Living in Taiwan, "full" is a regular part of my daily vocabulary. In a culture whose local language, Taiwanese, says "have you eaten?" for "hello," eating and over-eating are regular occurrences. Today, however, my title doesn't refer to food--or, at least, not principally. No, I mean the day as a whole: SO SO full!
It's 1am now. I woke up this morning at 7am. In the intervening 18 hours, I...
Went to school, where I dyed eggs with the 5th graders at Qingshan amidst what began as chaos and ended in gorgeous colors and very few messes;
Explained to countless students, teachers, and administrators who Alex and Melanie were, and that Melanie was, in fact, American;
Lost the race against Alex and Melanie's taxi driver home;
Revealed the wonderfulness of Ali's burritos and the corner shop's milk tea to Alex and Melanie;
Took advantage of a few hours break from today's drizzle to eat shave ice at Siziwan, take the ferry to Cijin, rent bikes, glimpse the lighthouse, explore the fort, ride bikes, and discover that basically the entire seashore at Cijin is under construction;
Helped Chialing cook some fantastic noodles which Alex and Melanie obviously ADORED;
Took a window-shopping stroll with Melanie that resulted in some cute stationary for her and a nice little conversation with the adorable owner of the adorable Nini store down the street, together with some delicious cake despite my protestations that we were full;
Walked along the Love River with Alex and Melanie;
Found Alex some cold medicine;
Made a brief stopover at Ruifeng Night Market, where we saw some hilarious Angry Bird and "Angry Sponge" shirts, as well as some gorgeous leather bags;
Made plans to hang out with my host family tomorrow, after a stop at another stationary store and Dream Mall, and made tentative plans to KTV afterwards.
So "full" is not an understatement--this is just the outline! In other news, my plans for tomorrow begin at 10am, and I am therefore going to sleep.
Showing posts with label night market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label night market. Show all posts
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
The problem with mid-week holidays...
...is that you get back from them invariably late in the evening with the knowledge that you have a workday awaiting you the next day. Which,in this particular instance, makes for a less-than-inspiring writing environment.
Which is a real shame, because today was pretty wonderful.
We woke up (unfortunately early) and were treated to a Taiwanese-style breakfast of green onion pancakes and egg-tofu soup, together with--you guessed it--coffee. :) An hour and a half later, we struck out for snorkeling.
Snorkeling was AMAZING! Overcast skies aside, the water was fine (especially in the wet suits they made us wear), and the fish and coral were EVERYWHERE and of every species. Highlights for me included finally seeing wild clown fish, learning that I suck at surface diving in the ocean whilst wearing a wetsuit, and getting cut by coral at pretty much the only place on my entire body that was actually exposed, my wrist below where the suit cut. Battle scars.
Then it was a break, lunch, a trip to the lighthouse and then braving the ferry back, only to discover that, if anything, the ride was easier this time than last! Pleasant surprise.
Then we wandered the streets of Taitung for a while, grabbed some dinner at the night market, and finally took the train back to Kaohsiung, where we installed Melanie and Alex at their hotel with the address to my school (they're coming tomorrow, but late, since Alex is fighting something off), and then headed home.
And now I'm writing, when I should be sleeping. Time to remedy that situation...
Which is a real shame, because today was pretty wonderful.
We woke up (unfortunately early) and were treated to a Taiwanese-style breakfast of green onion pancakes and egg-tofu soup, together with--you guessed it--coffee. :) An hour and a half later, we struck out for snorkeling.
Snorkeling was AMAZING! Overcast skies aside, the water was fine (especially in the wet suits they made us wear), and the fish and coral were EVERYWHERE and of every species. Highlights for me included finally seeing wild clown fish, learning that I suck at surface diving in the ocean whilst wearing a wetsuit, and getting cut by coral at pretty much the only place on my entire body that was actually exposed, my wrist below where the suit cut. Battle scars.
Then it was a break, lunch, a trip to the lighthouse and then braving the ferry back, only to discover that, if anything, the ride was easier this time than last! Pleasant surprise.
Then we wandered the streets of Taitung for a while, grabbed some dinner at the night market, and finally took the train back to Kaohsiung, where we installed Melanie and Alex at their hotel with the address to my school (they're coming tomorrow, but late, since Alex is fighting something off), and then headed home.
