Tainan, Ta-ken, Tainan, Ta-ken....

Sunflowers decorate southern Tainan city.

Sunny days in Tainan and Taichung propelled me out the door, camera in hand. As always, click on any picture to be taken to its Flickr page where larger sizes are available.

Tainan streets, with their narrow widths and gobs of signs, make great photos.

My friend Johnny Z and I visited a military a couple of weeks ago as we put his new camera through its paces.

I made a panorama of northern Taichung (at left) and Tanzi from a hillside in Ta-ken.

A treehouse serves as a KTV for the local retirees of the Second Squadron military village. Johnny Z says hello from above....

Another view of the treehouse.

In Ta-ken, by the trail: ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. Make sure your gaoliang bottles are in an upright position.....

It could be any strip mall, anywhere. but it's the Tainan Sugar Mall.

The trail beckons.

Old soldiers at cards.

In Ta-ken, I managed to grab this photo just before it took off. Masters of bird photography always amaze me with their ability to get good bird pictures, whereas I am always one second too late....

A bufalo cart blocks a road in Tainan.

In Taiwan there are plenty of seniors out and about on the mountain trails, generally leaving me in their dust.

Good hygeine is a must when preparing sausage.

A pavilion in a military village.

As I stepped on the leaves at the base of this spider's web, it tensed, drawing in its legs.

Ma-Siew flags ring an ROC cultural icon, as if protecting it.

A couple takes a break.

A couple of women take a break in the village.

In Tainan, old political banners are put to good use in a field.

Picking oranges.

A life piled in front of a house in the miltary village.

Busy as a __________.

A common Taiwan photo op: the picture in the field of flowers.

When these butterflies open their wings, they reveal patterns of amazing beauty.....

....and when they close them, leaf-shaped camouflage, a very common adaptation here.

Chatting with the neighbors.

I didn't realize it when I took the picture, but this caterpillar is festooned with ants.

Military villages, with their narrow, straight lanes, make for great photo ops.

Got this one just before he took off....

There's one on every corner.

Bees pour out of a hive in a local apiary.

The top of the Tainan Sugar Mall. The rooftop simply cries out for barbecue and disco.

A tiny grasshopper stands out due to the wrong camo.

Night falls on Tainan.

Here is someone very special, Coen Blaaw of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) and his wife Iris. Coen and I last saw each other some 15 years ago when I worked at the Center for Taiwan International Relations (CTIR), next door to FAPA where Coen was working, in Washington, DC. Sensing my total naivete thirst for knowledge, Coen took me under his wing and fed me the most outrageous bullshit which I accepted with goggle-eyed trusttaught me a lot about Washington and its ways. Coen not only has not aged a day since I saw him last, but he also somehow managed to marry Iris, who is both stunningly gorgeous and has the most sparkling infectious laugh. And he still has all his hair, too. Isn't there a law against this?

[Taiwan]