After grabbing some breakfast at the hotel, we proceeded to Tainan, the historical town of Taiwan.  On the way, we visited a rest stop, which was like a tourist attraction on its own with little gift shops and restaurants.

Our first destination of the day was Chih-Kan Lou, or the Chamber of Red Hill.  Chih-Kan Lou was actually originally constructed by the Dutch during Dutch’s occupation in 1653.  Chih-Kan Lou had changed much since then.  Since Chih-Kan Lou housed the God of Education in one of the buildings, it became a popular field trip spot for students.  We saw a group of young kids, probably kindergarten or first grade, posing in front of Chih-Kan Lou.  Jay ran in to take a photo with the kids, and I think one little girl got mad at him.

  

There were beautiful landscaping and statues around the garden of Chih-Kan Lou.

In the front of Chih-Kan Lou, there were statues of turtle carrying stone plates on their backs.  We couldn’t understand what the stone plates said though (some were engraved in Manchu).

There was a Sea God Temple, which was built when Taiwanese defended the Japanese invasion. 

 

We had a pretty good view of the garden and the entrance of Chih-Kan Lou from the second floor of the temple:

Then we toured the God of Education Temple.  There were some really ancient literature on display.

Next was lunch, which included traditional food of Tainan.  We had some Chinese meatballs (the dish was actually white in appearance because of the starch around the meat), shrimp wrap, coffin cakes, and fish-flavored congee (really watery though compared to the regular congee).  Jay and I were a bit hungry still after the group lunch, so we grabbed a few more fried shrimp dumplings and oyster pancake afterwards.  That turned out to be a mistake, because the place was so filled with mosquitoes that I think we got at least 7 bites each in 30 minutes.  These mosquito bites kept me up at night due to the itchiness later on.

Jay and I walked around the streets for a bit after lunch and each bought a small fan.  The fan was all different colors and designs, but we picked the fans that matched our zodiac signs.  The weather was certainly getting hotter and when there was no breeze, the humidity and heat were a little hard to bear. 

The bus took us to Koxinga’s Shine and we were allowed 20 minutes to look around.  Koxinga was a military leader who defeated the Dutch to claim Taiwan in 1662.  Jay and I used our new fans a lot while we walked around the shrine.

We visited the Chi Mei Museum before we headed to KaoHsiung.  We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the museum, so I could only manage a couple of pictures outside.  The museum was comprised of a lot of statues, art pieces, instruments, ancient weapons, and miscellaneous items from all over the world that the founder of Chi Mei collected.  We weren’t really into art, so we were pretty bored, so we took a light nap on a seat inside the museum.

I got a picture of Walter, our tour guide, pulling up his pants!

Hello all,

Thanks for reading my blog all summer long!  However, orientation started for my MBA program last Sunday.  Although it only had been two days, the orientation so far had been extremely tiring and time-consuming.   I will try to blog as much as I can, but probably will not have time to blog more than once or twice a week.  Thanks for your patience and I hope to update soon.   <3 Betty

Our next destination was the Wenwu Temple, where people worshipped Confucius and also Guangong (Guanyu), a military general who served warlord LiuBei during the Three Kingdoms era.  Since Jay and I played a lot of Dynasty Warriors, Guan Yu had always been one of my favorite characters.  So every time we spotted a Guan Yu statue, I must take a picture with it!!!!

There was a cauldron for me to “summon the heavens” while Jay poked a statue in the nose!

The temple was quite lavishly decorated with golden statues:

There were a lot of golden balls with a golden plate attached to it.  The golden plates had inscriptions on it, filled with wishes that people hope to come true.

Guan Yu was also known as the “red-faced general,” where the red face symbolized his loyalty and virtue.  There were also a lot of other statues, but we weren’t sure who they were.

Even the ceiling, the walls, and the stairs were enhanced with carvings or paintings.

 

We waited outside the temple for the rest of the group to finish.  It was quite peaceful.

We headed to the hotel (Del Lago) after that, and we found the coolest shower ever!  The shower had 5 different outlets, where four streams of water would shoot down your body.  One of the lower streams would pretty much wash your butt area if you faced away from the showerhead.  One stream would shoot straight at your head.  Haha it was overall pretty fun playing with the different modes of the shower.

