Saturday in Miaoli

Many thanks to MJ & Hui-Chen for inviting us to a BBQ party at the Miaoli cabin and we are also very grateful to Becky and family for their hospitality at the cabin. MJ has already written a detailed account on the day with loads of food pictures. What a wonderful place it is to spend a weekend relaxing, bbqing, listening to great music and talking with friends.

The weather was perfect and the drive to the cabin provided some spectacular views. At times I felt like I was in Hualien. Here are couple pictures from the day.

I had to DIY this shade for susan as the Sun was on her side most of the time.

We did meet a passing shower though.

Since it was our first time to the cabin we obviously lost our way among Miaoli mountain roads and were waiting for the someone to show us the sideroad to the cabin.

The party was in full swing by this time and soon we brought the monster TV out in the porch for a KTV session. Boy that TV must have weighed more than 50 kg. Never knew they could be so heavy.

Everyone enjoyed the small farm in front of the cabin. Caleb, David and John had lots of fun throwing the ball. I am sure Caleb had great time playing and thereafter catching shrimps later in the evening.

In the meantime we were pulling our parental duties. We recently had Susan’s hair cut short.

Hui-chen’s mom holding Susan.

Later in the evening we went to Aadong’s new place in Hukou for dinner. Thanks again MJ and Hui-chen for accompanying us for the dinner. It was a great fun hanging out with everyone; MJ & Hui-chen, Carrie, John and Caleb, David and Catherine and Neil and family at the cabin and we are looking forward to more future parties there.

BBQ afternoon in Sanxia

On Saturday, forecasted weekend showers didn’t bother turning up so we went ahead with our plan to spend an afternoon in Sanxia, BBQing with my sister-in-law’s family and their friends. The place was somewhere in Sanxia outskirts, couple minutes away from AnChuGong hospital where our Susan was born. We had to navigate complex maze of narrow roads flanked with gorgeous rice paddies and occasional lotus field on either side to reach it. I had been there just a weekend before and that helped me find it without any help this time. It is an old house built with a minimalist approach and apparent lack of stuff in the house was amusing and pleasing at the same time. It has a private compound and that is where we were supposed to BBQ.

I couldn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked since my camera was pretty low on battery. My battery charger is lying somewhere in our Changhua house. I left it there on our last trip but still I am quite surprised that the battery lasted that long considering I was there couple weeks ago.

I wasn’t sure how many people were expected but it turned out to be a LOT and it meant lots of car. What seemed like a large empty space filled up in no time leaving less space for children to run around or ride bicycles.

In a flash grills were setup and everybody got down to BBQing/Grilling or whatever. My SIL’s husband runs a small tea-coffee-juice drinks store chain and hence had arranged various flavors of teas to go with BBQ. That made the humidity and heat a lot bearable.

I barely knew anyone there but by the end of it made couple friends, one of them was a former pilot.

Later in the evening I slipped out for a bit. Just wanted to loosen up and also take a look at a temple that I saw on our way. I hardly bumped into someone in one hour of walking. I didn’t quite enjoy the overcast skies, occasional banter coming from some house and lifeless roads. I was particularly wary of stray dogs and fortunately didn’t ran into any of them. Well I did ran into two of them but they were not even close to threatening me.

I walked by a workshop where couple young tattooed blokes were working on a metal ladder. Sparks of soldering and ambient light made a good sight. No one would have noticed me as long as I kept my mouth shut but I had to walk up to one of them and ask politely if I could take their photo. And that they didn’t agree so I just walked ahead feeling a little disappointed. I kept walking shooting stray cats and rusty old car on the side of road on my way.

After what seemed like eternity I realized I wasn’t even close to the temple so turned back and came back in time when everyone was singing a birthday song to celebrate someone’s birthday with a huge cake. And after that another and thankfully last round of seafood grilling commenced.

By the end of it I was sick of eating and just sat on the compound ground gazing aimlessly into dark sky above. Folks had started leaving, making there way back home slowly. We were the last one to leave, not before promising to come back again, most likely during moon festival.

