Taipei Fullerton East-Formerly Crowne Plaza Taipei

... other teachers from school. It is a big dance club in Taipei! We got there early because we wanted to avoid lines and paying a cover fee. As it got later the club got pretty full with both Taiwanese and foreigners. We danced the night away. Throughout the night they had some entertainment. There was a group of 4 girls that would come on and dance, there was a dance performance by 3 guys and then the bartenders put on a show with flaming bottles. We left the club around ...

... two scoops; White Chocolate and Stratacella. The sky was the limit, literally, as we made it to the 5th floor to buy our tickets for the 89th floor observatory. We entered the elevator, the doors closed and the lights dimmed. Our attention drawn to the overhead display, plotting our ascent. The 89th floor was reached in no less than 35 seconds, and we traveled at approximately 1010 metres per minute.... ears popped! Visibility was reduced by the ...

... I was really happy to find that most of the signs were in English and they had interesting informative details about the carvings on the doors and each room. The beds were HUGE and all about 1-2 feet off the floor. During the winter when it got cold the servants put hot coals under the bed to warm it. There was also an interesting kitchen many baskets which kept food were hung from the ceiling so the bug had a harder ...

we ended up getting on the train around 8:15 a.m. ate some chinese food for breakfast. wasn't bad. cheap and quite yummy. it's weird how the chinese fried doughnuts over here are so crispy instead of the delicious doughiness of the chinese ones. got to taroko national park and was very surprised by the whole place. it was so amazing. mountains ...

... like Chinese take-away boxes stacked on top of each other? Anyway, we also went to the top public floor which is open air and walked around the observation deck outside. There were security guards everywhere, because at one time some crazy guy climbed over the fence around the observation dec fence and base jumped (using a parachute) to the street below. No base jumpers tonight, just a bunch of tourists. We finished looking at the city and took the elevator ...

... lady by local standards, with an amazing smile and eyes, but as is typical with my luck lately, she not only had a boyfriend but was engaged. But I digress.. the place really starts only hopping after 11p or so, when they pull all the chairs near the bar, and let anyone dance who has the cohonies. Some can really dance, like the one I kept taking photos of, and some you hope they don't hurt themselves, as this one ...

Over the long weekend, my friend Shannon (a fellow JET from Shiga) and I had the bright idea to drop down to Taiwan. Little did we know, it's about 108 degrees in Taiwan right now, with a heat index that is too high to measure. I like to think of our trip as more of a mission, than a vacation. We flew down to Taiwan from KIX on Friday, checked into our hostel, and went out to scope out a night market. 4 hours later we were ...

... into the mountains, despite his degree. - He felt that his heart has really been with his love for the mountains and the nature, so he stayed. - Only once he was ready to give up and leave for good. This had been when a typhoon destroyed almost everything. He packed what was left and entered a bus to leave Lishan forever. Half the way down to Yilan he exited the bus and decided not to give up and start all over again. He now owns three fields in ...

... year business is slow, but in summer its pretty busy. Father still goes out surfing every day. On my question how long it takes to learn surfing, I get the answer at least a month - I hoped for a weekend crash course, so I put this project on the backburner. They give me desinfectants for my blisters. You want to see what they look like? See the last photos in photo album ( but be warned, it's not a pleasant sight ). This day is so over...

... two neighbors, workers from Taiwan for some job. My dinner for 180 NTD, which I had ordered by phone, is rice, sweet potato, vegetables, 3 shrimps, 2 pieces of fish with bones - be aware and warned: in Taiwan everything has still its bones when served and to make things even more challenging they chop the meat with the bones - fish ball soup - no bones - and a coke. At my table an older man also has its dinner and as he speaks some English .We have quite a nice ...