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Showing posts with label scenic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scenic. Show all posts
Monday, May 25, 2009
Video
When my parents were here, we went to Taroko Gorge, which has many cliffs and suspension bridges that are quite scary. We had to cross one and here is an amazing video from that experience. If you listen very closely at about 4 or 5 seconds in you can hear my mom screaming. Pretty amazing.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Parents and Taiwan
My parents were able to visit me and here is proof that they actually came!
Outside the National Palace Museum. My mom got really good elbowing her way around to see things. She's pretty much Taiwanese.
At the temple for a dog.
I finally got a picture of this. My battery died the first time we came when I went to get a shot.
Another look at Yeliu.
Phil and I had not actually visited a Hot Springs until my parents came. Here is the picture of the bath in our room. It turns out that there actually is a cold for this bath, but we did not figure that out until the next morning. We filled the bath all the way and then realized that we were going to give ourselves third degree burns if we got into the water. We decided to wait about 1/2 hour. When that didn't work, we began adding cold water from the shower nearby. That took another 1/2 hour. By the time we actually got into the water, it was nice. We still felt like it was sitting in a bath at home with rusty nails.
I have a great video for this suspension bridge. As soon as I figure out how to post it, it will be up. Oh, this is at Taroko Gorge.
The parents.
We decided to drive over Hehuanshan to get to our school, which stands for Snow Mountain. The drive was incredible, but we will never do it again. We made my mom carsick by driving this road. Oh and the last hour was terrifying. You can see the road we just drove on in the distance:
This is what the last 1 hour looked like, except you can't see the massive drop off to the right and left:
A better view of the road. We don't want to find out if the guard rail will hold us. In fact, we had to back up at one point because in most parts the road is only 1 lane and a large truck was coming the other way. Oh and like driving in Taiwan, they do pass you if they can.
We were really sad when my parents left, but were excited when we could make:
And tonite, we get chili!
Outside the National Palace Museum. My mom got really good elbowing her way around to see things. She's pretty much Taiwanese.
This is either the national theater or the concert hall. One of our students will be playing there this coming Wednesday. We would go if Taipei wasn't 3 hours away and we didn't have classes early the next morning.
At the temple for a dog.
I finally got a picture of this. My battery died the first time we came when I went to get a shot.
Another look at Yeliu.
Phil and I had not actually visited a Hot Springs until my parents came. Here is the picture of the bath in our room. It turns out that there actually is a cold for this bath, but we did not figure that out until the next morning. We filled the bath all the way and then realized that we were going to give ourselves third degree burns if we got into the water. We decided to wait about 1/2 hour. When that didn't work, we began adding cold water from the shower nearby. That took another 1/2 hour. By the time we actually got into the water, it was nice. We still felt like it was sitting in a bath at home with rusty nails.
I have a great video for this suspension bridge. As soon as I figure out how to post it, it will be up. Oh, this is at Taroko Gorge.
The parents.
We decided to drive over Hehuanshan to get to our school, which stands for Snow Mountain. The drive was incredible, but we will never do it again. We made my mom carsick by driving this road. Oh and the last hour was terrifying. You can see the road we just drove on in the distance:
This is what the last 1 hour looked like, except you can't see the massive drop off to the right and left:
A better view of the road. We don't want to find out if the guard rail will hold us. In fact, we had to back up at one point because in most parts the road is only 1 lane and a large truck was coming the other way. Oh and like driving in Taiwan, they do pass you if they can.
The temple at Sun Moon Lake. We live 5 minutes from here.
We were really sad when my parents left, but were excited when we could make:
And tonite, we get chili!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Pictures
I think that this may be the last of the blogs we do about our trip to Malaysia and the Philippines. Currently, Phil and I are really busy trying to get things together for an accreditation meeting happening on Monday for our school. Nothing to be scared about because it is our first meeting and our first year operating. We are just really busy. Phil and I got to go to Hong Kong last weekend because, well, Phil couldn't really stay in Taiwan any longer. He had to go early to get another visa and I joined him Friday afternoon. I would post pictures of our trip, but Phil took all the pictures and they are with him currently. We did go here, but these are not our pictures. Instead, enjoy more pictures of our Chinese New Year Trip. :)
Just so you can see who else was around.
