Summer around China

Well, I’m back in Shenzhen from my 3 ½ week trip around China! It was a really amazing experience and I think the biggest thing I noticed was how drastically different each part of the country was and how much variety there is.

Sorry about the lack of pictures...there's an explanation later on! Maybe later I'll be able to add some photos in, but in the meantime look at my picasa site (address is at the top of this page.)

I started my journey by taking a 24-hour express sleeper train from Shenzhen to Beijing. Once in Beijing, I set out the next day to hike the Great Wall and it was so impressive! We had to drive a bit further than usual, but then we were away from the crowds and got to experience part of the unrestored sections as well. I was surprised at how steep some of the section were – basically like a wide stone ladder! Next I visited the Forbidden City and although it was raining most of the time (which actually helped keep away some of the hordes) it was neat to see how huge the place was; I don’t know how people found their way around. I also visited the Olympic Park and saw the Bird’s Nest and Watercube lit up – again, the scale was impressive! During my stay there I met some fun people in my hostel and we had some good nights out complete with Beijing duck, local beer, an introduction to huasheng – a berry that tastes like juniper soap and has strong natural numbing qualities; it’s used medicinally as well as in various dishes, and lots of laughs.

Claire then flew in to Beijing and we met up to take a train to Xi’an. Now, I knew the trains were busy in China, but I really had no idea just how busy. I went to purchase our tickets 4 days in advance and figured I had left enough time to get the tickets we wanted…but after I waited in line for a sweaty and pushy hour with the throngs of others at the station, I was told there were only seats (not sleeper cars) left for the 18 hour journey. I chanced it and bought them…..and what an experience it turned out to be! The first 3 or 4 hours weren’t so bad, but after 6 hours of sitting completely upright with no armrests, having an old man continually falling asleep on me, people smoking, and the smell of toilets wafting through the car, I was ready to be there already….but we still had another 12 hours! By the time we got off in Xi’an, we vowed never to buy seat tickets again.

Xi’an itself was a pretty city with much cooler weather than Beijing. We rented bicycles and rode around the city walls where we could see the interesting mix of old (temples, the Muslim Quarter, the bell and drum towers) with the new (huge shopping malls and luxury stores.) Our main reason for coming here was to see the Terra Cotta Warriors but when we journeyed to check them out, we were actually a little underwhelmed. There are 3 pits that have been excavated, but only 1 of them has much of interest. It was neat to see how each soldier was just a bit different (the hair, or height, or uniform) but there was no way to really see them up close. The museum area was way, way too packed full with loud Chinese tour groups so we basically just did a walk through of that part. Also, the whole area has been extremely commercialized with shops and brand new buildings everywhere around. Good to see, but I wouldn't go back.

Next we were off to Kunming (flying this time – no way were we going to sit for a 36 hour train!) which lies in southern Yunnan province, so that we could get to the Tiger Leaping Gorge area. To do this, we needed to take an overnight sleeper bus to the small town of Lijiang. Our journey started out a bit confusingly, then about 2 hours in we came to a stand still. The ensuing hour and a half delay was due to the driver of a semi-truck, which was carrying 14 vans, falling asleep at the wheel and therefore crashing….blocking both lanes of traffic. Turns out this isn’t terribly uncommon. We also found out the hard way that petty theft is common on these buses, so upon awaking around 2 AM, Claire and I realized that despite our bags being right next to us, we were both missing all our cash and my camera (later we also realized that in addition to the obvious things stolen, our thief apparently needed cheap sunglasses, 1 sock and Bananagrams…how odd!) So when we arrived in Lijiang we were promptly picked up by the police (never thought I’d be in a Chinese police car!) and driven to the station to file a report. After this several hour long procedure, we were finally able to get out of there and head to the start of Tiger Leaping Gorge (in a harrowing 2 hour minivan ride where we were again delayed by an accident on the windy roads.)

Next day we started the trek, which we were apparently much better prepared for than we thought! We had read that it was a strenuous hike, even for serious hikers, so we allowed extra time. Maybe it was both of us growing up in the Rockies and hiking all while growing up, but we were nicely surprised. The views were absolutely amazing and it really made me feel tiny with the mountains rising straight up from the gorge bottom and disappearing into the misty clouds above. There were a few rustic guest houses along the way to stop either for the night or just for some tea and rice; it was one of my favorite things that I did on this trip (although if I do it again I would make sure my camera wasn’t stolen first!) I would highly recommend going here.

Next we made it back down to Lijiang (surprise, surprise; there was another accident on the way down!) and spent a few days in and around the old town of Lijiang. It’s fairly touristy, but still a gorgeous little place with windy cobblestone streets and small bridges over the streams that flow through the town. We also rented bicycles here and ventured out into the farmland on little dirt roads. The whole area is up at higher altitude and surrounded by tall mountains, which combined with fields of sunflowers and a perfectly sunny day, made for an amazing day (although we felt like fried chicken from the sun and lack of sunblock - oops.)

From there we took a 4 hour bus ride to the west to Dali (comical since most of the journey was over half constructed bumpy roads, the driver was playing chicken with oncoming buses on the particularly windy parts, greasy haired toothless men were yelling over and over ‘eeen-gu-leesh, een-gu-leesh!’ at us since we were the only 'weiguoren' [foreigners] onboard.) We joined up with a Spaniard who we’d first met on our fateful journey to Lijiang and visited some of the little villages in the area. One of them had a crazy market where absolutely anything was for sale…cheap plastic rain boots, medieval-looking farm tools, huge melons, woven baskets, watches made in 'Switzerland,' majhong sets, traditionally dyed blue and white batik clothes, pig’s heads, jewellery, incense sticks the size of industrial fireworks, ugly sunglasses, Karma Sutra tiles, and potatoes by the truckload.

Our next destination was Yangshuo, which is famous for its numerous craggy limestone peaks that sprout up everywhere. It’s also the scene on the 20 Yuan note. It’s a really gorgeous place and also fairly touristy (interestingly enough this was the only place we saw ‘deep fried cat’ on a menu – either it was for real or it was a mistranslation; both are equally likely.) We rented bicycles to cycle around the area. It was fun, minus the Chinese drivers who incessantly honk, honk, honk, and we saw some really pretty areas. We also went down the Li River on a bamboo raft, where I managed to lose just one of my flipflops in the river and had to walk around barefoot the rest of the afternoon, which led to even more stares than usual.

