Wulai is situated deep in the mountainous forests about 40 km south of Taipei City. We ventured there on Monday to check out their famous waterfall and cable car which zips across a steep gorge up to the faded glory of Dreamland theme park on the dizzying heights of the far bank. The trip there was very pleasant, and we were glad we’d decided to go on a week day as the viewing platforms and other infrastructure indicated an uncomfortably swollen crowd attends on the weekend. It was cool and moist and even though our visitors had the very recent memory of Niagara Falls to compare to, not too undersized! The drop was spectacular, the river valley rough and fresh and the Atayal aborigine presence notable in many areas. The cable car provided me in particular some heart shocking moments especially as the ground beneath dropped away and we headed on a crazy angle ever upwards to the far bank. Up top, the theme park was a bit dilapidated, but it was the off season and a very swish hotel/conference centre might be worth a re0visit for some lunch or even an overnight stay. The GPS led us a merry dance on the way home; leading us straight through the heart of the city at peak hour…I think I’ll take my own counsel next time!   For tea, the world famous Din Tai Fung supplied us with steamed dumplings in bamboo cases and tofu and rice and all things nice! A Coldstone Creamery special icecream in waffle cone eaten outside watching the world go by was a fitting dessert.

On Tuesday, the silver bullet picked up the party of Williamson for the drive to the old village of Jiofen and the Gold Ecological Park on the hills in the hinterland of Keelung. As we wound our way up, Jiofen’s houses seemed to be gripping claws into the hillside, jutting out over each other at impossible angles, defying gravity. The steps up to the main road/alley were heart starters and we passed eateries enticing us with views, artisans fashioning product on little ledges and quaint B&Bs touting their charms. The main walking road was filled with tiny shops in the old, preserved buildings selling all manner of product and food. Cass and I had never been there, so all four of us were experiencing the same wonders. The smells were strange, the sounds weird and the sights unusual. Cass chose a restaurant that reflected all of these senses for lunch, some of the meals being more edible than others: I’ll leave it at that! The Gold Ecological Park was equally fascinating. We toured a completely (beam by beam, tile by tile) renovated Japanese house, a house built for the Crown Prince and then descended into the depths of a restored gold mining tunnel resplendent in our hard hats after taking a safety oath in Chinese which meant nothing to any of us! After all that trekking we’d worked up an appetite, so motored straight through to Thai Town at Shinkong Mitsukoshi for tea. After a delicious feast, we were ready to watch an episode of Grand Designs, have a bit more of a chat and head to bed.

A bit of a lay day was in order for Wednesday, so Cassy took Val down to see Joe the Jeweler with Val's new black pearl burning a hole in her pocket! They spent a good while talking tactics with Joe about settings then had an upmarket lunch at the Regent’s Azie café. Chris and I had to get to the mechanics to see about fixing a side mirror I’d snapped off on a parked scooter some days before. We did that, went off to school to try to order and print some train tickets, and then wandered across to Sababa for some Middle Eastern style pitas. On the way home we checked out the big electrical store on Ker Qiang and made a few minor purchases. We weren’t home long before the girls arrived and Joe had worked his magic. Cass cooked up a super big batch of her signature spaghetti bolognaise for tea which was a real treat and we washed it down with some fine Aussie red.

The world wide tour of machines based on designs of Leonardo Da Vinci has hit Taiwan, so we took the MRT down to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall on Thursday to check it out. Fortuitously we arrived right at the changing of the guard and were nearly run down by the high stepping crisply uniformed ceremonial guards on their way to the upper chamber! There was also a display of beautiful lanterns the entire length of the lower hall and some Chinese calligraphy displays. The main event, however, was fascinating and we marveled at the mind that created such a disparate and brilliant set of designs. We headed back to Taipei main station to get some tickets for Chris and Val’s upcoming trip to Taroko Gorge and decided to eat again at the 2nd floor Breeze Centre food area. We chose a teppanyaki restaurant which did not disappoint: flashing spatulas cut, seared and flipped the great fresh ingredients before depositing them expertly into tiny plates in front of us on the hotplate: these guys are real artists. We were fuelled up on a set of beef, chicken, fish, scallops, asparagus and other veggies along with soups and drinks, before going downstairs to the central hub to buy the return tickets to Hualien. Chris and Val are booked in to the renovated Silks Place at Taroko Gorge for three days this week…it should be an awesome experience! We eventually made our way back to the MRT section of main station, and travelled past Mingde to Qiyan and the Lacoco clothing outlet. This is a cheap clothing superstore, but the stock this time was a little underwhelming. Chris sniffed out some good buys however and was fascinated when the lady whisked his new pants off to alter them on the spot for no extra cost! It had turned freezing by this time, so we headed off to a nice warm apartment.

