Traveling down to Hualien, we were lucky enough to meet with Robin's friend Sandra, who works for the park, and get a personal tour around Taroko National Park.  I had been dreading trying to negotiate a taxi to take us, as using the bus shuttle the park has would not allow us to see all of the park in a day.  Sandra met us at the train station and had arranged for a taxi driver to take us around.  The scenery is like a Chinese painting.  Because of falling rocks, the road is often pockmarked and Sandra says that in the past month, a few people have been killed.  On some of the hikes, you walk above the river in the gorge, under the cliff overhang.   It was refreshing to get out and hike.  Sandra knew all the spots to take us and gave us geology and botany lessons.  It was great fun.  At the end of the day, we were tired and hungry (surprise, surprise, Myles most of all).  Sandra took us out for a traditional Taiwanese dinner at a tea house.  Myles said it was the best meal he had! ~K

The gorge was interesting. Allthough it was foggy, Zoë should have got some good pictures but it rained some of the time. In the end, Zoë got some good pictures. Thanks to Sandra, we got a huge tour around the park. She showed us plants, told us plants name and talked about animals. Then, after we were tired and hungry, Sandra took us out to dinner. I got pork spare ribs which were swimming in a very sweet and tasty sauce. Becuase the sauce was so good, I also ate a whole bowl of rice plus half of mom's. I even got boba tea which was also very sweet.  I think it was a good trip. ~MH.




Hualien was interesting. The Taroko Gorgewas pretty.  Hopefully, I got some good pictures (I haven't looked yet). Sandra was a wonderful guide.  She pointed out R.O.I , P.O.I  and B.O.I ( that means rocks of interest, plants of interest and birds of interest). She even let us into some VIP areas. Sandra works for the park.  She has an office job but occasionally took trips out into the park. She took us through Swallow Gorge which is famous for its massive groups of swallows and falling rocks.  We were required to wear helmets.  The swallows were a little out of season. I saw one! After a day at Taroko Gorge Sandra took us to a tea house. Myles ate more than he's willing to admit. After that she dropped us off at our hotel. From our hotel we walked to a night market. The night market wasn't like the ones we've been to. It was all grouped together. It wasn't as much fun as when you had to go looking for shops in the alleys. The next day we found a day market to go to and walked to the beach before catching a train home.

Me,
Out!

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Taroko Gorge National Park, Hualien, Taiwan

Kim and Sandra hiking Liushui trail

Swallow grotto after a rain, so waters are muddy.

Shankadang trail

Cliffs of Haulien

Taipei 101, Fort San Domingo and Fort Hobe.....pictures for previous posts.

Taipei 101

Fort San Domingo, Danshui, Taipei

Dutch influence at Fort San Dominto

Short doors at Hobe Fort

Fort Hobe, Danshui

God of Education, Tainan, Taiwan

Tainan

Adventuring outside of Taipei, we took the High Speed Railway down to Tainan.  Accidentally missing the tourist booth at the station that had maps, bus schedules etc. we found it rather difficult negotiating the city.  Tainan is about a 20 min free shuttle bus ride from the station.  However, we were uncertain as to where the shuttle bus stops were, so had to keep oriented all the time so we knew how to get back to the station.  After walking for a few miles trying to find the City tour bus, we managed to find it.  However the guide books said it was free on weekends....NOT!  Our first ride was free because we didn't figure it out....and we haven't had much luck finding people who do speak English here.  Regardless, we managed to have one of the best zhongzi for lunch, find one of the two forts, find the old city and walk around, eat ice cream (it was about 70 degrees down there) find the HSRT shuttle bus stop and make it back to the rail station.  Success!?
K

It was the our first time out of Taipei and it was on the high speed rail ! You know that I said that they strap rockets on the back of the metro? Those aren't  rockets they're fireworks in comparison! Eventually  we got to our destination and we caught the shuttle bus. What ensued was chaos. First we got off at a stop and tried to find a temple we passed.Then we decided to walk to the city hall, with moved farther away as we walked.  Then we tried to find a specific bus that apparently didn't stop at the city hall so we had o walk all the way back to the bus stop we were first at then we got on a bus that stopped at a fort but apparently we were going the wrong direction so we got off the bus and visited the fort. We caught the bus in the  other direction. We got off at the old part of the city, found an Oyster kiln (where they made a type of lime, just like in Williamsburg!) and went to a tourist market then caught the right shuttle to the station.  What did I learn? One, that the buses aren't free on Sunday like they advertise and two, each bus driver has a different fee.

Me,
Out!


The buses in Tainan are confusing because there was no english so we were confused (everything was written in traditional Chinese characters....not even any pinyin).  There were many stops but we didn't know which one was which. So, mom thought that mabye we could find the bus by walking down the road which took us to the city hall. We realised that we the bus that would take us back to the high speed rail stopped just outside of the city hall. But since we didn't see the right stop for the city tour bus, we walked all the way back. We finally got onto a bus which we hoped would take us somewere mom wanted to go. It did. It took us to a fort that mom wanted to see. So that was a plus. We also went to a market where we ate ice cream filled corn shaped case. After we finished eating the ice cream filled corn thing, we got onto the bus and headed for the HSRT shuttle bus stop at city hall, then to the HSR, and then home!

