I'm writing it here for my own benefit, but I only have 3 months left in Taiwan. During that time, I want to do the following things:

1) Sun Moon Lake
2) Taoyuan (specifically downtown and the chocolate museum)
3) Thoroughly explore all the new MRT stations
4) Spend a weekend in Yilan
5) Go to that restaurant you found that is an English Pub but the food is Mexican
6) Eat at that BBQ place around the corner that looks good but a bit expensive
7) Go to that club that has a line running to the Taiwan Brewery
8) Travel to the end of the Pingxi Line
9) Go to that crazy restaurant under the Banqiao Christmas Tree
10) Finish all those crazy puzzles in the Children's Park

And that will wrap things up in Taiwan. With Tiffany leaving in early January, that gives me about 1.5 months (because of Chinese New Year) to finish out all of those things with my newly acquired free time.

Anyway I mentioned the new MRT stations because there is now a new MRT Line - the Xinyi Line, with a station right next to the 101. Jeez, that would've been convenient for all the times I've already been there. It also goes to a few more places, like Elephant Mountain. I've climbed Elephant Mountain before, but Tiffany decided to come along this time. I assume she had a lapse of judgement. It was a good climb, but a bit crowded in the beginning due to all the people. On the way down we passed a cat who did not seem to mind the crowds... or anything really. After seeing us he just stretched out as if to say "Petty humans, I am not afraid of you." Upon reaching the bottom we passed a restaurant called NOLA kitchen. I thought it was impossible until I checked the menu. Anyway yes, I had Chicken and Waffles, Tiffany had Jambalaya, and we shared. It was incredibly good. I wanted a Hurricane, but one drink was $14 US! Sheesh!

Also today was the beginning of the Christmas season, which is still not much of a big deal here. But they do have a Christmas tree in Banqiao, as well as some sort of opening concert - pretty much for kids however. I was amused by all the Christmas decorations on a big sign displaying the temperature - 22 C, or about 72 F. At night. In the rain. Hard to get in the spirit when you're wearing a T-shirt. Underneath the tree they had a bunch of restaurants, one of which prided itself on its beer selection. I will pride myself on drinking those beers one day.

And now for yesterday, it was off to an amusement park. I guess more like a children's park, but they had a Merry Go Round, Bumper Cars, Spinning Cups, that sort of thing. It was surprisingly cool. There was also this area full of old buildings and ancient life - but the real draw for me was this place full of puzzles. Block puzzles, string puzzles, you name it. It hurt my head to do some of these, and working together we only did about 25% of them. I want to go back one day and do them all.







On the way out though, was the real star of pretty much my entire life. First we turn a corner, and I see an old style English Pub. They had a bunch of beers available, and I was going to die of happiness at the thought of eating some Shepherds Pie. But they also have a section on their menu just for Mexican Food. Oh my god. This is the best restaurant ever. I suddenly felt incredibly sad that I had just eaten.

And as if the happiness wasn't overwhelming enough, right next to it is a coffee shop. A LEGO coffee shop. Half LEGO store, half caffeine, half baked goods. This store is so awesome it defies all mathematical sense. You can buy LEGO sets. You can buy any combination of bricks by weight. You can play in their giant LEGO pit. You can eat baked goods with LEGO Man shaped chocolate on top if it. They also had LEGO purses, which made me wish I was a girl. Anyway, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I'm really starting to scrape the barrel of things to do, here.

This time, I popped out to the city of Taoyuan, and down south to Daxi. Taoyuan is a medium sized city right next to Taipei, most popularly known as the city with the airport. But they're semi big in their own right, and in fact have just started construction on a subway. Their public transportation is pretty crappy, so I'm glad. I didn't really stay much in Taoyuan, just kind of a stopover for Daxi. However next time I'd like to go back to Taoyuan and explore just it on my own.

Down to Daxi, Tiffany and I checked out the old street. Old streets are pretty generic I've found, but this is my favorite one so far. Yes they're peddling the same things, but doing it in a very artful way. Sure it's touristy, but I liked it nonetheless. Also, there was a guy handing out samples of bread stuffed with cheese and cranberries. This bread is awesome and should be made the bread standard. The old street also has a heck of a view of the nearby river. It's too bad this place is so far out, because I'd come back here more if it was closer.






Nearby Daxi is a park that is the burial place of Chang Kai Shek. You may think he is buried in the giant memorial in Taipei. As a logical person would. But in fact, they stuck him in a park. I don't know why, and unfortunately we arrived not 10 minutes too late, as they were closing. CKS doesn't like visitors right before dinnertime, you see. So instead we walked around his park, which is weeeeeeeird. See, up until the late 80s Taiwan was actually kind dictatorial since it was under martial law. Then some 10 years ago, CKS's party lost to another one. This guy said "Ok, all those CKS statues we have in EVERY school around the island - NOPE. Send them here." So they did, and the end result is a park filled with hundreds of CKS statues. It's weird, creepy, and reminds me of the Statue level in Goldeneye. Alright, maybe it's not so creepy then. Maybe if Sean Bean was there.