The last place I went was the Longsheng rice terraces. We signed up for a tour through our hostel – big mistake! This is how we accidentally took a Chinese tour, complete with a long bus ride where the tour guide yacked away for most of the 3 hour journey through a megaphone, then informed us we needed to pay more for something else we didn’t want to do (with our only other option to just stay on the bus for an hour.) When we finally arrived, we were given only an hour and a half to eat lunch and view the terraces…luckily I (Claire needed to go back with the bus to catch her next train North) ditched the group and started the 5 hour hike through to another village. It was absolutely stunning – like something out of a movie! Midway through it started dumping typhoon level rain and we met a few of the local women who were out picking firewood. Since it was nearing the end of the day and we were only about half finished the hike, I decided/got convinced to stay in their village for the night. It felt like a complete time warp where everything was so simple and idyllic and location could not have been better. I toured through the 800-person village (where we saw a large portrait of Stalin next to pictures of naked women on the walls of one of the old women’s houses) then got a home cooked meal, complete with home brewed rice wine for dinner AND breakfast, and stayed in their house….then was off the next morning. It was just stunning with each curve around the hill showing yet another beautiful scene.

This trip was truly amazing and I was awed at just how huge and diverse the country is. Yet again, I’m left feeling that I only scratched the surface and want to see so much more of it! Luckily I’ll be in the country for a bit yet. I'm just starting up full-time Chinese classes next week, so I'll be busy for the next few months being a student again!

Results from Dragon Boat!

Well, it's now Monday evening - the end of Dragon Boat Festival weekend. It was a great time with perfect weather and fun people!

During race #2

We started out the weekend with our first race early on Saturday morning. We were racing against 3 other teams - a legal aid foundation, RT Mart (a superstore here in Taiwan), and another unknown Taiwanese team. The conditions were good with the current going in our favor and our team won by over 30 seconds (out of a 3 1/2 minute race!) It was really exciting to see all the other teams around too. There were numerous teams of course from Taiwan from various high schools, companies, and government offices, then there were also teams who traveled from the Philippines, Singapore, Australia, the US, and Japan, as well as various expat teams from South Africa, France, and Holland.

Me and my coworker Rachel

Hess treated us to a nice lunch at a Taiwanese restaurant, where of course way too much delicious food was ordered. Each 8 person table ended up with about 4 heaped plates left over! The food we did have was great though - shrimp and pineapple, cold pickled cabbage, various types of tofu, 3 cup chicken, fried rice, deep fried mushrooms.... We had a bit of time to kill before we had to head back to the river park for the opening ceremony (no one could figure out why the opening ceremony wasn't at the beginning of the day...) so we popped over to our team organizer's house nearby for some sun and drinks on her rooftop. After a few hours (which included group work on the daily crossword puzzle!) we all taxied back to the park. Walking the last little bit over the bridge, we saw some curious items in the stream tributary: computer keyboards, furniture, a few dead looking rats... :s yuck. The opening ceremony involved a few fun performances by one of the Filipino teams and some juggling. Very fun!

Our whole team

Sunday we had our second race against other teams who made it through to the second round. It was a bit windier, and a lot hotter (not a cloud in the sky and about 34C/95F with the usual high humidity.) We raced hard but came in 3rd, so we didn't make it to the final round. There's a tradition with dragon boat to trade uniforms with another team and the team that won against us came over to trade with us! I'm still not sure which team they were, but basically you look for someone your size, then right then and there you take of your sweaty, river-watered shirt and switch! Their outfits looked nice, although being black they were were scorchingly hot and even stinkier than ours...haha.

Catching the flag

Later that evening we went out to a pub for some dinner and drinks where coincidentally the French Open was playing. It was great meeting new people and getting to know them more this weekend. We're all Hess English teachers, but everyone has a different story. And of course, we traded some teaching stories and inadvertently played 'who has the grossest kindergarten moment story!' Then today was the national holiday so everyone was off work. We all attended the closing ceremony where shockingly no one suffered from heat stroke (except an Australian). . . today was even hotter and we were all crowded in like cattle in direct sun!

The whole weekend was great fun, and it was really cool to take part in a traditional Taiwanese activity!

Dragon Boat

In Asian countries, (particularly ones with significant Chinese populations) there is a holiday each year around the beginning of June called Dragon Boat Festival. Long ago in China, there was a poet named Qu Yuan who was accused of treason. He then threw himself into a river to protest and drowned. Then the local people, who admired him, threw lumps of rice into the river to feed the fish so that they wouldn't eat his body. There is now a special glutinous rice dumpling, zongzi (which apparently has such an extremely high calorie count that the government warns against overeating at this time of year.) The local people also paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This last part is what I'll be doing next week! (Minus the dead poet in the water...)

My school (and all the other branches) is large enough to have a team for the 20+person boat, so we have been practicing each Sunday morning for the past 6 weeks. First we started in the 'bucket' - basically a large metal shipping container filled with water with seats on the outside. It was conveniently located on a grungy concrete slab beneath a major freeway overpass where we shared the space with resting taxis, sleeping dogs, and a ballroom dance class just prior to our practice. Very multi-use! We practiced our technique in this for 2 weeks so that when we got in the actual boats, we could make full use of our open-water practices. The race is sponsored by the Taipei city government and they own all the carved wooden boats, but to keep things fair for all the teams, they don't release the boats for practice until 4 weeks before the competition so that everyone has the same time to get ready. It's been really fun so far, and the festival is next weekend. In previous years, our team has made it past the first and second heat, but never to the third, so that's the goal for this year. Hopefully all goes well for race day!

Taipei, so yummy!

Yesterday Katelin and I went to the Taipei International Food Festival. Her Chinese tutor gave her the invitation, saying that they needed foreigners to eat some food. So we went, only knowing vaguely where to show up and not really what to expect of the whole thing! Turns out there was a tent set up on the sidewalk area around the 101 with about 100 seats inside. We were shown to our seats, while being videoed! I have never been filmed before, so I didn't really know what to do. We knew the show had started when a man in a white medical coat (one of the official judges) picked up a big red mallet and hit the large gong on stage. There were maybe 9 or 10 different chef stations set up around the perimeter, and the hostess of the whole production talked briefly with each one (the whole thing was being videod and shown on a big screen at the front, behind the stage.) Most of the chefs were from Taiwanese restaurants, but there were also some from Japan and Thailand. We’re guessing that why we were invited as foreigners (without having to pay anything!) is because it was Western day, although none of the food was particularly Western.
We were each given a slip of paper as well; Katelin and I figured out by reading that one line was for our name, but we had to ‘cheat’ and look at someone else’s to figure out what else we were supposed to write for the other one. At least it was easy compared to the 3 page survey we were given at the end, which we ended up getting help to fill out.
Then we got individually served some of every dish that was made – it was amazing food! We had linguine with egg yolk balls, grapefruit-sized potato balls, tuna rolls, shrimp with mango, salmon steaks, chicken asparagus rolls, spicy Thai vegetables, Japanese hot pot soup, chicken skewers, and fried fat lumps in a pancake. Strange as the last one sounds, when each audience member picked their favourite dish by placing a small silver spoon in front of the dish, the fat lumps won by a land slide!
We also got a show with our meal as a bartender spun flaming bottles while making cocktails on the front stage. Impressive!

