Richard Kirkby's visit

Mike's younger brother Richard has just been visiting us for the past week. It was really great to see him after a whole year - lots of stuff has happened in all our lives since we last saw him. In particular the arrival of his first child - Noah!

So Richard stopped off in Taipei to see us on his way to Portugal for a conference. And we had a great time showing him the sights and introducing him to some Taiwanese food!

Day One (Wednesday 28 September):

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. We've already posted photos like this but this time they've got Richard in them!

Mike and Richard infront of the main courtyard. On the right is the National Performing Arts Centre and on the left is the Concert Hall.

Mike and Rich infront of the CKS gate with the memorial building in the background.

This is the ShinKong Mitsukoshi Building. Taipei's second tallest building . You can see it here through the enormous gates of the CKS Memorial.

Next stop was the Longshan Temple. This is said to be one of Taipei's finest temples. It is quite small (when compared to the huge Buddhist ones we visited in Japan) but is very Chinese in character and very elaborately decorated.

Here you can see a enormous brass urn for burning incense.

People pray and burn incense to the various gods worshipped here.

Here people leave food offerings to the gods. We even saw some fruit Mentos! Didn't realise the gods needed "the freshmaker"!

Day Two (Thursday 29 September):

Richard and Mike outside our apartment.

We headed to the Taipei 101. The worlds tallest building. It also has the worlds fastest elevator! Floor 5 - 89 in just 30 seconds!

The view from Taipei 101.

Our lunch! Mmm yummy. Richard had Sweet and Sour Pork...