Been at the NorthEastern Coast of Taiwan

Black dots in the sea where surfers waiting for a perfect wave.. And on the rocks were the fishermans with thier long fishingpoles trying to catch a fish..

This is me..trying to find a shadow of the Turtle island. But this day was so misty and all I can see were two fishing boats.

Here is our lunch!! Yummy seafoods cooked fresh and of course don't forget the Taiwan Beer!!

Such a beautiful view of the coastline... That vast of water is the Pacific Ocean.. <nice>

At XiaoYouKeng

Xiaoyoukeng is found in the YangMingSan (Yang Ming Mountain) in the north of Taiwan. This is a place where most tourist and locals can enjoy the beautiful view of a steaming mountain. At the background of the sign is the steam. Xiaoyoukeng is filled with volcanic fissures that spew steam from the bowels of the earth, forming clusters of sulfur crystals.

On my way to the trails I seen a lot of visitors.

The perfect view of the steaming mountain from one of the observation decks. On the far left is another trail where visitors can closely look at the volcano.

Some visitors tried to cook eggs on the boiling water on the ground.  I wonder how the egg would taste with the boiling sulfur water!!

At the Taipei International Flora Expo

As I visit the Flora Expo in Taipei last Suday, I fall in love with the beautiful landcape of flowers. This eye catching maroon plant stripped with greens are just perfect combination. But wait till you see more of the pictures below.

At the background of this vast of flowers is the towering skyscraper, one of the tallest building in the world, the Taipei 101. It was a little bit of foggy this day because of the typhoon just around the corner of Taiwan Island but it is still a wonderful view. The group of visitors are also busy taking souveneir pictures of this wonderland.   

We followed the sign that says, Flora Rainbow and was wondering  it is the open doors of the exhibition halls we have found. When we looked up, and it was at the roof of the exhibition halls! It was really awesome. The variety of small flowering plants are well planted and taken care of. With the color combination that are like of the rainbow, one must see this wonderful creation of Taiwanese.

Inside the exhibition halls they feature examples of beautiful gardens. This is the one that i like most. It somehow takes me to Greece. (Hehehehe) The background are paintings that makes it look like a wide garden. The tropical flowers are well planted at the walkways which makes the garden so lively.

Here is also another garden I found interesting. The hugable bears are having a tea party in the garden.

The International Taipei Flora Exposition is open to everyone sometime in November until next year. Anyone who wish to visit Taiwan (i think) must include a tour inside. It will be fun to see the beauty of nature in this place..

Caregiver's Diary 2

It's been almost two days raining here in Taipei. The temperature is cool. But for granny, today is a bad day. Rainy days makes her sad and lonely. She talked a bout her son's difficulty coming home from work tonight because the rain is pouring. Sometime of the day she just burst into crying and I rush to see what happened to her. But nothing was wrong with her, she only remember her mother and father, whom she misses all the time. I comforted her and let her watch television shows to distract her attention.

So this afternoon, I prepared green tea and some biscuites. She likes to have our afternoon tea and talk about anything she can remember.  

Funny Little Decor

Me and Steve (my boyfriend) stroll around the streets in Tienmu today looking for a place to have lunch. We found a very inviting restaurant called Lion Foot Sri Lankan Cuisine. Thought of trying thier food for the first time and we are very satisfied that I almost can't move on my chair. (Hahahaha) But this caught my eye, (the above picture) hanging on the wall, were funny wooden caricature of Sri Lankan natives. Wearing thier  traditional clothes and smiles. Thier head can move from side to side. It is just interesting.

What is in the Name?

No, this is not a flower or a withered leaves. They are the Purple Crow, a kind of butterfly that can only be seen here in the island of Taiwan. There are obviously hundreds of them, even thousands that are scattered along the island. Taiwan is used to be called "The Kingdom of Butterflies". But sad to say, this amazing and delicate creatures are slowly declining in number due to development of the city.

I remember my trip to YangMing mountain, some few months ago. While walking along one of the trails, a butterfly kissed me on the cheek! I was so surprised to see how beautiful the little creature was. Its wings were yellow and blue stripped with black. As it landed on one of the flowers, I was tempted to touch it but it was so delicate that I think I might ruin its beautiful wings if I'd ever do it. I watched with amazement and from then on I fall inlove with this sweet creature. And called my blog 'Farasha', which means butterfly in Arabic language. 

Caregiver's Diary 1

This is me with ever sweet grandma. She is my job for more than a year and seven months now. It was a tough job during my first three months. All those times I was adjusting to the language (Chinese), their culture, thier way of life, the weather, and almost everything about myself too. Thier languange was my greatest challenge, I can't understand anything and Granma can't speak English too. But because I am going to take care of her until, hopefully, I'll finish my contract, so I read a lot of my Tagalog-Chinese handouts and learn mostly by experience.
Almost everyday I have the same routine to follow. Wake up at 7am, bring gramna to the toilet (she can walk with my help), get her ready for breakfast. I usually let her wait in the kitchen table while I am preparing for her favorite breakfast, toast and peanut butter and milk. Eager to help me prepare but she cannot manage to get up and sometimes she feel sad about it. But by the way, Granma was diagnosed to have Alzhiemers disease, she looks happy in the above picture I have taken last night. This was her happy mood, after five minutes, she will be sad or angry. And sometimes she will snap at me calling me names because she don't know me. Or sometimes when she eats I have to tell her what to do. The basic everyday routine she was suppose to do almost all her life that she forgets. It was sad to look at her like a child, really. That is why i learned to adjust and loved her though there were times i find it difficult.
I have to live my life. I chose it this way and I'm geting by. =)