Sunrise Hike

Katelin and I decided that we wanted to hike up Mt. Qixing (the highest peak -1120m- in Yangmingshan National Park) and watch the sunrise. So, we planned it all out and left our apartment early this morning at 2:30am, making the necessary 7-11 stop for coffee. Then we made the 30 minute scooter ride up to the park and found the trailhead. Things were still pitch black at this point so we were equipped with a headlamp and flashlight. The wind was blowing and the bamboo makes a pretty eerie sound when it rustles together and there’s no one else around, and to complete the scene, there was also a garbage can lid banging in the wind – eek! We set off and almost immediately encountered a massive toad the size of a large grapefruit in the path – both of us shrieked in surprise, but luckily those were the only animals we saw. (We were a bit concerned about seeing any of the numerous poisonous snakes that lurk in the vegetation here...)


We got about 2/3 of the way up and all the sudden we realized that we were in pea-soup fog, so we decided to hike back down so we wouldn’t get stuck up there and see if we could find another place to watch the sunrise. Once back at the trailhead, we drove just about 5 minutes and found a suitable place – we had a perfect view of the sunrise as we ate some fruit and drank milk tea on the side of the road. We were commenting on how pretty it was, and all of a sudden we realized we could also see the ocean! By then it was pretty light out and still only 5:15am, so we decided to make a short impromptu scooter trip. We drove up through the mountains to the northern coast, and made it about 3/4 of the way to the beach before we turned around because we were tired of being on the scooter. We found a very large cemetery with an accompanying crematorium/shrine/mausoleum thing – quite impressive!

So we arrived back at our apartment at 7:30...usually about the time I’m getting up for work during the week! I won’t be doing these sunrise hikes often, but it was really fun and quite pretty with all the colors and wispy clouds.

Cinco de Mayo

Don't worry! Cinco de Mayo is not celebrated (in any strange way) in Taiwan, but I couldn't think of another name for this post. Anyhow, things have been busy as usual here. I haven't been able to keep up on here, and now it's hard to condense everything from the past 2 months, but I will try.

I started Chinese classes 2 times a week and it's great to see a little progress by being able to understand some of what people say, and also talk a little. I am also learning to read and write the characters but that takes a long time since each word has a different character and they can combine to form new words! It is a difficult language, but I am determined to keep it up.

My parents also visited in mid March and we had an amazing time! We got to go to some places that I had already visited so I could be of a little help in showing them around (Jioufen, Taroko Gorge, and of course Taipei.) We also went to some new places - Green Island in the South, and we also did some driving along the Eastern coast. The scenery is absolutely spectacular in those areas, especially when it's sunny and the water is a perfect aquamarine with white waves and lush greenery.

I just signed another year contract at my same school, so I will be teaching the little kindergarteners again next year! I will have the younger class (right now I teach 4-5 year old), so I will have the 3-4 year olds - it will be fun, funny, and a huge challenge all at once.


Our semester here ends in July, so once our big end-of-the-year show finishes, I will pop onto a plane the next day and head to Thailand! I will be meeting my boyfriend there and we will travel around for 2 weeks before school starts again. It will be a really relaxing way to spend my vacation. I still feel so lucky that I'm able to go to all these places and see such amazing things! I was a little hesitant about booking tickets to fly into Bangkok because of the current situation there, but I thought that since my trip is 3 months away, something most likely will have been figured out by then. So we'll just see...

ವಿಎತ್ನಂ - Vietnam

My latest adventure over my Chinese New Year break was a great time! There was lots of traveling involved as we had to cover 1700km in 9 days, (in our 8 nights, we spent 4 in hotel beds and 4 in various forms of transport - bus, boat, train, and taxi) but well worth it!

Kenzie and I flew into Hanoi and promptly took a bus to our hotel that blared music videos from the '80s on the mini DVD player the whole 45 minute journey. Then we wandered around and found that many things were closed because it was the beginning of Tet (lunar new year festivities.) The next day we journeyed to Halong Bay and got on a 'junk' boat for an overnight tour of the area. It was fun - we stopped at a cave on an island that was lit with bright colored lights, kayaked, and had a great evening that included our tour guides/boat operators drinking loads of Vietnamese vodka and singing bad karaoke....


We also went to Hoi An, a place famous for hundreds of tailors that custom-make clothes for cheap, where we took a full-day motorcycle tour in the countryside. At one point we came to a long floating wooden bridge and jokingly asked our tour guide if anyone had ever fallen in; his response: 'we just started using this bridge...' Hah, but it was a great way to see things a little more off the beaten path. We also spent a day to go diving again - although the site was supposed to be the best in Vietnam, Kenzie and I didn't think it was that special, but I think we were spoiled having already dived in Bali (which is world-class with beautiful corals and different fish.)

We finally made it down to Ho Chi Minh City, (HCMC) which was an epic adventure that took 8 hours overnight in a taxi. Basically up until that point we would buy our tickets to get to the next city the day before we left and it worked out fine, but when we needed to get to HCMC, everything was full (bus, train, plane) because it was nearing the end of Tet holiday. So, we hired a taxi with 2 other people we had met. It was a crazy ride because we left at midnight (so we wouldn't waste daylight hours traveling) and the only main road going south was clogged with 3 lanes of massive tour buses - all swerving and honking madly- on the 2 lane road. So the whole journey, I kept seeing headlights coming straight towards us, only to veer back just before we collided. This was all set to the tune of acoustic '80s pop songs that our driver (and no one else) enjoyed. Oh boy! Up until that point we hadn't seen any accidents, but as we approached HCMC just as the sun was rising, there was a car that had been reduced to about half it's original size from a massive crash - pretty scary. Later on, one of our tour guides cheerfully informed us that while over 400 people had died during that week alone due to traffic accidents, 'it's a good number-don't you think?' !!! Vietnamese traffic is generally is chaotic, but slower paced than here in Taiwan. However, they do not have any stoplights or stop signs, so this means that everyone uses their horn at all times. Even if you have already crossed the street and are on the next 'sidewalk,' they still give you a toot or 2 on their way by...