Wendel’s siren call sounded on Friday morning and we were all showered and ready bright and early to sample the gourmet breakfast. It really is fit for a king and possibly because of our unheralded status in the world, it stuck with us through to tea time! The Williamson clan stayed in and watched some movies, Bright Star and The Reader, while I went off to the golf driving range to hit a few balls with Wal. In the evening we had Cassy’s famous pumpkin soup and the equally famous Hirota Puffs for tea!

Yangminshan’s Buffalo Meadow was the attraction on Saturday and we got up there mid morning courtesy of the silver bullet. The walk is always beautiful but we decided to do just ½ the loop before tackling the highest point to check the 360 degree vista. Even though the Gobi desert sandstorm restricted our vision a little, we were able to spot Taipei 101 through the haze in one direction and Danshui in another. Down the hill and we forked off to a trail leading to a waterfall, supposedly just 1.2 km away. After a very steep descent of at least 2 km we arrived at a beautiful little natural fall, the water fresh and cold, the backdrop dripping with lush growth and mossy rocks. We had a sandwich to fortify ourselves for the trek back up and I have to admit the oldies did extremely well as even our relatively young legs were aching by the time we got back to the carpark! We visited the area around the floral clock on the way back and there were some pretty good floral displays. By this time however, once again the weather had turned for the worse, Cassy’s teeth were chattering and we made a welcome retreat back to the car and back down the hill to home. Scootered off to get some Spice World Indian takeaway, some more Aussie red and we were all a bit drowsy and ready for a sound sleep!

SOGO beckoned thew travelers on Sunday morning as well as the Carrefour store and C&V had a great time checking out all the product and wondering the same thing that we often do, “Who on earth buys all this stuff?”! They too saw a lot of lookers and precious few buyers, but I suppose someone must buy it. They got themselves some lunch and ate it outside on the polished granite seats in the pedestrian boulevard out front. Later in the afternoon, we headed off to Shilin nightmarket, the acclaimed big daddy of all of Taipei’s famous nightmarket culture. It really is quite and extraordinary place and we wandered around as the sun was setting and traders set up: it was still hectic and exciting but not quite at the claustrophobic point it would reach a few short hours later. Both Chris and Val got some groovy sneakers and Cass and Val got some reading glasses for the “eyesight infirm”! They were pretty jazzy, but not over-the-top as you might expect from this area. It’s probably because the clientele of most of the product is not in need of eyesight-adjusting specs at their tender age. We walked through most of the main thoroughfares, gawked at the weird foods yet settled on the far more sensible option of Café Onion up the road. We had a 6 course dinner and Cass and I marveled at the fact that the menu has not changed a bit in the last 8 years! Chris enjoyed his snails and chicken, we other three had the New Zealand fillet, although I’m not quite sure that a “well done steak” should be still bleeding! Our visitors are off to Taroko Gorge for three days on Monday and we’re back to school…sob! Photos are a real mix, but you'll get the idea from the text. The slide show is here when I take it off the site.

GPS set and we set off nice and early to Taoyuan Airport on Saturday morning. Cassy’s parents were due to fly in from Singapore to coincide with the start of our week long Spring break from work and we were headed into virgin territory, trying to navigate the car to and around the monolithic Taipei International Airport.
We looked up the terminal number online and headed that way after negotiating the expressways leading there. The huge underground carpark had to be seen to be believed and we found a spot not too far from the action. We then waited outside the arrival hall with our sign, as Chris and Val were actually expecting our erstwhile driver, Daniel, to be doing the honours. They got a huge surprise and it was great to see the look on their faces when they realised it was us.

Luggage and bodies safely quartered away in the Honda, we made our way back to Tienmu and we’d already had a mini catch-up by the time we got home. We didn’t really feel ready to face the town on Saturday night, so we ordered takeaway Alleycats pizza, which seemed a good choice.

We were all a bit tired, so after an early night and a relatively late start to our Sunday, we were ready to mosey down to the Jade Market in the early afternoon. This gargantuan temple to all things jade and jewelry is rather confronting for menfolk, and I’ve told this story on these pages before. Suffice to say that Chris and I were partly reluctant participants and managed to fall into a despond of boredom in proceedings after about 10 minutes! We relied on having chats about this and that while Cass and Valerie pored over various tables of black pearls, where Val was looking for a colour and size match for the earrings she was wearing to buy a pearl for a pendant. She was eventually successful in her quest after, I must admit, a very short period of checking and deliberation!

