Taiwan Part II

Taiwan                                                                         Tuesday, January 31-Friday,Februrary 3, 2017

After a quick breakfast provided by the AirBNB, Larry, Jing-shee, and I visited the Temple that was just down the street.

                                            Jing-shee and Larry enter the Temple Courtyard

Larry, Jing-shee, and I visited the Temple that was just down the street.

Fluffy cloud formations early in the morn 

Then we traveled through the curvy mountainous countryside with gorges, rice patties, riverbeds, and aborigines villages.

                                                                   Rice Fields

                                                                   Red faced Monkeys

Three Monkeys

We stopped at a gorge to watch the wide red faced monkeys.  One demonstrated the act of recreation.

Jing-shee  in a river gorge

Our trip took us back to the seaside where we stopped for some tofu tea and rice rolls with a variety of fillings….peanuts, green vegetables, red bean, meats and cabbage. After trying them all, we understood why there was a long line out the building waiting to get this delectable treat. Jing-shee was friends with the owner and managed to get ours without standing in the long line.  We also sampled this tasty fruit called Custard Apple or Sugar Apple.

                               A midafternoon snack at the local Taiwan fast food restaurant.

                                                     Larry has more success stabbing the food

We arrived at Xiaoyeliu to view the many rock formations that were shaped by the ocean. There, we climbed all around the formations of coral reef, doufu rock, cuesta ,mushroom rocks and frog rock. What a delightful day of seeing so many stone formations.

                                                         Rocks naturally formed

We spent the night in another AirBNB. We had a grand dinner in a little restaurant down the street with rice and vegetables and beef. We found out tonight that most Taiwans  do not eat beef. They consider cattle their partner in raising and harvesting the rice crop and do not want to eat their partners.

                                                 Most Southern point of Taiwan

On Wednesday we drove to the most southern point of Taiwan Island.

We also visited the remains of a huge Chinese Wall built in the 1930’s to keep the Japanese and the French out.

Climbing to the top of the wall.

Eagle took us to a place where there was gas leaking out of the earth….usually covered by water….causing the water to burn fire. Today the water had receded so we just observed the fire coming from rocks lying on the ground. Many families were popping popcorn from the flames.

We stopped  at a seaside village for a sumptuous seafood lunch…shrimp, squid, sea greens, seafood medley soup, rice, green beans, collard greens, and the freshest sushi. Larry was really enjoying it tremendously.

After stuffing ourselves, we drove about two hours, reaching Jing-shee’s home where we feasted on vegetarian sushi before rushing out to catch the 6:15 BRT (bullet high speed train).

Eagle took Grandma to her home with Joyce’s mother….three hours further north, while we took the one hour fast train(289 kph) to the north. Eagle picked us up at the train station and we went to his home where Joyce had cooked up a Hot Pot Soup for all to enjoy.

                                                                             Eagle's home

Ruby played the Chinese Strings. What a day! We had seen so many things and had  enjoyed so many new smells and experiences.

                                                                 Larry attempted

Thursday morning we had a home cooked leisure breakfast….eggs, lost of fresh breads, fruits. We were joined by Joyce’s best friend, Sarah and her daughter, Sophie. We loaded up in two cars and headed for Sun Moon Lake to ride bicycles. What a gorgeous day for taking in views of the surrounding mountains.  

Gondola House to the top of the mountain

                   Our bicycling group....Joyce, Ruby, Sarah, Sophie, Kay, Larry, and Eagle

Frogs tell the depth of the lake.

We visited the market place for lunch eating a variety of things(foods)….sausage on a stick, tofu sandwich, rice bun sandwich, basil tea, sweet potato squares, and chocolate dough on a stick…Larry and I have been sharing a few bites of each.

We learned on this week long adventure that Taiwanese like to eat….often.

We enjoyed visiting some of the shops along the market way. One sold nothing but owls trinkets.

We rode the bikes to the top of the mountain to see the Taiwan Youth Corp built to teach young adults about team work and cooperation. Joyce had been a volunteer there and she proudly showed us around. We turned our bicycles in and headed back to Eagle and Joyce's home.

Eagle took us to the temple down the street from his house and then Joyce took us on a tour of the village that they lived in. We stopped at Ruby’s favorite ice cream shop before heading home to have Lamb Hot Pot for dinner…our last evening in Taiwan.

After dinner Joyce shared two DVDs of her Drama Group Performances before we headed off to bed. We could hardly believe that our week in Taiwan was soon to end.

Friday morning after breakfast, we said our goodbyes to Joyce who went off to work at a nearby school.

Joyce’s mother came by on her bicycle to send us off with a bag of yellow cherry tomatoes.

Leaving the house at 9:00am we drove for two hours back to Taipei. Eagle and Joyce dropped us off at Terminal 2 to catch our flight to Singapore. It was sad to say goodbye, but we knew they were going to be coming to the United States soon to visit us.

Our plane left Taipei at 2:25pm…a half an hour later than scheduled. The flight to Singapore was suppose to be 4.5 hours; however, China Airline Flight # 751 was held in a  holding pattern over Singapore for an hour before it landed….we wondered how many other planes were flying around with us waiting to land. We enjoyed watching two movies during our flight:  The Accountant and The Girl on the Train. Finally we arrived in Singapore at 8:00pm. A quick cab ride from the ultra modern airport to our residence for the next 11 days was welcomed after a full day of travel.  Larry and I fell into the bed thinking that we would enjoy a leisure day in our Singapore apartment on Saturday.