Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Flowers (as opposed to blooms, I think)

Now one of my two favorites in all of Kaohsiung.

It's the simplest things in life that make the world a beautiful place, isn't it?  Brings to mind this snail pic, my favorite post from the mountainside village where Chenjean grew up.

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Love Sculpture

...where else but the River of Love?

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Red Blooms with Buildings

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Colorful Building with Reflection

...directly across the river from the hotel.

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Walkway with Signage

This and the next few posts were captured at river level, and are in no particular order.  In this one the colorful sign at center says "River of Love" in English...

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Tan Building at End of Street

...and while looking in that direction - found something fascinating about the light colored building at the end of this street, so took gobs of pictures and found a few keepers.

Framed in portrait mode below:

 

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Strange Building with Riverscapes

Don't know what this building was for, but made for a good picture.  Same with riverscapes from two perspectives below:

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Nightscape

Roughly the same pic with strange building in the background.

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Anniversary Card

The other day my big brother and his wife celebrated their 40th anniversary, so I made this card for them in Photoshop.

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Building Reflection

Lots of opportunity for night shots and reflections off of the river...

Complete picture below:

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Ambassador Dragonfish #2

We'd just started out on our first walk around the river when a guy waved me over.  He had a serious rig strapped around his neck and, seeing the Bigger Cahoona around mine, offered this perspective on capturing the dragonfish.  Didn't have time to do it much justice, but grabbed this one real quick and thanked him before running off to catch up with the family.

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Ambassador Dragonfish #1

...a closer-up view of the dragonfish overlooking the river.

Daytime view below, as well as a perspective on its place in front of the hotel:

Taiwan - Kaohsiung River of Love, Panoramic View from Hotel

One of the cleanest, quietest cities in Taiwan is the southern city of Kaohsiung, which became a favorite after having spent only a couple of days here.  My brother-in-law has a friend from his school days that made sure we were well-accommodated, including putting us up in this very nice hotel overlooking the River of Love.

Daylight panorama below:

 

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Dog Muzzle

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Civilized Valley

Even though the path up the mountainside seems to be a remote jungle, evidence of civilization is always close and pops into view whenever there's a gap in the foliage...

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Praying Mantis

Really love these critters, the way they rear up in a defensive posture and follow your movements with a turn of their heads, as if intelligent.  And the variety is astounding - from the ones that look like leaf litter to the ones that look like orchids to the relatively "plain" ones such as this guy.

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Rabbit Trail

Once in a while trails like this beckoned us to explore parts of the mountainside we hadn't seen before...

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Karaoke Singer

I've always intensely disliked karaoke, both as a concept and as a member of an audience...an extremely silly undertaking.  But this guy was surprisingly very good, and we stuck around just to listen.  However it was clear that our presence made him uncomfortable, as before he'd been content singing to an empty hillside and his own audience of two.  So we skedaddled on up the hill...

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Mansion Window Shot with Brooms

This mansion stood in stark contrast to the surrounding jungle terrain.  Note the brooms, which they used to constantly sweep the trail clean.  These could be found periodically all along the trail; this one was much further up:

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Hairy Balls #2

A closer-in view of the type of seed pods featured in this post from the garden area.

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Bird Silhouette

Silhouette of same kind of bird featured in this recent post...

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Pretty Flowers #2

One of my first bookmarks was made out of the photo above.  Closer-up of box corner below:

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Pretty Flowers #1

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Solitary Nail

Taiwan - New Taipei Mountainside, Focus Shift with Razor Wire

This and the next half-dozen or so posts were captured while hiking up the hill past the temple and garden area.  A lot of stuff from this hike was posted before; these are random things from this trip that I found interesting or different.

Regarding the above, don't see a whole lot of this type of security in Taiwan - at least the places we went and stayed.  Focus shifted below to the building:

Taiwan - New Taipei Street Scenes, Play Yard Fence

...the fence on the other side of the school play yard; bus stop on the street to the immediate left.

Taiwan - New Taipei Street Scenes, Rainy Court

A basketball court on the way to our bus stop.

Taiwan - New Taipei Street Scenes, Bicycles

This and the next two posts will be of pictures taken on the streets in the area immediately surrounding the apartment in New Taipei City where we stayed, which belonged to Chenjean's older sister Sue-Liang.  This was our second extended stay there, and both times we had the place to ourselves, as Sue-Liang and her husband now live in the United States.  It was quite handy, as public transportation into Taipei proper was close by, and it was on walks to the bus stop that I captured these scenes.

But there're always the good ones "that got away", as they say.  At times we would be walking down the street, I'd see something and make a mental note to capture it on the way back or another day, but then the chance is gone.

Early one morning, when the light was nice and even during a steady but light rain, we passed a guy that operated his oven out on the sidewalk of a back street.  Bread was baking inside, which you could see through the glass in the door, and the rain created a billow that rose from the top as the water sizzled into steam.  Had the Bigger Cahoona with me, but at the moment it was well tucked under my rain jacket, and since we were in a hurry to catch a bus decided to come back the next morning.  But the opportunity never came again; my intention to re-capture a moment evaporated along with the steam rising the day before.  Think it would have been one of my all-time favorite culture shots.

Maybe another day...

Taiwan - New Taipei Temple Area, Vendor

A vendor stationed near the temple to take advantage of the extra people-traffic...

This'll be it for the temple area - now we'll move on and take a hike up the hill.

Taiwan - New Taipei Temple Area, Lanterns and Buildings / The Way of Books

Now for my favorite of the lot, these red lanterns with the grey, somewhat dingy buildings in the background.

But are bookmarks still used, or are they going the way of scrolls and dot matrix printers?  I was amazed to learn, about ten years ago, that my niece in college up at Baylor did not read hard copy books but relied almost entirely on digital media in obtaining her education.  Think that takes away from the experience of going to the library, looking up a book in the card catalogue, and rummaging through miles of shelving.  And of the feel of a book in your hands as you turn the pages.  Reading can be a tactile experience that adds to the pleasure of learning, in my opinion.  Can't stay with the whip and buggy forever...

To be fair, I lately have taken to buying almost all of my new books on the iPad.  It's handy being able to instantly search a name or other reference back to where it was first mentioned, or looking up a new or unfamiliar word.  In fact, that became so much a habit that I recently found myself pressing a word to look it up, right on the printed page of a magazine I was reading!

Taiwan - New Taipei Temple Area, Lone Betel Nut Tree

Made a bookmark out of the lower third of this picture, which turned out to be surprisingly popular.