We had the opportunity to go to Mount Kinabalu National Park, where you can hike to the tallest peak in the area. It was pretty neat to go to and the above picture was taken leaving our hotel. Those are clouds. The following pictures are the view of Mount Kinabalu from our hotel room. We would have climbed the mountain, but it takes 2 days and, well, you really need to be in shape, so we decided to just hike below the summit. (Walking for half a mile a day the week before does not define "being in shape",
This is the visitor center and the next few pictures are from our walk through the park. Also, you can see how messy it really was. It was really amazing!
Amazing!
World's Largest Flower. That is a large fly on the petal. This is about 3/4 of a meter across.
I am pretty confidant that the baby is the newest addition to the reserve.
Just so you can see who else was around.
We had the opportunity to go to Mount Kinabalu National Park, where you can hike to the tallest peak in the area. It was pretty neat to go to and the above picture was taken leaving our hotel. Those are clouds. The following pictures are the view of Mount Kinabalu from our hotel room. We would have climbed the mountain, but it takes 2 days and, well, you really need to be in shape, so we decided to just hike below the summit. (Walking for half a mile a day the week before does not define "being in shape",
This is the visitor center and the next few pictures are from our walk through the park. Also, you can see how messy it really was. It was really amazing!
Amazing!Monday, March 2, 2009
More wildlife!
Here is some more wildlife from our trip. At some point we will actually begin posting about some things that we have been doing more recently...
While the orangutan was very exciting to see, we could also see it if we wanted to go to Indonesia. There is another primate that we can only see in Borneo. Because of this, we decided to splurge and headed to the proboscis monkey reserve located in the palm tree plantations surrounding Sandakan in Borneo. It was incredible and I am extremely glad we got to see these rare primates. While there, I got this video of an oriental pied hornbill.
And why we actually went:
There is one dominate male (The largest in the family) and he has a harem of women. This is one of the families.
Here are some pictures so you can see the proboscis monkey more clearly.
While the orangutan was very exciting to see, we could also see it if we wanted to go to Indonesia. There is another primate that we can only see in Borneo. Because of this, we decided to splurge and headed to the proboscis monkey reserve located in the palm tree plantations surrounding Sandakan in Borneo. It was incredible and I am extremely glad we got to see these rare primates. While there, I got this video of an oriental pied hornbill.
And why we actually went:
There is one dominate male (The largest in the family) and he has a harem of women. This is one of the families.
Here are some pictures so you can see the proboscis monkey more clearly.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Our Trip, part 1
We started our trip by going to Carrefoure (think a 2 story Walmart) to get a few items, such as bug spray (it was taken at the airport because it was in an aerosol can), a power converter (we left ours in the states), some snack bars and leech socks (Actually we read somewhere that you can use pantyhose in place of the leech socks. Guess what we were getting at Carrefoure) Parking was interesting and here is the result:
To get to the next picture, we flew to Manilla, Philippines on a Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, we caught a flight to the island of Cebu in the Philippines. Once there, we caught a metered taxi which took us to the bus station where we then caught a bus to Malapascua Island (The bus did not have air conditioning and all the windows were opened) We road that for a little over 4 hours. When we arrived into Cebu, it was 2 pm and when we left, it was around 3:30, so by the time we got to the pier to catch a boat to Malapascua island it was around 7:30 and it was pitch dark. We had asked the guy taking tickets on the bus if there was a place where we could stay for the night. He pointed into the town and said somewhere in there. We were literally the last people to get off the bus and it was literally in the middle of nowhere. At the same time, we were told by some guys hanging out at the pier that they could take us to the island for php 1500 ($30). We had read that we could catch a ferry for php 100 ($2.00) so we said we were not interested. We did ask if there was a hotel somewhere we could stay at. They then said that they would take us to this hotel along with our baggage. Between the two of us, we had 1 small roller bag, 1 large roller bag, 1 camera bag, 1 purse and 1 backpack with a laptop in it, so when they pulled up with 2 motorcycles, we were a little worried about where they were 1. going to take us and 2. what we were going to do with our stuff.