On the way of course, we dealt with the excitement of Taipei’s rapid transit system. It really is very slick, and we were sandwiched against a bunch of 10th graders from school whom Cassy and I both had taught over the years. They didn’t realise I was there for a few stops and they were mortified when they spotted us as they had been using some not inappropriate, but rather colourful language about certain things on the way down! When we changed trains and negotiated the swarm of humanity at main station we transited to the eastern Nangang line just for a couple of stops.

The walk to the Jade Market is pleasant on wide boulevards but not terribly inspiring, so I decided to use a little of the time to give my sister Jen a ring. I actually wanted to speak to her daughter Ellen as I had set her a mission which I needed to fulfill at the market, but I hadn’t stressed any urgency, so she hadn’t got around to it yet. It was no problem whatsoever, but it was funny to hear Jen’s voice and long hesitation when I said hello: I think she recognized the voice but took a while to compute as it was kinda weird to hear from me out of the blue like that!

By the time we got back, we were all a bit spent, so again deceided to be home bodies for tea and had some left over pizza and toasted sangas, along with some delicious pineapple that Valerie had bought literally from the “back of a truck” from the little man camped outside the train station.

It’s always a little surreal at first to have visitors in our house over here, but it’s a very pleasant experience: it’s good to see our family members in this our adopted environment and enjoy seeing Taipei through different eyes again! Photos: Cass and Val at “Pho” Vietnamese at Taipei Main Station, looking at pearls at the jade market, dog in a bag (!) and some of the amazing bonsai at the adjacent and just as big Flower market. Cassy is reading a book that Gurecki lent me,Home Game, an accidental guide to fatherhood by Michael Lewis

Well, it was great weekend, but a very weird one! Friday night started for us both enjoying the sunshine on our verandah and a beer or two. Before Cass got home I'd watched the local council guys hard at work cutting the trees away from the electrical wires opposite. In the grand old spirit from childhood when dad would encourage us to give a bottle of beer to the garbos at Christmas, I raced downstairs and gave each of them an ice cold VB! They were slightly flummoxed but were excited to get the "special Australian beer" as I described it to them. They gave me a big smile and wave and toot of the horn as they made their way to their next job! At 9 pm I went off to my book club and thoroughly enjoyed the night: they're a great bunch of blokes. With such a late start we invariably end up in the wee small hours making our goodbyes, so a sleep in was on the cards!

We spent most of Saturday hunkered indoors as the temperature dropped again and a series of rolling thunderstorms swept across the city from mid-morning all through to the night. I went and rescued Cass from the shopping where she was stranded without an umbrella and marooned: she'd have to walk back with the shopping in the teeming rain. She went back in and bought another umbrella on credit card (no minimum charge rubbish here) and we hoisted bags on shoulders, splashed through the puddles in the park and made it back home relatively dry. It was cozy to potter around inside and the highlight was to get to see the opening match of the Knights live as they won their game against all odds, shrugging off a controversial off season and a horrific injury toll. We were stoked!

The AFL season has yet to get under way, so we enjoy a weekend or two at the most before they push the NRL back to its usual timetabling of the Friday game repeated on Saturday morning and one of the Sunday afternoon games on delay. I’ve got a subscription to an English site which allows me to watch full replays of any game I like, but these are not available till at least 24 hours after the game. It’s good, but not half as good as this weekend…we got nearly every game, no matter if it was Channel Nine or Foxtel. Also inside from the rain on Saturday, we caught bits of the Australian one dayer in New Zealand, streaming over the net and beamed onto the TV in the lounge room.

We’ve gone into a cleaning frenzy! All the screen doors have been scrubbed and all the windows cleaned. Ceilings cleaned and shelves freed up, verandahs mopped and door tracks cleaned and oiled. Various other little jobs have been done and the house is spic and span: well, compared to what it was a few days ago anyway! Our big curtains in the lounge room are at the dry cleaners where they recommended we have them washed rather than dry-cleaned: apparently this will be much more effective, but the lady did warn me they may be “smaller”…I hope the shrinkage won’t be that noticeable!