 

The room was nice and clean and looked quite comfortable.  It came with fruits too!

Jay and I discovered that we could go biking – for free!  The hotel room had complementary bikes and we were able to bike as long as we wanted as long as the sun was still up.  Awesome!  However, since the tour group were set to eat dinner at this time, we decided to eat by ourselves instead with the group.

We stopped to decide where we should go, then we realized… a dog was following us!  We saw the same dog down the road before when it ran across the street and almost got ran over by a truck.  We had no clue when it started following us.  We tried to feed it some peanuts but it didn’t really like it.  When we started biking again, we thought it would just wander off by itself, but nope… it followed us again!  Yay!  I named it WongWong and called its name as we biked. 

We rode our bikes through this tiny sand park and came across two black dogs.  These dogs were very aggressive and chased after WongWong.  They growled and barked at it and threatened to bite it.  WongWong got scared and kept hiding between our legs.  Jay blocked the black dogs with his bike so WongWong could follow me out of the park and out of harm’s way.

  

After we rode a good distance away from the other dogs, we stopped to enjoy the view of the lake.  WongWong was also tired from running all this way, so after sniffing around the ground for a bit, it also laid down to rest.  I wish we could've petted it, but since it was a stray we were afraid it would have fleas.  WongWong was so cute!

The sun was going down, so we biked back towards the hotel.  We passed this small temple on the way and stopped to look around.

We returned our bikes and WongWong was still with us.  We didn’t want to part with it, but at the same time we couldn’t go into a restaurant with it.  So Jay went into a 7-11, bought a hotdog, and left it on the ground.  WongWong went for it right away and while it was distracted with the food, we ran away.  I was tearing a little because I didn’t want to leave it, but I know we couldn’t have kept it.  :(  It was such a good dog!!!!  I think later we saw it following someone else, so at least we know he was good at begging and probably wouldn’t go hungry.

We picked a restaurant close to the hotel to eat.  We got simple dishes like cabbage, steamed fish, and scallion fried eggs, but they were pretty delicious.  However, the meal was kind of expensive, so we decided for the rest of the trip, we should eat with the rest of the tour group.

We strolled around the street to digest.  There weren’t many stores still open at this time except some restaurants, so after 10 minutes or so, we returned to our room to play with the shower again and catch some sleep.

We woke up at the break of dawn and took a taxi to a hotel to meet up with the tour guide.  We were pleasantly surprised when we boarded the bus… Unlike the ones we rode on in China, this bus was a double decker.  Moreover, the tour group was much smaller – where as the China tours were comprised of approximately 30 people, this Taiwan tour was only 18 people including the tour guide.  Bigger bus, less people – Good stuff!

Blogging each day of the tour would be impossible without splitting one day up into several parts.  Instead of just a couple of locations per day, this tour was like… wine tasting.  We went through a lot of attractions, but all for a brief period of time.  We only looked at the more interesting portions of each area instead of exploring every single part.  The purpose was not to get drunk on all the scenery and historical sites of Taiwan, but to get a little taste of each one.

Our first destination was the Sun Moon Lake, a popular honeymoon spot for Taiwanese people.  Since the Sun Moon Lake is located in central Taiwan, it took us a whole morning on the bus to get there.  So the first thing we did when we arrived was to eat lunch.  For these group tours, it was always a little awkward to share the first meal together with strangers.  Fortunately, we joined a group that was targeted towards foreigners, so everybody in the tour spoke English.  One family was from France, some were from Hawaii, some Canada, and some America.  With people from various countries around the world, the conversation was also interesting.

The restaurant was right next to our hotel that night.  The food was just okay, and we had a couple of flies around, but the view from the window was pretty good.  We did like this one dish with little fried fishes and eaten with salt and pepper.

 

After lunch, we paid tickets to ride the ferry.  Unlike the China tours (Haha I keep comparing the tours), when the agenda said “optional” tickets, it meant optional.  The tour guide did give us an option to either walk around the streets and explore ourselves, or purchase the ferry ticket.  However, everybody was enthusiastic and excited as we just began the tour, so we all bought the tickets and got on the ferry.  It was definitely worth it!