And now I'm writing, when I should be sleeping. Time to remedy that situation...
Friday, March 23, 2012
Sand
There's sand in my bed. There's also sand in Kaitlin's bed, and on the floor of our room, and in a tidy but rather large pile along the wall in the bathroom. Why is there sand everywhere? Because we're in Kenting. And because we had just the most relaxing day ever, lying in the sand.
It began, I grant you, with a few hiccups: we got a late start, my lack of knowledge and indecision made us miss a bus, hawkers for sketchy minibuses would NOT leave us alone, but eventually we made it aboard a regular Kenting-bound bus and, after practicing an old Chinese lesson with the driver (where should I get off?), we disembarked at the right stop and found our hotel. And, not only is is amazing, with the best possible location and easy beach access, but they let us check in early! Seriously, if you're going to Kenting, I highly recommend Mae Toong.
Anyway, we had a lovely Thai lunch which provided us with enough food for dinner, too (a blessing, given prices around here), and then hit the beach for a few hours, walking, wading (signs informed us we were not allowed to swim), sunbathing and reading. It was glorious.
Then it was back to the hotel to clean off (sand....) and eat our leftovers while watching an oddly amusing (and ridiculous) movie from the early 90s called Green Card, then check out the night market right outside our hotel (right outside, yet silent from within...) and grab some dessert before heading back. It's early yet now, but our lovely day deserves repeating tomorrow, and were hoping to get an early start, so it's off to bed now.
Because even with our beds are full of sand, nothing can ruin our day.
It began, I grant you, with a few hiccups: we got a late start, my lack of knowledge and indecision made us miss a bus, hawkers for sketchy minibuses would NOT leave us alone, but eventually we made it aboard a regular Kenting-bound bus and, after practicing an old Chinese lesson with the driver (where should I get off?), we disembarked at the right stop and found our hotel. And, not only is is amazing, with the best possible location and easy beach access, but they let us check in early! Seriously, if you're going to Kenting, I highly recommend Mae Toong.
Anyway, we had a lovely Thai lunch which provided us with enough food for dinner, too (a blessing, given prices around here), and then hit the beach for a few hours, walking, wading (signs informed us we were not allowed to swim), sunbathing and reading. It was glorious.
Then it was back to the hotel to clean off (sand....) and eat our leftovers while watching an oddly amusing (and ridiculous) movie from the early 90s called Green Card, then check out the night market right outside our hotel (right outside, yet silent from within...) and grab some dessert before heading back. It's early yet now, but our lovely day deserves repeating tomorrow, and were hoping to get an early start, so it's off to bed now.
Because even with our beds are full of sand, nothing can ruin our day.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Simple Twists, Great Day
Today was a great mix of new and established, and Western and Taiwanese. It was my ordinary routine, with a few necessary tweaks that simultaneously confirmed and utterly transformed my day.
To begin with, I started the day on the couch (Kaitlin's still jet lagged and I have a twin bed), awakened by the unfamiliar sounds of Brittany's alarm clock and Analicia asking if I needed to shower any time soon. I then got ready for the day in the living room and bathroom, and went down to 7-11 for a very Taiwanese breakfast at the counter.
Then I went to school. After what began as a hectic morning--until this morning I had forgotten to prepare some pictures of people wearing different items of clothing for an in-class game, so I came to school with blank pages, a fistful of markers and sheer determination--classes went wonderfully, and I was even able to nail down the details for tutoring the son of a home room teacher at Hanmin. Just a great day, really, as my memory lapse taught me the (perhaps not so great) lesson that I am still capable of pulling things through at the last second, if need be.
Also at school, I was the very grateful recipient of my very own set of wedding cake! See, in Taiwan, that's the tradition: when a woman gets engaged, she gives all the women she knows a box of cake. (Incidentally, the groom is the one paying for this, yet his friends get nothing...) And, since Hanmin's principal's daughter got formally engaged this weekend, I was somehow included on the list! And it was quite the box of cake:
At home, I met up with Kaitlin, who'd had a great recovery day and even ventured out into the city unarmed to explore and buy coffee, and we took a stroll down to Wu Pao Chun bakery (the line was too long, though, so we left), then grabbed some delicious tea (Kaitlin's first real Taiwanese bubble tea!) and set out for Chialing's for sumptuous noodles.
