Jade Market

Taipei has the largest Jade Market in East Asia!  It goes for more than a city block under one of the MRT stations!  So much fun!  Jade, antiques, tea pots and more!  Spent the day wandering up and down the isles!

Making a purchase! 

The people continue to amaze me with their generous spirits and easy kindness!

Mario (my "baby" nephew) and Pei arrive from Thailand!

Visitors from nearby!  Nephew Mario and girlfriend arrive from Thailand!  Mario teaches english there and is on year 2!  His girlfriend Pei (not sure how to spell her name!) teaches PE and Health!

On our way to Keelung to visit the shrine for goddess Guandi.

Yes, it was raining that hard.  I am obviously soaked!  We paid for two roof tiles for the temple and were permitted to write our names and those of our kids for added blessings!

Undaunted by the rain, I still wander aimlessly!

Ringing the bell!

Local wildlife!

Kicking it in Hong Kong!

What a vibrant city!  Thanks to my friend Janus Hinson who's daughter gave us some awesome tips, we had a great time!

Cathy Pease, Olivia Carr (her daughter) and I get a walking tour of the neighbor hood provided by our hotel.  "Mike" spoke good english, but never quite opened his mouth all the way, so we were straining to hear!  Our hotel was right in the middle of the shopping district (well played Janus, well played!)

This is the "Ladies Market"! Our cab driver advised Steve to "smile like Happy Buddha and give your money to the ladies! He did real well:-)

We are admiring the bamboo scoffolding!  It was amazing, all the way up really tall structures!  OK, Cathy and I are looking at the scoffolding, Olivia is looking for a shoe store!

Steve and Olivia on the ferry to Hong Kong from Kowloon!

This is the view from Victoria's Peak!  We rode a cable car to the top!

These last two pictures were taken from the pool deck on the top floor of our hotel.  Steve took these through tinted glass at night.  I think they look really cool!

Naked on the beach!

Not really!  Got you to look though!  After a trip to Fulong Beach, I discovered that the natives were far more dressed than we were!  It means that I need to buy some board shorts and tshirt to wear before I even think about heading for the beach again!

I paid $20. for toilet paper!

Actually, it's not as bad as it sounds.  $20. NT is about $.50 U.S.  Toilet paper is normally provided, but in some cases, you need to provide your own.  $20. NT bought me 2 pocket kleenex size packets:-)  WORTH IT!!!

Changing of the guard at the Sun Yat-Sen memorial:

Used my camera, so they are not terribly clear, but this was really an awesome sight!

Here I am with my post-toilet paper glow!!

Dumplings and monsoons!

Cathy and Olivia arrive to rain, but cooler weather (for one day anyway)!

We went to the famous Xiao Long Bao restaurant to enjoy their wonderful dumplings!

What makes the whole trip worthwhile to Olivia?

Shoes!!!

Exploring

The Taiwan Museum of History

Fun outing on my own, but got completely lost!  A nice lady came to my rescue and told me I had walked 5 blocks the wrong way!  I wasn't lost as much as I was trying to explore the area.  Yeah, that's it.  Explore the area:-)

More shots of the area I explored ON PURPOSE!

Ok, I was a little lost.

Train Travel Taiwan Style!

There are several modes of mass transit here, all wonderful!  They have an MRT (subway) that gets you around Taipei.  Then there are buses (I am working on that, but Bruce and I got really lost the other day!  Luckily a kind soul got us turned the right way)!  There are trains that travel all over Taiwan that are inexpensive and very clean and there is a Bullet Train.  We haven't taken that one yet!  Here are some great pictures of and from the train to Taroko!

A great way to travel!

Taroko Gorge

The water in the gorge is this unique blue because the rock it travels over is white marble.  This picture is as close to what it looks like in person as you can get! 

This says "Taroko Gorge" and something about "we have lots of marble and you can't have any for you kitchen Pam!" 

It was beautiful!  We hiked two trails up into the mountain and along the water.  On one thin trail we were hiking along, watching for falling rocks (the signs told us this was our job) when suddenly:

a guy came flying by on the path on this!  Motor scooters are everywhere here!  I have no idea how it got to this remote path that we had to walk down 200 stairs to get to!!  Amazing!

Women's work

Sometimes when we travel we get to have one of those moments in time where we stop the rushing and picture taking to discover that this, this one thing, is why we travel.  I had one of those moments yesterday!

Here on the other side of the world I had a "discussion" with a woman who proudly explained that this was women's work.  I do not speak her language and she does not speak mine.   This, above other skills was most prized by her people the Taroko People, indigenous to Taiwan.  She had hoped, as a child, to receive her forehead tattoo at 15 and the earn one later on her chin.  You earned the chin tattoo by becoming skilled at a job.  She is a skilled weaver and would have received a tattoo that would have surrounded her lips and spread to her earlobes, indicating a "master weaver".  She was not to have this honor, though.  The Japanese, during their occupation of Taiwan from 1912 - 1943 outlawed all aboriginal practices and "resettled" the tribes away from their homes, away from the rich natural resources they craved.

As I chose a shawl made over the course of 3 days by this amazing woman, she smiled and touched her heart and reached forward, palm up.  I reached forward, palm up and brought my had to my heart.  We understood each other, we are women and I took with me not only a piece of her art, but a piece of her heart!