The plum blossom: a symbol of endurance since it shows its beautiful flowers as winter nears an end. This was a bonsai plant (盆景) seen at Jianguo Flower Market (建國假日花市). Bonsais are not easy to raise.

The weather was beautiful today. I couldn’t sit at home. I called up three friends. Didn’t reach any of them, so I headed out by myself. Took my bike on the metro from CKS Memorial to Guandu station. Got off and started towards Danshui.

My first stop was Guandu Temple (關渡宮). This temple is huge. It’s built into the side of a hill. There’s a long cave that leads to one of the temple’s 10 gods that are worshipped. Also, there’s a park on top of the hill where you can find some nice views of the river.

I made it to Danshui around 3:30pm. I’ve walked along the boardwalk and old street before. I came upon the Danshui Church founded by George Leslie Mackay. He was a missionary from Canada that started a clinic in 1872. The clinic has been restored and on Sundays there are some young people around to introduce the clinic, the church and George Leslie Mackay’s story. They made part of the clinic into a small cafe and they serve tea and coffee for free.

I told them I wanted to eat 刮包 (gua bao). They asked me why. I said because it taste good and it’s like a Taiwanese hamburger. They suggested I try 阿給 (A-Gei). It’s thin mung bean vermicelli noodles wrapped in tofu (豆腐包冬粉), steamed and then served with a special sauce. I had it before and didn’t take a liking to it. This time I did. You can see the lines in the photo. There’s one for eating inside (内用區) and one for take away (外帶區) and they’re always busy. They sell three things, 阿給 30NT), steamed pork buns (大肉包 15NT) and fish ball soup (魚丸湯 20NT). That’s it. This shop is next to Wenhua Elementary school and is called Wenhua A-Gei (文化阿給).

I feel like I’m writing for Lonely Planet. I need to cut down my blog writing time. I rode my bike 25km (15mi) today. It’s bedtime.

The last picture I took because I always get a kick out of mothers in Taiwan stopping their kids as they walk along the sidewalk to pull up their boy’s pants, well above their waist. I missed the pulling up action but you can see the height of the pants. So, you know why when some men in Taiwan wear their pants way up high like Urkel, they’re either the ones that always listened to mom or just used to it.

Oh, I forgot to say that I rode home from Danshui along the Danshui River and part of the Keelung River. Riding along the riverside at night is nice.

Me having fun before a meeting with my coworkers SLR. My boss is in the background in the first photo. She thought I was funny taking photos of myself in the mirror. Photography is all about experimenting. That’s what I was doing.

SLRs are cool. I like the feel of shooting with one and being able to shoot continuously.

This is the latest prize my kids can get by trading in their stickers. It’s called message on a block. I have a message in a bottle too but there’s nothing written on the note. My kids are pretty young so I don’t think they can fully understand the message. That’s okay. Maybe they’ll hold on to it for a while.