11.12.2006 Yehliu minus the queen's head

On my five day moon festival weekend in October one of our scooter adventures was to Yehliu. I definitely don't recommend doing this by scooter. Maybe it's just my lack of experience or maybe your butt toughens up if you drive a scooter every day... but after all day on a scooter I could barely walk. I was kind of walking like one of those cartoon cowboys whose legs make a perfect U if you were to turn them upside down.

The scenery was worth it but we definitely should have headed out earlier. We explored an area further than the area with the famous "queen's head" which draws most people and I'm glad we did. The area had less people and the ocean view was fabulous. The area was past the big aquarium up a clogged road.



We went back and explored the main area but at this point my camera battery was dying, I was out of film, and I was tired and grumpy. Even feeling all of this we still decided to climb the "mountain" where the land meets the ocean. It looked like a little trail but it was torturous. Especially in 100NT shoes. Stupid stupid stupid. I think I may have actually managed to snap pictures of this part of the trip because I have a "mystery finished film" in my backpack and I have no idea what is on it.



After we finished the trail which didn't loop like we thought but was a complete dead end at the top we came back to search for the queen's head. I was really disappointed. In all the photos you see online it looks so freakin' huge! It was about the same height as me (158cm) and it wasn't *THAT* cool looking. It seems so random to me. I think that you could look at any of the rocks, find something they look like and print out a billion brochures and it'd be just as popular. I thought the candles were way more cool.



Anyway when I get that other film developed I'll add some of the photos here and these photos will be added at a higher res to my photography section shortly.

Labels: Taiwan day trips, Yehliu

11.08.2006 a path of mercy

On my 5 day weekend in October Han and I rented a scooter. Our feet pretty much only hit the ground to sleep and eat BBQ. One of our scooter adventures was in the mountains of Muzha. Randomly picking roads to go down.


We found a road that went to Pingling and decided to follow it for awhile. Not very far in we came to a section that was lined with golden statues of Guanyin about 6 feet tall. Guanyin is the buddhist goddess of mercy and is one of the big gods in Guandu Temple. I was captivated by this road and even though the lighting wasn't the best and I almost got run over about 10 times I snapped some pics.


Anyway even though the conditions weren't the best I really like these photos, 10 included in this gallery, and I'm going to go back at some point to a second run at the pictures. For now enjoy. Click the image below to go into the gallery:





I have a bunch of new photography to put up from random summer adventures but I'm working on putting up a new photography gallery program for the photography section. I think it'll be much better as far as being user friendly and it also includes a RSS feed and searchability! It'll probably take longer than I'm planning on getting up so I'll try to get the new photography up over the next couple of weeks in the current photography section.

Labels: Guanyin, Photography, Taiwan day trips

11.06.2006 I hacked my hair off

Ok so this is incredibly old news for anyone who keeps in touch with me but my hair is gone. I pretty much hadn't cut my hair, except for trims, in 10 years (I'm getting old) but during emotional lows in the summer I kept getting the temptation to hack it all off on a whim.

So one night with Meg...before she left, after sushi I think, the urge hit me again. Except it was late at night... and I was sure no place would be open.... but we got home and Meg agreed to go back out with me and check. We tried a couple places but most of them were closing up. We found one that had a great book outside showcasing hairstyles so we decided to try it out. Ironically it's one that Han suggested that I turned my nose up at because the recommendation came from his uncle. No offense to any uncles reading this (including my own) but who is going to take hair advice from an uncle?



The place was pretty much empty when we got in there which lead to another anxiety, do people really give good haircuts at the end of their shifts? I was treated like a princess regardless. The place had individual flat screen tvs at each of the hair cutting chairs and I got the longest shampoo of my life...I think 3 shampoo applications that were followed by a 5 minute scalp massage each. My next anxiety came when I assessed my hairdresser. I was kind of hoping to get one that had some funk to them... typically Taiwanese hairdressers are pretty funky... but she was just a little to GAP or NET for my taste...even if she was the sweetest thing ever! ... but the more I looked at her I realized she had a perfectly balanced look that suited her personality, so if she's able to create that for herself then maybe I would be ok.



The next snag was the complete language barrier. I was trying to use body language and hand motions to give her free reign over my hair and to let her know I was bored with it. She seemed to get the hint and then a lovely stranger... a handsome middle-aged Taiwanese man sitting beside me... translated and filled in the blanks.



So of course the first thing I did when I got home was snap a bunch of photos. Of course I can never get it this perfect on my own but I don't own a hairdryer which is one big problem but even on my hair's worse day it still is looking pretty great I think. It's kind of got the Taiwanese style mullet factor with the long pieces in the back and much shorter layers in the front, with the fro of curls (since my hair isn't so heavy anymore my natural curls have been unleashed).



Also, a before and after shot from Thailand in Feb and when I got my hair cut in August. Amazingly I didn't cry and haven't cried... and I haven't mourned my hair at all like the last time I hacked it off (grade 10??). My hair had become such a part of my identity I didn't know how devastating it was going to be to loose it. I have no heart break when I look at pictures of how long my hair was. Plus my hair grows incredibly fast so I have that security.

Labels: taipei, taiwan