Happy birthday and Merry X'mas!

Friends and family took me to a new hotpot restaurant for my BD, very nice indeed....

This huge restaurant is a buffett style eatery with hot and cold food, sushi bar, hot pot, desserts, everything...

and for X'mas dinner, we had the pleasure dinning with our new friends: Liyue and family from Taipei, Ed & Kukui from Nevada USA, Keith Barnes & family from Capetown South Africa. Awesome buffett dinner with western, Chinese, and Japanese food.

It was wonderful that Christmas falls on a weekend because X'mas is not a holiday here in Taiwan.

Christmas party

Hualien Toastmasters had a X'mas party this past week, and it was fantastic.

No lack of singing talent for sure!

We also had a X'mas party with our tennis team...

Our captain's girl friend is a great singer....

so is our coach, Mr Chen.....

Happy December!

Still discovering more restaurants, and this one is a gem. Very nostalgic with decor from years gone by. Menu is full of old day dishes, popular during our childhood. Guess you can say "comfort food", Taiwanese style.

Attended a big banquet after a tennis tournament at which I was one of the umpires. I got paid $3600 and a dinner to boot, not bad at all.

There was performance by the aboriginal people....

and music by some local musicians...

My cousin's wedding

in Hong Kong this past weekend.

The ceremony was held at a mountain top Christian santuary which houses a small but quaint chapel.

My cousin who is the youngest daughter of my uncle, had lived in Canada for the past 20 years. She had converted to Christianity and met her husband at a church.

Dinner reception was held at a popular seafood restaurant, and although the food was fantastic, the portions were small, typical of the now Hong Kong style of eating light. I was satisfied but had the appetite for more.........in Taiwan, we don't stop when we are full, we stop when we are tired!

Beautiful wedding overall at a very nice setting.

Random musings on all things Taiwanese

Despite its natural beauty, open space, miles of coastline, abundance of sunshine, and very friendly people, Taiwan is virtually unknown to the Western world. Tourism was non existent comparing to other neighbouring countires until recently, but most of that are mainland tourists.
My tiny little blog here has generated a lot of interests from westerners wanting to know more about Hualien in the past two years, and I have made many new friends from email contacts, and meeting some of them in person upon their arrival here. A young lady(ABC) who is currently visiting Hualien has started a website, dedicated to share the going ons of Taiwan to the outside world, in English. What a wonderful idea! Here is the link: http://taiwan543.net/

Ocean park in Hualien

These videos were taken in late August, just before school began again and therefore, taking Frankie and her friend to Ocean park for some R &R.

Frankie loves rides, especially the roller coaster.....

The sea lion show is always good....

And the dolphin show is even better than before. Ocean park hired a whole bunch of Russian swimmers and acrobats and they have become part of the show. It was a hot day with temp around 35C.

It is now mid September and perfect temperature, around 28C.

Expats in Hualien

Thru this blog, I have met and made many wonderful new friends, and some of them have made a trip to Hualien to see for themselves what a wonderful little place this is. This past week, a couple from Nevada stayed with us and explored future possibilities.

Ed and Kukui in this video enjoyed a warm evening by the beach with us, playing with fireworks.

One of the best things to combat summer heat is coconut water. It is refreshing, nutritious, and lowers body temperature instantly. Frankie loves coconut water, which is not to be confused with coconut milk.......

Keith and Yvonne have just relocated to Hualien from Capetown, South Africa, along with their son Joshua. They invited us to their new home for a BBQ, and what a wonderful feast it was.

Good food, great wines, good company and nice views on a hot summer night is simply priceless.

We also wanted to buy a BBQ for our house, but decided against it. Instead, we go to a BBQ restaurant, where meats are roasted on hot charcoal. In this video, I accidently captured a very special moment: Frankie drooling over the BBQ while waiting for the meat to cook.....it was perfect!

Its been over two years since coming here, and we continue to discover new things. Homemade dumplings made in a local market, organic free range eggs, grass jelly served chilled with winter melon syrup, home grown bananas.........delicious as hell and a taste of heaven!