Then came Chinese class where Kaitlin, good sport that she is, was willing to sit with us for 2 hours before we set out for the night market.
An hour later, we found it. A combination of miscommunications--my mistaking which market would be open tonight, and a wrong turn on Zhonghua--took us nearly to Zuoying, then back to our starting point at Sanmin, then to Zhongshan as far north as Kaohsiung Arena. Eventually, I found the night market I had meant, Rueifong--and discovered that it was closed. By a marvelous stroke of luck, though, our ride home took us straight past Liouhe--aka the market my teacher had tried to direct me to, the biggest in Kaohsiung and one that was actually open on a Monday night.
So, fail-fail, win-win. All in the course of an hour. And at least Kaitlin got a nice little tour out of it!
To begin with, I started the day on the couch (Kaitlin's still jet lagged and I have a twin bed), awakened by the unfamiliar sounds of Brittany's alarm clock and Analicia asking if I needed to shower any time soon. I then got ready for the day in the living room and bathroom, and went down to 7-11 for a very Taiwanese breakfast at the counter.
Then I went to school. After what began as a hectic morning--until this morning I had forgotten to prepare some pictures of people wearing different items of clothing for an in-class game, so I came to school with blank pages, a fistful of markers and sheer determination--classes went wonderfully, and I was even able to nail down the details for tutoring the son of a home room teacher at Hanmin. Just a great day, really, as my memory lapse taught me the (perhaps not so great) lesson that I am still capable of pulling things through at the last second, if need be.
Also at school, I was the very grateful recipient of my very own set of wedding cake! See, in Taiwan, that's the tradition: when a woman gets engaged, she gives all the women she knows a box of cake. (Incidentally, the groom is the one paying for this, yet his friends get nothing...) And, since Hanmin's principal's daughter got formally engaged this weekend, I was somehow included on the list! And it was quite the box of cake:
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| The box is probably 10" x 10" by 5" or so. |
 |
| And the contents: candy, cookies, and a large "cake" which seems to contain some sort of meat/seafood and onions, based on Rachel's label-reading... |
Then came Chinese class where Kaitlin, good sport that she is, was willing to sit with us for 2 hours before we set out for the night market.
An hour later, we found it. A combination of miscommunications--my mistaking which market would be open tonight, and a wrong turn on Zhonghua--took us nearly to Zuoying, then back to our starting point at Sanmin, then to Zhongshan as far north as Kaohsiung Arena. Eventually, I found the night market I had meant, Rueifong--and discovered that it was closed. By a marvelous stroke of luck, though, our ride home took us straight past Liouhe--aka the market my teacher had tried to direct me to, the biggest in Kaohsiung and one that was actually open on a Monday night.
So, fail-fail, win-win. All in the course of an hour. And at least Kaitlin got a nice little tour out of it!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Oh hey there, Taichung!
Absolutely wonderful. As I type this, I'm laying on my bed at the gorgeous Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Taichung, as my host sister Emily checks her Facebook on her phone on the other bed. What a glorious day!
As is usually the case when I had a great day of sightseeing, I don't particularly want to describe it in full detail, but, unlike most of those days, I have my memory chip already in my computer and ready to pull pictures at will, so even with minimal description, this post should give you a good idea of my day.
To begin with, of course, I had school, where Patty and I taught food-related words to the 5th graders, repeating "Coca-Cola" enough times to brainwash myself into buying one after class (true story), and engaging each class in a debate as to whether soup is a drink or a food (Taiwanese say drink, Americans say food!).
Then I came home, and had the treat of being able to talk to both my cousin, Julia, and my Mom and Dad, before throwing some clothes in an overnight bag and running downstairs to meet James, Margaret, and Emily.
And then it was off for Taichung! But not, of course, without a stop at the whimsical Ceramics Art Village in Chiayi. It was charming with everything made of ceramics and with benches of every ilk:
A quick car ride away, we stopped at a Taiwanese antique attraction, which also featured...a turkey. With territorial issues.