Taiwan Science and technology education center!

Science transcends language.  Even though much of the museum had signs only in Chinese, Myles and Zoe found all the interactive exhibits.  They had a lot of fun.
K

The Science Educaton Center was fun. It had pretty much every thing from math, science, chemistry, animals and plants, about the body, about DNA, and a special exhibit about bugs... dont ask. It was quite fun. There was lots of interactive exhibits like mom said. It also had a cool periodic table in the chemistry section. It also had a special exhibit about the frrozen mammoth but we didn't go in there becuase you had to pay to get in. but we had seen something about it on NOVA. I thought it was worth it!
M

Okay....lets see...they had a really long name and a whole bunch of interactive exhibits (yay!)! How would you show that a little piston can push an big piston easier that big one can push a little one? Would you make two life sized pistons one that fit 1 person and one that fit four people to show this fact? No I didn't so! Would you make a periodical table with all the elements in it? No? Really?  They came up with a bunch of really cool ideas to show facts! It was kinda like a more interactive Taiwan version of OMSI! Awesome

Me,
Out!

National Palace museum

Choosing to to the National Palace museum on a Friday, we thought we would miss the crowds. NOT!  OMG!  We didn't realize how bad it was until we got to the third floor.  There was a queue up two LoNg flights of stairs with about 10 people wide and the exhibits were packed like sardines. (Those who know....personal space is not in the vocabulary of many who live here...and especially those of the tourist variety from the mainland....no slight intended....just observation)  We decided not to wait.  The kids felt that they had absorbed enough.  There was an amazing amount of artifacts to see....ceramics, calligraphy, bronzes, jade......no pictures were allowed...sorry!
K

Sorry did my MOM just say OMG? Okay now about the national palace museum not to be confused with with the palace museum (that's the one in mainland china). What did they have? Well they had: pottery, ceramics, paintings, writings, the coolest exhibit I the history of art museums and a cabbage. Yes a cabbage they were obsessed with it. In the gifts shop cabbage here cabbage there cabbage everywhere!  Now about the coolest exhibit they had! So a group of programers looked at old paintings and made a bunch of programs. One of my favorite  was of an emperor and they made mis seam goofy and approachable. He did things like pose and make goofy faces like he was taking pictures of himself. There were other cool animations where they had taken paintings and animated ther ocupaints. It was so cool!
Me,
Out! (By the way whenever it says me it means Zoe)

The National Palace museum was big! There was pottery of different colors and shape. There was a specia exhibit with some famous potery. One of the famous potery was a cabage! After the museum, we went to the night market but it was at 5 and it was 4. There was lots of food. Zoe saw something that I will not say what it was. Our first nightmarket was fun.
M

 333e 

After we had a nice dinner with Helen's cousins (Frank, Alice and Pauline), we were convinced to brave taking a bus to Jiufen outside of Taipei city.  Jiufe is a city that once experienced a gold mining explosion....the biggest gold mine in Asia.  Situated on a steep hillside,  the town has a crowded market where everything seems to be sold.  Under my "encouragement", we climbed to the top of Mt Keelung which overlooks the sea.

This was the conversation about going up the mountain
Z: Let's not go too far and if we do go to the first temple mom will want to go to the next one and the next one!
K: I will not. Now stop complaining and come on!

At the first temple
Z: And here it comes..
K: Let's go to the next one it's not too far?
Z:  ( talking to Myles) told you so! :( my knees were very upset that they had to keep going!

Me,
Out!

There were lots of food, toys and clothes at the market. We saw lots of food. We got a sweet potato filled croissant, a very sweet Chinese sausage on a stick, an ice-cream filled burrito (which had peanut grounded peanut brittle, cilantro and, you guessed it, ice-cream), and green Mochi balls filled with sweet red beans (which is all gone now).  Yumm!p

We went all the way to the end of the red line. We were attempting to get to Fort San Domingo but on the way there, we ran into a market. Mom made us walk inside to see what there was. After finally leaving the market, We got to Fort San Domingo. it was cool though it looked more like a fancy house than a fort. Next we headed to Fort Hobe. It looked more like a fort to me but it had small doors. Finally, we headed back to the metro but by then it was lunch time. So on the way back, we walked back through the market and came out with food and other stuff. When we reached the metro, mom saw another market and made us walk around. Finally, we got into the metro and headed back.
MH
Hello people! Well first we were going to fort San Domingo but we saw a market and when to through it. We thought this was the tourist market. The market was what I call a day market where there are a bunch of little stalls and lots of people. One lady behind me was really short compared to me ( if you were her and you are reading this no offense). She decided she needed a shield to get through all the people so she braced her arm horizontal on my back and tried to push me through in front of her.  Eventually she decided it was too much work and just walked around me. All in all it didn't seem like there were any tourist there. After that we finally found fort san Domingo which on the inside looked like George Washington's house. Then we walked up another hill to Hobe fort that looked like Fort Monroe! After that we walked back to the metro station but mom said it was too early to leave. So we walked around the metro station and this is what we found: a guy dressed up with makeup to make him look like a burning statue. He also played the kazoo and the entrance to the real tourist market (oops....) well the real tourist market had cooked food like pancakes filled with either custard or red beans. After all that we jumped on the metro and went home.
Me,
Out!
Fort San Domingo was first Spanish, then Dutch, then Chinese, then Japanese, then British-was the British consulate, then Austrailian, then US, and finally Taiwanese.

