Ba-bye Taiwan. "Nice to meet you."

So we've made it back to the States safe and sound. Our last week was extremely busy processing the results from the first test, writing a paper for an ASCE conference in Vancouver, rushing to finish building and instrumenting the second test, and then testing in our last hours before flying out. The 5 1/2 week trip passed by far to quickly and we'll miss a lot of the charm Taiwan and Taipei have to offer. We did have the opportunity to head up to the northern most point of the island to hike around and check out the rock formations. We also ended up in a town called Jaifon built on the steep slopes of an old gold mine near Keelong, north of Taipai.

NCREE put together another "outing" for employees and we, again, were lucky enough to tag along. They set the day's itinerary and constantly kept us fed. All we had to do was make sure we didn't miss the bus. First stop was the northern coast where we had the choice of a dolphin show or hiking the cliffs. Even though I figured it would have been interesting to see dolphins speaking chinese, we opted for the hike. The rock on the north coast looks like fossilized coral. The area is extremely eroded from the winds and is definitely different from anywhere else I've ever seen.





Queen Kelly on her throne.


And then we battled on dinosaurs.


Back in the 1950's, gold was discovered in the hillsides of northern Taiwan and mines were quickly dug. The town of Jaifon was established to house the workers and their families but after the mines were emptied, the town stayed partially because of it's uniqueness. We got onto a bus and held on for our lives as the driver attempted to break the world record for faster time up the narrow switch backs and hairpin turns. I chose to stand facing the up slope rather than stare down the abyss separated only by a flimsy guardrail. The driver gave it one heck of an effort but we missed the record by 2 seconds.



The place was a bit of a tourist trap and the highlights are these narrow alleys lined with shops and vendors that run endlessly up and down the hillside. It was pretty intense and we had to make a break for more open ground. We found a temple and checked out all the detail and art inside. People come here and light incense to honor the dead. Creepy.



Rick, Sri and the two of us have become like a little family while we were in Taiwan. The four of us ate "hot pot" and washed it down with a few Taiwan Beer for our last night out.



These guys say they're gonna call Kelly in the States for translation from Mandarin, directions to restaurants or for which train to take when they want to get out of town. We predict they're gonna sit in their apartment crying for weeks, unable to feed themselves or navigate the city...but that might be a little grandiose of how important our roll was.

And Rick seems to be embracing the country well enough as you can see.


Hopefully we'll be back to visit soon. Taiwan is an amazing country. The food is incredible and the people are generous and welcoming. We didn't get to visit all the places on the island that we would have liked, but each place we did showed picturesque landscapes and interesting cultural charm. We definitely need to thank UW and our research for making this opportunity happen and KC Tsai and NCREE for being such accommodating hosts. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a safe, fun New Years. We'll be talking to you soon.

Jake