Danshui, Taiwan

Cities with efficient public transportation make me go weak in the knees. Figuratively, not literally, because they actually make me physically strong in the knees.

I like this shot

Those signs show the directions and ETAs of incoming trains

Escalators and stairs going every which way! It gets crazy. I love it.

This is the MRT Red Line after it's emerged from being a "subway" line.

Cute neighbor checking out...

I think this is some sort of a sports stadium. Pardon the many dust spots you're going to see... lens is dirty, but I can't remove the filter on my own, and then I can't see on my broken screen to fix them in Lightroom. Haha.

Yeah, I did darken this picture a little bit, but the sky really was amazing that day.

Changing trains hastily because I realized I was going to Beitou, not Danshui. Heh, I was distracted. ;p

The back of Taipei apartment buildings... that's how we do our laundry, yep. I greatly prefer dryers and consider them a luxury. ^_^

Almost there! Signature red bridges...

People like to go biking around there

Musician. Playing the saw. This is right behind the MRT station... I'm a little sad I didn't actually get a picture of that. Heh. I'm stupid.

Reminds me of Toy Story... but Danshui has a bunch of tiny stores filled with these, and other arcade-type booth machines.

This is for Timbo.

This is for anyone who is entertained by a plushie version of a popular drink which is not USUALLY called "happy fungus." Hahahaha. (It's a yogurt culture drink which is pretty delicious and comes in tiny bottles. You can find it at your local supermarket in the Asian frozen food aisle)

Great spot for city families to enjoy some fresh air on weekends!

I love Taiwan. One word: FOOD.

Food. Here we have stinky tofu, various seafood dishes, and drinks for sale.

While sitting along the harbor, I got distracted from journaling (as aforementioned) and narcissism ensued. Hey, I take so many pictures of other people... I figured I deserved to be in a few. ^_^

I'm very bad at self-portraits without a tripod.

Yes, people give me more weird looks here than they do in Austin. :\

See the dust spots? ^_^ It actually was a lot brighter than this, but this was the only way I could think of to capture the sun.

Awesome cloud cover

Haha, cute date?

Small passerby looks askance at me

I love the contrast of the happy sightseers and the small sulky shopkeeper's son nibbling his snack. Hahaha.

There's a phrase in Chinese to describe crowds: People mountains, people oceans. Now you see why.

This is actually a reasonably common sight in a lot of Taipei's more crowded/popular areas. Black heads everywhere. It's so "Where's Waldo?" ^_^ Only harder.

Lovely sunset

Not quite that dark yet either, but I liked the red.

Cindy came!

So we documented the occasion in the traditional tourist manner.

She brought a friend, Ivan. And made him style her bag. I think he rocks it well.

Apparently you can go pleasure boating using the same pass you use for buses and MRTs in Taiwan! Nice.

Snails! Non-spicy, a little spicy, medium spicy, and very spicy.

Cindy samples a snail.

I just stick with candied balls. :P

I do love stinky tofu, though!

And play with my food yet. :| I'm so mature. ^_^

Ivan's driver's licenses are the best thing ever. ^_^ Do you appreciate my crude Lightroom clone-stamping?

Of course, I sticker picture it up everywhere I go (mostly because my mom disapproves of them). I'm rather fond of the Joker reference.

And I really couldn't let such awesome food go by without being documented. You see a happy woman there on the right.

More here.

And here is a cool panoramic shot of the harbor... click to enlarge.