my cousin.

Jacqui with Jenny from the block

I went to see Jacqui and her kids at a Christmas concert. I brought along the new camera to be a super shutter bug. It was a great time for me... my face still hurts from laughing. Jacqui and her teacher friends danced to a Tom Jones song. Anyways, here is a pic from the concert. More soon.

- brad

New Camera/ New Picture

We got a new camera for Christmas... and we have started learning how to use it. Here is a nice pic of the girls from Season Arts.

Enjoy.

My Merry Family

Here is a little snapshot of my family around Christmas time. They really dive into the holiday spirit. You can watch a video of them doing a traditional dance number here. DANCE VIDEO

a little guest appearance!

I opened for a really great singer songwriter at a bar in Taichung City. Here is a little clip from a song a did with her. You can check her out online and buy the cd or just enjoy some of the free clips.

ciao.

her name is faye blais.

www.fayeblais.com

myspace.com/fayeblaismusic

a quick note

Hi friends. We went camping this weekend on the east coast. The place was called Fuhlong and it was really great. It was nice to get out of the city and the weather really helped too.... felt like summer again. We hope to go on a photographin' christmas break down the east coast... should a lot of fun. Also, we are 95% that we are moving to a much nicer bohemian-type apartment just down the road from where we are now. The rent is basically the same, but it feels much more like home. We will post pictures of all of the new happenings soon. We hope everyone is well.

cheers,

jacqui and brad

Culture Shock

During ghost month in Taiwan lots of interesting things happen. There is praying and ceremonies involving fire and of course karaoke. We posted a video a while ago about a stripper being the main attraction at a funeral... to increase the number of guests at the event... hahahah what a good idea if quantity is your goal. Here is a link to a website here in Taiwan. HERE.
This is another set of pictures taken in a very public place with children watching in the front row. I'm not sure what this all means yet.... does it mean that Taiwan is trashy? or sexually open? Does it have negative effects on the children in the audience..... our first instincts from the western world would scream YES..... and probably rightly so. What do you think?

Taroko Gorge

I figured everyone who was involved in my upbringing would enjoy this one.
xoxo-j

the student e-mail box

My boss at Joy school arranged for me to teach a private lesson with a very hardworking student. This was of course fine with me because I could spend a relaxing hour and a half playing games, writing stories and having fun with a great kid... instead of being the ring leader for a horde of monster children.

I make him send me an e-mail every week.... he is allowed to write anything he wants and I encourage him to make me laugh. Kids over here are taught to walk the line.... so they really get a kick out of being off the leash. His comprehension and fluency are quite good, however even the best students struggle a bit when they are given a free forum. Here is an example of a funny little e-mail from Big Kev (11).


How are you?Teacher Brad.
I think ''HARRY POTTER 7''can change to ''HARRY POTTER AND DEATH'' because I only read to page 133,but many people died.Harry Potter's owl-Heme died by Voldemort's under.Crazy Eyes(Chinese)died by Voldemort's under too.And Voldemort's
under with other people died.The crazest is John,his ear bedeprived of Voldemort's under.
Ok,las talk about my crazy-crazy-crazy Chinese teacher.He drive me and my classmate crazy-crazy-crazy and crazy. He said that
write homework quickly,so we happily write homework.Suddenly he shout very-very-very loudly,''Who said you can write homework,put in bag!''

Bluesbash!

We are hitting the road for bluesbash this weekend. First, a solo opening spot for Faye and the Slacks to test out some of the new songs. Then, off for a double header in Taipei. Should be a good one.

Cheers,

- b

Heya.


For all those of you living in Taiwan, here is a list of confirmed concerts.

Friday, November 9th @ 89K
Sunday, November 11th @ private wedding (solo acoustic)
Friday, November 16th @ Grooveyard (solo acoustic w/Faye and the slacks)
Saturday, November 17th @ BluesBash4 (Taipei) 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Saturday, November 17th @ the livingroom (Taipei) 9:00pm - 12:00pm
Friday, December 14th @ Grooveyard
Saturday, December 29th @ the Armory (Tainan)

More shows to come.

Halloween!

We went clubbing on Halloween. It was nice as a change from the millions of rock shows that we go to. It was fun for about an hour... then we realized that the music (BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM) was not going to change. So we left the egg-heads to have their boom boom boom.

