New Years Eve - Taipei 101 Fireworks (Part 4)

It was a cloudy, cold, rainy day. We arrived at Taipei 101 around time for dinner. After spending some time to eat we walked the rest of the way to Tiger Mountain (Hu Shan). We walked up the mountain around 5:30pm trying to arrive early to get a good spot. Sadly it was already loaded with cameras (Photo below). As I scattered around I finally had to settle with a spot below the deck. I had to pull down some branches and tall grass to keep it out of my photos.

This was one of my test shots for preparing for the New Years Eve excitement. While waiting a long cold 6 hours. We chatted with the other photographers there, took naps and watched different people come and go.

You can view more photos on my flickr page

After the night was over and everyone left, we spent the night in a tent overlooking the city.  I slept very horribly from 1am - 5am being woken up by the chatter of some hikers who wanted to watch the sunrise.

Jake at 5:30 in the morning waiting for a bus

New Years Eve - Mr. Ming (Part 3)

This was a very interesting man we met while watching the Dragons and Fu Dogs dance. He talked to Jake for a long time before I joined in. He told us he became a Christian while in the military. He then showed us how well he could stretch at 82 years old. He proceeded by telling us all the secrets to staying healthy in your old age. It mostly had to do with rubbing your face. Supposedly it only takes 100 times of it a day and I won't go bald. He also told us that he was the Taiwanese's president's junior high-school professor.

New Years Eve - Cultural Festivities (Part 2)

While exploring we ran into a little Taiwanese cultural experience. This is my first time while in Taiwan actually seeing this kind of thing.

I see statues of this at many of the temples this is a Fu Dog or in chinese, Shishi (石獅).

While in the middle of the performance a man on stage pointed Jake and I out as the Americans who came to take pictures at their show. So I had a small conversation with him while he was on stage, with a camera about 2ft from me.

To see some more photos you can go to my flickr page.

Panda or Giraffe...

New Years Eve (Part 1)

 I spent my friday night up until 5:00am mostly playing computer games, before I hopped on the bus with Jake. After my 3 hour nap, I arrived in Taipei. With little direction to our activities there, we had freedom to just explore.

Our plan was to have a transportation free tour of the city. Everywhere we went we would walk. This really helped me to understand how to get around the city better and also got to see many new places that I wouldn't get to see on a bus or subway.

Total distance walked was about 12.3k according to google, if we walked a pretty straight shot. Also according to google it should have taken us 2 hours and 46 min. to walk that distance without stopping to enjoy everything.









When we first arrived we went to a antique like market, slept out in-front of a technology mall for an hour before they opened (receiving many strange looks), and found this large mall with a ball stinking out the front of the building while also entering into the inside of the building. (photo below)

Christmas

Woke up on christmas morning to make ourselves some pancakes...they were awful...

We also made our own egg nog after not being able to find it in stores. It was awful also...

This is our Christmas tree and our gifts underneath it.

Jake and I spent about $2US on each other. And then played a Monopoly Card game that my parents gifted me. After that we played some video games. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Santa Claus in Taiwan

陀螺 - Ancient Chinese Spinning Top

Taipei 101

Crooks