The ferry had an outside balcony where we could get some sun and feel the wind in our hair.  It was very relaxing sitting outside and enjoying the calmness and beauty of the lake.  Sometimes when the ferry turned a certain direction, it was difficult taking pictures because we would be staring right into the sun.  I couldn’t do it without my eyes tearing!

 

We stopped in middle of a lake on this floating platform for some pictures.  There were some signs and statues around he platform dedicated to the aboriginals who inhabited the area. 

There was a beautiful statue of a white deer, which was believed to have lead the natives from the forest to the discovery of the Sun Moon Lake.  We wanted to jump in the water to reach the deer statue and explore the little island! 

We got on the ferry and rode to the next destination – Syuanzang Temple (the spelling is not typical pinyin).  The temple housed Xuanzang, more known as TangSeng, who was a character in a legend with Sun WuKong (Monkey King).  In the story, he made a long and dangerous journey from China to India to bring back the Buddhist sutras.  Sun WuKong was one of his disciples who protected him against monsters along the way.

When we first stepped on the dock, we almost stepped on this little snake!

For tourists, the temple served as a beautiful scenic spot with a good view of the lake.

 

We went on our knees for the Tang monk!

There were Chinese zodiac animal stools all over the place.  We found our animals and posed with them!

   

Off again we go on the ferry!  After a short ride, the ferry dropped us off at a small town so we could board the bus.  We had to walk up a slight hill to reach the bus at a parking lot.  We passed some aboriginal singers and vendors selling lots of alcohol.

 

Dog sighting!  It was just sitting in middle of the street looking at us walk by.

While we waited for the rest of the group, we noticed the bus driver had some cute figurines on his dashboard.

The bus dropped us off at the bottom of the hill, which was the beginning of the trail leading to the Cih-en Pagoda.  The pagoda was built in commemoration of Madam Wang, the mother of Chiang Kai-Shek.  The walk up to the pagoda was pretty long, so some of our group members did not make it all the way up.  Jay and I walked really fast up the trail to get to the pagoda and take pictures before others get there. 

The first thing we noticed when we reached the pagoda… so many stray dogs!  They were just lying out on the white-pebbles, taking a nap.

The dogs didn’t care too much when we started taking pictures of the pagoda.

Next to the pagoda, there was a huge drum that I could barely reach on tip-toes.  We played with the drums for a bit… It actually made a pretty loud sound when we banged on it!

We climbed up the pagoda, where we could get a 360 view of the lake and its surroundings.  It was a very tall building, so the climb was quite exhausting!

   

As we climbed up more, we found a huge bell.  When we rang it, the sound reverberated down the pagoda.  We didn’t really ring the bell too much, but later on when the tour group caught up with us, the bell was ringing the whole time.  It was so loud that we had to cover our ears as we descended the stairs.

From the top of the pagoda, the tourists could make out the sun and moon shapes of the lake.  The “sun” was much harder to make out, but the crescent moon was more obvious.

We noticed the dogs had moved from the sand to lying on the bottom of the pagoda.  Maybe they were too hot?

While I stayed on the pagoda, Jay ran down to take a picture of me:

 

Then Jay handed the camera to our tour guide, and ran back up the pagoda to take a picture.  However, we found out later as we looked at the pictures, one of the guys from the tour group (father of the French family) was next to us.  He ruined our picture!  Grrr!  (You have to really zoom in to see us since the pagoda was so tall)

There was a building next to the pagoda, but we weren’t sure exactly what the building was for.  Perhaps bathroom? 

Before we left for the bus, we found the dogs back on the white-pebbles, curious about what we were up to.

After the zoo, we started to head towards Taipei 101.  We weren’t sure exactly how to get there, and the closest subway station near (ShiZhengFu) was still a bit of a walk away.  However, we were used to walking around all day from China, so we decided to explore the area around Taipei 101 as well.

There were a lot of high-class malls and department stores around Taipei 101.  We didn’t bother going in to shop because I doubt we could’ve afforded anything.  The malls were connected by a skyway (an elevated path), which was pretty cool because then you wouldn’t have to walk across the highway and worry about cars.  Plus, the skyway gave us a good view of the city.

