we went up finally and there was a huge breakfast feast all laid out. it was traditional chinese food, such as rice gruel with pumpkin. then there were other side dishes like fried eggs with some sort of vegetable, tofu, radish pickles, and eggplant? there were mushrooms, too. there was also this really delicious drink made from some sort of pine needles, but SO good. i bought a package for me to drink at home. yum!
Then our host prepared red tea for us in the tea room. The tea leaves were one hundred years old, and Steph says she could tell it was really good. We also ate some kind of nut that's supposed to be good for your skin...you bite into it and the shell comes off and it's kind of leathery inside, like dried fruit, but they tasted pretty good. They also served us a drink that's supposed to do something to the pH in your body...aand it tasted like vinegar.
We then toured the B and B and got some great footage of the cottages and the mountain views. It was very peaceful and picturesque. Finally, we were off.
what a great day! the next stop was the Formosa Aboriginal Village. upon arrival, we were whooshed up via cable car, which i thought was pretty cool. there was this really cute kid that was sitting next to kari, who turned to his mutti and said "i think there is a foreigner sitting next to me!" i asked if he wanted to take a picture with us, but he was shy and ran off the car the minute we touched down.
It was really interesting seeing the totem poles and huts that had been preserved, and we then watched a performance by some aboriginal peoples in native dress. They presented the different tribes, and then performed ritual dances such as a harvest dance and setting off a boat on its maiden voyage. we got to take a picture with a really cute aboriginal guy afterwards, too. :-D
(i'm a little miffed he stood next to kari but i'm over it. maybe.)
there were some other singing performances and whatnot as well. kari and i were dragged into dancing with them. it was fun, yet sort of awkward. (Kari: I had no idea what I was doing!! The woman said to watch the people in front of us but we were still pretty clueless.)
We also went on a roller coaster, much to Steph's dismay. I had to promise her it was the only one she had to go on. It was fun. It went through the dark but didn't loop upside down or anything, so it was actually pretty tame. Although Steph didn't think so. (i screamed out of FEAR. pure, unadulterated FEAR. kari is so mean.)
We stopped for dinner at a small eatery near Puli. It was REALLY good..the guy who owns it used to be a really famous chef at a hotel. After eating, he said we could try making dumplings. We put the filling in a small round bit of dough and then we were supposed to pinch the edges shut. We were not too successful. There's a picture of Steph with her failed dumpling that's really funny.
umm then we drove back to taipei, about four-ish hours so i could visit my cousin. he's in the army right now but has weekends off, so i got to see him. he looks cooler now than the last time, but is still super skinny. i think he is skinnier than even mr. dan knox. (Yeah, he is - Kari)
so we arranged some plans with my cousin for this upcoming saturday :)
By the time we left Taipei to go back to Banciao, it was about 12:30...the MRT closes at midnight so Steph's uncle had to drive us back. And we got scolded a bit by her grandmother by getting back so late....
We can't remember whether it was this night or the next, but we're pretty sure we experienced a mini-earthquake. The whole apartment shook for about 20 seconds...the windows were rattling really loudly, and it was a bit scary. It passed really quickly though. And we didn't even feel the earthquake that happened recently in another part of Taiwan. It didn't affect us at all.
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