T J in Action

Here are the kindergarten kids that I hang out with for a couple hours every day. The youngest are 4, the oldest are 7.

For those of you in the land of Taiwan. The band will be playing a bunch in November.

November 9th @ 89K in Taichung City
November 17th @ Blues Bash 4 @ the Dream Community in Shijhih

More shows to be announced soon with some recordings/myspace/live cuts

peace

By Day/By Night

Night...



All the foreigners do the same thing over here. We teach. It's funny because... teachers are not cool... although I suppose we are hardly teachers. Let the pictures do the talking.

Day...

Sun Moon Lake Motorcycle Movie

Hi there.
We took the bike out for what might have been her last trip. Sun moon lake is located in the middle of Taiwan. Originally, the Japanese had created the fresh water area to harness hydro. Now, it seems as though it is a business getaway and backpacker exploration site. Here is the video... the first one that we have made. Hope you enjoy.

the typhoon!

our friend Kyle is quite the little video maker. Enjoy his take on what the typhoon was like. It was pretty nuts.

a time to sell

We have decided that we must part with our beloved motorcycle in favour of a scooter. Carting the numerous guitars and amps around the city has become too much for old man Brad. Goodbye black dog, you were a good friend.

so this is what a typhoon feels like

After a lot of hype for barely noticeable typhoons, we're finally sitting in the middle of a big one. It's been really windy since yesterday, damage has been done. A friend of a friend crashed his scooter because his helmet blew over his eyes. I woke up to Brad's cries for help this morning. The window above the air conditioner in his studio that he's been working on building for months now had been blocked up and sealed with styrofoam. This morning the styrofoam has disappeared and all his new dong shi has been soaked, including his beloved new mac.


I don't think there's any damage but it's an eye-opener. The wind is deafening, everybody's scooters are strewn all over the street and there's branches everywhere. And we left the motorcycle on the street at B's work...

No worries though, we're fine. B's show last night was fantastic and the typhoon is pretty cool too.

the rock show

Live @ 89K
Taichung City, Taiwan

there is going to be a really big & mean rock show in Taichung city this friday night. The tight pants are ready, the long hair is down and the insents are ready to burn. Should turn out to be a very dirty night of rock & blues in the city. the band lineup looks to include two lead guitar from Ontario, a bass from BC, drums from South Africa, harmonica from new york and with any luck, a whole assortment of other musical friends from around the globe. This concert will kick off a brand new rock bar in the city called 89k. We are bringing the big amps and will blow the roof off the place. For those who can make it, it's located beside the Pig Pen Bar near Wenxin Road and GongYi Road.

the gods of rock will be with us on this night.

hahaha.

ya ya.

Old Footage of a Good Time

the hippie kids are all getting into audio and video editing at the same time. for some, teaching only occupies a few hours each day... leaving lots of time to mess around with making home movies and such. here is a video made by dude, or dudette, of the spring scream show we did a while back. we don't know who made it, but it seems nice to look at etc.
enjoy

my (once) new scooter

at last....here's a couple pictures of my sexy new scooter, taken in front of the grocery store near our apartment. it's a great scooter, small, light, easy to drive, except on a windy day for the same reasons. so far, it's been 7 months of scootin and no accidents, which i think is a pretty good track record over here. sometime soon i'll take some pictures of the kiddies. i've hesitated so far just because some days they're the cutest little babies and other days they're absolute terrors, so i have to try to find a day where i'll be smiling before i bring in the camera.

Ocean Adventure

We decided to hop on the motorcycle and head out to the ocean. We went out there will 4 other friends to a town called Thongsiao??? It was great. The ride out there was really fun and we ended up staying the night in a 6 dollar CDN each hotel type thing. The bar in that town was a 711 where the local gangsters stayed up all night taking advantage of the cheap beer and snacks on the inside... we took advantage of this also. We went swimming in the waves of course and it was great.... now perhaps it wasn't the freshest water ever... but no one is dead yet. One more thing.... Jacqui stepped on, what we think was, a weaver fish! She was walking in some shallow water looking for crabs... then she screamed "%$@#$^!!!!" "Are you ok!!" we cried. When she lifted up her foot there was a live crab attached to a fish which was attached to her foot. There it was, the food chain right before our eyes... Jaqui's foot is apparently an meat eater. The crab took off, then Jacqui bravely bent over and yanked the fish out of he foot... it was in there good!... some sort of spike thing.

