After a couple days in Taipei, we moved over to the Westin Taipei-- which is without question the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. We took a trip on the world's fastest elevator, to the top of the world's tallest completed building, Taipei 101. Here are a few pictures from that day:



Taipei 101.


A view of the city from the top of Taipei 101.


Taipei, as seen from the viewing platform.


It was quite windy on the viewing platform.



This is also the year of the cow, and Taipei is full of painted cows decorating the streets.

Taiwan Continued

I finally have a reliable internet connection, now that we have traveled out of the big city (funny how that works). We traveled by bus today to Yilan to see some of the countryside, hike and experience hot springs. First I suppose I should report on some of our previous days in Taipei.

We stayed the first two nights at a teacher's hotel near to where Maggie's parents live. From here we walked around the neighborhood enjoying the food: Taiwanese spicy beef noodles, dumplings, and Beijing-style Chinese food. Here are a few pictures from the first couple of days:



With Maggie in front of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.




National Concert Hall




The changing of the guard in front of Chiang Kai-shek's statue.




Mom and Dad in the botanical garden.


The first few days here have been particularly enjoyable. Taipei seems to be something of a cross between the sterile and proper culture of Japan and the wild, bustling free-for-all of China. This makes Taipei a city brimming with interesting things to observe and experience.

Taipei

The first night I was in Taipei I woke up at 3am and turned on the television, as I could not sleep. Excitingly I saw the draw for the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champion’s League. Unfortunately the writing was entirely in Chinese. I had no clue who was playing who. I settled in to watching one of four separate channels playing the world baseball classic. Eventually I fell back asleep, excited for my first full day in Taipei.
Our first day in Taipei was spent mainly walking around and eating. The food here is terrific. Last night we enjoyed the dumplings of a renowned restaurant. Nearly everything we were served was delicious. Yesterday, we also saw a shop that sold a variety of parts of geese, pigs and other animals. We only looked and did not actually eat, so I have not really eaten anything too odd.
We have seen many of the sights here so far: Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taipei 101, a night market and Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
I will have to continue with more later, including many pictures when I have a more reliable internet connection.

Asia

Greetings, from Tokyo. So we are not quite to Taiwan yet. The lovely family and I took a bump in exchange for some free airfare and spent the night in Tokyo. Japan is much the same way I remembered it-- so very different from the western world. I could not even figure out how to operate the toilet at the airport. Maybe this is more of my problem than theirs. We stayed at the Radisson, which ended up being quite nice accommodations and tasty food. Fortunately they had western food, as well as Japanese food. Almost time to fly again, four hours separate our party from Taipei.

A Megan and Laura Weekend

I must say that yesterday was one of the best days I have had in a long time. I talked and laughed so much that my throat hurt! I suppose the day started on Saturday evening when my lovely friend, Megan Merrihew, came over for dinner. After a slumber party evening, in which we watched Memento (Megan and Eddie are still discussing what really happened in the movie), we took a hike up to the Royal Arch. The trail was packed with people, and it was a beautiful warm (but not hot) afternoon.



Megan and me at the Royal Arch.



Megan



The Royal Arch.



A view of the first flatiron.

We capped the day by taking a speed shopping trip to the mall in Broomfield. We miraculously found a stunning dress for me to wear to Andrew's wedding in approximately 45 minutes. For dinner we whipped up some pizza, although with somewhat of an ingredients shortage. After dinner we watched a movie and I enjoyed my second slumber party night in as many days.