northside

after spending four years in southern taiwan, it's been cool to be able to explore more of the northern part of the island since i moved to taipei in may. for example...

hiking in nearby neihu on jinmianshan. this place totally reminds me of blowing rock.
last month, i went with some of my friends and co-workers to a place called jiu fen (nine parts) which is a really cool chinese "village" with some great sea views and lots of good traditional food and shopping.here are the boys enjoying the views in jiu fen.also took a scooter trip that same weekend. here we are in the requisite helmet shot.saw some good views of taipei from yangmingshan. nature is so much more accessible from taipei than it is from kaohsiung. and there's no creepy monkeys up here like in kaohsiung. sorry, kaohsiung-ren, but monkey mountain always kinda creeped me out! we also went up to ye-liu, a place with some pretty funky rock formations. this place is pretty other-wordly. parts of it reminded me of a cross between "the island" from LOST and the place where the end of the planet of the apes was filmed.but it definitely had some fabulous sea views!see, doesn't taiwan just touch your heart? awww, la isla bonita, i love you!