She's fine now, although perhaps poison is coursing through her vains. Time will tell.
ciao.

a time to record

It has been far too long since I have been in a studio. It felt nice. We just spent a couple hours laying down some drum tracks for some of our songs. I think we got some stuff we can really use... and either way its fun to geek out and play with microphones and gear and toys. Our sound guy spoke some english... but the session was mostly carried out in Chinese... two of the guys I play with are pretty good at speaking the China, so all was well... We are going to try to add the other instruments on top... we'll see what happens. Either way... we broke the seal, which can sometimes be the hardest part.
ciao.
brad

The Latest and Greatest Simpsons Characters!

Hi Friends,
Click here to make your own Simpsons characters!
Enjoy!

Jongli Rock Show

hi there.
we spent the weekend up in Jongli at a jam concert for our drummer Jubba. the band is sounding better and better with every show. they also had a real nice veggie burger on the menu and we chowed down real nice. after a jam early into the morning, it got ugly, and there was smashing and crashing like we had never seen before. we are still trying to figure out what happened.... we do know that there were some taiwanese and some foreigners involved and it was a bit messy.
booking lots of shows for the band and hoping to hit the studio with the whole band very soon.
Jacqui and I are beginning to plan the next trip.... not sure yet.... but I'm sure we will figure out something. Here is one pic from the show. thanks for snappin it Jacqui ;)

TYPHOON SEPAT!

Hi guys. There is a typhoon coming tomorrow! Yee Haw! The island is completely shut down. It's gonna be a big one... but don't worry because we have lots of movies and party snacks. oh ya. so we'll see ya on the flip side of the raging storm. Yipee!

Catagory 4 Typhoon

(4/5) Shrubs and trees blown down; all signs down. Extensive damage to roofing materials, windows and doors. Complete failures of roofs on many small residences. Complete destruction of mobile homes. Flat terrain 10 feet or less above sea level flooded inland as far as 6 miles.

Major damage to lower floors of structures near shore due to flooding and battering by waves and floating debris. Low-lying escape routes inland cut by rising water 3 to 5 hours before hurricane center arrives. Major erosion of beaches. Massive evacuation of all residences within 500 yards of shore possibly required, and of single-story residences within 2 miles of shore.

The Official Report

A large & very powerful storm. Strongest winds are at the center of the storm, upwards of 155mph/250kph making it a Category 4 hurricane in the west. Landfall forecast for Hualien Taidong on Saturday morning 8/18 around 7am. On Saturday 8/18 strongest winds will be in Hualien/Taidong, while heaviest rains are forecast for Ilan & Hualien.

Spring Scream Review

Hey there,

these are some pictures from my first show with the new band in Taiwan. Found these pics on a friend's website. That is all. Enjoy

Stripper!! ::a children's show::

OK. it was only a matter of time before some form of sleeze entered this blog. here we have it. a stripper.
Our friend Kyle made this video. We're not exactly sure what the circumstances were, however.... well anyways.
As you can see, there are definitely many children propped down on plastic seats to get a glimpse of the action.
I am pretty sure that in this case, the stripper was hired to promote a funeral. It is believed that, the greater the number of people whom attend a funeral, the holier the send off for a family members spirit... into the after life.... or so we've been told by some of the Chinese folks.

Once again in math form (general arts majors here and I think you can tell)

Stripper = many people
many people = gods are happy

It seems as though, not only western religion can twist and contort ancient rules into modern day disaster. The tomfoolery of modern religion continues. Enjoy

Thailand :: Koh Phangan

We made it back.

click! ::Thailand Photo Album:: click!

Things that happened

1. We stuffed our faces with Pad Thai, Green Curry, Sweet and Sour tofu, tofu burgers, Thai curry and anything else we could shove down our throats.

2. We did the scuba thing! Jacqui's but landed right on a big piece of coral!

3. Jacqui exploded a sinus.... while scuba diving.... she's fine.

4. We saw ladyboys! Sexy ones! although... Brad is becoming more and more of one so it wasn't all that new.

5. Re-Discovered the hammock

6. Took rides of near death in 4X4's through the damn jungle

7. Saw monkeys and taunted them.

8. Saw big @$$ spiders, gecko's and lizards.

9. only had electricty from 6pm-12pm

10. shack on the beach costs 200 baht per night (6 bucks) if you stay for a month that number drops to a beauty 2 bucks or less.

