Some Semi-Random things you will see when relocating to Taiwan

This is the Fine Arts Muesum of Taipei. This place is one of my most favorite buildings in Taipei. The exibits were ok, (they were doing renovations to the inside when we went; but we got to get in for free because of that!)

Here is Meg check'in out the scene on a police moped.

Santa is still alive on the streets of Taipei!

Me and my Leo like Topiery friend poseing for the camera.

The Koi [fish] lov'in up on Meg. This tranqual pond surronded a temple-turned-icecream shop.

I am Chiang Kai-Shek's long lost second cousin Bill. I am ready to sleep on his couch after a collect call from outer space! ha-ha (inside joke)

This is a flower bed turned into a real clock at Yangmingshan national park.

Some giant tree at Yangmingshan that we both decided would make an excellent tree fort. Or better yet if we run out of money we could commender the tree as our home and live as tree piriates.

We walked all the way over to this sulfer pond near Lengshuikeng Recreation Area and what did we find. A hole full of milk looking water that stinks. As you can see from Megs expression, she is clearly less then impressed.

Here we are at at grocrey store called "Welcome". Yes that is the real name. This is a serve yourself clam staion.

This is the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall at night time. We will have to go shot this during the day time. This place is freak'in huge. The door to this place is huge. There is a statue A'la Abraham Lincoln of Chiang Kai-Shek that is inside that is equally as big.

Inside the park there is a sign that States: No walk dogs, vending carts, moter bikes, NO Kite flying?, no booze, an no M-80's.

1-Bert-1-Cup. I was going to fill the cup with a homemade fudge-cicle and lap it up right out of the cup for you. But by the time Meg got the camera ready, I already cleaned the cup with my finger Bill Cosby style. Maybe next time! "The Cup" is a brand of Sake. This cost like $3.50 for this little cup, but it well worth the picture.




Taiwan

Megan Dupuy

Albert Dupuy

The long train to Danshui

Right after getting off the long, yet scenic MRT stop in Danshui we found a lively crowd awaiting us. There is a gathering that some small university put on with a stage, a band, some chairmen from the university, maybe a semi-significant school function. Well, we couldn't figure it out. But, hey there was music and people, you can't beat that. Some guy even hit a gaaaaaoooooooong!!!

As we walk along the rows of tents promoting this collage, we see a full parade quality marching band assembled putting on a show. The group is part of the Divine Performing Arts group, like we were supposed to know.
I guess we were supposed to know! The woman that was promoting the show (the chick standing next to Megan) saw Meg and I (the sole Caucasians in the crowd) taking pictures with the band and what do you know..... She calls us up in front of the three hundred or so people watching the show! She asks us " Where are you from?... huuh from Michigan; Do you like the show?...0oh yea we love this band; So you have heard of the band, we play in the US!...... hum, no not really; well give them a hand, and hundreds are clapping for us, yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So we move a long to grab a coffee and a snack at the local Dunk'in Doughnuts, which has a beautiful view of the river and a huge covered patio. This is probably the best D&D's that I have ever munched at. Then we lazily cost down down the boardwalk from the Danshui station.

The fenced off area behind Meg is a roller skating rink. Who would have guessed?

There are a lot of tourist shops a long the boardwalk by the Dunshui MRT. Some gift shops even sell life size cardboard cut outs of crazy foreign tourists.

There are lots of yummy treats sold from street vendors like this one that set up shop under the sideways tree. The motorcycle-clayoven-sweet-potato-mobile is a must stop if you can catch this hot potato! All I want to know is what came first; The house or the tree?!!
The local squid-on-a-stick vendor waving his fish like a flag trying to distinguish his squid from the other 15 stands selling the same thing. Well anyway, we were sold and bought some! (tasty-tasty) : )
I really enjoy how the Taiwanese integrate religion with everyday life. Only in Taiwan you could eat some street food, play the claw game, buy some souvenirs, finish the perfect evening off with a little prayer upstairs, then jump on MRT.
This was a perfect way to spend an afternoon in Taiwan!

When you are moving to Taiwan you definitely have to come and check this place out!

Xingbeitou--Hot Spring Area Northern Taipei--ReLaXaTiOn

If you want to let go, and experience COMPLETE and TOTAL relaxion—you need to check out the hot-springs in this city!! You think you know about R & R…but trust me, you are a rookie compared to these professional hot springers.
Xingbeitou is well known for its hot springs. It is located north east of Taipei, and takes us 40 minutes to get there from our apartment. We’ve been back to Xingbeitou twice since we took a 3 day weekend there.
The mineral buried deep in the ground by the opening of the hot springs is RADIOACTIVE!! But don’t worry J by the time it reaches you, its no longer a threat…it transmutes into sulfur and other beneficial minerals before it reaches the earth’s surface. Here we are at Hell Valley. Its a very famous tourist destination-- a big open air pool of the hotspring water, you can see huge tufts of steam wafting from itThere are several free touristic points of interest in Xingbeitou; the hot spring museum (the above pic is Bert at this museum), the Xingbeitou library, the aboriginal Indian museum

