sanction of the righteous

warning, there are a lot of photos...

real time reporting on which stalls/urinals are being occupied :)

in front of the Lin family residence/mansion + garden

garden

butterfly on the leaf, i can fly twice as high... wait

cherry blossoms!

stamps to show that you were there!

presumably the servants quarters

raised eating/tea area

fissies

cool looking (ceramic?) tiles

peekaboo!

space cadet

7-11s everywhere...

surprise!!

sneak attack

mom and kid having a lot of fun w the peacock

a lil bit of engrish

handicapped ramp into the water

yay

mom and kid, feeding goldfish

long shan temple

the odor is quite pungent

meeting up with some of the groom's peepo

taipei 101

hello kitty bandage. so tough.

hot pot

i wish i could have some right now

taipei 101 in the background

as soon as everyone got back to the house... internet on the phones/tablets.... tsk tsk

albert's hair became the center of attention for the next couple of hours. he was going to get a haircut the next day, but he wanted to save his massive ponytail, so they were trying to figure it out.

an exciting turn of events has transpired.

uhhhh......

extreme

wedding day! getting ready etc.

entourage getting packed into the caravan...

they set off some firecrackers before the grooms challenges began. couldn't get close enough for a good shot though.

david proclaiming his love for emma.

groom + groomsmen must do pushups

eh, that was ok i guess

relationship memory.

test failed, punishment = drinking bitter tea.

entering into emma's parents' house

some sweet soup

love (proclamation?) pretty much like a vow.

must sign and leave thumbprint. sadly neither involved blood.

the bride emerges!

teary eyed exchanges... pretty sure everyone had allergies in the room or something at this point.

bride's immediate family

bridal party! so hot

getting ready to get to the banquet hall.

vip/ready room. bridal party freshening up.

practice run.

video mementos for the groom.

peepo starting to arrive!

guestbook signing.

aunties keeping track of red envelope benefactors and amounts

broment!

handsome groom + groomsment

a little bit to the left...

kitchen bustle...

dude don't drop it oh no what are you doing

maggie (left) working hard to translate best man ed's (left) speech. thanks google translate.

emcee did a pretty good job.

flower girl was extremely focused the entire time.

out of focus, but good expression from ed.

so indie.

yay!

taiwan minister of health giving a speech

the couple + both sets of parents <3

food food food food :) food :) food :) food :)

don't do it dad!

too late, tear !

super happy mom :D

bride and groom choreographed dance

ed did a good job on the speech, and maggie did awesome on translating as well adding some chinese-ier humor.

almost a cool shot

yum

omnom

baby nicholas taking pictures. i think there were probably 40 of these.

he got kristina in pretty much a stop motion video. apparently the feedback from the camera button and the associated sound was pretty fun.

nic! or han han, or hanbao (hamburger)

peek!

apparently kristina does not want to be seen with me .... :\

discussion

blurry ruination of the picture

hanging out at hotel.

bape store!

bought a calpis! refreshing

we had a bit of an ordeal getting here. arguments were had = grumpy k dawg

beh!

on the high speed rail to taichung (central taiwan)

rice paddies

tea tasting! so yummy @ amber's parents place in taichung.

tea tea tea so good

tea is poured into the smelling cup, which you then pour into your drinking cup

then you smell the now empty smelling cup, which if you have good tea should be very aromatic

"king kong" peanuts

on the way to lukang

200+ ? year old school

area towards the middle of the stone is worn down from wind!

different types of caligraphy

tiny kristina and jonathan

kind of an amplification structure built into the ceiling, for oration.

dragon biting that dude's head

very long eyebrows

well, capped off.

another amplifier.

apparently these very narrow roads were built in order to minimize the wind chill coming in from the ocean (lukang is a port city). this narrowest of lanes has been nicknamed "chest-touching lane" bc it's so narrow that when you'd pass someone there would be some brushing involved.

also, lukang means deer port, since westerners would come here to trade for the deer hides that local hunters would harvest.

mo-lu lane's entrance and sign, + some graf

amber's parents, who were very kind in bringing us everywhere and showing us around

ugh out of focus, but you get the idea

a boar.

pumping water!

guess what it is....

electricity meter!

night lights... unlit

night market :)

dude painting fans. very skilled.

whee !

where we ate

v. tasty after much walking.

a steamy restaurant front

eagerly awaiting our food.

glass maker dude.

bleh!

amber's parents house

go away!

ror!

in david's dad's place in taichung

our room

our bathroom

some taiwanese fruit, i have since forgotten the chinese name. i'm not sure if we ever figured out the english name.

