Taiwan - Day 6

Holy crap, am I actually going to finish updating this trip? I think so! We didn't have all that much time before flying out, but we did hit up the National Palace Museum - most famously known for the jade cabbage and the meat-shaped stone...I don't really get it either.

No pictures inside of the museum, so some from outside will have to do.

view of the gate from the balcony of the museum

view of the museum from infront of the gate


view of men in suits (and Taipei) from the museum entrance

view of a poster with English written backwards - I think you might have to click on the image to make it bigger to tell

swans in the garden - we had to leave quickly as they were starting to make me nervous

hungry fishies that I did not pay a dollar to feed


Me! Good bye Taiwan! You were fun! If you zoom in you can see how excited I am to go to work the next day...seriously.

The trip really was great, and I have a few more pictures from my life that will hopefully go up within the next 2 months. If anyone still bothers to look at this blog, please check back periodically! Love and miss everyone...allison

Taiwan - Day 5

Where's Day 4, you ask? Spent passed out on a bus to Hualien. So yeah, there was a bus, checking in at the hostel, wandering aimlessly, dinner, sleep. Real exciting. So anyway...

All of Day 5 was spent at Taroko Gorge. It was absolutely awesome. I am just going to throw all of the pictures up with minimal commentary, as most of them don't require any explaination except "here is a rock," or, "here is a cliff," and frankly, I don't have time for that. However, before we get started, you should be warned:








Now that you have been appropriately cautioned, it is time to go convince someone to rent you a car without a valid international driver's license. This really won't be all that difficult.




See!


Now for a ton of scenic pictures. At the visitor's center they recommend you bring a flashlight. Well, at that point it was a bit late as they don't SELL them. This made for quite the thrill, let me tell you.




To anyone who has crticized my driving in the past, screw off. I managed to navigate this without dieing, so I can't be all that bad...





Sidenote: definitely trespassing at this point.

Sidenote: definitely feeling like I am about to plummet to my death at this point.

In all seriousness, pictures cannot do this place justice. Plus there is so much to explore, so many trails - we probably only covered a quarter of the park. Definitely my favorite part of the trip. Anyway, so after all that it was time to hop back on a bus to Taipei. This was our last full day in Taiwan.

Taiwan - Day 3

Haha, betcha thought I'd forgotten. No, I am just super lazy. It's cool. Well, now that my trip is what, 2.5 months past - let's try to finish up. Or at least make some progress to that end.


So, here is some art outside of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. It is a TV Christmas tree. Terrific.


That's the memorial hall, and of course, your beautiful tour guide (me).


This is the rather fabulous view from the top of the hall of some concert hall and a museum (I believe). We didn't go there, but they looked nice...


These guys will kick your butt if you do anything questionable. It's quite an elaborate changing of the guards.

So after that we wandered to an art museum and a history museum - no pictures as they were not allowed. After that we had dinner at the toilet restaurant.












Yummmmmm...

If I recall correctly, the evening ended with some drinking and socializing with the weirdos at our hostel. It was quite enjoyable.