Here is the outdoor public hot spring we like. It costs $1.00 USD to get in, and the scenery is great—other than the prunie old people schloping around giggle giggle (go there and you will see what I mean). Bert had to buy a Speedo the first time we went there woo hoo sexy man—no swim trunks allowed! The rules are pretty strict at hot springs here.
Bathe before entering, keep hair from touching the water, bathe yourself with the hot spring water before entering the bath, no swimming, no sitting with just your feet/legs in the water, obviously don’t drink alcohol and bathe, don’t talk loud, etc.. there is this guy with red shorts on who will blow his whistle at you if you are doing something wrong, he will also assist you in your bathing—suggest which pools to go into and when.
There are 3 temperatures of hot pools and 2 COLD pools. It feels SOOOO good to go back and forth between cold and hot. You get out of the hot—and have dense clouds of steam evaporating off of you—it’s very visible by night, especially when people are back lit. Everyone is walking around with trails of steam following them.
When you get into the cold pool, you feel your heart beat really hard. It almost feels like your heart is in your neck!! You can see ripples around you from your own heart beat. The first time I experienced this I thought I was having a mild heart attack! But then we learned it benefits your body in similar ways to exercise—your heart is working very hard pumping blood. I f you let yourself relax while in this state, you almost feel buzzed—reality is defiantly altered—you feel pure and rejuvenated.
We had our own private hot spring in our hotel room. The typical Japanese way to bathe is to submerse the entire body (up to the neck) in water until you feel uncomfortably hot—out in, out in, then dry off and rest for ½ hour under a warm blanket. In our hotel room we had a feather down comforter—I totally melted after all the bathing and knapping! We went to this famous Japanese Tea House at the top of a mountain in Xin bei tou--awesome experience-great food!!
Bert looking the expensive tea house menu over--we ended up getting unbelievably embellished and presented sushi, fruit, salad, custard, kimchie, jasmine tea, and some house black tea
administering the "bert brewing technique"

Here in Taiwan, 17 objects are necessary to brew a proper pot of tea, here I am (Megan) beginning the demonstration....are you paying attention!?!!

The outside facade of the famous mountain top tea house -- notice the cat..we were calling him over, tryig to get his attention and he disappeared behind the building, then as we took this shot he dashed out -- into the picture!!

Megan Dupuy

Relocate Taiwan

Albert Dupuy

The Story Of Hualian and the Deep, Dark and Dangerous Taroko Gorge

**************************Hualian************************
We arriaved to Hualian 2 days before my birthday. Hualien is a small city on the less populated eastern coast of Taiwan. People from this area wear home-made-yarn embellished purses—hats—belts. These people are direct descendants of the aboriginal Indians that lived in the mountains.
We noticed more BETLE NUT here than any other place we had been. Strangers would smile as they passed by—exposing their BRIGHT RED teeth and gums. Why it turns red in the mouth I have no idea, it is green when you buy it. Look down at the street, and you’ll see red splotches all over the place.
All the people we have talked to about Taroko Gorge complain about how boring the city of Hualian is—that the only reason to go there is because of the gorge. I disagree. I met many interesting people in this city—played dance dance revolution with the locals, spent 2 hours and exchanged numbers with this amazing woman from “Angel Nails”…it was fun.
********************Taroko Gorge********************* 10:00AM we took off on the local bus to Taroko Gorge. As we passed the entrance gate I looked at the time 10:40AM..We finally arrived to the drop off point and it was 11:40….We had to walk from the drop off point to the entrance gate before night fall….and it took 1 hour to drive that distance by bus…sounds like trouble to me!!
There are many trails that veer off this main road, and these trails are the most beautiful/famous spots in the park—so our walk is now not only the 1 hour bus ride distance—but add on any trails we decide to walk down.. Honestly, I am totally freaking out at this point, unsure of how we will make it to that entrance gate by sunset! Bert is convinced that it won’t be a problem—that we will easily cover the distance…so we walk
First stop was this famous waterfall path—we saw a family of monkeys along the way, they were very curious, but wouldn’t take the food we were throwing their way. The air was damp and fresh here.

Every direction you looked in you couldn’t help but notice the MASSIVE marble gorge. The mist in the air made the marble look even more translucent and reflective.
We proceeded towards the entrance gate, went on many trails that were amazing—like something out of a movie. I doubt I will ever see a mountain scape so vivid and rich again. Everything looked like a scene from a Japanese ink painting. REALLY! This is a very accurate description of the scenery!!

Forward we marched—we were the ONLY people walking on the main road—everyone else was riding on a tourist bus, then getting off at the famous trails and walking. As the sun began to descend we saw fewer and fewer tourist busses..we kept walking towards that entrance gate…
Now it is pitch black outside, and we have reached the part of the road laced with tunnels. Some short tunnels, some very very long tunnels. pitch black. No flash lights. No light at the end of the tunnel. Some tunnels didn’t even have a walk way for pedestrians. When cars drove by you felt the air current suck you in..and the exhaust from the cars posed the threat of carbon monoxide poisoning. Not to mention the danger of walking that close to fast moving traffic in a twisting turning pitch black tunnel, on the edge of a gorge..you get the idea…
After 45 minutes of this we came across a particularly large VERY long lit tunnel. About ½ way through I saw graffiti on the wall that said “Don’t Die”—I began to think I was having a bad dream and I would wake any minute. AND THEN out of the blue—an taxi approached us, and delivered us safely to our destination.

Megan Dupuy Relocate Taiwan

Albert Dupuy

Megan Dupuy Relocate Taiwan