The Impossible Quiz!

We dare you to take this one to the bitter end. We have!

- enjoy! (time wasters)

a week in paradise

for Chinese New Year, we went to Malapascua, a little island near Cebu, Philippines with our friends, Kate and Pete.
it was paradise, need i say more?

moving day

new year's was spent moving. always fun. i looove packing. luckily the new apartment makes up for it. here's a couple shots of brad driving the moving truck. pics of the apartment will be coming soon. my fingers are too cold to take pictures.

pictures!!!!!!

heya all
after an internet hiatus and a few busy months here's some pics from the latest escapades.
Christmas was a quickie
we had a 3 day holiday and headed to the east coast of taiwan, to see all the natural beauty and clear our lungs and heads.
we started in Hualien, which is the city where we had originally tried to settle. we shipped our scooter over on the train and headed out to Taroko Gorge. our first time there was very cold and rainy so we were ready to give it another go. we spent the day driving up, hoping to see some snow and make it a white Christmas. unfortunately we were running low on gas and daylight so we had to turn around but we were already up in the clouds and it was mighty cold. check out the pic of the abyss up in the mountain.
the second day we drove down the coast then turned inland and drove through the mountains again. we finally stopped at a hotspring town called Ruei shuei or something like that and spent the night at a hotspring, bathing in rusty brown water.
the next day we discovered that we couldn't put the scooter on the train so we clocked it back to Hualien, then back home and back to work.

the crazy visa run

so... I had to leave the country because my papers were up. I sort of forgot that.... we are not really that welcome here... and some deception is required at the border to stay here. This is how it went.

scooter to bus
bus to taipei
plane to macau, china
taxi to the dirtiest hotel ever
taxi to the visa office
meet a visa director who makes an example of me "go to hong kong!"
taxi to ferry
ferry to hong kong
taxi to visa office
hand in visa application (10 minutes late. thanks hong kong)
taxi to hotel. hong kong is $$$$$$
taxi to visa office. get visa
taxi to ferry
ferry to macau, china
taxi to aiport
fly to taipei
get visa stamped
bus to taichung
scooter home
drink a beer

all this because.... well I don't know. There were definitely ways around it... but nothing that was in my control. What's done is done. I hope you have enjoyed this little tale of what it's like being here in Taiwan.

- b