When we got to HCMC at 8 in the morning, we popped across the street into one of the numerous 'travel agencies' to learn that we had just 15 minutes before the tour of the CucChi tunnels left, so we hurriedly stashed our things in the back of the office and brushed our teeth before climbing on bus for another hour of transit. The tunnels were pretty amazing, especially when we learned that people basically lived for years inside them. They are tiny, and although I'm not claustrophobic, it was not comfortable even for the 5 minutes I was inside. There were also displays of some of the traps the local people used against soldiers; they were very crude but extremely damaging to anyone who came upon them. We also visited 2 museums about the war and the War Remnants Museum was particularly dark. It was mostly pictures from international photographers during the war, and it was hard to look at a lot of them. Even though I learned about the war during school, I feel like I understand a lot more about what happened and why the whole event was such a disaster.

So my trip was a really good time and I was left knowing that I want to go back at some point, for at least several weeks. There was so much to see and now I know which places I want to go back to!

Update

Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything - things are quite busy and time just flies by! Here is a quick synopsis...

Over Christmas, my roommate Kenzie and I went to Bali for a week. We saw monkeys, went scuba diving in a shipwreck, watched traditional Balinese dancers, and relaxed on the beautiful beaches. It was a great break from the cold weather in Taipei, and lots of fun....although strange to see so many foreigners (ie white people) again!

The beginnning of January was filled with preparing for our Chinese New Year show at the school. The holiday is a big deal (bigger than Christmas in the west,) so there was lots to prepare. The kids learned dragon and lion dances, played drums outside, and blessed their parents in a tea ceremony. It was fun to learn more about a holiday that I have only heard of before.

And now...it is time for Chinese New Year holiday! Almost everyone in Taiwan gets a week break and Kenzie and I are heading to Vietnam, which is only about 3 hours plane ride from Taipei. We are planning on travelling the same style as in Bali, ie not booking any hotels etc so we can decide our plan along the way and see where we end up. That being said, we do have SOME plans - fly into Hanoi and make our way South to Ho Chi Minh City (over 1,000 miles in 9 days...) while seeing caves, taking trains, doing boat tours, visiting floating markets, and going scuba diving along the way. It should be adventure filled!

Oh yes, and because I have enjoyed my time here so far and like teaching the little ones, I have decided to stay on another year!



<--The North-east coast of Taiwan, where I drank a local beer made from green algae~




Watch for another post after I return from Vietnam...

Scuba Diving

This past weekend I travelled down to Kenting, a town and National Park at the southern-most part of Taiwan, to finish up my open water scuba diving certification! I completed the classroom portion here in Taipei, but due to scheduling conflicts and the change in weather on the North coast, the water was too cold to comfortably dive in by the time I needed to do the dives in the ocean. Since we wanted to make the most of the weekend, the 7 of us - our instructor, 4 students, and 2 other divers along for the trip - met downtown just a bit after midnight and piled into a big van to make the 6 hour drive south. We only stopped once, but the road was so bumpy and jiggly that none of us got much sleep. When we arrived at sunrise in Kenting, we pulled over at a beach to eat some cereal and wait for the dive shop to open so we could rent some extra equipment. We also checked into our room, which was dorm style with 7 single mattresses lined up in a row. We got the equipment and headed off to the beach to start the dives!
The first dive was wonderful! We had to swim out in between some rocks to get into the open water. We practiced some skills and then got to look around a bit underwater. Once we were done, we swam ashore (underwater) and then got out onto the rocky beach. There was a Taiwanese family picnicking and they seemed quite shocked to see foreigner after foreigner emerging from the ocean with all this gear on! They followed us up to where our van was parked, and seeing that some of us were really cold, offered us some nice hot tea. Yet another example of how friendly Taiwanese really are. Then we did our next dive and I saw a huge(~3ft long) sea snake! I didn't learn until after I got out of the water that their venom is 10 times more poisonous than a cobra's!! But they are not considered very dangerous because their mouths are too small to bite anything except fingers...!
After we finished with our dives for the day, we showered and headed down the main street to see the stores and find a good place to eat. Amongst all the street shops selling flip-flops, board shorts, squids on sticks, and various carnival style games we found a suitable restaurant and had a nice meal (although extremely spicy!)
The next morning we headed off for our 2nd set of dives in a unique location: right next to a nuclear power plant! We suited up and headed into the water...this time we saw even more fish than before (including yellow and black angelfish, blue, white, and yellow striped butterfly fish, and a clown fish) and near the end of our last dive we saw a huge cuttlefish! The creature looks more like a squid than a fish, and is a master of disguise. It can change to reflect it's surroundings so quickly and drastically that I had no idea what it was for the first few minutes. It was really cool to see these sea creatures and plants that I have only ever seen on film or in pictures before; I can't wait to see what Kenzie and I come across when we go diving in Bali over Christmas!
After we showered again and packed up, we hit the road for Taipei around 6pm. We stopped for a brief dinner and at most of the rest stops because our van kept giving ominous beeps to alert us that the water level in the radiator was low; we had to jump out every so often and pour more water in... We arrived back in Taipei a little before 2AM Monday morning. Just in time to scooter home and get a few hours rest before another week with the kiddos! It was a really great trip and made me quite excited about going diving, not just around Taiwan but especially in Bali!

Taroko Gorge

This past weekend I visited Taroko Gorge National Park, Taiwan's most popular tourist destination. I set off at 9AM Saturday morning with Kenzie, Katelin, and her friend Jessica. We took the 3 1/2 hour train (which was freezing, even in a jacket and several layers because of their love for air conditioning, even in colder weather) down the east coast, where there were spectacular views of the ocean on one side and steep cliffs on the other! We got to Hsincheng, the town at the entrance to the National Park, and were met by the lady from our 'hotel.' (Booking the hotel was a strange experience and left us wondering if we were really going to a hotel or somebody's house where they would charge us to sleep on the floor...) She had a friend (of course!) who rented scooters and so even though you are supposed to have a Taiwanese driver's license to rent them, all we had to do was give her the money and off we went! There was no signing of papers, paying a deposit, or leaving collateral! Things like this are a lot more casual and trusting here, which is nice.

