Taiwan, I had no expectations and was pleasantly surprised by what we found. Jumping into a country where none of us, myself, Barbara, and our friends Kelly and Cloudy, (yes I was with three women) could speak a bit of Mandarin was a bit of a challenge but the people were helpful, friendly and pretty great all around. Right down to the lady that gave us half her food on the street because we were intrigued by what she was eating, they turned out to be little doughnut things. Whoever has her as a grandma or mom I am sure that person is very well fed. All in all I would say if given the chance to go to Taiwan jump on the plane and go, spend a week in Taipei and travel the country side a little bit, just watch out for the poisonous bee's, snakes and other little devils you might stumble across. Now on with the show
Liking the advertising right away. No question about what they are selling here
Tunnel through a mountain on our way to the National museum
Rabbits
Chaos aka the National Museum. So many people running around here it was crazy but no photo allowed past this point, so moving on
House on the hill. I love this stuff
And our favorite the Ice Cream sweater. I don't know who but someone will buy this thing, the question is why.
Another bold fashion statement from maybe the eighties
And this is the store these beautiful items were sold at. Fitting I think
Green means go, not sure where since it led into a wall but go none the less
Taiwan housing from 30 years ago, still going strong
Girls
Taipei 101 in the distance
Enjoying a cuppa. I liked this little fella, he looks so happy
Love the construction signs
OK the patchwork leaves a little to be desired. I can just hear the guys doing the repairs, "Do you think they'll notice?" "No it looks great, lets go get some noodles"
A tree, photo shop is itching for this pic
Not sure what this means, Are we eating turtle and cat and owl whatever that other thing is and we don't know it? I guess it doesn't matter as long as they are proud
Like it
Asia loves its weird mascots
Love this guy, He's sitting on his bike in the middle of a sidewalk so everyone has to move around him yelling into his phone. Awesome

Taipei 101 front door. Its really tall
Aww
More mascot crap
From the top of 101 at night
Quite cool
On top outside. Barbara not so happy to up here. Inside she's fine, out side not so much
Jade carving
There were lots so bear with me

They were stunning and really expensive
This is what I expected everything to be like. Lots of colored lights and Chinese writing. Like in the movies
Big chain link
Kelly being fabulous in the wicker pendulum chair
The W hotel, not where we stayed
Every bathroom should have an electric tennis racket in it
The flower market under a bridge. Singapore needs something like this
People and their dogs
Its a bit much if you ask me, really the thing has twice as many legs as a human and your carrying the damn thing around, or rolling it in a baby cart, jeez
Thirsty found herself a perfect sized martini glass
Very cool bonsai
Yeah they were just walking down the street with their pet monitor lizards and quite proudly stopped for a pic. I like these people
Love the criss cross sidewalks
Remember the little doughnuts I was talking about in the beginning, they were shaped like animals and Barbara loved them
More great advert's. No groping on the MRT. I like how the guys tounge is hanging out and he's WHITE
I wonder if there is an abnormal university??
On our way to the hot spring for a little rejuvenation
No idea where we are going
I get the everyone hold hands and peace and love and all that but what is that one dude holding onto, there's no hand there
rejuvenating in the healing natural spring water
with a little champagne
Never thought I would see the day that Barbara would wear pink slippers but she did and these are the ones. You'll have to take my word for it that she put them on, she refused pics, surprise
The night market from afar

The insanity up close. Madness, but fun
Again, no idea what anything really is but they say they have frogs eggs.
A whole different concept on the umbrella. I guess if it's raining and you get thirsty, you'll have some water to drink?
Uh huh
Barbara trying her luck at the games stall
And look at what she won.
Now that's a big sausage
On our way to Taroko Gorge
Headphones on for Kelly and a nap for Cloudy

Our cabins in the gorge
Beds on the floor, nice
And the hats that come with the room
Pretty swank
We ate wild Boar on the first night and we got some kind of rice wine shooter served in the clay boar glasses to start with, Of course Barbara bought some of the boars glasses, as did Kelly and Cloudy. Girls are suckers for that stuff. I just wanted what was in them screw the glasses

You drink it from the snout so your kissing the pig. Sexy huh
Boar ribs, boar skin salad, weird big ass mushrooms and green beans, yummy. (I ate all the boar skin salad for the girls, I hear it keeps you looking young)
The entertainment
After the entertainment I was headed back to the cabin and saw this fella, pretty good size stick bug. As I was trying to get the perfect angle for the shot I almost
Sat on this guy, he's about 2 feet long slithering on the railing, Yeah I almost wet myself.

Nice snakey. So I should say at this point during our time at Taroko Gourge we had yet to see any of the Beware of poisonous bees, snakes spiders etc signs.
The next morning was beautiful, a little cool which was a nice change from the smothering humidity of Singapore. We decided to make our way to breakfast and walked outside our cabin
and there was this guy hanging out
and then there was this guy and many many more along they way. The damn things are as big as your hand
We went for a hike that day and this was our first stop. It reminds me of the classic Chinese painting, just in real life. Very cool
That's my girl
A little Buddha action
And finally the first warning sign of the treacherous beings
Beautiful clean water. Reminded me a lot of BC hiking around here
More wildlife


A nest of killer bees, I am sure of it
Barbara found a friend
I think we are getting closer to getting a pooch, don't anyone tell Barbara
I love this. Dude has his IPad out taking video
His wife is getting ready for her glamor shot. Some might call it a money shot. Really though your Ipad
Next stop Swallow grotto, where apparently the swallows frolic
We were not given safety helmets
All of these people were, but not us
So Barbara and Kelly resorted to the next best thing, holding their hands above their heads to protect themselves. Now that is ingenuity
She walked around like that for two hours and I laughed the whole time. I love her
More Buddha
Steps
Pagoda up on mountain
Very cool Buddha
Suspension bridge, interesting
Very low entrance
typical. I should really read the signs
Yeah this made me comfortable
On the way to the airport after a 4 hour train ride and 20 minutes trying to find a translator for our taxi driver
Some weird food in cans at the airport
Congee in a can, Life doesn't get much better than that
If it has to be explained to you as an adult maybe you just shouldn't leave your house
Now is this saying that driving will lead to drinking ?

oh well, next stop Sri Lanka then back to beautiful BC for good. Looking forward to it but really gonna miss the amazing friends we have made here.

So long for now