Friends

Andrew and Amy Mott are in Taiwan with us!  Here is Andrew learning to eat with chopsticks.  Let's just say we had our lunch time entertainment :)  We were having shao long bin (sp?), dumplings filled with broth.  Yum!  

(Note: Grace writing, as you'll be able to tell by the number of !!! used ;)

Here we are in the 101, the world's second largest building.  We had amazing weather, so we could see far.  Even to our apartment!

View from 101

We unsuccessfully tried renting bikes, but we did make it to the jade and flower markets.  We also went to Chiang Ki Shek memorial hall, and got to see the guards lowering the flag.  Pretty cool.  For dinner, duck!

Day 2 -- Juifen

We took a bus to Juifen, a mining town up in the mountains.  It used to be an aborigine town, but is now crowded with tourists.  The food and the view were worth the trip.  Who can spot Grace?!

Ok, I've obviously not mastered the art of rotating pictures... Just a picture for you to see how crowded it was.  I would recommend going as early as possible.   

Day 3 -- Yehlin

 Here we are at Yehlin, a park of rock formations in the north of Taiwan.  It's amazing, you feel like you are in another world!  (sorry, rotation problems again)

 A good friend's wife of the Harts, Wu Li Ling, took us here by car.  I have to admit it was so nice to not have to mess with bus and masses of people!

An army of mushrooms

A crack in the shape of Taiwan.  Amy size :)

Strangling the life out of Amy.  As per usual ;)  Can you tell I'm happy to have her around?!

We then went to an amazing seafood lunch: crab, shrimp, oyster, clams, miso soup, fish, sashimi... all freshly caught and killed.  It was delicious!

The seafood just hangs out in the tank waiting to be someone's lunch.  

Squid boats.  They go out at night and light up their boats because squid are attracted to light.  Who knew? 

 Coolest sideways picture ever.

 Wu Li Ling, our friend and guide for the day brought us to this hike afterwards.  It was beautiful  We are looking at the Pacific Ocean.

 Andrew Mott: "You can't get me"

 Pretty!

 A school and a cementry behind it.  Apparently, people like to be buried on hills for their next life.  Who knew?

In the evening we went to a night market and experienced the variety of foods and shops there.  It's fun that we've been here long enough that we can point out foods that we like and others that are best passed over... squid balls, fried squid.  As you can tell, I haven't quite gotten over my squid phobia.  

This is our last post from Taiwan as we're headed to Thailand to meet up with the Motts again.  It's been a great 3 days here, we've had an excuse to be tourists again and see things we haven't before...  with friends!  And now off to laying in the sun.... :)  Ti zien (bye)!