Dog Rules

This is for all the animal lovers out there. Note: if you're not a "pro-small-dog" person then prepare to be disgruntled. We are showing you the best of the best and all of these pictures are not the anomaly, they are the rule. Lets begin!

Dog Rule #1: It is acceptable to have a miniature dog off leash at the front of your store

This is very common. This little dog lives at this store and will not leave. So well trained that it amazes me. 

Dog Rule #2: This dog is too big to carry

Medium sized dogs are great but Wishbone over here is too big to carry and therefore is not as loved, as we will see moving forward. Its ok buddy!

Dog Rule #3: Your dog doesn't need legs!

This is more common than I'd like to see. Tiny dogs being carried by their owners. Some dogs are pushed in baby carriages, some are carried by hand. Either way I find this sad.

Dog Rule #4: Case in point

Again, this is more common than you would like to believe

Dog Rule #5: Short snout dogs are in...

 ...but they have respiratory issues which makes it hard for them to breathe in 

hot and humid weather...

Dog Rule #6: Give your dog a bizarre haircut

 no comment

Dog Rule #7: Always be selling!

 This girl is really nice. We see her every day on our way home from work. Today she is selling double mint gum.

Dog Rule #8: Foxdog

 I'm not sure what breed of dog this is but it's super cool and lots of people have them. They are a good medium sized dog that looks like a fox with a curly tail.

Dog Rule #9: Just to reiterate, dogs are off leash and hang out at the front of stores  

 This dog's name is Love but I thought her name was Glove

 Dog Rule #10: Seeing a big dog is a rare sight, so give it a good scrub on the head!

I was surprised to see a boxer, but I was so happy when I did. Apparently, this boy is 13 years old, which is amazing for a boxer. He was old, slow, and heavy, but certainly loved a little roughhousing.

Welp, thats it for dogs! I will leave you with one final dog, that is exclusive to Taiwan. It's low maintenance, makes no noise, and is great with the kids! 

- RS=T

A Bike Ride Down the Red Line

Greetings!

It's Monday morning before work, and what better a time than now to reflect on the past week. Since Wednesday we have had nothing but heavy rain, which is not uncommon for Taiwan, but has been rare since we've arrived here. Needless to say we have to try hard to keep our stuff dry or it will take forever to dry again. Luckily for me, I (Russ) got a chance to take a really nice bike ride through Taipei the day before the rain came. Here I'd thought I'd share this journey with you.

I woke up and went to work from 9 - 12. After that I went to one of the most Northern areas of the city, Beitou: where the hot springs are. When I got there I remembered that I had a cut on my toe and I really didn't want to go in the hot springs with it. So I hopped on a bike and took the 3 hour journey home.

The subway in Taipei is on par with the best in the world. It has 5 lines and this one (the red line) is one of the two that goes above ground. What I love about Taipei is that it does not spoil an opportunity to throw down a bike path. As I discovered, the majority of the northern red line has a bike trail that runs parallel underneath it.

Along the way I discovered some miniature bouldering rocks, so I stopped an played around on them for a bit.

Then I stopped at a fruit market. Check out these beautiful watermelons and durians.

As I was cruising off the bike path and into a market, I realized that I had been here the day of the baseball game. It was cool to stumble into a place that you've been before. Pictured below are two ladies cleaning their pots as they open their stall for the day. Note: this is being cleaned by a hose down to the sewer. This is a quite common practice and does not phase us nor has it made us sick. Our philosophy on this whole trip has been simple, if it's good enough for locals then it's sure good enough for us.

 This is a common sight as well. Periodically throughout the day people will pull out these fire bins and burn "money". The idea is that they are burning money into the afterlife for their loved ones.

Once that trail ended I decided to hop into the riverside trail. These trails go all across Taipei and the reason they exist is to create a buffer for when large amounts of rain comes. Every park has a giant retaining wall that is designed to withstand river flooding and protect the city. Here are some pics.

Baseball Diamonds

A biking bridge to go over the retaining wall used to keep the river from flooding into the city in case of enormous rains.

Along the retaining wall there is lots of cool art. This one caught me so I had to take a picture. It's the Taiwan flag with their Presidential Palace. There are lots of cool things to look at and I love that they use this space for art not advertising. 

This guy's playing the sax by the river. How about that.

 -RS=T

Miscellaneous Adventures

I know it's been a few weeks since our last update, so we apologize. Since our last post we've had 3 people come to visit as well as digging into various projects. It's Monday morning before work so I (Russ) thought I'd fire off some pictures to update you all. Enjoy!

 Taipei 101 from the base: this building is taller than the CN tower and just as unnecessarily expensive to go up it

 Some cool structures on Tiger Mountain

 Either the worst sword or the best umbrella ever made

 A staple in our diet. Japanese style teppanyaki prepared right in front of us as we eat.

 A tree with danglies

 The world in tile form

The McMilktea: a Taiwan exclusive McDonald's dessert

 Korean BBQ with Cassie and Byron

 Beitou public hot springs: for $40NT (<$2 CAD) you can enjoy hanging out with a lot of old Taiwanese people and soak in natural hotspring water. The hotter pools are at the top and as the water filters down it gets progressively less hot. After going here we were the most relaxed we've ever been.

 A cool tree.

 A tiny zamboni.

 The view from the Maokong Gondola. This gondola goes from the end of the city subway line, up the mountain to a place that sells very unique and delicious mountain tea. In the picture is Sharon's friend Rose from England. It was great having her and Joe visit and miss them lots!

 More on the gondola.

 Heavenly meat bags.

 The Avengers (and Jason Stathem looking pissed off with a gun)

I woke up one morning at 5:30 and biked to the park. Expecting it to be empty I realized that the park is alive and well at that time of day with people doing Tai Chi. It was neat to see.

BAM! Everybody stretch!

The next day I felt like this egg. Give me warm bacon to snuggle with...

 The best article of clothing yet.

 This board game.

This artist at the market close to our place.

 Lunch: rice steamed in a bamboo shoot, greens and garlic, pork, and river shrimp.

 Wulai Waterfalls (approx 1.5 hours south of Taipei). Wulai is another place with natural hot springs. What is cool about Wulai is that it's not in the city so the riverbed is all hot spring

Cable car that goes up to the waterfall. 

 The view from the cable car.

Sharon in the hot spring. Where her feet were it was perfect bath temperature. If she were to move her feet to the right of that rock, it would be hot jacuzzi temperature, and if she were to walk 3 feet into the river she'd get cool lake temperature. It was an amazing experience that is hard to explain and even harder believe as a Canadian.

It's been a great few weeks and we look forward to taking more day trips and showing you those. Godspeed all! 

- RS=T