11. saw some Muay Thai (will post a little video of the action sometime soon)

12. found some very interesting sticks. we are now semi-professional arborists in the particular geographical region.

13. drank a beach pail of whiskey, coke, and red bull... it used to be amphetamines, but now with the ever increasing amount of rules going round... it's red bull.

14. Listened to grateful dead, buena vista social club, nick drake, Beirut, bob marley and bob dylan.

Remember to leave a little message when you visit the site. We love hearing from good ol friends. ciao

jacqui & bob

::Tribute to the Great Taiwan Band:: MILK

The band Milk was one of the very first foreigner bands to emerge in Taiwan. It all started as a rock band with no drummer... instead they had two djembe african hand drums. They started at a time when there was no english presence on the island... today there are plenty of comforts for the westerner... but not when these guys started. We are talking about roughly 10 years ago. Quoted as being "Taiwan's Bizzaro Darlings" by a reputable Taipei magazine, these guys really had a great run. They made several CD's and toured Asia and Canada. A couple of the guys from this band are now playing in a new blues band with me... and they are fantastic. This is a little tribute video that a friend made of the last MILK concert ever held at a small Taichung bar. The video does little justice to the actual mood at the venue, but none the less lets those who frequent this blog in on the ever changing Taiwan music scene.

There's always time for Thailand

It's time to take a little break from teaching! Those little runts can really get to a sister/brother after a while. We have been constantly complaining that this trip will only be for a little more than a week... but alas we must work at some point. Reason for the complaining is that once we get to where we are going... we could stay there for a very long time because it is insanely cheap.... 50 CDN a month each, for a beach side bungalow is what we have heard. The spot we have picked is on the west side of the gulf of Thailand. There are three little islands located there: Koh Samui (where we will fly to from Bangkok), Koh Phangan (where we plan to spend our trip exploring.. also home to the world famous Full Moon Parties), and Koh Tao (directly translated to English as Turtle island). We had really wanted to spend some time exploring Koh Tao, as it is even more remote than Phangan, but given the time period, is a little too far of a journey. Hopefully in the future we can go scuba diving in Koh Tao and battle off killer trigger fish and play with the reef sharks. We are still working out the fine details of this trip, but as usual with our planning, we are affording as much room for spontaneity as possible. It's all really just a time issue....While traveling, if you have the time... you can save the money..... if you don't have the time.... you spend the money. It's very strange the way it works. I suppose its a small reward for those who have allowed themselves to go with the flow. This time around we are spending the money... as we have to be back for our jobs. More Soon.















FLIGHT INFORMATION (for those who like to do the online flight track)

Friday July 20th, 2007
KLM Royal Dutch AIRLI878 Terminal 2
LV: Taipei @ 7:30 pm
AR: Bangkok Suvarnabh @ 10:05 pm

Saturday July 21st, 2007
Bangkok Airways PG103
Bangkok @ 6:00 am
Samui @ 7:05 am

Sunday July 29th, 2007
Bangkok Airways PG100
Samui @ 6:00 am
Bangkok @ 7:05 am

KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLI877
LV: Bangkok Suvarnabh @ 1:40 pm
AR: Taipei @ 6:15 pm Terminal 2

Kenting Vacation

We slid on down to southest of all southbound Taiwan locations: Kenting. Everyone goes down to Kenting on the long weekends so we took a midnight bus that would fly us down... miss traffic etc.... we ended up sleeping on the floor in the luggage compartment... beside a clogged toilet. When we got there.... we were in the middle of nowhere... and we were starting to question what it was that we were doing. As it turned out, a bunch of our friends showed up, we had the most beautiful weather ever... and the beach was fantastic. Here's a couple pics. We are madly working on getting ready for the infamous Thailand.

A little walk in the city

We decided to head on up to Dakeng again. It is about a 20 min drive from our house... we should go every week but we don't quite seem to get out there that often. Instead of going to the "trails" we just wandered into the bush. Found some pretty cool stuff there, including a nice little waterfall. Noseeums??? little black bugs that really bite you good.... really bit us good... (No see thems... cause they are so small???) i dunno.. thats what they tell us. ciao

::The Grooveyard 2nd Anniversary::

The grooveyard is THE place in taiwan to play music... rather... experiment with music. The bar was started 2 years ago by two foreigners named Roger and Patrick. This bar, has arguably shaped the music scene in Taiwan.