There, we snacked on roasted (smoked? Not quite sure, actually) yams/sweet potatoes (also not sure on that one...) before moving on towards Taichung. A quick service area stop and a delicious IRISH CREAM (first time I've ever seen that flavor here) latte for me later, we hit our destination, and I took in my first impressions of the heart of Taichung, which oddly reminded me more of its larger neighbor Taipei than of closer-sized Kaohsiung.
On arriving at our hotel, I discovered that it is GORGEOUS! I mean really, truly, absolutely gorgeous, and one of the nicest hotel's I've ever stayed at. I am so grateful to be here now.
Perhaps as a result of that gorgeousness, we found that our fellow residents are largely foreign, of the Western-and-Japanese variety. Looking around the hotel lobby, I was met by face after white face. It was eery. You don't notice it while it's happening, but living in a country where you stick out like a sore thumb brings you to the point where something seems wrong if you don't. Seeing foreigner after foreigner after foreigner is just too weird to me now! I don't know what I'll do when I make it back to America.
Anyway. We settled in and headed to Feng Chia night market, the largest in Taiwan with 1,600 stands, for dinner. We had pizza--in a cone. Quite good. And then, after Emily and Margaret ate a local delicacy consisting of a hot dog inside a sausage, and Emily got a delicious-smelling chicken-and-cheese concoction--I was too full to partake, this time anyway--I grabbed a five-fruit juice and then Margaret and I each got hot sweet soup with sticky rice. Lovely!
So that was my wonderful day. On the agenda for tomorrow: more amazing times with my host family.
As is usually the case when I had a great day of sightseeing, I don't particularly want to describe it in full detail, but, unlike most of those days, I have my memory chip already in my computer and ready to pull pictures at will, so even with minimal description, this post should give you a good idea of my day.
To begin with, of course, I had school, where Patty and I taught food-related words to the 5th graders, repeating "Coca-Cola" enough times to brainwash myself into buying one after class (true story), and engaging each class in a debate as to whether soup is a drink or a food (Taiwanese say drink, Americans say food!).
Then I came home, and had the treat of being able to talk to both my cousin, Julia, and my Mom and Dad, before throwing some clothes in an overnight bag and running downstairs to meet James, Margaret, and Emily.
And then it was off for Taichung! But not, of course, without a stop at the whimsical Ceramics Art Village in Chiayi. It was charming with everything made of ceramics and with benches of every ilk:
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| A cow... |
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| A basketball... |
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| Yes, that's a full-sized ceramic TREE! |
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| Different sort of ceramic cow--way more fun to sit on :) |
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| It's a ceramic phoenix! |
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| ...and a real, live rooster that came out of nowhere. |
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| James had some fun with it :) |
On arriving at our hotel, I discovered that it is GORGEOUS! I mean really, truly, absolutely gorgeous, and one of the nicest hotel's I've ever stayed at. I am so grateful to be here now.
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| Emily's and my room tonight--yeah, that's a full-on sitting area at the end, and this isn't the whole room :) |
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| Pictured: pizza in a cone, going into a cone-shaped hole in an oven |
Anyway. We settled in and headed to Feng Chia night market, the largest in Taiwan with 1,600 stands, for dinner. We had pizza--in a cone. Quite good. And then, after Emily and Margaret ate a local delicacy consisting of a hot dog inside a sausage, and Emily got a delicious-smelling chicken-and-cheese concoction--I was too full to partake, this time anyway--I grabbed a five-fruit juice and then Margaret and I each got hot sweet soup with sticky rice. Lovely!
So that was my wonderful day. On the agenda for tomorrow: more amazing times with my host family.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Chiang Mai
We rode elephants today! And I drove an ox cart! (Really, the driver got down and just chilled way behind us/fixed things back behind us!) And bought an elephant-made painting! (Spendy...slight buyers' regret but not, because it's a painting of an elephant DONE BY AN ELEPHANT.) And went to handicraft markets! And a night market! And bought a new Starbucks Chiang Mai mug and a gorgeous green Thai bag! And ate SO MUCH DELICIOUS THAI FOOD!
So yeah, long, amazing, expensive day. And glorious.
Wish I had time to tell the whole story, but I don't...so...now it's off for an impromptu Thai language and culture lesson with Melanie and Marissa.
