Boat to Bali, other side of the river.

Poppy trying the local fried squid. Poppy later said he'd probably rather the squid was swimming around in the ocean where it belonged! We had fun at Ba-Li trying the local delicacies including freshly squeezed sugar cane juice and orange juice, squid, mussles, sweet cakes, green mango, popcorn, sea snails (Steve of course), freshly baked sweet potatoes, and playing games. Lovely day for it.

Trip to Dan Shui

Went to Dan Shui, north of Taipei where the river meets the sea. Took a boat across the river to Bali, though stopped at this little shop on the way and purchased some of these beautiful musical instruments/ornaments. The man made them and his wife painted them. He played them beautifully.

Visit

Enjoying mum and dad's visit. Went to Yang Ming Mountain National Park the other day, saw the natural hot springs, then drove around to Jin Shan (Gold Mountain) and Ye Liu on the coast. Popular scenic route.

Big Brother

Saturday was family day for us. This is Steve's Big Brother, actually cousin, but cousins and actual brothers and sisters are no different in Taiwanese/Chinese culture. To Tilly they are 'Ah Bei & Ah Mmm'. Big Brother is an amazing cook. We love to have dinner with them. Big Brother's name in Chinese is Chiang Ming Xing - ming xing is the word for Superstar. Chiang Super Star.

二姑姑

The above is 'er gu-gu' which means second aunty but with the more complex meaning of father's older sister. As daddy has two older sisters and this one is the youngest of those older sisters, she gets 'second' attached to aunty.

We love our 'er gu gu', both the gu-gu's of course. But don't get to see 'er gu-gu' that much. She runs a dumpling stall in Taipei County and she's a sweetie. Photos taken from Steven's i-phone so not excellent.

Sea Snail anyone?

Looking for that special something to really tip your wife over the edge? Grab a bag of these babies, switch on the baseball and suck away! Steve loves these little things - I personally can't think of much worse. It's more the sound of the sucking to get what little meat is in there that really does me in. What they did to deserve swimming in that bath of hot chillies I'll never know! For a very literal translation, no hot, small hot and big hot. Steve got a bag of the small hot. The occassion is October 10 National Day, at the Kite Flying Festival. Any event comes with the ubiquitous street stall foods. Such as these little puppies...

Twirly wirly dagwood dogs, or hotdogs. Whatever you'd like to call them. Not very "traditional", but fun none the less. Quite artistic I thought!