Freath of bresh air

You could say that I'm the last person who needs to take time out to smell the lotuses, considering the near-nonexistent stresses of my life these days.

My biggest problems of late have been things like having too much freedom to travel, feeling guilty about eating out cheaply and worrying that seeing the pyramids might raise my tourism standards to impractical heights. I tell you, any more of this shit and I'm going to snap.

Fortunately for us all, it seems Taipei was hastily built around mountains and forests that refused to budge in the face of capitalism, so there's lots of green here. Here is some of it.

Taipei Botanical Garden

(植物園)

Despite my unreasonably cushy lifestyle, it's still nice to get away from the laptop every once in a while and get back in touch with nature - and what better way than by walking around an unnaturally-selected eugenics garden filled with plants that have no business sharing the same climate?

Plus, I really need to find a double entendre plant genus to beat Oliver's hairy bush pea - alas, it may be impossible. The pathetic few I did find aren't even worth putting up here. And considering some of the worthless shit I do post, that's really saying something.

I got here six months too late to see the lotuses in bloom.

To look at it another way, I couldn't have timed it better to see rigor mortis lotus husks

Some slightly unusual trees

Some extremely non-tempting steps

One of those rare sloping roofs that are only found literally everywhere you look.

A sign, for Guan's sake

Dave W lectures at the National Taiwan Arts Education Center.

I wonder what he is talking about? Probably art

This guy squeaked for about 15 minutes.
I wonder what he is squeaking about? Probably nuts or some female squirrel's beaver

Pavilion by night. Spot the ghost

Daan Park

(大安森林公園)

Scary. There are definitely more ghosts here, and I'm not prepared to listen to any correct, rational arguments that say otherwise. I've changed.

Coffee in the park??? I have changed. I don't even know who I am any more!

Oh yes, I remember now

Bitan

(碧潭)

That guy's noodles certainly are 'Bitan!' ('bitten')
Wow, I've so lost it

Here's the name again in hill writing.
Bitan is the Hollywood of Taipei. In no other respect though

Suspension bridge at (nearly) sunset.
It was too cold to hang around for beauty shots, and I'm not prepared to die for this website.
We know that's a lie

At least I caught this.
That thing I said about Taipei being mental in subtle ways?

Here's a guy walking his rabbit