Happy Birthday Russ!

The blog from the other side. 

We were lucky to celebrate Russ's 29th birthday in Taiwan. Of course, since it was Russ's birthday and we are in Taiwan we had to go to a restaurant that truly celebrated the culture of the beautiful historical country that we live in: Le Ble D'or. Yes, a German/French/American cuisine restaurant is where we were found on July 28th 2015. Russ and I saw found this restaurant a couple of months ago, an interesting Bavarian restaurant that we knew we had to come back to enjoy a pint or two. 

The joy and uniqueness of this country is that it has all the appeal and culture of an older country and the accessibility of our western modern countries. So Russ and I were ready for our Bavarian experience. When we got there though, we realized it was actually Hawaii day in this German restaurant (because that happens every other week in these types of restaurants) - another great thing about Taiwan: themed days.

Russ still got his 1L German beer and enjoyed it very much.

 I had the traditional Louisiana jambalaya while Russ went back to his roots and had a lovely** seafood pasta. We had a fun night out for Russ's 29th birthday. To top it off, through hand gestures and a bit of explanation i was able to tell the server that it was Russ's birthday. We were surprised with a lovely serenade from the house singer. 

It was a fun filled adventure for Russ's birthday and I hope that we have many more German/Hawaiian filled experiences to come.

** as lovely as one can get for a pasta in Taiwan

BONUS:

Please enjoy the following pictures of our birthday boy enjoying his time in Taiwan.

Russ discovering land for the first time.

Russ being over the moon happy about all the hats that are around him. 

This is Banao. Russ loves Banao. Banao appreicates Russ. I am happy for both of them.

If Russ ever leaves me for food, it would be the Xiao Long Bao he is having in this picture (I would be okay with it too, its that amazing!). 

We are in an airport. Sharon is buying sandwiches. Our days in Taiwan are down to one and I will post more on final thoughts when I am back at my computer in a month or so. Our travels will take us to Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Japan.

Here's our flight to Singapore! More later!

Typhoon Soudelor

It was a sleepless night as Typhoon Soudelor smashed into Taiwan. Most of the damage took place along the east coast towns of Hualien and Su'ao, but that's not to say we didn't get hit hard in Taipei.

They had been calling for this Typhoon to come for 2 days now, but it took its time hitting land. By nightfall on Friday night, the rain came down in horizontal waves and the winds had picked up to be as strong as 200 km/h. 

The wind was enough to keep us awake, but the fear of destruction, possible power outages, and the intercom going off at 5:00 am 3 times were the biggest culprits of our sleeplessness.

We could hear things crashing outside but because our window faces another building, we had no actual idea what was going on in the outside world... until the morning...



...this is what the wind did around our building last night...

...first the trees.

...then the signs and scooters...

...then the mailboxes!

As you can see, we got some strong wind but not any flooding, so that is good. The only major damage came from signs and trees, all of the buildings in Taipei stayed in tact. Just staying inside today, planning for our departure next week, and waiting for the city to calm down. Until the next typhoon!

- RS=T