The alarms woke us up quite early and we wandered down to breakfast. We quickly ate, packed, and jumped in the car. Next we drove to the Confucius temple, parked nearby, and began to walk. Midway, just off the road, a flower market appeared. Cathy and my dad instinctively wandered under the tents, surrounding themselves with orchids and a myriad of other flowers. I tried to hurry the two along, but it was like rushing two fat kids in a candy shop.
A while later we managed to escape without any purchases and walked up to the temple. Yan-Shih and I had already seen the temple before, having played cards in the nearby park for several hours. My parents wandered inside as we chatted outside. Once they were ready we ordered a few more drinks, and walked back to the car. We began a mission to find Anping Fort, near the western part of the town. Due to a myriad of reasons we never found the fort, but instead became distracted by another market on Anping Road – the Sword Lion market. Dad and Cathy enjoyed the little shops, making more purchases, and Yan-Shih and I munched on some fried dumplings. For lunch we visited a packed store, ate several shrimp dumplings, and left to head back to the car. Along the way we purchased some water and then continued our journey.
Taro! Yan-Shih loves taro. Between Tainan and our destination in the Jade Mountain National Park is a small city, which we'll call Taro Town. Yan-Shih made sure we were all well aware of this city, and its special properties, as we came close. We found parking and walked into a nearby food shop; we ordered three rice ball soups. I love rice balls, I mean, they are one of my sins. Yan-Shih loves taro. Everybody was happy. I helped my parents finish off their soup, as they apparently don't like it as much as I, and Yan-Shih bought some cookies and mogi for the road.
Back on the road we continued until we reached our destination: a small aboriginal village, MeiShan. The hostel had rooms available, and we ordered a big one. After we checked in we wandered down to a really small aboriginal village, resources obviously weren't abundant. To get to this small village we had to cross a huge walking bridge, where one misstep would be certain death.
Once back to the hostel we cleaned up a tad, then walked down the street for dinner. Yan-Shih and I had eaten at this place before, and the owner remembered us. We ordered Three Cup Boar, several types of vegetables, and a few other dishes. And beer.
After dinner we walked back to the hostel, sat down in our Japanese style rooms, and played some more cards. We drank some of the worst wine any of us have ever had, became tired, and crashed.
This entry is from my journal and was written on April 29, 2007. It's been tagged with Travel and Family and Yan-Shih. There have been 0 comments so far.