So then off we went to the hotel (which did indeed turn out to be a hotel, with a whopping 6 rooms.) We then headed off to scooter up the gorge. It was so amazing...the gorge itself is extremely steep walls of marble carved out by a river of blue-green water. There are lots and lots of tunnels and caves (apparently over 450 people died to make this road) and every time you emerge there is more pretty scenery. The water is really blue-green and is never made murky by flooding because there is a dam further upstream. We took our time going the 20km up to the little village and then turned around to make it back to the hotel before it got dark.

We went to the town of Hualien (about 3 times the size of Hsincheng, which didn't have much to do) and hit up some of the little night markets there. One of them was right on the seaside and there were stands to buy any size firework to light off over the ocean! So the whole time we were there it looked and sounded like fourth of July. As we drove the 20km back to our hotel, we were marveling at how little traffic there was compared to Taipei. When we got back, we were relaxing for a few minutes in our room when all of a sudden I saw a HUGE spider scurry under our bed! With it's legs, it was about the size of a grapefruit. We all screamed and jumped onto the bed. After a lot of commotion and planning, we moved the bed and tried to capture it underneath the trashcan but we missed it and it ran underneath the opposite bed! What followed was a lot of disassembling of furniture to get at the spider, shoe-throwing, laughing and shrieking, but we finally killed it because we all knew that we wouldn't sleep with it lurking in the room. We made quite a bit of noise, but there were no other guests and if our hostess noticed the noise and wondered what the heck was going on, she was too polite to say anything the next morning. None of us slept too well that night and as a result most of us felt the earthquake that night (a magnitude 5.6, which is common weekly occurrence for this area.)


The next day we scootered back up the gorge and stopped at some different places and then picked up some lunch to eat in the park of the little village. While we were eating, a Taiwanese Jehovah's Witness tried to convert us all; we tried not to be too obvious about throwing away the pamphlet she forced on us. Once we were finished, we tried to drive the 1km further up the road to start our hike, but the road was closed due to a landslide...what an inconvenience! (There are signs everywhere instructing you to wear a helmet while in the Park - the most famous area where tour buses unload actually has baskets of hardhats for borrowing.) So we drove down to the Park headquarters where there was another trail close by. It was so well kept and maintained that women were 'hiking' it in high heels. It went along the gorge where the water was especially blue! There are also aboriginals who live right in the Park and were selling candied flowers and marble sculptures. (While we stopped briefly at one of these stands, a Taiwanese tourist was surprised to learn that I was an American because he "didn't know they came that small!" He was sure I was Canadian.) Monkeys are supposed to be plentiful in this area, so we were kind of disappointed when we didn't see any. When we finished the hike, we went back to our hotel and sat out front with the owners for a bit to have a quick snack, then we went off to a beach area they recommended. It was another 30 minutes away and it was so, so pretty! On our way there it started to get fairly windy and stormy but it made it even more exciting (especially on the scooters...). Although the water looks so inviting, only the suicidal swim in it (according to our Lonely Planet book!) because of the strong undertows and currents.

We had dinner at a cute little restaurant on the side of the road and then went back to the train station to return our scooters and wait for the train. We got there early and figured there would at least be a little something to do, but as it was a Sunday night in a small town...there was only a convenience store about .5 km down the road! So after killing about 2 hours, our train arrived and we made it back to Taipei just after midnight...just in time to catch the last MRT home and into bed to start another week of teaching the little ones!

Taiwan Tidbits

This is a part of a funny list I found recently entitled 'You Know You've Lived in Taiwan Too Long When...'; it captures many of the hilarious things that I love about Taiwan!