We were extremely hungry since there wasn’t much to eat at the zoo for lunch, so we wandered into the movie theater for snacks.  At least movie theaters should have popcorn right?  To our surprise, this movie theater had a lot of restaurants… almost like the food court at Mitsuwa!  I wish all movie theaters are like this in the U.S. 

First, we decided to eat some Japanese food.  There were so many people that we had to wait a little for a seat.  We ordered Gyoza (Japanese potstickers), hardboiled eggs, veggies, and this dish with eggs, rice, meat, and scallions in a sizzling pot.  All the food was delicious!

   

We were still slightly hungry afterwards, so we tried another restaurant.  The good thing about these restaurants was that they either have replicas of the dishes or pictures, so we could order even though we couldn’t read the Chinese.  However, we didn’t know that these dishes would include Sichuan pepper (HuaJiao), which is a type of spice that is widely used in spicy food for the numbing effect.  We (or at least I) love spicy food, but we really did not like taste of the Sichuan pepper.  Other than that, the food wasn’t too bad, but we didn’t finish everything because of the overwhelming pepper.  You could see in the noodle soup picture how much of the pepper was used.

Not fully satisfied, we were thinking about getting some dessert to complete our meal.  My aunt came to the rescue!  It happened that my aunt just finished watching a movie at the theater, so after saying goodbye to her friend, she walked over to the food court to meet us.  The last time she saw me, I was just a little girl… so we didn’t recognize each other at first.  We only noticed each other because she coincidentally called me on her cell phone right next to our table, so when my cell phone rang, I was like… Hey!  Are you my aunt?  Lol.  

Since we didn’t see each other for such a long time, she really wanted to treat me to something.  I had my eyes on this ice cream wrap place ever since we walked in the food court, so she got one for me.  I felt bad because she had to wait like 5 minutes for the wrap.  All three of us shared the wrap and the ice cream afterwards, I loved it!

 

After stuffing our stomachs, we headed towards Taipei 101.  We passed a Statue of Liberty pouring beer… weird!

We finally reached Taipei 101!  The tallest skyscraper in the world is in the little island of Taiwan, with 101 floors above ground.  Taipei 101 contains lots of high-end department stores, a heaven for shopaholics.  The design of the skyscraper was impressive inside as well as outside.  I felt like I needed to dress up just to shop.

My aunt actually had never been to Taipei 101, so we insisted on dragging her to the top with us.  Haha.  The ticket was a bit pricing at 400 NT (a little less than $12 USD), but hey, cheaper than the almost $20 ticket for the Empire State Building!  And trust me, there was a lot more to see.

We had to wait in a short line to get in the elevator that would take us to the top.  There were introductions to the damper babies on the wall.  The damper babies are basically the mascots to the wind damper that keeps the building in balance against the wind and earthquakes. 

The elevator is the world’s fastest elevator (they had a certificate to prove it!).  The elevator took us from the 5th floor to the 89th floor (observatory) in a mere 37 seconds.  Nuts!  The elevator also had cool lights on the ceiling, imitating the stars and the constellations in the sky.

The observatory deck was pretty big.  We would see Taipei from all directions.  There were also pictures and damper baby models to look at throughout the observatory.

   

Then we went to the center of the observatory to look at the wind damper.  That ball was HUGE!

Then we headed one floor up, which took us outside to the balcony.  It was extremely windy and cold, so we didn’t stay very long.  Awesome view though!

We walked down a couple more floors and found the wind damper again!  This time we were standing pretty much at eye level with the center of the ball.  First we had to pass through a dark tunnel that had lights illuminating the way.  The lights were designed so that we looked like we were walking towards infinity and beyond!

Before entering the elevator again, we walked through a gift shop featuring gemstone corals.  The statues were beautiful, but also would cost us an arm and a leg to purchase one.

We walked to the subway station with my aunt, and said our goodbyes.  It was very fun hanging out with her, and hopefully we could return to Taiwan soon and do it again. 

It was almost midnight by the time we returned to the apartment.  We hurried up and packed for our round-island tour, which would give us a brief view of different parts of Taiwan in the next 5 days!