Somehow they got us onto the motorcycles. The big suitcase was put between the guy that Phil was riding with and Phil. He was a little worried. Also, this was the first time I have ever ridden on a motorcycle and so when we took off at night with no helmets, I was a little worried. Also, we were trusting on God that these guys weren't going to take us to the middle of nowhere, take our money and run (without us). The entire time we were riding, I was trying not to scream and also I was praying. Luckily, they took us to a hotel which also had food. (another good thing as the hotel was in the middle of nowhere) We were releaved.
The next morning, we caught the following to the island. Here is a picture of Phil trying to save php 20 ($.50) by carrying the bags himself. I was impressed.
(He is saving it not because he is cheap, but because were really annoyed to have to continuously give out money every 2 seconds for someone doing literally nothing) Another picture from our sweet ride.
I am certain that Phil will write more about our trip to Malapascua, but here was the view from our first hotel room. We moved from this place not because the trees were in the way, but because the toilet did not have a seat and because were trying to avoid being bothered about going snorkeling with some guys who were a little shady. Besides the small inconveniences of getting to the island it was a beautiful place.
To get to the next picture, we flew to Manilla, Philippines on a Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, we caught a flight to the island of Cebu in the Philippines. Once there, we caught a metered taxi which took us to the bus station where we then caught a bus to Malapascua Island (The bus did not have air conditioning and all the windows were opened) We road that for a little over 4 hours. When we arrived into Cebu, it was 2 pm and when we left, it was around 3:30, so by the time we got to the pier to catch a boat to Malapascua island it was around 7:30 and it was pitch dark. We had asked the guy taking tickets on the bus if there was a place where we could stay for the night. He pointed into the town and said somewhere in there. We were literally the last people to get off the bus and it was literally in the middle of nowhere. At the same time, we were told by some guys hanging out at the pier that they could take us to the island for php 1500 ($30). We had read that we could catch a ferry for php 100 ($2.00) so we said we were not interested. We did ask if there was a hotel somewhere we could stay at. They then said that they would take us to this hotel along with our baggage. Between the two of us, we had 1 small roller bag, 1 large roller bag, 1 camera bag, 1 purse and 1 backpack with a laptop in it, so when they pulled up with 2 motorcycles, we were a little worried about where they were 1. going to take us and 2. what we were going to do with our stuff.
Somehow they got us onto the motorcycles. The big suitcase was put between the guy that Phil was riding with and Phil. He was a little worried. Also, this was the first time I have ever ridden on a motorcycle and so when we took off at night with no helmets, I was a little worried. Also, we were trusting on God that these guys weren't going to take us to the middle of nowhere, take our money and run (without us). The entire time we were riding, I was trying not to scream and also I was praying. Luckily, they took us to a hotel which also had food. (another good thing as the hotel was in the middle of nowhere) We were releaved.
The next morning, we caught the following to the island. Here is a picture of Phil trying to save php 20 ($.50) by carrying the bags himself. I was impressed.
(He is saving it not because he is cheap, but because were really annoyed to have to continuously give out money every 2 seconds for someone doing literally nothing) Another picture from our sweet ride.
I am certain that Phil will write more about our trip to Malapascua, but here was the view from our first hotel room. We moved from this place not because the trees were in the way, but because the toilet did not have a seat and because were trying to avoid being bothered about going snorkeling with some guys who were a little shady. Besides the small inconveniences of getting to the island it was a beautiful place.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Things that are commonly found in Taiwan
Road construction that sort of makes sense.
(They are setting up for a funeral. This is on a MAIN road, such as Route 9 in Shrewsbury or 290 in Austin, Tx. This was set up for the funeral and it is blocking half the road. This is REALLY common here)
Taiwan is basically mountains.
It wouldn't be a home without a ridiculously big spider in it.
We work with these people
That would be Moriah, the 4-6th grade teacher wearing the way awesome helmet and Jeremy, our fearless leader on the right with the amazing shades.
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