Random pictures from our time in Taiwan:
Floats from the Taipei Lantern Festival
Another Lantern Festival float. Note the large cup of bubble tea.
The best bowl of niu rou mian I had on the trip. From the Taiwan Train station 2F at Green Onion. YUM.
The mascot for the Taipei 101 building. I get that it’s eyes and mouth say 101, but why is it called Damper Baby? Mysterious Taiwan, that is why.
The girls with Ed/Steve at the Taipei effing Flower Show.
Flower Show weirdness.
Mr. A under the New Year’s rabbit at a temple. Supposedly he was praying for longevity, prosperity and fortune, but my guess is he was focusing the most on fortune. Heh.
Toasting the oldest Aunties and Uncles at the family banquet.
Street where MIL grew up. These aren’t the original buildings, though, they were mostly rebuilt after a big earthquake 13 years ago.
In honor of my birthday, the children insisted I risk my life by riding this deathcab over Sun Moon Lake. Fortunately, we survived. Gah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuned_mass_damper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_101#Construction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_101#Observatories
“The Indoor Observatory stands 383.4 m (1,258 ft) above ground, offering a comfortable environment, large windows with UV protection, recorded voice tours in eight languages, and informative displays and special exhibits. Here one may view the skyscraper’s main damper, nicknamed “Damper Baby”, and buy food, drinks and gift items.”
Thank you for posting about your trip. I feel I learned a lot about China and Taiwan.
Love the photos. The trip over the lake would have killed me, but how gorgeous!
Thanks for these — I was missing photo updates. That trip over the lake would have killed me, too, but what an experience all the same. Amazing views.
Wow-the floats from the Lantern Festival are beautiful!
Fun to see photos from Taiwan.
That’s Lucky Red one of the 4 Damper babies, the “Damper” comes from the huge damper in the 101 – its like this huge heavy weight that stops the building swaying too much in the wind you can view it on the floor just below the observatory There are 4 Damper Babies red, gold, silver and black.
What amusing views and commentary about your trip – thank you for the laughs! I return to Taiwan in 2012 for my high school reunion with my adopted daughter and look forward to seeing her reactions to so much of this ‘mysterious weirdness’ that is Made in Taiwan.