Toucheng and Waiao - 21 June 2015

Some friends came to visit this weekend from Taipei. I'll include some pics of Derek and Joy in a later post because we didn't take any photos with them today. We got our quite late, about lunch time and took the train to Toucheng, intending to see the Wushi Harbor and perhaps the Lanyang museum and hopefully get in some swimming in too.

We started off walking to the Toucheng Old Street where there were some old Japanese buildings. An interesting mix of old and new and the ever present shrines and temples of course.

They don't build like this here anymore.

A charming little temple/shrine at one end of old street.

I think this used to be the old Toucheng general dealer in prosperous days gone by

Taking in some shade, it was quite a hot day, what summer day isn't ;)

Renalda finally gave me the camera ;)

I think this is to hold your roof down during typhoon season!

The Wushi fishing harbor from the hardworking side

The Lanyang Museum, we will have to go here another day

The not so hardworking side, with the tourist boats, this was the calm before the thunderstorm

Waio surfing beach, we managed to get in a swim, one of the surf companies allowed us to change in their tent

We ended up getting pretty wet in the rain, but it was a good day out. We found later that we could have caught a bus to where we walked, but we needed the exercise anyway :)

Dragon boat racing and boiled eggs - 20 June 2015

This past weekend was Dragon Boat Festival where we got to eat sticky rice dumplings (Zhongzi - pronounced something like Jongtzi). Derek and Joy had come out from Taipei. Joy, Derek's  Taiwanese girlfriend had also never seen a dragonboat race! We were quite surprised, she just laughed and said she always watched on TV. We stayed and watched for about half an hour, it was quite exciting.

Some of the races were heats and others were division finals, I think we watched the high school boys team finals which were quite impressive.                                                                                                                                       The competition is a knockout the first two teams in a race go through to the next race, the other two are knocked out. It looks like the boat is steered by a "professional" who is not from the team. 

We made bets on who would win, red, blue, green or yellow

They raise their oars when they are announced

When teams get close to the finish line they have a guy in the bow who leans forward to catch a flag which determines who won. Some of the races were extremely close.

Very well timed strokes

Teams grabbing their flags

We then took a ride up into the mountains to cook our lunch of eggs and mielies (corn) in a basin of boiling hot slightly sulfurous water. My first experience of geothermal cooking. The place is at the same location as a failed geothermal power plant, but it doesn't have an industrial feel at all.

Here I am busy cooking the mielies

Derek cooking the eggs

The eggs were soft boiled in about 10 minutes. They then have cold water basins so that you can cool the food off before eating it. Very well thought out. They had even tapped the water into pools so you could sit and warm your feet. The best part of all, you didn't have to pay a cent!

After lunch we drove around in the mountains and then headed back towards Yilan for supper. On the way Derek spotted a field full of sunflowers, we stopped and found there were a number of fields full of flowers. It was a good place for some photos, so we took many.

Renalda smelling the orange flowers

I must have said something funny

Some people offered to take this pic

Then they recommended all kinds of poses, their English was good

I'm not sure what they smelled like, my nose is perpetually blocked

Renalda insisted on taking these picks... guess who is the better photographer!

We then took a long ride down to the Yilan night market for some supper which consisted of random snacks, and went home to be in bed by 10. Joy and Derek went to the beach to watch the stars and discuss Tsunamis.

Daytrip to Meihua Lake - 14 June 2015

I'm hoping to start writing more frequently again, it seems like we have a little more time, even thought we are still very busy. Renalda and I started to study Chinese at a local university as self study doesn't work with a busy schedule. We only go once a week for two hours so progress will be slow, but at least we will make progress.

We went scootering up the valley to see what we may see, we hadn't intended to go to Meihua (Plum Blossom) lake, but we had heard of it. It's nice for a quiet afternoon, there are a few snack stores and tons of bicycle rental places where you can rent a single, tandem, side-by-side, or 4 person bike all with or without a battery and motor, there were even Segways! We opted for good old man power with 2 person side-by-side 4 wheel bicycle.

There are a lot of nice paths to walk around and a one way bicycle road...yes it gets that busy. Lucky for us it was rather quiet. When I looked through our photos I noticed we don't have a picture of the whole lake, just of the surrounds.

A covered path around the lake

Lots of overhanging branches keeps it cool

Nice to be away from the hustle

They use tons of fireworks at the temples

Great place to have a temple

We took a boat ride around the lake... at light speed so very few of my photos came out

Such a tiring ride that Renalda took a nap with the teddies

It was nice to get out, and it's only 20 minutes from home.

Day trip to Juifen - 17 May 2015

I'm busy trying to catch up with the things we have done the past few months. My folks were both over in Taiwan, but I won't blog about that. There are so many wonderful little towns in Taiwan and we took a day trip to one a few weeks back called Jiu fen. It was an old gold mining town which ceased operations in the 1970s, started to die and then was regenerated a few years back by a movie that was shot there. Now it's a bustling tourist town on the side of a steep mountain.

These were braaied shell fish like periwinkles, they were quite tasty

Renalda with Keelung harbour behind her

The old, higgledy piggledy town winding up the mountain 

This dragonfly wasn't scared at all, I thought it was a nice photo

This part of the town is mostly deserted and falling apart

I wondered if the taps still worked, alas no.

Beams falling down in a doorway

Wonderfully made slate wall.

We mostly window shopped and walked around not really knowing where we were until we got tired and went home. We will go back sometime soon with a better idea of what to do and where to go.

A walk in the park - 27 April 2014

Jenny had offered to take us for a walk on a local hill a few weeks back but we were pretty tired or ill and decided to post pone. We asked if this weekend was good for her and she was happy to oblige. She even fetched us in a car, which we didn't know she had (or had access to). She's a really great CT to work with, always helpful and willing to go out of her way. I guess it helps her to practice her English too.

It was fantastic to get out into a more natural environment. DaJia, even though it is considered a small town is very built up and we aren't near to any parks or green areas. Coming from South Africa, this can be quite depressing. I hope that once we get a scooter we will be able to find some places to chill where it is nice and green and perhaps a little quieter than DaJai itself, with the Mazu temple's fireworks constantly exploding in your ears.

It was also great to get a bit of exercise that didn't involve walking to and from work. Jenny had just gotten over a cold and we were quite worried when she seemed very out of breath half way up quite a steep climb. I was also quite surprised at how easily we made it up, not having done any specific exercise since leaving SA.

Jenny and Renalda

Jenny and Mark (perhaps I should get a different hat)

Gotta dig those Virbams ;)

Really beautiful landscaping

It looks like a vygie!!

Walking in a maze of what looks like jasmin bushes

I can't remember the name of the goddess

Renalda trying her hand at pole dancing... I mean climbing ;)

The only wildlife we saw