1. Someone doesn't stare at you and you wonder why.
-I've had numerous people stop me on the street or in restaurants just to ask to take a picture of me, not with me.
2. You stare at other foreigners.
-My roommates and I have a game going called "spot the foreigner" - goal is to see the most foreigners first when we are out together!
3. 70 degrees Fahrenheit feels cold.
-After the sweltering summer heat, this is true!
4. You don't notice the smell.
-Everywhere and everything has a smell here (not necessarily bad), especially the streets.
5. You see three people on a motorcycle and figure there's room for two more.
-Or at least a dog or 2.
6. You leave the plastic on new furniture and appliances.
-The cling-film plastic that protects new things during shipping is always left on things here, along with the stickers of all the selling points...I guess they will be prepared at any point should they need to return anything!
7. The shortest distance between two points involves going through an alley.
8. You wear blue rubber flip-flops at work.
-Everybody wears indoor shoes here, at home and work and even some stores, and these cheap 30NT (~US$1) flipflops are very common. Many of the street food vendors also wear them.
9. Over half of your clothes were bought at night markets.
-The selection is very hit or miss, but there is an absolutely huge assortment of things, all very cheap. So cheap that I find myself rejecting a shirt because it is 'so expensive' . . . when it is 500NT (~$15). Many decent shirts are about 200NT ($6).
10. You become an expert on bug zappers: the best brands & where to get them.
-While I have yet to buy one, I have heard discussions amongst very different groups of people about why certain electric racquets are better because 'they don't just kill mosquitoes, they kill cockroaches too!'
11. Pizza just doesn't taste right unless there's corn on it.
-It is hard to find pizza without it.
12. You can de-bone a piece of chicken in your mouth within seconds.
-A necessary skill in order to not go hungry. Chicken here is just chopped any which-way with a huge cleaver to cut through any bones that are in the way. As a result there are also many bone slivers to watch out for...
13. Squat toilets seem normal.
-These toilets are built into the floor and you 'squat' over them. I still wonder how elderly people use them, and often there is no other option in restaurants and public places.
14. When the fashions in the stores look really hip.
-Many of the stlyes are unbelievably put together and are so strange looking. Just one example I saw on the bus today: A 45-year-old woman wearing a Scandinavian looking knit sweater with big green camouflage pants with 'Love' written in big pink letters on the backside. High-heeled sneakers completed the look.
15. Your pinkie nail is over one inch long.
-This is getting less common but you still see it on a lot of people. I've tried to ask why, and I've heard everything from it being a status marker showing you don't have to work very hard to it warding away evil spirits and casting spells on your enemies.
16. You've left umbrellas in more than 3 restaurants.
-I'm already on umbrella #5. It would be a bigger problem except they are dirt cheap and just about every store under the sun (or rain clouds) sells them here.
17. You keep stuffed animals in your car.
-Enough said.
18. You get used to the habit of not paying any tips while traveling.
-All prices here include tax and tip (if applicable.)
19. Your first reaction in buying things is to ask for discounts.
-Most places, except department and proper grocery stores (as opposed to outdoor markets), you are expected to bargain for things. If you look hesitant when looking at something for sale, usually the sales person usually offers you 'a special price, just for you!'
20. "A", "an" and "the" aren't necessary parts of speech, but "so" is.
- When speaking to a Taiwanese in English, the first 3 are all optional. "So" is so commonly used along with adjectives that it seems they learned it was mandatory. (You are so young, so good, so bad!...etc)
21. Your answer to an "either/or" question is "yes".
-Again, common when speaking to a Taiwanese.
22. You say "Wei?" instead of "Hello?" when you pick up the phone.
-This word is like 'hello,' but it is only used over the phone. Even though it's such a short word, I've heard oodles of slightly different pronunciations.
23. You can no longer tell the difference between a cracker and a cookie or toast and bread.
-These are used interchangeably.
24. You go into 7-11 at least once a day.
-7-11s are different because you can pretty much do anything there: pay bills, buy movie and concert tickets, find Hello Kitty wine, pickup internet shopping purchases, order a latte, scan documents and make copies, buy dried fish snacks or freshly microwaved popcorn or dumplings or beer or special garbage bags or hot dogs....
25. The main reason you stop at a 7-11 is to buy tea eggs.
-Strange as these sound and look (they are hard-boiled and are a dark brown color), they don't taste like tea but are very salty.
26. You look both ways before crossing the sidewalk.
-Scooters, weaving bicyclists, stray dogs and cats, and tofu carts are all common occupants of the sidewalk, as well as very slow walkers.
27. You turn left from the right lane.
-Scooters cannot make direct left turns on most streets; they have to go to the perpendicular street to the right to wait in a special box until that light turns so they can go straight (confusing as it sounds, it seems to make traffic flow easier.)
28. There are more things strapped to your motorcycle than you ever put in a car.
-I've seen 7 canisters of compressed gas strapped on the back. . . !
29. You drive on the shoulder to pass traffic.
-Because it is regarded by everyone here (including the police) as just another lane to drive in.
30. Your preferred parking spot is on a sidewalk.
-This usually just applies to scooters, but on any road except a main one, it also applies to cars. I am in awe at some of the amazing park-jobs I have seen. No wonder the driving test includes a portion on driving backwards in an 'S' shape!
31. Most meaningful conversations take place in doorways or on slow-moving motorcycles.
32. You start cutting off the gravel trucks.
-Even though scooters are smaller and more vulnerable, they have no hesitation about cutting in front of any moving vehicle.
33.The red light is merely suggestive to you.

Sun Moon Lake

This past weekend I visited Sun Moon Lake, which is the largest lake in Taiwan.

Kenzie and I took the train out of Taipei to Taichung, about 2 1/2 hours South of Taipei. From there we were going to catch a bus to take us the rest of the way to the lake, but when we emerged from the train station, we happened upon a traditional festival/performance/parade! There was a musical performance, then the 'dragon' costumes came out and danced with people who were watching. Next came people in colorful costumes who were on stilts about 3-4 feet high. The main character in this group did some amazing stunts that looked like kung-fu, but 3 feet in the air on these painted stilts! There was also a dance with people who had their faces painted very intricately. The end came when the whole ensemble marched off through a busy intersection with delivery trucks, buses, scooters to continue the festivities in parade form throughout the city!

We eventually found the right bus station a few blocks away, which was more confusing than it sounds because there are apparently numerous bus companies in the city and most of the 'stations' do not resemble what we were picturing - they were little hole-in-the-wall spots with a few chairs inside. Once we found the right one however, we bought tickets and headed the 2 1/2 hours more on to the lake. When we arrived in the early evening it was extremely humid and overcast so we made it to our hostel (actually called a Youth Activity Center even though we were the youngest people there by far...) and settled in for the night. Part of what was interesting about this experience was that we had heard the lake is so famous and popular that there are crowds everywhere and everything is always busy. When we went to dinner at the restaurant in our complex that evening, there were only 3 other tables with people in a huge room with at least 40 tables. We finished eating our Taiwanese style meal (lots of different dishes of vegetables, meats, and soup) at 7 and were the last ones - the lady promptly turned the lights off before we were even all the way out of the door...a huge contrast to Taipei where 7 is considered extremely early for dinner! I think perhaps why it was less busy is because of the economy and it is the end of the summer season. In Taipei it is hard to tell that the economy is down at all, but in Taichung and Sun Moon Lake things definitely seemed slower with more people waiting about for customers.

We got some snacks and decided to take advantage of the quiet and relaxing atmosphere (we could hear crickets, which I haven't heard since I arrived in Taipei!) and just read. Kenzie bought some dried wasabi peas (which sounds pretty strange, but are a common snack and surprisingly good.) She opened up the bag and found that instead of seeing lots of peas, there were about 20 individually wrapped packets, each containing about 15 peas! We both were laughing uncontrollably because this epitomizes packaging in Taiwan so well! Everything here is wrapped in (it seems) as much packaging as possible. Postcards, books, magazines, shoes for sale, toiletry bottles, bananas, and milk are just a few of the things that are always wrapped in celophane. Usually packages of crackers or cookies that look like the ones back home are not loose inside; packets of 3 or 4 items are individually wrapped. I guess it is to keep things from spoiling because of the humidity and heat or getting dirty, but it seems extremely excessive, although quite funny.

Anyhow, we got up the next morning early and rented bicycles to ride partway around the lake road (the total length of the road is about 30km) to a temple, complete with a pagoda that Chiang Kai-Shek built for his mother, and saw amazing views since it was nice and sunny! Growing up with such clean air, I never really noticed it and took it for granted but after having been in Taipei where I can feel the grime on my skin at the end of the day, I immediately noticed the fresh, clean air. The water in the lake is almost aquamarine colored which makes it look more like a tropical ocean. As tempting as it looks, people are forbidden from swimming in the lake except one day a year (on that day over 10,000 people show up for the annual swim across the lake event.) No one seems to have any idea why they limit swimming! An interesting note about Taiwanese though; apparently most of them do not know how to swim! I wasn't sure I believed this when someone first told me, but I have since read that there are numerous drownings each year when people are tempted by rivers and lakes on the first few hot days of each summer season. The government is trying to fix this problem though by mandating that kids take some form of swim lessons by a certain age.

