting festive... me clapping enthusiastically -- far left.

St. Patty's Day at Fisherman's Wharf - Picture this: 25 Westerners packed into a small bar the size of a one-car garage listening to two Newfoundlanders and an American singing every Irish classic known to man. Several locals walked in and were shocked at the reformation of their usually very low-key local brew house. Good times all round, a very memorable evening.

Long Weekend = Mini Vacation

Pubbin it - Jay and his laaaadies at one of the only places to go in Jungli - The River!

And no trip is really complete without a night out at the pub.

So.....after all our sightseeing, we were hungry. We drove around, found a place to park and started walking around to search for food. Jay kept pushing for this "Yellow Ted" place as there were signs all over the place for it. Turns out............it's a Hair Salon. Hence his somewhat embarrassed looking grin. Poor Jay - always so close.

All those huge buildings are dedicated to this guy!

View from atop Shek's place. The massiveness of this place reminded Allison of her visit to the Vatican.

The house where Shek's statue is kept. Very big.

Me in front of a dragon made entirely of recycled plastic bottles. Cool eh?

Shang Kai Shek's Memorial - This Shang Kai Shek guy is an old and famous Taiwanese president who did alot of good things for Taiwan, while also managing to do some very bad things. That's about all I know. There is this whole area dedicated to him - all of which was very nice.