Off to The Spice Shop for a delicious late lunch today and we enjoyed the completely reversed weather. It’s sunny, warm and delightful today….this Taiwanese Spring weather really is quite fickle. People were out and about, partly as they must have been restricted yesterday, and we watched them with great interest. Our first choice, the slightly more upmarket Indian fusion restaurant was closed in the mid-afternoon, so we walked two doors down to the opposition…they must be making too much money to gift these guys all the afternoon trade methinks. We then scootered to Takashimaya and got some supplies from Jason’s marketplace: they had a display of products from Victoria! The obligatory Hirota “puffs” for a decadent dessert later tonight and we were off. Hirota puffs are Japanese in origin, light pastry wrapped around a delicious custard filling which is piped into them…addictive.
Photos are few today: we are lunching at the Spice Shop in the mid afternoon, Takashimaya’s special stand and the Hirota cake display. Cass is reading Night at the Wax Museum (the script for the upcoming school play: she's says it's very bad!)   and I am reading Down River.

Cassy started out the weekend very socially tripping up to her “Bookies” book club on Friday evening. Rhonda served up her signature dish of chicken enchiladas which are always a big hit and they discussed the book of the month, “The White Tiger”. Cass had actually read this ages ago, so she had to do a little prep to remember her points! It was fun evening and she caught up with a bit of goss here and there, especially from those members she doesn’t see that often.

I, too, had a lovely afternoon in the sun having a few beverages with my regular crew. The weather on Friday and Saturday was just sublime: it was hard to be stuck indoors at all. We headed out to the “big brother” which earned its name from a previous incarnation of the little pub, when it was the Soo Woo. Now it goes by some Chinese name which I can never remember, but the table tapping beers are still very enjoyable and the squid balls (don’t think too much about that!) are the best in town.

We really are quite spoiled at the moment. The new SOGO building is a 7-10 minute stroll from our place, quite beautiful with all its polished granite, wide boulevards and grass and trees and lighting and landscaping. Inside is a branch of the world famous Din Tai Fung, Taipei’s premier dumpling and Chinese restaurant. It is really top quality food at a very affordable price. The turnover has to be seen to be believed and it has all the theatre you would expect from a bustling restaurant this famous. The cooks show off their skills behind a huge window in front of house and it si quite mesmerizing to see their skilful kneading, rolling cutting and throwing. We usually end up by getting a Coldstone Creamery icecream in a waffle cone to eat on the wide avenue at street level, taking in the sights and watching the endless parade of people on an awakening Saturday night.

Today the weather snapped back to freezing winter type. It was 28 on Saturday and we were walking around in shorts, yet a day later, out came the long shirts and jackets as the mercury plummeted to about 12 degrees with a strong wind to boot. We had our fairly typical Sunday sleep in and decadently long and lazy brekky, mainly as the surf was small and listless, not tempting us across the mountain at all. We decided to hang around home for a while, and then head over to Neihu to go and get some much needed new stuff. We needed to shop for big kinda awkward things, so we took the car and planned to use the basement parking at some of the stores there. We bypassed the glitzy flash of the Miramar building, drove past the long lines of cars waiting for their car park and instead, went straight to the far less fashionable Carrefour. This store has a branch near us, but a much smaller one. This Neihu branch is spread over many floors and seems to have everything known to man on sale. We got our two new electric fans, 4 new pillows and associated and boring heavy and/or difficult to carry everyday goods to stockpile. I know it’s not even given a second thought back home, but we take advantage of the fact if we have the car with us: it feels quite special!

We squirreled our goods away in the boot then wandered back up and crossed the street to the Miramar. Just below the theatre level there are a number of pretty good restaurants, so we eventually decided to try Gillys. It was French affair, so we both got the set menu and had salad and soup, beautiful versions of both before our mains, mine the German veal and pepper sausages and Cassy the mushroom pasta. We had delicious coffee and a surprising crème brulee at the end. This place was fantastic! The irony is that we had discovered another Gillys restaurant on our big walk last week just a kilometre or so from our place and we were determined to get back and try it out one day.

Back home, the car purred its way back, the GPS guiding us (I knew where I was going, just liked playing with the toy!) and unloaded our stash and back I went to school to deposit the car in its park in the basement. On the way I visited our little neighbourhood car wash and got “Noddy” back to her pristine best. We had a great weekend! Photos are the incomparable Din Tai Fung, the girls snuggling against the cold this morning, Gilly’s chefs’ French diplomas, Cass posing in front of the water feature outside the restaurant and of course our low tech and hi tech friends in the car: I hope Ross notices I have transferred the Hawaiian girl to the new vehicle!