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Photos by MJ Klein, Hui-chen and David

If I said that I loved Taiwan’s scenic beauty, it would be a classic understatement.  So when we had the opportunity to drive Highway 20 and cross from West to East, I couldn’t have been happier.

We set out from Kaohsiung and drove up towards Tainan, cutting east and then onto Highway 20 just outside of Tainan.  The weather was absolutely perfect!  See those mountains in the distance?  We got a lot closer to them!

Please note that I’ve geotagged this article at the point where we picked up Highway 20 outside of Tainan.

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Photos by MJ Klein

The next place that we went on our trip to East Taiwan was the Sansiantai or the “three faries” as they are called in Chinese.  The most striking feature is the beautiful 8-arch bridge and of course, the natural beauty surrounding it.

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Photos by MJ Klein

Hui-chen and I took our good friend David on a whirlwind trip to the east side of Taiwan.  I thought I would share some photos of that trip.  East Taiwan is completely different than the west side of the island and there are many interesting things to see there.

In 2002, I visited an attraction called “Water Running Uphill.”  This is what it looks like:

It certainly looks as if water in this trough it running uphill, doesn’t it?

SPOILER: If you don’t want to know if the water really does run uphill or not, I suggest that you not continue reading this article because I will provide scientific proof one way or another!

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Photos by MJ Klein

For years I’ve been reading about this mysterious place in northern Taiwan, where there are abandoned homes that resemble UFOs.  I’ve always wanted to go there and check it out, and thanks to our good friend Andres, we were able to do so recently.

This Google Earth image shows an overview of the complex.

This is the first view of the pods from the road.  Yes, those are chickens that some people are keeping inside the fence.

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Photos by MJ Klein

Our October 2008 trip to Thailand was business motivated.  We hired a car for the day and went to see our friend Mr. Somhkit at his factory in Muang Phon.  I’ll show you what it’s like to go south on highway 2 from Khonkaen down to Muang Phon, and some of the interesting sights of daily Thai life you can expect to see along the way.

This is the car we hired for the day.  You can see Hui-chen peeking through the rear window.  Typically, cars with drivers can be hired for around 1,500 Thai baht per day, plus fuel expenses.  That’s around US less fuel expenses.  If you’re doing business in Thailand, this is the way to go.  Our hotel setup the rental for us.  It couldn’t have been easier.

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Photos by Hui-chen

Video by MJ Klein

We took Dad out on Belews Lake on a pontoon boat. It was a great day and everyone had a wonderful time on the calm waters of the lake. We were going along at a relatively slow speed and came across this snake swimming at a surprisingly high speed:

I was using my new Glidecam Pro 2000 with the body pod and managed to get some video too.

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Photos by MJ Klein

Hui-chen and I were in Nantou and we basically stumbled upon the 921 Memorial Park in Mingjian. Actually it’s not exactly named that, but that is precisely what it is – a park dedicated to the memory of the 921 earthquake. 2,416 lives were lost in the 7.3 magnitude quake that occurred at 01:47 local time. That’s after midnight, folks. I’ve been in quite a few earthquakes, and some of them big enough to be frightening but can you imagine being awakened by a huge earthquake in the middle of the night? Surely the high numbers of people lost were due to the fact that they were home in bed when their building collapsed.

The 921 earthquake has special meaning for me. I first traveled to Taiwan in April of 2000. I visited some sites in Taichung, at the northern end of the fault line and personally saw the destruction and also some of the repair efforts underway. I will never forget looking at a landslide while someone told me that there were several hundred people still unaccounted for, and they were presumed to be buried under the landslide.

This photo is of what is called (in English) the Tilting Electric Tower. It’s a fitting memorial to the earthquake and demonstrates the extend of the damage. This tower is the centerpiece of the park, and I took a short walking tour of the park with the specific goal of reporting on it. So please join me as I take you thorough the park and we get a closer look at it’s features. But first, I want to show you some historical photos I took in 2000.

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Photos by MJ Klein

In Part I, we took a look at the beautiful waters of Wulai, and the downtown tourist and shopping area.  History buffs will know that Wulai has it’s own narrow-gauge rail system, known at the Log Cart.  Please click on the above photo to open a larger size for reading.

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Photos by MJ Klein

Hui-chen and I took a little sight-seeing trip to Wulai after our return from China recently.  If you haven’t been there in awhile, you should take a visit and see for yourself, what a lovely place Wulai really is.

Besides the famous waterfall, Wulai is known for these emerald green waters (and wires!).  These photos are un-processed and the colors are just how the Nikon D80 photographed them.

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Photos by MJ Klein

Part of the Taiwan Mini Parks Series

Hui-chen and I were driving along the mountain ridge in Hsinpu near our home when we ran across a new park being built.

View of gun boat turrets from the road

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