We are the tourist attraction

Happy Flora Expo posters

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Night cuddle in Taipei

* The Zoo

Taroko Gorge

Papa

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The boyz

Misha and the teenagers

Tony, our Taroko driver and friend

Taipei's underground - piece of cake!

RIP chick

Beef noodles, veggies and beer

Teo making friends

A polite, generous nation

Noodles and chop sticks - no problem!!

Train - no problem!

Love the buttons

Lunch stop

Entrance to Taroko National Park

Hiking the Taroko trails

The most pure water

The chief

More noodles...and beer

Basse having a well deserved bath

Good people

Dumplings and bubble tea

Picture line up, we are the attraction

Street decor

101, number two in hight

Taiwan
We read an article about the best beef noodles in the world, exceptionally pretty nature and it being an unknown Asian gem. We booked tickets, three weeks in Taiwan starting in Taipei.

Arriving from Thailand with mostly summer dresses and flip flops, it was cold in January. Winter, rain and 8 degrees, brrrr. Taipei is densly populated, 3 million people, polluted by cars, but very clean and organized. The line ups outside the underground is marked with different colours for on and off going passengers, people follow the lines and there is no fuzz. If you are with children, old or have a hard time moving people will happily give away their seats. A simple rule in no food and drinks results in spotless, shiny trains. They don't even chew gum. Magnhild, you and Norway might want to take a look for some inspiration!

They do have the second highest building in the world, insane! It is towering higher then the hills around and the clouds and even small airplanes will fly far below. Being number two in hight we can now confirm, their noodles are great and a winner. We had them in all shapes and consumed them in our own way. Misha gave the sticks a shot, Teo felt hands were acceptable.

I have found my perfect way of researching a new place to visit. Thanks to some fantastic bloggers we have been able to peek inside new places feeling a lot closer to our destination. As looking for some good fabric markets I found this woman and her blog.  People here didn't seem very interested in fashion, well human fashion, but dog fashion they liked. There where a lot of funny looking dogs and even funnier owners. Old men with mustache have labradors with bunny outfits or homeknitted polyester sweathers with matching fun fur leggings.

We visited Hualien on the east coast and Taroko National park. The lakes are crystal clear and so beautiful, the forest is thick, green and full of wilderness. We found a wonderful man (not in the wildreness) but who had retired from the army, and one of the few who spoke gentle, great english. Tony took us on a day trip around the Taroko Gorge. He pointed out all the treasures, the rocks formed as faces or animals, the shrines and the secret trails. We will have to come back for some fabolous hiking, but for now we did smaller walks and went biking down the coast. We saw monkeys, birds and fish and met some of the aboriginals living there. Amazing.

(*) We did visit the zoo, I hate to admit it. Misha had seen the Panda bear poster and we went. Even though they live in captivity there, it was a beautiful park and a huge area.

During three weeks in Taiwan, we hardly saw any white people. We felt like the main tourist attraction. Steffen was asked more then once if he was a movie star, which he of course is and I think our kids and ourselves will be appearing in many Chinese family albums in the near future.