Hike with the Zhangs 1/2

I went on a hike with Sandra's extended family, it was pretty fun and we saw some amazing things, you wouldn't believe how large some of the insects are in a tropical area. Apparently, the butterflies are very tame too.

This butterfly was flying around me and I just put my hand out and it landed on it, never thought that would happen. I thought it was so fascinating, then the weirdest thing happened...it started moving its butt like it wanted to take a poo, but it secreted some kind of clear liquid which quickly disappeared into my hand, it freaked me out a little bit and I though that it might have poisoned me. I did get sick a few days later, but I think it was unrelated, I had some kind of gas buildup in my system and felt terrible for about a week, after some antibiotics, I felt much better.



These were some rocks on display which had fossils preserved in them.

Hike with the Zhangs 2/2

This is Sandra's sister, some of her cousins in addition to her and I.



This is the first interaction with a muntant worm...this thing is massive. Yep, it's an ordinary earth worm except for the fact that it is about a foot and a half long, crazy!!!

A trip to the mountain 1/5

We took a trip with a family that Sandra knows to a mountain called "Meaw Li" it was a great time. We got to see many things and had a lot of fun. The next few blog posts are dedicated to this trip and what we did.

This is a picture of a lake (not sure if it is natural or man-made), it was very beautiful.

On the right is a aboriginal lodge/museum, on the left is some sort of a coffee house/cafe...we didn't visit it because it wasn't open when we arrived.

We saw all these little caterpillars on the trees. They were very interesting and very hairy. They would lie neatly down next to each other, one by one. But if they heard a sound or if someone brushed the tree and they felt movement, they immediately raised half their bodies, I guess in defense, as if to say "you just ruined my sleep, if you don't leave now, you will be sorry"...it was a prominent statement through actions!

Here we are with the lodge/museum in the background. Me, Sandra, Jerry, Grace, Tom and Edward.

A trip to the mountain 2/5

I bought some of the honey produced by the bees on and around the mountain. This honey was not like any other honey I have tasted, it was very sweet and had a natural fruity flavor to it...very neat.

You can see the queen, she has a natural blue bead on her back and is about twice as long as the worker bees. I thought it was fake or painted on, then as I got a closer look, it was actually part of the bee.

I had the opportunity to pet some of the bees, it was totally safe, didn't even get stung once.

This is the device they extract the honey with, they put the honeycomb plates in and spin them very fast and the honey just drips out due to gravity.

Here are some of the natural products they use.

After the honey has been exctacted from the honeycombs, it is directly put into these plastic bottles.

A trip to the mountain 3/5

The bee hives

The air was so clean and fresh, it was a great day.

This is the suspention bridge that overlooks a waterfall, very cool and an amazing sight, but too many people.

Don't "scramble" over the handrail....haha.

A trip to the mountain 4/5

This was a really cool waterfall/body of water that we hiked to...it was really nice except for all the people including locals and tour groups.

We walked through a small bamboo forest, it was pretty neat.

This is a garden/cafe that we visited, it has many different kinds of flowers and plants, pretty cool.

The path through the flowers.

A trip to the mountain 5/5

We took a day trip to the mountain (Meow Li, I believe) with a family that Sandra knows. It was really fun and relaxing. We visited this little cafe-type of place in the mountain, the food was good, the coffee was not bad and the view and company was excellent.

This is Sandra, Grace and her son Jerry.

They had these neat rocks with figures and animals painted on them, this one was pretty cool. They remind me of my grandpa's paintings that he used to do on things like this.

This is in one part of the garden, as you can see, there were many different types of flowers.

Mustache Malaysia

Nolan has done it again!  Nice job on the video Nolan.  This is about some of our adventures in Malaysia.

Weather in Taiwan (天氣)

Summer in Taiwan has officially begun!  Not only has it been very hot here in Taiwan, it has also been very humid.  Some days the wind doesn't blow very hard and when you combine hot weather and humid air with no wind, it gets a little unbearable.  Otherwise, earlier in the morning and the evenings usually are pretty nice.  I enjoy warm weather, but not too warm.

My school is putting on summer camps this month and I have a sports camp next week.  I talked to another teacher who is teaching a sports camp this week and he said that he has never sweat more in his life...hahah.  Something to look forward to, I guess.  Maybe I will set a PR for the amount of sweat I lose in one day.

All things considered, things are going pretty well in Taiwan.  I will be visiting the US in August, which I am really excited about.  It will have been a year since I have seen most of my friends and family (who probably reads this most often).  It will be a nice break from the hot, humid weather and the 6-day a week schedule.

Please feel free to leave comments on the blog if you have questions, are curious about anything and/or you just want to say something.  I enjoy reading the comments.

Also, many of you know Nolan, if not in person, from my blog.  He has been traveling with me (and Jonathan during the first part of our trip) and is in Taiwan with me now.  


He got sick and, to make a long story short, he went to the doctor and after many tests they found out that he has a type of cancer called Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  Please keep him in your prayers, he is staying in Taiwan for the treatment and has already experienced two sessions of chemo therapy.  He has chemo every two weeks and the doctors predict that he will need to endure 8 months of this grueling treatment.  I'm sure most of you know someone who has or has had cancer and it's not fun, so I would just ask you to lift up your prayers for him. 

Fulung: Dragon Boat Festival Trip 1/5

Sandra and my trip to Fulung was pretty fun. The weather wasn't too bad...but it was really humid and pretty hot and it rained no us, hahha....but for the most part it was tolerable. When we were on the train, we had to put Yuan Yuan in a bag...she didn't like that much, hahah. When we got to Fulung, we rented bikes and took a short bike tour, which was about 1 mile each way through an old railroad tunnel and ended up at a beach look out area. We then took our bikes back and explored a little bit and saw these amazing and huge sandcastles...most people paid to get in, but thanks to our exploring, we were able to find a secret passage. However, we didn't go close to the sand castles because we left our bikes at the "secret passage" and didn't want them to get stolen (I guess it wasn't all that secret if we were worried about them getting stolen).

Yuan Yuan looks so sad here.

The part of the beach where they made the huge sandcastles.

Pyramid sandcastles.

Fulung: Dragon Boat Festival Trip 2/5

Sandra between two funny characters made of metal.

Yuan Yuan finally figured out that she didn't have to be cramped in a ball when she was in the basket. She has pretty good balance, I have to admit. This was pretty funny too, when I would ride the bike fast or down a hill her ears would fill up with air and stick out to the sides...I had some good laughs and YY loved it.

Myself, Sandra and YY.

Fulung: Dragon Boat Festival Trip 3/5

This is a long railroad tunnel that has now been retired, people can walk or ride bikes through it. I found it pleasantly pleasing as the air inside kept cool while it was hot, humid and sticky outside...it was a nice break from the sweltering heat for a short time.

Me doing the Asian handsome face.



Yep, Yuan Yuan was pretty tired, she actually stayed on her back while I heald her, haha.

Fulung: Dragon Boat Festival Trip 4/5