I’m still working on the captions, but here are our pictures from our awesome trip to Taipei, Taiwan. Let me know if you have questions about any of them.

Have to go to bed as we get up at 445am to get to the airport in the morning,
quick bullet points for the final day.
-Suho Paper Making museum. Fun.
-lunch with Jess’s grandmother and cousin. Beef Noodle soup for the win.
-Ice desert at Eastern Ice Company
-Italian meal at fancy restaurant in Gaundo.
-our New friend Ming-She(SP?) dance concert at the National Taipei Arts University, awesome with a beautiful outdoor setting
Time to come home, see you on the other side.

Going out to night market in a bit for some grub, the fun continues here in Taiwan. Yesterday we ventured out of the city on a curvy wild bus ride to Wulai, an Aboriginal village in the nearby mountains. Theres a beautiful waterfall there, and we walked up lovers lane to it. The town of Wulai has two neat streets filled with all kinds of touristy stuff, and I had the most amazing Ginger flavored meat on a stick ever. We also tried a weird corn mush thing covered in Hershey’s Chocolate. It was strange but delicious. It’s funny how similar the Aytal people who live here are to the Cherokee indians in North Carolina. So many of there clothes look similar and you have to wonder how far back it was when these people may have lived together. Last night we ate at the Japanese food court in a local mall. I wish we had food that was that good in our food court.

Today we had a big lunch to go to with the family one more time. A big duck feast, that was delicious, but of course I ate too much. We then went to Longshan Temple which has been there since the 1600’s. Its really impressive. We wandered the streets some more before heading back to the hotel for some rest before our night out. Tomorrow is our last day here. We are gonna try and hit a paper museum, and we have a friends dance concert to go to tomorrow night to end our Taiwan experience Our last meal here if they have there way will be at a German Restaurant. I’ve had a blast, but am very tired and a little homesick. One more day to go!

We got up this morning and went to the National Palace Museum, a grand museum on the scale of the Smithsonians. Saw lots of ancient Chinese artifacts and two very strange pieces that are really famous here. A piece of Jade shaped like a cabbage, and a rock that looks like a piece of meat. We wondered how the meat rock ever ended up in a museum, and gained its fame. Im sure its a great story.

We wandered the streets some more after the museum, did some shopping and hit Modern Toilet, a theme restaurant based on modern plumbing. You sit on toilets, eat and drink out of urinals and don’t know whether to laugh or be disgusted. But the ice cream and drinks we had were really good and super reasonably priced so no complaining there. Its an experience for sure.

Ended the night with some Bibim-bop, one of my favorite Korean dishes, so I’ll sleep happy tonight. Theres a incoming Typhoon this weekend, so were hoping the storms will hold off so we can go to the Aboriginal town of Wulai tomorrow.

Woke up on Saturday and headed to the flower market in Taipei. Its like a big flea market, except for flowers of every kind. There’s also a artist market there but it’s mostly full of stuff you would find at craft fairs and not alot of unique art there.

We then had a large family dim sum lunch. It’s neat meeting relatives through marriage who don’t even speak the same language as you do. In the afternoon, we ventured to Taipei 101 which is really just a fancy mall. They have a great american bookstore there but I had to put off buying the books I wanted cause they were super pricey.
Jessica’s cousin took us to the Shilin Night Market, which is my favorite experience on the trip so far. There is a building there that is packed with food vendors and the heat and smells are often overwhelming. I was surprised by how much I liked the stinky tofu. But I couldn’t handle the Oyster Omelet.
The streets around the market are packed full of hip and young shops, and the streets were jammed with shoppers. Jess got a hat, and her cousins got all kinds of new clothes. We went home around 1100 pm, but the Market showed no signs of slowing down for the night.

Today, we got up and went to the Jade market, where Jess got a Jade bracelet, before heading to the end of the subway and the Ocean town of Danshui. Its alot like the night market, except at daytime and on the ocean. Ate a great lunch of cold noodles, and visited a temple, the Fish Ball museum(really weird), and a French/Chinese Bakery museum. Also had Turkish Ice cream, which was rather bad actually. Probably shouldn’t try Turkish items in Taiwan right?
Were back at the hotel now, taking a quick break before dinner, and maybe a movie tonight. Trip is almost half over. Seen alot, and have more to see. Love it.