Our Trip to Taiwan

For Chinese New Year, we spent the week in Taiwan.  There was lots to see and do as the Taiwanese celebrated the Year of the Snake.

I added another tick to my Haircuts Across the World checklist.
My barber even sang Chinese songs as he happily cut my curly locks!

Here's another "jumping" photo of me.  This time I am in front of the tallest building in Taiwan: Taipei 101.  What you can't see is that I'm on a narrow ledge and there's a three-foot drop behind me.

This beautiful flower clock with surrounding cherry blossoms is in a beautiful, hilly area called Yangmingshan National Park

We stayed at the very artsy Amba Hotel in Taipei.  As we entered the lobby, we were greeted by some cool works of art.  And as we looked closer, we were even more amazed by the artists choice of materials...

Can you guess what this is made of, yet?

Yes, it's a portrait made entirely out of children's stickers: Hello Kitty, Pikachu, and Xi Yangyang!

We spent one evening at the Shilin Night Market looking for some delicious, local food.  There were so many people packed together that we didn't actually move for a whole ten minutes. We decided to shimmy out of the crowd and found some delicious chicken sandwiches on the way out!

Outside the Taipei Fine Arts Museum were these 10-foot tall sculptures of Taiwan's aboriginal people, animals, and flowers.

Taiwan has Gemstone Coral fields off the coast and we were awestruck by this sculpture in Taipei 101.  It has pagodas, flowers, and people inside the little houses!

Here's a close-up of the coral sculpture above.  Amazing detail!

One of the reasons we went to Taiwan for vacation was to see the celebration of Chinese New Year.  We got a full dose of culture when we visited the Long Shan temple and were lucky enough to witness food offerings, incense burning, group chanting, candle lighting, and hundreds of people everywhere!

For the second half of our trip, we travelled down to the city of Hualien on the east coast of Taiwan.  On a tour of the countryside, we rented a paddleboat in a beautiful lake with stunning views.

Can you guess what material this is?
Did you guess wood?  You're right!
She is an aboriginal woman hand carved by the Ami people.

One thing that struck us about Taiwan, is that they love to dress up their dogs!  They also take them everywhere: restaurants, malls, and temples!  Check out the latest in Taiwanese dog fashion below:

Chinese silk jacket.  Very cultural.

Bomber jacket, denim shorts, and shoes!  Très chic!

Casual sweater on a cool winter day.

Matching orange jackets for dog and owner!

Yes, that's a hoodie with a fuzzy ball on top.

Comfy crocheted coverlet.  Retro 1970s.

Most dogs we saw rarely walked on their own.

Young pups travel in style with their very own pooch pouch.

Some canines even have 4 wheel drive.

I wish someone would carry me around all day.

Things to See in Singapore

While visiting the Singapore Botanical Garden gift shop last week, we noticed a deck of cards with pictures of Singapore highlights.  We've seen or have been to most of the places in the deck, except the following:

We've seen these desserts at hawker centers, but haven't dabbled yet.

It's just down the street from our condo!

This looks fun.  We'll go before we eat.

We haven't heard of this place, but I'm sure they'll have stingray, satay, and chilli crab.

I wonder if we can luge here.

That pink thing on the lower left is a dragon fruit, and the thing next to it is a one-eared goat(?).

This is at Clarke Quay (pronounced 'key').

Hmmm.  Pandas and crocodiles and otters? Oh my!

Peranakan refers to 15th and 16th century Chinese immigrants from Indonesia and Malaysia who settled in Singapore. The pastries look fruity and coconutty, kind of like Mexican candy.

We've only got five months left to do it all, but we're gonna have fun trying!

Chilli Crab

We have been living in Singapore for a year and a half and we still haven't tried Chilli Crab...until today!  Yes, underneath that mountain of chili sauce is an actual (delicious) crab.  It came with a bowl of white rice and some yummy buns that tasted like miniature, fresh, plain donuts.  We dunked them into the chili sauce and it was a taste of paradise!

Just like eating regular crab, you still have to use crab crackers. The chilli sauce gets all over the place so you have to constantly lick your fingers. Yum!

G'day, Mate!

We finally got to visit Australia during our

winter vacation (which is summer time down under)!

Even though it was 85º, Santa still delivered Christmas
joy to the Aussies in his classic winter suit.

Even Santa's reindeer got a little help delivering
presents in the southern hemisphere.

This is Mudgee, one of our local tour guides.

We explored the rain forest along the Green Coast
in Victoria (outside of Melbourne). 

The Twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road
are 150-foot high limestone beauties!

Loch Ard Gorge is an inlet along the cliffs,
aptly named the Shipwreck Coast
because of the ship that ran aground near here in 1878.

On Boxing Day in Melbourne, people were out en mass
looking for after-Christmas bargains.

We were fortunate enough to get tickets to a
concert at the Sydney Opera House.

This seagull insisted we take its picture in front of the Harbor Bridge.

In the Red Centre, we took hundreds of pictures
of Uluru (a.k.a. Ayer's Rock) at all times of the day.

We even hiked through Kata Tjuta (a.k.a. the Olgas)
16 miles from Uluru.

We weren't sure what kind of animal this was,
and luckily we didn't see it crossing the road.

Of course, we saw many cuddly koalas.

They are experts at  balancing in trees.

A koala's life is a tough one...

...sleeping up to 20 hours per day! 

A friendly kangaroo shared some gossip with Tim.

This merino sheep bleated a sigh of relief
as its fleece was quickly sheared.

At Outback Jack's in Cairns, there was a
massive crocodile on the wall...

...which meant we had to try the equally massive croc burger. Yum!

To top off our Australian adventure,
we explored the crystal clear waters of the Great Barrier Reef.

One of us was even brave enough to try scuba diving for the first time!

We had a terrific vacation in the land down under!