Monday, July 30, 2007

Photographic Journey [Episode 2]

Here's Episode 2. Although all my Taiwan photos are already hosted on Flickr, if I don't post them here on the blog, they'll all vanish as I upload my Japan pictures. In this post, I'm enlarging the thumbnails slightly so readers can enjoy the photos without having to click on each one (you still can, if you insist, and you WILL get a slightly larger version).

Locations: Xiduowu Japanese Seafood Buffet and Danshui (again).

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Entrance to Xiduowu Japanese Seafood Buffet. My second grandaunt (I think that's correct) was kind enough to treat my mother, aunt, and I to lunch.

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I'll tell you right now, the selection of items here is more than anything I've encountered in Vancouver. There's hand-rolls; sushi; various selections of udon; fresh seafood (fresh being raw, but some are cooked...I think); tempura (not your usual fare, either, they've got chicken, fish, squid, sweet yams, and a few others that I can't even discern); and several other items. It would seem that the owner opted to include any foods that were even remotely Japanese.

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Yeah, couldn't help myself but to help myself to some desert.

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OK, here's something that I did not dare to touch, so I photographed it instead. Don't ask me what it is - you don't want to know, and I'm not telling you...actually, your guess is as good as mine.

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Heading off to Danshui again via the sky-train. One thing I must say about them - they're a lot cleaner (and more comfortable!) than the ones here in Vancouver; I've never considered Taiwanese to be particularly concerned with the environment (just look at the plethora of air conditioners sticking out of literally every household window, all running at the same time, as well as the garbages on the sidewalk), but in this case, I was pleasantly surprised.

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Here we're outside Danshui Station. I didn't get to photograph the building itself the last time I was here (which is about 3 days ago), so this time I'm pointing my L glass at the red bricks and firing away.

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Here's the same building from a different standpoint.

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Thought I'd take a picture of the signpost. This one says: cars obey direction of traffic; apparently drivers in Taiwan hate to follow the flow (I can be completely wrong about what this sign actually means...but hey, I was out of the country for 13 years, what did you all expect!)

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Street of Danshui. Apparently the scooters in Taiwan ride on the sidewalk instead of on the road.

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Felt kind of hungry at this point (having walked for about an hour now as I recall), so I dropped by this fish-ball restaurant for some Danshui fish-ball soup.

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Well I had to have dessert after the soup, and I picked up this string of sugared-tomatoes on a stick (this is a very literal translation).

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My, that's a whole lot of eggs...(why am I posting this? I have no idea).

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Dropped by Dante's Coffee Shop for a brief respite after a long walk (carrying my 7kg camera bag and my 2.5kg Manfrotto tripod - not an easy task), and decided to share a slice of this cake with my family.

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That was a really, REALLY good cake.

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Again, I have no idea why I'm showing you this - it's a wall in the coffee shop!

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Yes, even in Taiwan there are Starbucks, one every 2 blocks down (as opposed to McDonald's, which is on EVERY BLOCK).

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Could not help but to take a picture of this cute puppy (I'm sure some dog-lover will probably email me to tell me that THAT is a fully-grown adult).

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OK, that's more than one picture for the dog, and I didn't mean to get the owner as well. What can I say, I love dogs!

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Not sure what to say about this one...it's an alley!

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Yet another sign post. I'm reasonably sure that this one says STOP!

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