We also took a boat tour across the lake which stopped at a few different places, including a tiny, tiny island in the middle that is made about 8 times as large by the surrounding floating bamboo squares. Originally (as well as currently) an aboriginal tribe named the Thao lived on one side of the lake, so for lunch we ate a traditional meal on the waterfront. It was amazing and presented so nicely! However, I was unable to eat the little fish because it was no different from when it had been in the water except that it had been fried with seasoning - all the scales, fins, tail, etc were still on. I have tried a fish like it before and the crunch of the head and tail are just a little too much...


It was a great weekend and nice to leave the city behind for a few days (even though I do love the hustle and bustle of Taipei and all that it has to offer!)

Kiddos

Here is a video of my kids on the schoolbus while we were on a field trip. This is really how crazy they are - imagine trying to teach them phonics and ABCs! Still, they are very cute...

Life Update

So...a general update about how life is here...

Everyone is really paranoid about the H1N1 flu thing, so probably about 75% of people everywhere are wearing those surgical masks to protect themselves. At first it seemed really strange but now it just looks normal to me! Even my kids have to wear them, so it's hard to tell if some of them are talking. These masks are so common that they come in a variety of colors, patterns, sizes, and even materials - paper or fabric. People also wear them when they ride on their scooters because of the pollution. Another note on attire - in Western culture people usually want to be tan, whereas here they want to be as white as possible! So, many people use umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun. On the scooters, they try to cover themselves up as much as possible so that they end up looking like they're on their way to rob a bank! They put on masks under their helmets and even little covers on their hands that look like oven mitts to keep the sun off their skin. Basically all that is left visible is their eyes... You also have to be careful when buying skin products, like face wash or cream, because sometimes they contain 'whitening elements'! I can only imagine what kind of chemicals might lurk in there.

I decided to take a scuba diving certification class since I am going to Bali, Indonesia over Christmas with my roommate, Kenzie. She is already certified and the diving there is supposed to be excellent, so I figured why not?! Two weekends ago I had the first part of the class, with 3 other students - one is another teacher I work with. Our instructor is a Canadian I met on one of the hash runs. Saturday was the classroom portion where we just reviewed the information from the 250+ page manual (although there were a lot of pictures) and took the written test. The next day we actually got to go underwater with all the equipment, in the pool! The air tank and all the other equipment is about 45 lbs, so out of the water it is very awkward and clumsy to get around. We went to a government (public) pool and practiced skills we had learned about in a shallowish pool, then went to the 5 meter pool to do the deeper things. It was really fun, but I started to get really cold even though I was wearing a wetsuit because we were in the water for about 6 hours, not moving very much. My lips matched the blue wetsuit I was wearing after about 2 hours, so I had to get out every so often to take a hot shower. My instructor made the comment - 'I wasn't cold until I looked at you!' Ha ha. Normally I will be ok, but this was a rental suit that wasn't quite thick or small enough. Some of the other things were too big as well, so for next week my instructor is going to find me kids sizes! Ha ha. Anyway, it was really neat to be able to breath underwater, although it was hard at first to trust because it goes against how you've always breathed before! Next weekend we are heading out to the North coast to make the 4 required ocean dives. Kenzie went to the same location a few weeks ago and said that both underwater and above water is gorgeous, so I'm excited!

This past weekend was a busy one! I hiked to a temple near my house (only about 30 minutes up the road) and looked around. There are tons of temples here in Taiwan (I've read that Taiwan has the highest temple-to-person ratio) but some are definitely bigger and more interesting than others. (Some look like little store fronts because they are on main roads in the city, between a convenience store and a bus stop...) It was amazing because the temple is so elaborately decorated and there are so many people just hanging out there. It is a really peaceful place where some people are praying, and some are just sitting around chatting with friends. The whole place has a really unique smell (one that I like) because spirit money is always being burned, in little metal bins and a big special oven built especially for that purpose (as pictured). Spirit money is just a special paper printed to look like some kind of ancient money and people buy it, then burn it, to show respect to their ancestors and deceased relatives. This temple, Bishan Temple, is up on a hillside so there is a complete view of the city from there. I just love finding new things all the time that are so close - it is impossible to ever be bored here.

As I mentioned before, Kenzie just bought a scooter last week so we have been driving to school on it. Back home it is just accepted that only one person will be on a scooter at a time, but here it is way more common to see at least 2! And it is not uncommon to see a whole family - mom, dad, and 2 kids standing in the foot area...! Equally as strange (and common) is to see a dog or 2 riding in the foot area of the scooter - I guess they have better balance than dogs back home?! Kenzie and I decided to make the 45 minute drive north from the city to Yangmingshan National Park. It was just absolutely gorgeous! In some ways it felt like national park from back home because of the openness and abundance of hiking trails, but different in that there are not as many rules and there is no admission fee! We had bright sun and when we got into the park it felt like a completely different world even though you could see the entire city below. We did a 2 hour hike up to the highest peak (1120 meters) through bamboo and tall silver grass. There are also so many hot springs etc around here (actually in all of Taiwan) and here is no exception! From the trail head we could see a huge vent of steam coming out of the ground. Then on the way up there were also hot spots with steam and hot bubbling mud right beside the trail. Very cool! We have noticed another thing - there has been virtually no wildlife other than bugs and insects. Which reminds me: Taiwanese hold a special love for beetles. Kids love them and will pick them up and bring them for show-and-tell.

Scooters!

So, after being here in Taiwan for 3 months, I have decided to make the jump and buy a scooter! Before I came, I never thought I would buy one, but after riding with some other people and seeing how much more of the city is accessible, I have decided to do it.



Most foreigners who drive scooters do so illegally because just like many other things here, the law requiring licenses does not mean that's what people actually do! So many people drive scooters without the proper Taiwanese license - they just use one from back home. The standard practice if you get pulled over for something is to speak English really fast, since most of the policeman only speak Chinese. They usually just waive you away because they don't want to deal with the hassle of trying to make themselves understood or to lose face, which is big here. Crazy, but that's just the way things are done here.

