Thanks to the clever folks at Google, we have Google Earth. A patchwork quilt, if you will, of many satellite pictures all conveniently sewn together into an easy to use program. Get it at http://earth.google.com/ . Anyway, here's that island of Taiwan. It's smaller than Tasmania and has 22.5 million people on it. And check out the amount of green there is. Thats all mountains. That makes the bits where people live very crowded!

Taipei from above. We live north of downtown Taipei.

Tien Mu and surroundings. About a 45 minute hike to work for Li.

Our neighborhood! Tien Mu in all of its glory. A mere 10 minute walk from home to work.

I always though that lanterns were just used to light up your house. This one would be most impractical in a blackout.

One of the lantern floats. This one telling a story of a woman with poor peripheral vision.

The Chang Kai Shek Memorial again. This time on the night of the lantern festival. There were bands, acrobats and lantern displays (obviously).

It was a great day and everyone felt relaxed and snoozy on the bus ride home.

A "marble bath". Jets of water are sprayed down on you. It's like a massage. Please note the sexy yet practical headwear. Believe it or not, there is a chocolate factory just out of shot.

Naturally sourced hot springs north of Taipei were welcome warming relief after a chilly, rainy hike when the bus driver incorrectly dropped us off about an hour from our destination. It was only the kindness of some locals that cut our walking time down considerably when they stopped to give us a lift.

Danshui - We were promised a quaint seaside fishing village but what we got was half the population of Taiwan converging on a seemingly endless promenade filled with dried squid vendors and bad sideshows. Their fishing boats are kinda cool though.

The only shining light in Danshui. Needless to say, the store was shit. Makes me happy with the knowledge that Li and I will have work here for quite some time as English teachers.

Taipei 101. The tallest building in the world. The line to get to the observatory was almost as long as the building is tall but it was worth the wait. It also has the fastest elevator in the world. 89 floors in 35 seconds.

Extreme closeup!!! Also please check out the red carpet at the Chang Kai Shek Memorial.

A view from the top of the CKS Memorial. The two impressive structures in the background are concert halls. The two impressive structures in the foreground are Rich and Li.

The Chaing Kai Shek Memorial. Not to be confused with the Chaing Kai Shrek Memorial which is green.

Finished the evening off with some reflexology..... bliss!

Snake Alley (a night market that we just happend to come across) had some unusal delicacies.... tortoise anyone?

Temple offerings at Longshan.

We put on our tourist hats today and set out to explore the Longshan (Dragon Mountain) temple. We were told the city sleeps on New Years Day ......glad we caught it on a slow day...?
PS Where's Wally?