We decided to brave the weekend crowds and take the Maokong gondola up to the top.  It goes over the forest canopy and deposits you at the top among small tea farms. It's supposed to start raining next week so we thought we'd try to do a bunch of outdoors stuff this week.  I gess it is the 40th anniversary of Hello Kitty.  The gondolas were all decked out in Hello Kitty stuff, there were vendors everywhere selling anything Hello Kitty, and every single Taiwanese child was there soaking up the Hello Kitty ambiance....needless to say Zoe ran in the opposite direction!  We took the gondola up but decided to walk away from all the crowds.  There is a hiking trail that you can take from the top down through the forest, through the tea farms terraced into the hills,  and through bamboo stands.  The trail is paved and has steps upon steps traversing the steep hillsides.  The kids moaned and groaned as there was a lot of steep up and down.  The topo maps were hugely inaccurate and we got lost a few times, but made it down to Zhinan Temple, which is the second to the last stop on the gondola.

  -K

Save me Hello kitty is invading the earth! They're going to convert us all! Ahhhhhhh!I know I'll take the gondola to escape them but it's too late they're already there! They're every where! There were none at the last stop or throughout the forest thank goodness. Walk up a steep stupid hill to get to the station. I take the gondola back to the beginning where the hello Kitty fair has grown! I run to the subway to escape them and guess what! The signs in the subway are advertising hello Kitty! You can't escape them!

Me,
Out!


After we passed the hello kitty thing, we took the gondola all the way to the top. We got a map and left but the map was confusing. We decited to follow the map to a temple but it took us in a complete circle. After finally finding the path we wanted to take, we headed to the potholes. Mom and Zoe decited to get a closer look at the potholes. We then decided to find the temple but there were 2 paths that we could take. We took one which took us to a road but then we didn't know which way to go. Taking one of the roads, we found a sign that pointed the way to the gondola where the temple was. Supposedly, to get to the gondola you had you first climb above the gondula then go down the hill. We walked around the temple and then finally got on the gondula to go back down but by then it was 3:00ish. By the time we had lunch, we weren't hungry for dinner.

 -MH

Maokong gondola at 40th anniversary for Hello Kitty

Maokong gondola

Taiwan

Sorry about the late posting....however, we have been having technical difficulties uploading our pictures.  At this point we will post to our blog, but there will be a delay with the photos as we will try to send them vial email to Dad at home and see if he can add them to our post.....so if you'd like to see photos, there will be a delay....

Arriving late last We'd night in Taiwan after losing an entire day in transit, we started our 3 week adventure exploring the culture and practicing our Mandarin.  Thanks to Helen's most excellent directions, we managed to go through immigrations and customs and get to the city in about 45 minutes.  Still, we arrived at 11:30 pm. It was so nice to be met at the bus stop by Helen's cousins and walked to the apartment so we wouldn't be trying the wrong door.  We did have to use our Chinese to ask how to get places.  Well....sort of.  We didn't use complete sentences but we were understood!  We are quite jet lagged today but had fun figuring out currency, buying our you you ka (metro card), shopping for groceries and getting lunch.

hi this is Zoe! here are some new facts about Taiwan. First all animated shows are in japanese.I mean come on! One of the upsides to this is I can't always tell when it's in japanese or chinese or Japanese. Second If I try ordering street food and piont at what I want and say "yi ge" they imediatly understand I'm just a idot tourist not fluent in chinese and star talking english. Third I have decided that heaven is made from bao/dumplings. Fourth rush hour is around 4 or 5. fivth the Taiwanese think 70 is cold (I mean they're walking around in down coats). Sixth the Tiawanese love motorcycles (like with a capitol L, O, V, and E). Seventh there metro trains are so fast I personaly think that they strap rocket onto the back. Eighth the metro trains are compleatly automated. Ninth I honestly have no idea how the chinese stay so thin and lastly Bubble tea is the invention of the ceutry. Well about that bubble tea i havent exactly been able to order it yet. Hey don't look at me like that! The menus don't have any english on them give me a break! any ways gotta go! Also randomness!
Shakespear in the park: Dose Thouest mother know you weareth her drapes?
All done! Bye

Me,
Out

It's strange in Taiwan. Everyone's wearing shirts and coats while we're wearing t-shirts. There's also alot of food everywere. There are also alot of cars and the stopsigns have timers on them. The roads also look very complicated. There are some ups and downs about watching TV. The up is that you can't understand what the commercials are saying. The downs, you can't understand what they are saying in the movie.  At least there are some videos that are english. We finally got to bike today. It was nice and sunny so it was a good ride. But when we turned around, the wind started to pick up. I must be out of practise because I was out of breath and my legs were tired. But at least it was good.
I guess I'll just have to see what tomorrow has to bring.

Post more later,
MH