Retrospective, added 2/1/12:
I posted pictures! Here's the public link to them:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2644331434819.2114580.1451610020&type=1&l=04c4bfe453
And here's the videos I took today, one of the elephants dancing at the elephant show at Mae Taeng, and one of Karina and riding the elephants. Good times.
So yeah, long, amazing, expensive day. And glorious.
Wish I had time to tell the whole story, but I don't...so...now it's off for an impromptu Thai language and culture lesson with Melanie and Marissa.
Retrospective, added 2/1/12:
I posted pictures! Here's the public link to them:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2644331434819.2114580.1451610020&type=1&l=04c4bfe453
And here's the videos I took today, one of the elephants dancing at the elephant show at Mae Taeng, and one of Karina and riding the elephants. Good times.
Friday, December 16, 2011
可以嗎？
I'm a terrible blogger when I'm traveling. And, as this post will show, I'm also a terrible traveler.My mom and I are currently about to go to sleep at Traveler Hotel Taitung--by means of no small miracle of friends' help and communication.
See, we were headed off to explore yesterday when I made our reservations, and today I completely forgot that all I knew about where we were going was that we had a reservation and its name in English. Which, obviously, is not enough.
On the train from Kaohsiung, somewhere around an hour in, I realized this. I also realized that the train (obviously) had no internet connection. In other words, we would be arriving in Taitung with no idea whatsoever about how to reach our destination.
So I texted Karina, asking her if she could find out how to say the hotel name in Chinese. And, though she wasn't near a computer, she’ｓ ａｍａｚｉｎｇ ａｎｄ ｓｈｅ translateｄ--and I copied it down. When we got to Taitung, I pulled out my paper and went to talk to the first cab driver:
Me: 你 知道 "lu ke guan" 馬? (Do you know "lu ke guan?")
Driver: 我 不知道. (I ｄｏｎ’ｔ。）
Me: O, 好... （Ｏｈ， ｏｋａｙ。。。）
And he drove away.
Ｓｏ Ｉ ｃａｌｌｅｄ Ｒａｃｈｅｌ， ａｎｄ ａｓｋｅｄ ｈｅｒ ｉｆ ｓｈｅ ｃｏｕｌｄ ｌｏｏｋ ｕｐ ｔｈｅ ａｄｄｒｅｓｓ ｆｏｒ ｔｈｅ ｈｏｔｅｌ， ｗｈｉｃｈ ｓｈｅ ｇｒａｃｉｏｕｓｌｙ ｄｉｄ ｗｉｔｈｏｕｔ ｔｈｅ ａｌｌ－ｔｏｏ－ｅａｓｙ ｊｏｋｅ ａｔ ｍｙ ｅｘｐｅｎｓｅ ｆｏｒ ｍｙ ｓｔｕｐｉｄｉｔｙ ｉｎ ｎｏｔ ｐｌａｎｎｉｎｇ ａｈｅａｄ。 Ｆｏｒｔｕｎａｔｅｌｙ， ｔｈｅｒｅ ｗｅｒｅ ｓｔｉｌｌ ｐｌｅｎｔｙ ｏｆ ｃａｂ ｄｒｉｖｅｒｓ ａｒｏｕｎｄ， ｓｏ Ｉ ｗｅｎｔ ｔｏ ｔａｌｋ ｔｏ ｔｈｅ ｎｅｗ ｆｉｒｓｔ ｃａｂ ｄｒｉｖｅｒ ｉｎ ｌｉｎｅ。
Ｍｅ： 你好， 你 知道 ＂ｌｕ ｋｅ ｇｕａｎ，＂ ４２ 安慶 馬？ （Ｈｅｌｌｏ， ｄｏ ｙｏｕ ｋｎｏｗ ＂ｌｕ ｋｅ ｇｕａｎ， ４２ Ａｎ Ｑｉｎｇ？＂
Ｄｒｉｖｅｒ： 安慶街 馬？ （Ａｎ Ｑｉｎｇ ｓｔｒｅｅｔ？）
Ｍｅ：隊。。。？ （Ｙｅｓ。。。？）
Ｄｒｉｖｅｒ （ｌｏｏｋｉｎｇ ａ ｌｉｔｔｌｅ ｃｏｎｆｕｓｅｄ）： ＂ｌｕ ｋｅ ｇｕａｎ＂？
Ｍｅ： 隊。 (Yes.)
