Still alive

Sorry for not posting in a few days! We are still alive.

After our trip to Kenting, we stayed in Gaoxiong for several days with the Chen family. I know their son from my mission. They have the most beautiful house! With seven floors, elevator, jacuzzi, sauna etc. it was better than any hotel we could find. They also took us around the entire city of Gaoxiong. We went to the largest mall in Asia and rode the ferris wheel at the top of it. It was frightening to say the least.

We then took the train four hours up the east coast along the coast, which is absolutely beautiful, to the city of Hualian. Brother Chen got a very nice hotel for us to stay at in Hualian. There we had a personal tour guide through Tyroko National Park. There are huge steep cliffs with the road built into the side of the cliff.

We were suppose to go whale watching the next morning but it was canceled.

After Hualian, we took the train another 4 hours up to Taipei city, where we stayed at the Grand Hotel. It looks like a huge temple. Ruth and I traveled all around Taipei using the subway system to see all the tourist attractions. These attractions included the following:

- Taipei 101 - the second tallest building in the world with the fastest elevator in the world 1010 m/min. We could only go to the 89th floor. It is so high. While we were waiting in line, thousands of people from mainland China surrounded us and just stared at us aloft their eye level. About ten of them asked if a man could take a picture with us (very common), of course we said sure, but as we came together to take the picture with the man, I was kicked out of the picture. Only Ruth and the man, with the man's arm around Ruth. That's what I get for having the most beautiful wife in the world. Our taxi driver told us that she looks just like a Barbie, and she should never never work, because working makes people ugly.

- Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial Hall - Very beautiful memorial with a very large freedom square.

-LDS Temple - The best and most beautiful temple of the hundreds we saw.

-Shilin Night Market - The largest night market in Taiwan. Hundreds of thousands of people.

-XiMenDing - Busy shopping center on the eastern side of Taipei city

-Xin Beitou LDS Chapel - Surprised Sister Amy Collier with a visit. We figured out she was teaching an english class one night. We arrived several minutes early and surpirsed her.

We are in the Taoyuan Airport right now. We arrived very early (four hours) so we could get exit row seats for our flights back. Mission accomplished. On all levels.