Dragon boat festival vacation

Better late than never ;) Here are some pictures from dragon boat festival vacation that we spent in Changhua and Nantou county.

On Friday dragon Boat races took place at several locations across Taiwan and we had planned to witness one in Lugang. Anurag and Reena joined us in Changhua one the same morning. Unfortunately we were a bit late to catch the action. Nevertheless we then wandered on Lugang’s old street sampling foods and Lugang delicacies. We found ourselves getting in and out of every other store on our way just to escape unbearable afternoon heat.

No action. All we could see was this stationary dragon boat on display

Ja La

Cap Eyes

We had left Susan with Selina’s sister at her Changhua house and glad we did because the heat and continuous dragging around would have been very hard on her.

free green onion pancakes

Lugang Mazu temple was bustling with hordes of people and we thought we would never get in. Luckily people were lining up for the free green onion pancakes distributed by temple and the actual line to get inside the temple was pretty short. I have been to handful of temples in Taiwan but this was the first time I found cameras weren’t allowed indoors.

Feng Chia Night Market crowd – photo by Anurag

Later in the night we went to Feng Chia night market in Taichung. BIG MISTAKE. I have been to Feng Chia several times but this particular day it was crazy out there. Somewhere in the middle we got stuck in people jam and it took us good part of an hour just to get through that 100m section. At times I felt like I was moving at an inch per minute speed. At the very first opportunity we got out of the line,went through the Feng Chia University compound and bought a bowl of mala chou tofu from one of our favorite restaurant thingy just next to university gate. After all that days walking and Feng Chia mayhem, all we wanted was to get back to Susan. We missed her dearly throughout the day.

Next day we started in the direction of Xitou but on the way,not surprisingly, heard on radio that the place was packed and roads were full of cars. We turned our way to QingJing farm/Hehuan mountain but traffic on the way was terrible. It is no longer fun to get out on weekends or public holidays anymore. Reluctantly we chose to go to sun moon lake even though we had been there several times except for Reena. On our way though we saw a board of Formosa Aboriginal Cultural Village which seemed like an amusement park. 30 minutes and 700 nt$ each got us inside and we found ourselves in the parking lot which was apparently a beautiful lawn opened since all other usual parking lots were full.

Lawn parking

skyline – UFO Drop ride

The first thing anyone notices in the park is the towering Skyline ride and that is what we took first which was a good thing and very bad thing. Good because otherwise I wouldn’t have taken it after experiencing any other rides and very bad because its total madness,crazy thing to do and I was very badly shaken up after taking it. We took a seat and then the tower platform raised ever so slowly to the top of the tower. It takes about 30 secs to the top and you can enjoy an awesome view of the park including European style garden while the wind blows in your face. Every sec on the way though I was continuously screaming “Why in the hell I agreed for this and that too by paying 700 nt$?” also cursing others for talking me into this. Once at the top I was wondering we might get a notice or signal but nah whats the fun in that. Without notice the platform dropped dead letting the gravity take over. It took just 2 secs or even less to get to the bottom. Not to mention I had my eyes closed all the way down. And in another moment of madness I agreed to do it again thinking this experience would help ease my nerves for the second attempt and boy I was SO wrong. This time I was desperate to keep my eyes open and I did. It truly shook me up second time around. All my sense went for a toss and I was pretty numb thereafter the whole day. Its truly throw-yourself-off-the-cliff kinda adventure.

Caribbean splash boarding

The only other ride I did after that was the Caribbean splash boarding which was relatively easy but it drained out whatever enthusiasm I had left after skyline. It may not be that scary for others in fact Anurag and Reena quite enjoyed it and even went for the third time but if you are like me who is petrified of heights then it is your worst nightmare come true stuff.

Spinning around

Nevertheless the park is quite a pleasing place, well maintained. Waiting time for the rides was close to nothing. It a very good place to hang out on a weekend especially if you have kids. There is a lot to do there. Walk in the European style garden and live folk dance shows for example. Best time to visit it seems is the Cherry Blossom Festival in February every year as you can see from Todd’s post.