The crowds at grooveyard are always composed of freaks and geeks.... prepared to encourage and support creative efforts. It is so very different from the music scene that we were apart of in North America... In this place, I am constantly reminded why it is so amazing to be alive.

At this show, our band lost a fantastic multi-talented musician named Kevin Lee, who could not only wail on the sax and twinkle the blue keys, but could also outsing anybody. anyday. On the up, the best rock and roll drummer I have ever met joined our crew and proved his reputation. Jubba, the south african always knows exactly what to do.

In the works for the band: 1. a concert in the mountains for the Taiwan Biker Assoc. 2. full length album of original blues. 3. Mainland China Mini-tour

In the works for jacqui and I: Thailand in less than 2 weeks!

This just has to be posted!

Not really at all relevant to... us ... or this blog.... but it does kind of sum up the relaxed feeling here on the island. Enjoy! and back to real posts soon!

The Update

Lots of stuff has been happening, but no blog update. A nice big slew of blog updates will come soon though. This is the stuff that is in the works.

- We went on a beautiful beach trip to Kenting.. the very south of Taiwan.
- Jacqui has a beaut new yamaha scooter.. we'll post some pics and vids of her scooting around.
- Brad's band has a big show this week and another next week... posts and pics from those soon.
- We are taking, what we hope to be, an amazing trip to Thailand at the end of July... we'll be going for almost two weeks... we'll post some Thailand stuff.
- Brad's building a little recording studio here in Taiwan... dealing with the insane 85% humidity first of course... pics of stuff of that for the guitar/geek inclined (sorry to those with lives).
- and some other great stuff too..... Don't forget that we love hearing from all of you through email too. jvandeleygraaf@gmail.com & brad.tindall@gmail.com

peace and love,
jacqui & brad

::Peacefest 2007::

What a great weekend for everyone involved!! Held at yet another beautiful mountain stage in the hills of Taoyuan (close to Taipei), this non-profit event, to raise money for righteous charities, was a bit hit. Our blues band got, what we feel, was the premium time slot... and we really rocked it hard. Over 1000 audience members, give or take, were witness to soaring fire lanterns, fire dancers, gigantic peace circles... and the list goes on. We pitched our tent, but never ended up using it, as we stayed up playing music and talking with a collection of some of the earths most interesting people. what a blast. more soon about... well... a lot of great stuff.
peace..... fest.
Heres a link to the Taipei Times article about the festival. Our band Boogie Chillin' was named the hightlight of the fest two years running. Not bad for the little blues band that could.

Rainy but Righteous

We made it up to the mountains of Miaoli, stopping along the way to get a doughball cooked on a leaf... it was stuffed with.... what seemed to be vegetarian spiders? The mountain setup was just wonderful, facilities were very close, food was being cooked, drinks were being served, but it was raining! It made for a huge, beautiful mud pit and also... made the stage a nasty experience. Some of the acts before us were obviously getting shocked by the PA system... but none the less continued to play in true rock and roll form. I was sure that I was in for a face shock (I've had them before and it keeps me up at night)... theres just something about electric teeth. Through the rain everyone kept in good spirits and recognized we were there for a noble cause. We were helping to raise money for a village in India which was being supplied with medicine food and water. The village is being structured with the help of former Taiwan English Teachers, such as ourselves. During the time they have been in India they have set up an orphanage and are reportedly well on their way to supplying basic needs. Our blues act hit the stage and the rain stopped magically! We played a couple original songs that we had been working on, and had several top notch musician friends join us on stage. I believe we were a 9 piece.... next week we have a headlining spot at Taichung International food festival. More on that later. ciao.

Basic Aid Music Festival :: Stage Photo

We have never been to this part of Miaoli, Taiwan... but we have been told that this music festival in the mountains will be great. I'm pretty sure the organizers have seen Pink Floyd-Live in Pompeii one too many times. It is always great to play to an audience who is really on the same wavelength... theres no showing up fashionably late, no "what should I wear" (most of us have one pair of pants), no... well no nothing... no anything... all empty... all full... no one is really sure. More soon.