Ｄｒｉｖｅｒ： （ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ Ｉdon't understand)
Me: 我 聽不懂, 我的中文 不.好... (I don't understand, my Chinese is not good...)
Driver: (something else I don't understand)
Me: 可以馬? (Can you?)
Driver: 可以. (I can.)
Me: Oh, 好... (Oh, OK...)
So yes, through broken Chinese and a lot of help, we finally found our hotel/hostel. And it turns out to be perfect! Just a few blocks from the night market (my mom's first, where we enjoyed fried dough balls, fried chicken, kiwi-pineapple juice and noodles for dinner) and from Watson's, where we bought anti-motion sickness meds for the ferry to Green Island tomorrow.
Looks like my Chinese will be tested this trip. And, though I thoroughly suck, I say bring it on.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Touristy Things
Given my well-documented love of mornings, especially on the weekends (please sense the sarcasm), it was just wonderful to be out of the house this morning by 9am, ready to catch a train at Zuoying by 9:55. But that's what happened! We (Rachel, Karina, and I) were in Taipei by 11:30, ready to check in at our hostel (a full 8 hours ahead of what we told them originally) and do some serious exploring.
And that's what we did. Armed with several guidebooks, Karina had put together a list of things to do in Taipei, and after a bit of conversation (including where I could go to buy shoes) we had a game plan: go to 陽明山 (YangMingShan), do a little hiking, check out the hot springs there, then come back into the city and go to 士林夜市 (Shilin Night Market), which is the most famous night market in Taiwan (and which, incidentally, sells shoes). We had lunch, got a call from Tom, who we invited to join us, and then set out for the mountain. The sky was cloudy as we descended into the Guting MRT station.
We met Tom and hopped a bus for the mountain top, but as we boarded we noticed something: raindrops. As it turns out, we seem to have a personal raincloud following us on our travels, much as you might see in an old Looney Toons production, but without all the moping. (It was our own fault, we decided, we'd jinxed it: getting of the train this morning I'd said it would be a good weekend if, just once, I got cold, and Rachel wore her bathing suit under her hiking gear) By the time we reached the place to change buses, it was really coming down. By the time we made it to the top (standing in the back of both buses for most of the time, balancing precariously on our feet as they weaved back and forth on crazy switchbacks), the mountain was also completely engulfed in fog.
So, naturally, we decided to go hiking. We'd already trashed our original idea of hiking to the hot springs, so we were instead in the volcanic region of the park, at the dormant volcano's peak--or near it. To get to it, we'd have to hike 1.6km up the side of a mountain, in the rain, in the wind, on a slippery rock path, surrounded by sulfur, with no just-in-case hiking supplies. This, naturally, is what we set out to do.
We made it about halfway before we realized that we wouldn't have time to complete the hike before the last bus left the mountain, and so turned back, still in the rain, to catch another series of buses down. But before we did, we had a momentary lapse of cloud cover, and could at least catch a glimpse of the crater across the parking lot! But, all too quickly, it was gone.
So we were back on the bus again. We'd given up on the hot spring idea for the day entirely (which saddened me to no end, given that we were now wet and cold), but soon we were warm again and roaming about the night market. After what I can only describe as the easiest, fastest, and most painless shoe shopping experience of my life, we had accomplished our only hard-and-fast objective and were just taking in the sights like the other swarms of tourists.
And then we went to dinner--at Modern Toilet. For the uninitiated, Modern Toilet sells food and ice cream--in toilet shaped bowls. I wasn't feeling great at this point, so I ordered just ice cream and orange soda (thought it was water, but oh well). The drink came out first (an oddity in Taiwan), and it was in, well, a blue urinal.
