Wii would like to play

Wii were very excited to recive this our most expensive Christmas present in years. Our friend Clark was kind enough to camp out just to buy it. The demand for a Nintendo Wii was so high that lines wrapped around the block all over America filled with people hopeful to buy one. I can say that we were not disapointed it is really the best entertainment idea ever developed. Even Elnorra can play a little with the motion sensing remotes. Clark then was kind enough to mail it to Taiwan and since we got it before its offical release in Taiwan we may have been the first to own one in the whole country!

2006 Shaffer Family Picture, in front of our apartment in Taipei, Taiwan.

 

2006 November 25th-Thanskgiving at the Shaffer home. We had 15 adults and 3 children celebrate American Thanksgiving in Taiwan on Saturday.
Photo taken by Sean Frost, clockwise from bottom left corner, Ian Frost, Elder Morehead, Sister Morehead, Lizzy (Frost), Sister Pearce, Elder Pearce, Ben Shaffer, Windy Shaffer, Marianne Verster, Melinda Bevan, Mr. Shieh, Mrs. Shieh, Elnorra Shaffer, Liz Hulme, Mike ?(Liz's sweetheart), Wanda Frost and Leah Frost.

2006-10-10 Nightscape from a pedestrian walkway (1)

2006-10-10 big noisy insect (6-8 inches long!)

2006-09-27 Urban lizard in a tree in a park

2006-09-27 Urban Lizard

2006-08-30 A sample of the bad English that is all over here in Asia. This juice container is one of our favorites! It says: Weichuan sweet guava juice is made of nature and freshness. The juicy taste is just the green world festival for you.

2006-06-19 Urban Snail Trail

2006-04-21 What is this crazy looking caterpiller going to be when it grows up? I though it might be an alien from Mars when I saw it crawling up a light post!

2006-04-21 Caterpiller side view

2006-04-11 Butterfly pavillion at the Zoo: What are 2 leaves doing on the rock candy? Oh, those aren't leaves, they're butterflies. Can you see their antennae and legs! (Click on the picture for a larger view.)

2006-04-11 Butterfly pavillion at the Zoo

We went to our local fresh market and bought breakfast and then had a nice long stroll up our local mountain park. After our ramble we returned to the house and Ken and Lorie wrote a bunch of post-cards and I packed my suitcase of things to go back to the USA. We then took a short wander through our local (and favorite) “Tung Hua” night market. We arrived home in time to repack the new acquisitions and then take a taxi to the bus stop where Ken and Lorie got on the bus to the airport. They thought it was great that due to the crossing of the International Date Line they arrived in Phoenix, AZ the exact time they left Taipei!

2006-03-24 This mountian flower grew around its "bud"

2006-03-24 a Thorn Tree, how facinating

2006-03-24 Grandma Lorie and Elnorra on the mountin walk.

I stayed around the house and Ken and Lorie visited Ben’s school and then Ken took a nap while Lorie had a delightful time shopping and then getting lost on her way home from the Taiwan Handicraft Market. I tried to clean house a bit and wasn’t felling very well but Ben called and we all agreed to meet at our favorite “fancy” restaurant. Just like Taco Bell is not real Mexican food, this place is the Asian version of American Food since it is called “Skylark: California Cuisine” but is very Asian in presentation and preparation (i.e. the chicken in their pot pie still has the skin and bones in the meat.) After we had our nice 5-course meal for about $12 USD each we then went to the “Wal-Mart” of Taiwan known as RT-mart and Ken and Lorie saw the fascinating Shopping Cart Escalators that are listed earlier in the blog.

This was a significant day for our family. Not only did Elnorra take her first step (and until April 10th her ONLY step with out assistance) as she stumbled into her dad’s arms at the restaurant. She said her first repeated and distinct word, bye-bye, which is accompanied with her Miss America wave and sounds like “bu-bu.” She also cut her first top tooth AND most significantly she was labeled “je-je” (older sister in Chinese) since we found out that she will be a big sister in November since we are now expecting our second child around November 17th.

Mr. Sheih again was an amazing host and he took the four of us to the small aboriginal village of Wulai just south of Taipei. We rode a cable car up to the top of the waterfall and were treated to another delightful lunch. After we wandered around the waterfalls we went to the Wulai hot spring that is heated by CO3 rather than sulfur. Elnorra wasn’t allowed in so we went in shifts. As darkness approached we arrived at Mr. Sheih’s mountain “villa” where we sat a while and listened to some good music on his vacuum tube amplifier. He then took us to a nearby village and treated us to a traditional Taiwanese dinner. We all tried the “Cho Dofu” which directly translates as “stinky tofu” and we could all pass on it next time! The best thing is the pineapple shrimp that is nicely deep fried and covered with the sweet Taiwanese’s mayonnaise.