Our Backyard :: The Ol' Swimmin' Hole

Taiwan Quiz

1. How do you say hello/thank you in Chinese?


buk buk / twana

ni hao / shie shie

bo huay / niva le




2. What is Kimchi? (Korean)


napa cabbage that smells like garbage, but tastes delicious


an ancient sword that can only be lifted from a bloodstone by the chosen one

the art of joining snakes from head to tail to form a "snake-rope"




3. Most Taiwan children.... (which is true)


play sports after school twice a week

wake up at 6am and do school work until 12pm

do not have hippy foreign English teachers




4. Taiwan is....



a penisula off the southernmost point of China

a man made island commissioned by boy emperor (of China) Pu Yi

an island oasis located just to the east of Hong Kong




5. Driving on the streets of Taiwan, you will experience....


mindblowing splendor and an invigorated sense of self

a cool breeze blowing through long locks of freedom-hair

panic, chaos, and daily near death experiences

Spring Scream Sneak Slideshow!

Mystery Land Part II

Here you go Danielle, here's the rest of the Mystery Land Adventure.
So Chinese New Year was quickly approaching, by then Brad would have been working for about 1 month, and me for a couple weeks....we definitely deserved a holiday but had absolutely no plans and not much money. I was just hunting for some live music, trying to figure out if any bands actually came to Taiwan, when I saw it.....the banner offering 2 days of live music at an undisclosed location in the mountains of southern Taiwan. For the first time in my life I clicked an internet banner. The only way to get to the festival was via their shuttle bus. It was either the music festival of a life time, or a clever way to exterminate foreigners. We decided to take our chances.
2 days before we went out and bought a tent and sleeping bag.
The night before we actually pulled out a map and did the math. We realized it was a little further than we were anticipating, with the bike's speed restrictions and Taiwanese traffic we were looking at a 9 hour drive. It was too late to get train tickets and this would've been cheating anyways. We also realized that our only map of Taiwan, which wasn't much of a map to begin with, ended a solid couple of hours before the destination.

We left early the next morning, knowing that it would be a small miracle if we even made it to the festival. Surprisingly we made it to the shuttle pick-up point before dark. We only got lost once and met tons of foreigners going to the same festival on the road.

Night 1-Social Ackwardness and Campfire Mingling
It was definitely dark by the time we made it to the aboriginal mountain village and set up the tent, although we were just happy it was a field and not a gas chamber. The festival didn't start until the next day but for those with long drives getting there in the morning wasn't an option. There was a definite sense of what now? in the air.

Day 1-Let the Festivities Begin
By the next morning it felt more like a camping trip then a music festival. Daylight revealed the most breath-taking scenery imaginable. There wasn't a shower but rumours of a river sent the fest-goers out wandering. I think Brad and I were the first to find our swimming hole, but I can't really remember. It was a little slimy looking at first, but was missing the dirty stench of the Taichung rivers, which was a plus. I didn't really plan on swimming, or even touching it. But one wrong step on a small cliff changed that, once you get your feet wet you might as well enjoy it. Some other people happened upon our little hole shortly after and they had no problem diving right in (some naked). Put me and my dirty hippiness to shame. Eventually we got hungry and remembered that there was supposed to be music. The walk back turned out to be long, hot and very much uphill. Went back and stuffed ourselves with veggie burgers-I don't think anybody is going to appreciate how fantastic that was. The first veggie burgers eaten in Asia, grilled and smothered in bbq sauce...uuuuhhhh (homer drool). Brad ended up opening the show with some whimsical bearded guy, who shall henceforth be known as beard. It was a small turn-out but considering the heat and the fact that tents, toilets and stage were all in the same area this was a good thing. Most people didn't even stand up until it got dark, very chill, just a bunch of kids lying around in the hot sun listening to live music.
All in all the music was pretty amateur, but nobody cared. There were a couple fantastic bands, one funk/ska type band from Taipei called......Public Radio was just awesome. The big show of the night was Shambala or something like that, "spirtual" rappers from the U.S. An interesting choice for a rock festival, kind of comical....but I fell asleep so they couldn't have been that good.

