Temples...

Honestly, these temples were highly elaborate. This is a Taoist temple right on the coast. Jon was looking at the guardian of the temple walls.

The walls were also scuplted with random gods, dragon and man in form.
This was at a Buddhist temple more inland. This is the great dragon god. Basically no other god compares to the dragon one. Which is why the emperor always used the dragon as his symbol. If the dragon had 5 claws, it was a symbol for the emperor, who was pretty god-like to the people. Any dragon with less than 5 claws was pretty much a lesser being. Three claws is the usual for regular peasant folk.
Once again the dragon god which is bigger and badder than all the other gods in front of him. If you were up zoom up on this pic you'd see that there are multiple little statuettes in front of the dragon, those are random lesser gods. These are the three Buddhas. And you probably thought there was only 1. One is for business, one is for health and... ummm... I forgot what the third one is for... happiness I think? And of course... right next to it is the dragon god.
Now this... this is unique and quite interesting in my opinion. There are usually two lions guarding the temple, the father lion and the mother lion. Now... in each lions mouth is a giant concrete ball. Supposedly, if you were able to get the concrete ball out of the father lion's mouth, you'd be guaranteed wealth. So most people, being unable to get concrete ball out of concrete lion's mouth, will just reach for the ball and rub it for good luck. Being able to touch the ball alone is also supposed to be a blessing of good luck and fortune... Well... the one I am touching in this picture (that yes I did show twice because 1, I like the picture and 2, I have a point to make) is the mother lion aka the lioness guardian. Now... supposedly a lot of newly wedded couples will go to the mother lion and reach for the ball in her mouth hoping for a blessing for good fertility. Then according to the superstition, they end up with child shortly after. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a picture of me actually touching concrete ball in concrete mother lion's mouth.
Now, I'm pregnant.

Do I blame mother lion????

Heck no!

I just find it funny.

Teipei's Equivalent to Our Arlington Memorial...

Don't ask me to tell you the name of this memorial... because 1. I'll butcher it, 2. I don't know it, and 3. Yes, at one point in time I knew it, but I forgot it 2 seconds after I heard it.

But this memorial is Taiwan's equivalent to our Arlington. That's how they compare it and those how they refer to it. They too respect the grounds, they too have a changing of the guard and someone stationed there 24/7/365, and they too have an unmarked grave with a nameless soldier respectfully buried there.
There is Taiwan's flag. And a security building... that I figured was used to house the guards who weren't on watch duty.
This is a security tower, they had one on each side of the memorial... though tourist are allowed to go on the first floor and admire the scenery... the second floor is reserved for guards only.

I must say, I've never seen a more elaborate security tower ever before.

The unmarked grave... enough said...

The changing of the guard...

The actual memorial itself... Those tablet thingies... are the gravestones. People would enter the doors and bow in respect to the soldiers who gave their lives.
My godmother right next to my mother...
And a mural depicting the war...

More pictures to come later...

Teipei Picture Update... See I Did Put Up Pictures!

This was our first day in Teipei the capitol of Taiwan. My first time ever in Taiwan and Jon's first time ever in Asia.

So here he is, welcoming you to Asiaworld, where Asians dominate even though they normally stand a good foot shorter than the white population.

Asia happens to be the capitol of cellphones, bootlegs, and cheap products where they make things for approximately 6 cents and ship them over to the U.S. and sell them for about 50 bucks. So of course, while we were there... we went on a major shopping spree.

These were just a few random pictures we took.

You'd think that this bright red bear with all the hearts on it would be an advertisement for stuffed animals, or toys, or Valentine's day...

...but it wasn't.

It was just a couple of weeks before Christmas, there was no toy store in the vicinity. This giant bundle of stuffed love with the numbers on it, was an advertisement for a bank. Hence the quote, "We Share." I don't know... it was pretty interesting. How many banks do you know with that kind of marketing????

So, did you know that McDonalds won't open up a franchise unless there's 30,000 people within a certain radius?

Well try having 2 McDonalds on the same block.

Mickey D's in Teipei where the people barely understood our order. If you look at the cup, it's got the phrase "I'm lovin' it" in Tagalog, Chinese, Japanese, French and I forget what else.

Once again the bank marketing trick.

This time... it's a better picture...

It's got me in it...

P.S. We were annoying the bank... the giant bear thingy was actually on a podium that stood in the middle of a fountain. They were annoyed with us because we stood in the middle of the fountain.

Hey... it was drained... we didn't care.

This Angel was in front of the hotel we stayed at... we happened to have been the comic relief for the maitre d.

Hey... he just wanted to let the world know he CAN dance ya know...

McDonalds in Chinese... well... here's Toys R Us in Chinese.

I happen to enjoy the Toys R Us there better...

If you're looking for a specific toy, they always have one box open so you can figure out if you want to buy it or not.

Anyway, this set of pictures was just the random photos we took. Later I'll put up more. My camera has over 300 pics in it. So give me a break and some credit for putting these up.