On the way back we stopped at what I can only describe as a cute house for tourists. It was a Bavarian style building, filled with cute things. It was free to get in, as it was also a shop. I just do not understand the purpose of this place. "We have some land next to a dead president's park." "Well clearly we must build a building like it's in the Alps, and fill it with cartoon cows, hearts, play Gangnam Style over the speakers, and sell sausages in front of the fake church."

Tiffany got accepted to a University in the States, so it looks like I will be flying solo come January. She is travelling to the magical land of Kansas, in a town of 25,000 people. It will be interesting. As part of the move, we needed to get her a new computer. Out to Gunghwa, a kind of electronic flea market in downtown Taipei. I love this place. It has everything. If I may nerd out for a minute, I really hate buying computers in a brick and mortar place. You have salesmen telling you, "This computer can do this, this computer can do that." No, what you're talking about is software. Every computer can do it, it just does some things better than others. After finally settling on one, we walked around asking every vendor "This is the computer we want, and the price that was quoted - can you beat it?" After 3 or 4 people telling us to get lost, go buy it from them, she did go buy it from them. All in all it was about 20% off the list price, so I think that's a good deal.

After that, it was a Chinese lesson in Banqiao Train Station. Banqiao Train Station is really cool, and better than Taipei Main I think. It has this giant cafeteria style restaurant called the Food Republic. I had a fun time speculating what a Food Democracy, a Food Dictatorship, etc would be like. Feel free to leave a comment with your own form of Culinary Government.

First of all, happy Halloween.

I've always liked Halloween. But I wasn't like, in love with it. I now have a deep appreciation for Halloween. Even in China, they celebrated Halloween. Granted it wasn't huge, but some people dressed up. Some stores were Halloween themed.

In Taiwan, there is NOTHING. Nothing. It's a Halloween vacuum. And it's not until something's gone do you really appreciate it. I am going on record - Halloween is the best holiday. Christmas, Thanksgiving... you're alright. But sit down, it's Halloween's turn. Anywho I was not going to have any of this no Halloween nonsense, so I went out and got a costume. Most of my kids had no knowledge of Halloween, so I couldn't go with something clever. Instead I was an old fashioned vampire. I also went out to the bars with it, with my new Cincinnati area friend Mike. Turns out Mike and I have a lot in common - such as the same taste (or distaste, in the case of Taiwan brand) in beer. The bar we went to gives anyone who shows up in costume a free shot, which was nice. Except, we walk in, and I am the ONLY person dressed up aside from the employees. The manager seemed excited though, and gave me a ghost pepper shot. I do not recommend getting Ghost Pepper anything. I immediately asked for a beer with great urgency, and the lady didn't charge me for it. So, that was nice. Later, the shift changed, and another bartender said "Oh, you're in costume! That means you get a free shot!"

3 free drinks down. This is a good bar.

So all in all it was a pretty great night. Met some new friends, got drunk, all while being a vampire. And then the next morning, it was off to Pingxi.

I've been to Pingxi a few times now. I actually think this was my 4th? But Tiffany had never been. Which, I mean, hey, you never do touristy things in your home town. This time we went to see the Shifen falls, which are about a 20 minute walk from the town. To even see them you have to pay a little over $3 US , which I think is pretty ridiculous. But hey, they're pretty, and I don't think I'm ever going to be back there.

April and I popped up to Danshui for dinner on the weekend (seriously, the garlic corn vendor there is my best friend), and now that brings us to yesterday. First was lunch at a Japanese hot pot, which is much better than a Chinese one IMO. It's not soup, you cook all your food in a sauce. It was delicious and they had cute little bear paw bread to go with it. After that we didn't have anything to do, so Tiffany and I went out to see a tennis game in Taipei Arena. Since it's just the qualifying rounds, it was free to get in. I've never seen a pro tennis game before. I more or less know how tennis is played, but it turns out sitting down is the most complicated part of tennis. We were escorted through a maze of doors and velvet ropes to finally come upon a black curtain in front of a door, like a haunted house. We had to wait until they finished their set, and then could enter. We had to leave our drinks at a specified "drink check" table. Later when we went outside to enjoy some coffee, the door was barred, unbarred, barred, unbarred. I guess people coming in could distract the players? It was deathly quiet inside, like it was a game of golf. Boorrrrriiiiing. Let's get some cheering going on, Happy Gilmore style.