Drumming

Thursday, January 31


This morning we went to see some elementary school kids practice their drumming. One of Mei-Jen’s friends visited us last night with her husband and son. They invited us to see the rehearsal. We drove about ½ hour to get to the school. We only saw about 10 minutes of rehearsal, but it was interesting. We’ll go back to that town on Sunday to see a drumming (I think) festival. We walked around the school a bit and then drove to a sunflower field. Joy had a good time running around the field.

Temple

Wednesday, January 30


This afternoon, Guo-Yen was going to pick up Mei-Jen (his wife) at her parents' house. I decided to go along. Guo-Yen asked if I had my camera since we would see a temple.


Mei-Jen's parents live in a new house. We met her parents there and a niece. After eating some fruit and drinking some juice, we walked to the local temple. Mei-Jen's mother did not come along. Wow! This is something you need to see in person to truly appreciate. The details are incredible. Wood and stone carvings are everywhere. There is a main building with a large stove outside for burning paper money. Whatever is burned can go to the Gods or Ancestors for their use in heaven.

Temple

Guo-Yen, Mei-Jen and her father lit incense and prayed. They spent a lot of time explaining things to me. The niece is learning English and acted as our interpretor. Mei-Jen also speaks some English. They showed me where their names are carved right into the wall.

Lion

I took a lot of photos inside and then went outside while they burned the paper money.

Stove

They brought fruit and paper money for offerings. They said I could take photos inside and out. Apparently Mei-Jen's father had a lot to do with the planning and building of this temple. He went to mainland China to get some of the materials.

Dragon on the Roof

Chengching Lake

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Today we went to Chengching Lake. I figured this would be a good place to do some site seeing. Guo-Yen (younger brother-in-law), Hui-Ling, Dad, Joy and I went. The weather was warm, in the high 70's to low 80's. The ever present haze was there. A family friend met us outside of the entrance and got us in free of charge. How nice! The first thing we did was go to a playground. While Joy explored the playground, Dad and I walked up some steps to look around. We found a large statue of a clam. We took a few photos and then went back to find Joy. Hui-Ling suggested that Dad and I walk around with Guo-Yen while she and Joy play at the playground. We explored Feng Yuan Pavilion, a small, 2 storey, open-sided building, and then crossed the bridge of nine turns. Eventually we met up with Joy and HL. We all hopped in the car to see the 7 Stories Pagoda.

FengYuan Pavilion

After taking a few photos outside, we crossed the street and entered the pagoda. Dad climbed to the second floor. The rest of us went to the top via the circular stairway. Large open doorways give a view of the surrounding area from inside of the building. The brave can go outside the a narrow walkway that encircles the pagoda. There is a sturdy concrete barrier so I chose to go outside. I knew I would be angry with myself later if I didn't. (In case you don't know, I am VERY afraid of heights.) The view was nice. Too bad it was so hazy. I walked around a little and took a few photos before retreating back inside.

7 Story Pagoda

This is the Beginning

This blog is to primarily share my experience in Taiwan. The name of the blog is incorrect pinyin for “I am crazy”. I used it to make my first personal email account and don’t want to change it now to the correct “wofengle”. Hui-ling was trying to teach me Chinese, but neither of us knew about pinyin so I made up my own spelling system.
I didn’t find this site until it was too late.


The photo at the top of the page is the view from the back balcony of my sister-in-law’s apartment in Kaohsiung. I took it on our previous trip.
Feel free to visit my flickr site for more photos. www.flickr.com/wofungla
I don’t expect to add much until we get there. Come back the 26th or 27th!

Hotel

We booked a hotel room today. It’s cheaper to stay at a hotel near the airport than to park our car in longterm airport parking! I really didn’t want to leave our house early enough in the morning to make a 7:30 AM flight. We’ve got a free shuttle to and from the airport too.
Sure, friends offered to drive us, but I hate to take someone up on that offer. Also, we wouldn’t all fit in any of our cars. Too many people and too much luggage.

The Trip

We made it to Taiwan with almost no difficulty. The only scary part for me was at BWI. While checking in, we realized that HL forgot her Alien Resident card. Getting back into the US without it could be difficult. Luckily I am coming home a month and a half before she is. I can send it to her with plenty of time to spare.

The flight from BWI to Chicago was uneventful. Chicago to Tokyo Narita was 13 hours in the air, plus almost an hour on the ground in Chicago. We waited for people who were rebooking from a cancelled flight to Shanghai.

Joy behaved wonderfully. We had books and other things to keep her occupied. We walked around the plane a little bit. At one point she said she wanted to go outside. Fortunately for all of us, she did not fuss at all when I told her we could not.

Our layover in Japan was only about one hour. We were on the upper deck of the airplane. The seating was tighter than the flight from Baltimore, but there was plenty of space between the seat and the window. There was actually a ledge about 10 or 12 inches wide. Plus there were only 2 of us each in 2 three-seat rows. This flight went from Tokyo to Kaohsuing, our final destination, in about 2 hours and 45 minutes. I got to watch most of The Bourne Ultimatum. I thought we were stopping in Taipei. I’m very glad I was wrong.

We got through the thermal testing and immigration with no problems. Hui-Chen, Mei-Chen and Kuo-Yen were there to pick us up. Joy was a little bit shy at first, but that didn’t last long!

Strobist on a Big Scale in Taiwan

On the drive from the airport to the pharmacy (where Mama and Baba Tseng live) I saw street lights pointing up with flower petal shaped reflectors that bounced the light back down. I immediately thought of strobist.com. What a great site. Check it out if you like photography.