I thought I would try to do it legally and get my scooter license, but of course a strange rule kept me from being able to. My ARC (resident visa and working permit) is only valid for 51 weeks, and it needs to be valid for at least 52 in order to be able to take the test and apply for the license. We don't really know why the rule is there - but we've also learned not to try to think too much about the 'why' behind some things here. We only found out that we weren't eligible to take the test after we had gone to the driver testing center during our lunch break, taken the necessary photos, and studied what some of the cryptic road signs mean. (There is actually a sign here for Wheelbarrow Crossing, as well as No Motortricycles or Animal-drawn Carts...)



Kenzie was especially keen to get a scooter right away, so since she had the rest of the day off she found an ad online for another foreigner who wanted to sell their scooter. Off she went to meet the person and get her scooter! She picked me up from school and we scootered on home...very fun and so much more direct than the lurching bus (some of which are structurally questionable: I was sitting in a seat one day when it was raining very hard and water was dripping onto my head from the light fixture in the ceiling.) The traffic really is quite something - weaving around the parked cars, bicyclists going against traffic on a 5 lane road, buses quickly swerving from the far left lane to pick someone up on the righthand side of the street...there's always a surprise, and then often it is sprinkling rain as well! There is also a very confusing way of turning left when you are driving a scooter - you have to turn in two sections. Instead of going into the left lane and waiting for an opening in oncoming traffic, you have to first turn right onto the perpendicular street and wait in a special box (white lines painted on the road) for that light to turn green so you can go straight through the intersection...but of course! Just another quirk about driving here.


Since I will be getting a scooter soon, it was a great introduction to driving in Taipei because I helped navigate but also got to experience the craziness first hand.
Tomorrow we are going to go exploring again, and I will take a video of what the traffic looks/feels like from the scooter!

Kickboxing

Last night I got to try something really different: a kickboxing class! It might not seem that unusual, but the difference was that my roommate, Kenzie, and I went to one that meets outside of the Chang Kai-Shek memorial in the evening. It is a huge open area paved with square stones and there are lots of people just sitting or walking around. On three sides there are massive ornately decorated buildings, one of which is the actual memorial and another is a concert hall. The fourth side has the huge gateway made up of white archways leading into the whole area.

This particular night there was a jazz festival about to begin in a different part of the memorial, so there was live background music the whole time.
Kenzie and I arrived not really knowing what to expect. We saw the group (mostly foreigners) sitting by the gateway and several minutes later the class began. As newcomers, the other people warned us that it was going to be a hard 2 hours! They said we would be sore for days after... It truly was a total body workout; no muscle went unused! We began with a 'warm up' and after those 20 minutes I knew that the evening was going to be very intense as I was already completely drenched with sweat and winded! It was non-stop starting with aerobic exercises, then stretching, strength training, technique (which I have none of just yet!) and finally a little break for water, then running the 89 steps up to the memorial countless times, then ab exercises!

The teacher is a guy from Denmark who was a world champion but is now living in Taiwan teaching English, leading these classes on the side in the evenings. He is pretty funny and nice, but also really pushes people and encourages them to keep going when it gets tough. We went to different areas of the memorial and did different exercises...all the while many Taiwanese people were walking around and watching, sometimes in amusement, sometimes in confusion as to what we were doing...I heard one couple wondering if we were a cross-country team out for training! The people in the class were all really friendly and just like most other groups here, they get together often outside of the class for nights out, potlucks, and camping trips.
The humidity and heat (about 95F and 80% humidity) was so different from what I am used to exercising in and everyone was just dripping with sweat about half an hour into the workout! (The whole workout lasted a bit over 2 hours, but it just flew by!) I just loved it because back home, classes like this are just in boring gym studios and here we were outside of this amazing cultural sight with beautiful buildings all around, just the night sky above us! It was unlike anything I've done before and such a fun experience. I left feeling really good (but also incredibly tired) and ready to do it again, so now every Tuesday and Thursday evening that's where I'll be!


This is just one example of what I love so far about Taiwan - something that we have in the States is just in such a different setting or done in such a different way that it becomes so much more exciting! There is always so much going on that it is impossible to be bored.

Hash Run

So this past weekend I went on this event called a Hash run and it was a blast! These runs are actually held all over the world. It is a completely cross-country run through unique terrain. Basically by going on it, you see really unique areas of Taiwan that you wouldn't otherwise get to see, like farmers planting in their fields and tiny villages.
I went with my 2 roommates Katelin and Kenzie and we met the group at an MRT station in Taipei. Then we all boarded a chartered bus and it drove us north near the coast. The start of the run was at the top of some hills, so the bus started to make it's way up. Then the road did a complete U-turn going uphill and the bus wasn't going to make it. So this massive bus with about 50 people on it started to do a 6-point turn on this steep curve, getting perilously close to the edge each time it backed up....about 5 minutes later we somehow got all the way turned around and continued upwards! Amazing - it felt like the ending to the original 'Italian Job.' The bus couldn't make it all the way, so we walked the last 5 minutes or so. Then we started!

The trail is about an hour or so long (depending on how fast you run or walk, and what the route is like.) There are the 'hares' who pick the route (they go in advance and choose the route, sometimes clearing away the bamboo or other vegetation with machetes...) and leave the start line about 5 minutes earlier than everyone else to mark the trail with blobs of flour. Then the girls start and the guys go about 10 minutes later.

This particular one was amazing because it was all downhill and through really cool areas - through rice fields and little villages with people sitting on their balconies cheering us on, overgrown creeks, thick bamboo stands, irrigation ditches and tunnels where you had to grab onto a banana plant to keep from falling when you emerged on the other side, along the edges of crops (one in particular had a farmer shouting Chinese at us...) then eventually about an hour later we ended up on the beach!

It's a new course each week in a different location and the trail is supposed to be difficult to find in parts, so you really have to keep an eye out for white patches of flour while navigating down steep rocky areas and creeks. My legs got fairly scratched from running through the low down vines and pushing aside the branches and twigs, but definitely worth it!
Afterwards we met the bus at the bottom of the hill, right next to the beach where we all dove in (and surprisingly the water was extremely warm! This coming from someone who normally gets blue-lipped in the ocean...) Then we moved further on down the beach to a traditional Taiwanese restaurant specializing in barbeque. It is different from western barbeque in that each outdoor picnic table has it's own hot plate/grill, and you just choose whichever raw meat you want to cook and bring it back to your table. It was all you can eat and drink, so everyone definitely got their fill!

It was a great way to spend a Sunday and an even better way to see parts of Northern Taiwan that would be hard to get to otherwise. Everything is planned by the organizers so all you do is show up at the right time and place and off you go!