Day 2-Woohoo and Then Some.
Day started with the discovery that there was no water (it wasn't drinking water anyways so it's not like anybody was dying, but flushable portapotties are only a good idea when you can flush....and sometimes you just wanna brush your teeth). We headed to the river and tried not to think about the walk back. We had a couple nice swims in our underwear, for some reason it hadn't crossed my mind to bring a bathing suit. We met more people at the river, some old, some new and swapped stories. As usual we stayed until we just had to have a veggie burger. The music didn't make a lasting impression, the rappers were the big show again but nobody seemed to care that much. By the second day everybody's reservations had dissolved and everybody seemed to need to get a little more partying out of their systems before they went home. It was like one big happy family. If you spend your days teaching kids, sooner or later you've gotta let loose and just about everybody there was an English teacher. When the music ended Brad, our new friend Phil, this guy who was touring from Africa and a couple Aboriginal teenagers ended up jamming. It was one of those out of this world experiences for everybody; African drumming, guitar and this haunting Aboriginal chanting. Sadly all good things must come to an end. Nobody was paying any attention to time but it got light really soon after we went to sleep....the tent was baking.

Day 3-Ouch
Moral of the story-careful what you wish for. After cursing the heat of the sun, I dozed off and woke up to rain falling on the tent. Seemed appropriate. The last two veggie burgers had thawed and then frozen into a blob, which they grilled up for us anyways. We were invited to go further south to a beach for a couple days, but it was raining and we could feel it in our bones that the adventure was ending. On the bus ride down, nobody spoke, compared with the excited chatter on the way up the mountain. About half way through the drive home we decided to quit for the night. We found a motel just off the highway, which turned out to be gorgeous. the bathroom had a big jacuzzi, the bed was the first soft bed I've seen in Taiwan. We slept for about 12 hours in that bed that made our way the rest of the way home.
Sorry, a little long. It was just a really fun adventure, it seems like this is the sort of thing that keeps the expats in Taiwan for years. Soon we'll be heading to Spring Scream, a much bigger music festival down in the south.

Mystery Land Music Festival

We had heard that there would be two days of music and dancing in the mountains. So, we loaded up the motorcycle with a tent and a few other things and plowed 9 hours down to the south of Taiwan. There will be more posted soon!!! Jacqui wants to tell this story... and she's really busy with work right now. cheers til then.

Dakeng Scenic Area :: You need a bike to hike!

We found the Stairway to Heaven!

DaKeng scenic area was a wonderful surprise when we arrived in Taichung city. We had heard a lot about the hotsprings and mountain trails in Taiwan, but DaKeng surpassed any expectations that we had. It takes us about 15-20 minutes on motorcycle to get to the start of the trails. To this date, we have only conquered 2 of the 8 trails. The best part about Dakeng (and Taiwan as a whole) is that there seem to be no rules.
These trails are excellent. Hundreds and hundreds of wooden logs are wedged together to form gapped, helper-steps up the mountain. In some spots, you can see where logs had, at some point, collapsed down slippery mountain slopes. Not to fear however, as a new series of lumped logs has been placed over the disaster area... making it... more dangerous? Taiwan just screams "OPEN YOUR EYES! If you think something is dangerous, then turn back! If not, then you have no one to blame but yourself". It's a great concept: being obligated to your own safety.

The trails have different levels of difficulty, we have yet to tackle the most difficult. It is always a fantastic time once you finish a trail, because there is usually a big party happening at the trail end. We usually have several people eager to offer us a fishy treat or just willing to attempt an English conversation. I'm not sure if it is a stereotype in Canada or not... but it should be: People from Taiwan are the most kind and gentle people you will ever meet.

We hope that the pictures of DaKeng we have posted will do the area some justice. More soon about DaKeng. Apparently, there is someone named Boston Paul who has a music/art/book house in the area..... XPATS are known to cram his house and throw amazing musical sessions... we'll let you know.

Home Sweet Home

Finally, with two contracts signed, we could begin looking for an apartment that would be convenient for both of us. We did some looking on the internet and made some phone calls... but nothing was really happening there... Then, we followed up a lead from Jacqui's coworker. We met an insane woman named Miss Lee, who could speak English quite well... although obviously crazy... she would end up being our landlord....yikes. She showed us a beautiful 3rd floor apartment (3 balconies, kitchen, 2 huge bedrooms, 1 big office, 2 bathrooms, rooftop hangout, free gym, underground parking, 24 hour surveillance, internet, fully furnished, utilities included, department store right around the corner, right in the middle of the city)... this was the first real apartment that we had seen... but we we're still living in a hotel.... and sometimes you can just tell a good deal when you see it. We signed the contract and moved in the very next day. Almost forgot, all inclusive rent = less than 500 CDN per month.

Gotta love that Taiwan!