2006-03-22 Wulai waterfall

2006-03-22 Wulai village cable cars passing over the waterfall

2006-03-22 Wulai village tourist pose for Ken

2006-03-24 Wulai village tourist pose for Ken
and Lorie, what a cute couple!

2006-03-22 Typical of Taiwan this beautiful flower is growing out of a brick wall in the village of Wulai

Ben had to go back to work and Ken, Lorie, Windy, and Elnorra spent the day with their super nice landlord, Mr. Sheih. We went to see the famous Chaing Kai-Shek memorial hall and we witnessed the formal changing of the guard. We then were treated to a very fancy international buffet at the “Grand Hotel” and then went to the “National Palace Museum.” After the museum closed Mr. Sheih was kind eno0ugh to drop us off at the very large “Shilin Night Market” and we spent and hour or two down my favorite alley and had a small glimpse of rest of the market before heading home via the MRT (subway system).

2006-03-21 Mr. Sheih and Elnorra

2006-03-21 Taipei flower

2006-03-21 An egret on the grounds of Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

2006-03-21 Important sign

2006-03-21 Taipei's Grand Hotel

2006-03-21 Grandpa and happy "paratrooper"

We had a delightful time in Taroko Gorge and Ben, Lorie and Ken went to the Bunyan Waterfalls and had a nice visit with a monkey along the way while Leonard, Windy and Elnorra took a nice nap. We left the Gorge around 4 pm and were back in Taipei safe and sound by 9 pm. What a wonderful marathon “round-the-island” trip we had.

Here is the route we took on our "round-the-island" trip.

2006-03-20 Takoro Gorge: Ben is awarded the photographic art award for this "bridge eye view" of a beautiful waterfall and pool.

2006-03-20 Takoro Gorge: A picture is worth a thousand words...or as the Chinese say "a thousand promises"

2006-03-20 Takoro Gorge: Such amazing natural beauty in the natural marble canyon walls and clean waters

2006-03-20 Takoro Gorge: More tunels and single lanes.

2006-03-20 Takoro Gorge is translated from the phonetic sound of the Japanese name that means "Marble Canyon"

2006-03-20 Takoro Gorge: current 1 lane tunel that is part of the "major" highway that goes through Takoro Gorge. It's best if you honk before entering so the oncoming cars know when to stop and wait.

2006-03-20 Takoro Gorge: future tunnel

2006-03-20 Takoro Gorge:multiple tunnels and construction work

2006-03-20 Takoro Gorge: Windy's Chinese name is "Lan" which means the "mist between the mountains" or "mountain wind"

Ben, Windy, Elnorra and Leonard attended church in Hualien while Ken and Lorie checked out the city a little. After church we headed up to Taroko Gorge and had a nice little drive to the “Eternal Spring Shrine.” We then drove through many tunnels and had a Leonard received even more experience with passing tour busses near 1-lane tunnels in the middle of our “two”-lane road. We stayed out until past dark and then rented $800NT motel rooms in the nearest town to the Gorge and had a nice dinner and turned in relatively early (no night market tonight!)

2006-03-19 Taiwan Takoro Gorge:Eternal Spring Shrine

2006-03-19 Takoro Gorge Eternal Spring Shrine

We had a nice slow start to the morning and then Leonard stayed on the beach with Elnorra and the rest of us went snorkeling! Windy had never been before and it was an amazing experience! The water was a delightful temperature and just a few feet off the shore there were wonderfully colorful tropical fish and coral and even a few anemones were easy to find. By 2 PM we were all sunburned by some degree with Leonard and Windy highest on the scale so we hit the road for our longest day in the car as we drove up the scenic East coast. We had quite the amazement when our “freeway” became a one-laner around some curves. The other drivers weren’t fazed at all and knew which corners to wait at and when to honk to let us know they were coming through. We finally arrived in Hualien at 10 pm had a bit more trouble finding a cheap motel and settled for $800 NT ($25USD) per room.

2006-03-18 Kenting Beach

2006-03-18 Windy ready to snorkel through the coral in Kenting

2006-03-18 Leonard took care of Elnorra when we went snorkeling

2006-03-18 A true toddler, notice her new toy in her hand while she naps on Kenting beach

2006-03-18 Taiwan Road from Kenting to Hualien

2006-03-18 Taiwan Road from Kenting to Hualien: Water Buffalo