Teething? 長牙？

孟田最近很愛咬東西，懷疑要長牙了

喜歡肯這個婆婆送的磨牙玩具

不過仍未看到任何小牙牙冒出的跡象

Drinking with a cup 用杯子喝水

孟田喜歡喝奶奶，但對裝著母奶的橡膠奶頭奶瓶強烈排斥。換成水也不喝。只好訓練她用杯子喝水。雖然三分之二都漏出來了，但至少不會做出嫌惡的表情。

喝水也不忘對著鏡頭笑

喝完了還可以啃杯子

Bicycle ride to Bali (not the island)

Bali in Taiwan? Yes, the small port village of Bali resides on the West bank of the Danshui river, opposite the more famous Danshui town. Taipei's bicycle trails are getting better. Now it's possible to ride all the way from our house to Bali and back.




Another rider on the trail... you don't see horses every day Taipei.


Vivian and Fiona couldn't make it on this trip. Once we get a bicycle trolley for Fiona, the whole family can hit the trails.




This Taiwanese farm house is about a hundred years old. Yes there are still people living in there.


The view out to sea from the mini pier at Bali.


Ken and Terry came along for the ride. We even managed to recruit the notoriously over-comitted Charles Lee to come out and join us mid-way on the trail! (he excused himself later to go back to his college and do more work)


From Bali we took a short ferry ride over to Danshui town, then caught the MRT back into the city. I could have ridden home, but I needed to get back faster. Even with the MRT ride shortening the distance, I clocked 41 km on my odometer that day.

Funny face 豬嘴巴

突然看到她在做怪表情，不知道是不是爸爸常跟她做豬嘴巴表情玩，她就學會了

不過也懷疑是不是鼻子不舒服

Date night -- tapas and cold drinks沒有孟田的夜晚

我們把孟田放在我媽和我二姐家，兩個人跑到一家西班牙餐廳約會
Vivian and I dropped off little Fiona at grandma's house, then went for a nice dinner of Spanish tapas.



吃完飯，又到一家叫做"冰館"的酒吧。裡面真的很冷
Then we visited "The Ice Bar" for drinks. It was very cold inside.




我們不敢久待，因為我的腳只穿涼鞋，快凍僵
外套是服務人員借我們穿的，但還是冷，零下15度
I would have taken more pictures, but the cold air inside affected the camera to the extent that the battery died. It was freezing in there, about -15 C.


The attendant gave us some winter coats and waved us in, yanking back a heavy sliding door. Inside there were lots of neat ice carvings and whatnot, with colorful lighting. Many rooms with different themes and ice slides and sculptures and other oddities.


At one point I got scared, because I got lost down one dead-end corridor, and it occurred to me that I would probably freeze to death in about half an hour if I wasn't able to get out. But all the same, it was fun. Who would think that in sub-tropical Taipei you could play in a winter wonderland like this?

Rachel's dinner

Climbing Snow Mountain

Last weekend Gareth, Kirt, Michael & David visited Snow Mountain, Taiwan's second-highest peak.

After a 5 hour drive from Taipei, we arrived at the trailhead at 11 pm on Friday night, then hiked for an hour in the dark before getting to the Qi Ka Cabin. After a not-too-comfortable night's sleep on the cabin's "beds" (tough plastic mats) we hit the trail at 9 am in the morning.



The trailhead was already 2300m above sea level, and by the time we hiked the 5 km to Snow Mountain's east peak, we were 3150m high. Time to stop for a rest and a meal.


The east peak afforded panoramic views all around. Mountain ranges rippled away in all directions. We could see the valley where we started, and also the road ahead to the summit. I delved into my overloaded backpack for a lunch of fruit, trail mix and a half-squashed tuna sandwich. After lunch we napped in the sun as the mountain breezes rolled across the peak.


True to its' name, the Snow Mountain summit was indeed snow-covered. But we did not scale the summit, since ice axes and crampons were required. It was also too far away, and our motley bunch simply wasn't cut out for it. But the day was still young, and from the east peak we walked another two km over to the next lodging post, the 369 Cabin. After a rest there, it was time to descend back whence we came. That evening we bunked once more at Qi Ka, enjoying some instant noodles and the starry view above.