View from Cable car

I love cable cars. It still freaks me out to sit high up in the air in a glass box hanging on to a rope but the silence and beauty around kinda keeps my nerves under wrap. Ours was among the last couple rounds before cable car rope way shut down at 4:30 pm.

Sun moon lake sunset

We left the place at 5 pm and again got back on our way to Sun Moon lake and spent a quiet evening on the shore. No boat ride or visit to Wenpu temple, just sat there idle, listening to plethora of voices which I wouldn’t hear on a normal day. Selina took a nap in the car since she was quite exhausted after all days driving around and crazy roller coaster rides. Later we came back Changhua and accidentally stumbled upon a total vegetarian restaurant,much to the delight of Anurag and Reena.

In the end it was very exhausting and all I wanted to do next couple days was to rest and that is what I did.
More photos in my Dragon Boat festival vacation flickr set.

Our bundle of joy, Susan

So its been a while since I wrote something here. Tons of things have happened over the past couple months, most forgettable and and duly forgotten. But then among them there is this one beautiful moment that we will remember in its entirety as long as we walk this blue planet and that is the birth of our first child, a daughter.

There she is behind the glass partition. Doctors had to put her under observation as she had swollen eyes possibly due to some infection.

Selina holding Susan couple hours after she was born.

And that is me holding her for the first time. In fact that was the first time ever I was holding a new born child. Since then we have been enjoying taking care of her, changing diapers in the middle of night, learning the ropes of parenting and whole lot of other things. Susan has been incredible so far. She seems like a tough girl. I haven’t really got around taking some nice shots of her. She is either sleeping or staying on her bed most of the. Work too has been relentless in last couple months. I can’t seem to find a way to avoid long hours at work lately. Selina has been terrific though. Taking care of a new born is hell of a job. Susan, until recently used to wake up every 3~4 hours but now she has started sleeping through the night which is a very very welcome relief.

This new addition to the family also necessitated an upgrade (sorry about that,occupational hazards) to our transportation means. We just got ourselves a tiny new Toyota Yaris.

Hope this will facilitate our travels around this not so tiny island nation. We already took her on our recent trip to Changhua and Nantou county during the Dragon Boat festival vacation.

Strawberries in Puli

strawerry farm, puli

Thursday we went to Puli for strawberry picking. A Day before that Selina’s sister had come back to Changhua with her children and Thursday her husband joined the family. Kids were tired of running around the house and needed some more entertainment so off we went.

On the way to Puli we passed by numerous flower farms;seas of yellow, pink, purple with magenta edges but mostly yellow flowers. It was tempting to get out there and take pictures but others were not much exited about it so we carried on towards Puli. After much deliberation we decided to stop by a farm surgically manufactured between two huge properties, way much smaller than the one we went to in Miaoli in the winter of 2007.




Kids quickly went about their business and started hunting delicious looking strawberries like a seasoned hunter. Surprisingly luscious, dark red strawberries were aplenty, given that many of the surrounding farms were overflowing with people. I guess this particular farm went unnoticed being the smallest around. The boxes filled up in no time and we were left with more time to kill in the afternoon.

My father-in-law works for SWCB so he took us to one of the SWCB maintained farms somewhere in Caotun hills, a very huge property spreading over several hills. Handful of dwellings look over expanse full of varied plant life. As we settled in I enjoyed couple of berries and watched kids ride bicycles around the farm.



A very loud karaoke played in one of the small houses hampered the otherwise peaceful serenity of the surroundings. After some time I walked around to familiarize myself with the farm. Couple of huge domesticated dogs barked from their hutch as I walked by them. Meanwhile in-laws helped themselves to pick fresh vegetables from the huge backyard hidden behind tall betelnut tree lines.




tree tops against blue sky

As the Sun neared hilltops, betelnut trees imbued sun rays creating a magnificent orange sky above the farmland.




Later in the evening we went to yet another restaurant near Jhongsing village circle. At this rate I guess we will soon run out of all new restaurants there and will have to start over.


my father-in-law took this photo

Please check more photos from the day in a chronological order from my flickr set.