100th Anniversary of Taiwan

I sadly didn't go camera equipped but I went to Taiwan's 100th birthday celebration in my city. The put on a play (rock opera thingy) displaying them receiving their freedom from China. With out me knowing the President of Taiwan was there. At the end the released thousands of doves (Balloons) into the sky. A few got stuck in a tree. I climbed up to retrieve the dove, impressing many of the locals. (heard from there wows and whispers)

Taiwan Dogs

You may find it gross, but in Taiwan the dogs go where ever they may. I have been to restaurants with dogs walking around inside, and no its not a health code violation, we don't have those. But just so you know it has not effected my health, I actually enjoy the company.

Katori"s World: Abandoned Theme Park - Taiwan

Once again I made a voyage to find Katoli's World. I knew exactly where it was on a map. The last time I accidently found a different abandoned theme park.

When we reached the top there wasn't anything but this run down house, temple and an empty parking lot. But I knew this wasn't the end, according to my map we needed to keep walking.

I read rumors of the place being torn down, but I wanted to see for myself. (I had no photo evidence). According to the sign (photo left) Katori's World was torn down 1 year ago.

This is all that remains. Just an empty patch of dirt.

Not to far away, we could see a hill of houses. They all looked very abandoned. Some houses where completely over grown in green shrubbery.

This home is not abandoned though it does appear that way. Many places in Taiwan look as though no one occupies it, but be careful exploring because you might be in invading someone's property.

After walking down this path to reach the houses, we arrived at a gate, with a guard out front. I went to take a picture, but the guard stopped me from doing so. A few seconds later another man showed up to have tea with us. He told us the company lost a lot of money and couldn't build the houses anymore. among talking about other things. After drinking tea with the stranger we moved on.

Using an umbrella to give buddha shade.

This is another little abandoned area, but not much to see here.

Chinglish: Pretty Wife Eat Cheese

click on the image to enlarge it

Feng Uan Night Market (豐原)

Our Student, Lilly took us out for a night on the town. She showed us around her neighborhood. Taking us to the places she loves to eat.

Lilly then took us to her eye doctor to get Anne Marie's and Jacob's eyes checked.

We then ate some delicious pie. There was wide variety of any different kinds of bean flavors.

Rainy Weekend in Taipei

This weekend we went up to Taipei, of course we had to go to our favorite shaved ice place.

 The next day I met up with Michael to skate. However there was a typhoon that went by, so it rained all day. We went to a little area under a bridge where guys will go skate sometimes.

Because of the rain we headed out to meet Tim Mingle in Danshui because Michael saw a photo of him skating the spot in the photo below.

The locals told us they skate there all the time and no one cares. So we went to skate it. When we first arrived there was an old man sitting on the end of the bench. We politely asked if he could move down to the other end of the bench so we could skate it. He immediately became very angry and wouldn't talk to us. So we gave up and just skated flat.





Eventually he left, so we began skating, about 10min. later he came back and sat down in the same spot. An employee saw and told the guy we were skating there, so he should move down to the other end of the bench. Eventually he moved down. Within 2 min. Another man came and did the same thing. His initial intention was to sit there so we couldn't skate. So we skated the flat ground, not bothering him or anyone else. None of the skaters pestered him to move after asking the first time, or made any remarks towards him. When he decided to leave he threw down his cup of coffee all over the floor where we where skating. The locals said the employees of the place let them skate there. Whenever they skate there they never had any issues before. Within a few minutes the man showed up again. And began to get into an argument with another taiwanese skateboarder. At this point, Michael and I, along with a couple other guys had enough and just decided to leave because it wasn't worth it. It was all very strange behavior, we weren't poking at him to leave, we asked politely once, and they immediately became angry. I don't know what the issue was, however the employees never had any problems with us skating there and actually suggested to the man to move down so we could skate there.

After all that excitement I took the train to the other end of Taipei to meet up with some friends. We took paddle boats out on the water to get a nice view of the bridge and take some pictures.

The next day after going to church we went ice skating. Yes, we are ice skating with helmets on...why because in Taiwan culture they think many things are dangerous. For example swimming without a lifeguard, climbing trees, among other things. So they take extreme caution. They wanted everyone to wear helmets, knee pads and elbow pads. We convinced them I didn't need any knee or elbow pads. In the end it was really fun, I haven't ice skated in a few years probably.

Chinglish: Danger due to Water Deep...

Back at the Market

I haven't hit the night market in a while. But decided to head over the Feng Jia. Every-time I go with new students they want me to eat stinky tofu. Even though I told them I have eaten 5 times already, they are never convinced. So once again I ate the stinky tofu. The photo to the left is a student and our Korean Intern buying some Pig's Blood.

Taichung Science Museum

I don't know why it took me 5 months to get to the science museum which I so after skateboard near, but I finally made it. Yea for Science!

They had many hands on exhibits some which I have seen already in the free museum in Kalamazoo, MI.

Human Pully System

This machine has you pull a bubble up around you. But it isn't easy you have to be good at it if you don't want it to pop*. I enjoyed many fun little activities and the time with the students I won't be seeing for a while.

Little Scouts Adventure

We spent the day with a couple old students for one last time before the headed off to Word Of Life Korea Bible Institute, the next day.

They had a little rock climbing wall up the side of the house. For us to start out the day.

Anyone who can ride the Unicycle to the end of the drive way gets a free one. We could barely ride it using the hand rail.

This is a Chinese Cobra and it is poisonous. It was slinking around in the rafters of the house.

We then headed out to the rivers, climbing rocks, jumping off of cliffs and stretching in the water.

After swimming in the river we headed to a old village that I went to a long time ago, but had no idea were I was the first time. Here is an early blog post of this village.