莲雾 (lian wu), or bellfruit (Syzygium samarangense). a very tasty fruit, its like a cross between a pear and apple. the flesh is fairly loose, so it is very easy to eat

aha! my aunt at an earlier age

the common area outside of the room

art supplies

stairs.

looking down past the 2nd to the 1st floor

elevator in the house!

we could not figure out the heater

it's ok, we actually didn't need it.

also, we had matching panda slippers! wa haha!

hi-ya!

mow

squirmathon

han han taking pictures again. this was one out of many.

ar?

han han smash!

on a skywalk to 101

from the skywalk

@ din tai fung in 101. kristina gets the white people instructional card on how to eat xiaolong bao. wa hahahaha

empty heart vegetable. the stalk is hollow.

so good.

M.O.M.

in aunt's dermatology clinic!

her drawing !

dr. ena

dr. j dawg

tea in the clinic lobby

different flavors than in the states

bbq chicken flavor

asian-y flavor, and less crunchy than u.s. chips

they taste so good, as you can see

art exhibition in a subway corridor. this kind of thing was quite surprising to see at first, because something like this would be trashed in short order in the states

zoo!

poor flamingos, wings clipped

my well worn and very old shoes finally busted. probably from a combination of the massive amounts of walking we did, and the water.

spotted deer, dear

boar, didn't come out well. oh well, we saw one up close in lukang.

forgot what this little guy was.

lazybutt cat.

another.

a hawk.

the other hawk did not like my camera at all. he kept screeching at me and even shook his tailfeathers in my direction. very rude.

formosan black bear.

monkeying around.

group your feces.

pheasant... he intent on moving around at a good pace, couldn't get a good shot but his colors were very vibrant.

another wild animal! oh wait that's just kristina's hair.

little one was playing with a chip wrapper.

lazy koala.

panda omnom

in the women's restroom

what is she doing

annoying pests, even in TW

guess where we went for lunch/snack

at least we got something that is unavailable in the u.s. kind of a teriyaki ish thingy.

furry lil guy.

maokong gondola! yes...

itd be scarycool if we could ride the maint. carriage all the way up.

got the glass bottom one!

lol wut

tea!

station at the top! we backtracked a lil bit to meet up w david and ed.

figuring things out. i was being helpful by documenting.

kristina seemed to be unwilling to place my hand properly for this tp 101 crushing shot. no bueno. rather, bu hao.

unacceptable.

getting some tea!

concentrating....

so cool! awesome little tea pourer/pitcher thingy, with a hollowed out area for ice.

stairs to the higher/larger portion of 'cat got nothing to do cafe'

such a hard life

finally got to the tea promotion center on top of the mountain famous for its awesome tea. guess what, it's closed.

beh.

......

teateatea

wut?

steps. going down to see the "pothole," which apparently what maokong was named after.

the pothole. basically an access point to a stream.

although it does look kinda cool, i was kind of underwhelmed mostly due to fatigue and hunger and darkness and insect assault.

bananas in pajamas

kung fu film in the bamboo forest!

feeble and decrepit

eat my food and drink my beer!

taipei!!

food at the top of the mountain. oh yea

tea. 1/2 chrysanthemum, 1/2 pu-erh, + a little bit of sugar.

shrimp with tea leaves.

the moment was long gone by the time this picture was taken.

tasting tea. we ended up buying a fatty amount of tea from this lady. we had to go catch the last gondola, otherwise we could have made her give us more samples, esp for the amt of tea we all bought.