Then came the 'ice cream.' Turned out that the ice cream I thought I was ordering, the simple pile of soft serve they are famous for, was not what I had ordered. What I had ordered was this:
For a size comparison, here it is (a little depleted) next to what I meant to order, and which Rachel got after her meal:
Anyway, after that we walked around some more, did a (very little) shopping in some of the stores around the market (one of which smelled and looked like it belonged in downtown Ashland, OR--smoky, tie-died, faux-exotic, belly-dancing...), and even managed to run into Emily, Lydia, and Samia, who were doing the same. Another fun moment came when we saw a stream of illegal street vendors running away from a police officer--and by running, I mean they were quickly but precisely wheeling their entire livelihoods down the middle of a crowded walkway, while a police officer strolled after them several blocks behind. (Clearly, they're really serious about this whole endeavor...)
We were all ready at this point to call it a night. So, after a brief stop-in at one of Tom's regular places, where he ordered stinky tofu (which we all then had to watch/smell him eat), we headed back for the hostel. Here, we discovered it had been taken over by middle-aged and older Taiwanese people, which was a bit of a shock given that hostels are normally for the young and are usually dominated by out-of-country people. I'm guessing, though, that at this point all the hotels are booked, and you take what you can get!
So that's it for now. Tomorrow we're going to chase Karina's ritual of taking photobooth pictures in every Asian country she visits, then actually go to the hot springs. Undetermined after that--we might meet up with another alum from my high school, but who knows--but hopefully the weather will realize we don't live in a cartoon, and hold for whatever we end up doing.
Which will, inevitably, be touristy things.
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| One of the from-the-train vistas |
We met Tom and hopped a bus for the mountain top, but as we boarded we noticed something: raindrops. As it turns out, we seem to have a personal raincloud following us on our travels, much as you might see in an old Looney Toons production, but without all the moping. (It was our own fault, we decided, we'd jinxed it: getting of the train this morning I'd said it would be a good weekend if, just once, I got cold, and Rachel wore her bathing suit under her hiking gear) By the time we reached the place to change buses, it was really coming down. By the time we made it to the top (standing in the back of both buses for most of the time, balancing precariously on our feet as they weaved back and forth on crazy switchbacks), the mountain was also completely engulfed in fog.
So, naturally, we decided to go hiking. We'd already trashed our original idea of hiking to the hot springs, so we were instead in the volcanic region of the park, at the dormant volcano's peak--or near it. To get to it, we'd have to hike 1.6km up the side of a mountain, in the rain, in the wind, on a slippery rock path, surrounded by sulfur, with no just-in-case hiking supplies. This, naturally, is what we set out to do.
We made it about halfway before we realized that we wouldn't have time to complete the hike before the last bus left the mountain, and so turned back, still in the rain, to catch another series of buses down. But before we did, we had a momentary lapse of cloud cover, and could at least catch a glimpse of the crater across the parking lot! But, all too quickly, it was gone.
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| Quick, clarity! |
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| Out the bus window |
And then we went to dinner--at Modern Toilet. For the uninitiated, Modern Toilet sells food and ice cream--in toilet shaped bowls. I wasn't feeling great at this point, so I ordered just ice cream and orange soda (thought it was water, but oh well). The drink came out first (an oddity in Taiwan), and it was in, well, a blue urinal.
Then came the 'ice cream.' Turned out that the ice cream I thought I was ordering, the simple pile of soft serve they are famous for, was not what I had ordered. What I had ordered was this:
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| Shaved ice with kiwi sauce, chocolate soft serve, vanilla ice cream, raisins, mango pieces, and kiwi jellies, with random marshmallows etc sprinkled on it |
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| Aww, look, the cute little baby toilets are gathering around the mama! |
We were all ready at this point to call it a night. So, after a brief stop-in at one of Tom's regular places, where he ordered stinky tofu (which we all then had to watch/smell him eat), we headed back for the hostel. Here, we discovered it had been taken over by middle-aged and older Taiwanese people, which was a bit of a shock given that hostels are normally for the young and are usually dominated by out-of-country people. I'm guessing, though, that at this point all the hotels are booked, and you take what you can get!
So that's it for now. Tomorrow we're going to chase Karina's ritual of taking photobooth pictures in every Asian country she visits, then actually go to the hot springs. Undetermined after that--we might meet up with another alum from my high school, but who knows--but hopefully the weather will realize we don't live in a cartoon, and hold for whatever we end up doing.
Which will, inevitably, be touristy things.
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