Yilan

Over the Chinese New Year break, I had a chance to go to Yilan, a county (also a city in the county) on the east coast of Taiwan. Ray and Anna invited me to go with them, and they even let me stay in their hotel room, so that was pretty cool. Yilan consists of mountains on the west and flatlands along the coast, so we had to drive through some highway tunnels on the way there, including a 12.1km long one. One cool thing I saw on the way there was some cemeteries. No headstones, but a lot of little shrines and altars, since the Chinese are into ancestor worship, I wish I had gotten a picture. The first thing we did when we got there was get some food. We went to a restaurant where there was a fine selection of organs (hearts, livers, necks, etc.), among other things, but we kept it pretty mild, just fish ball soup and some rice with, beef, chicken wings, seaweed, and dried tofu.

After eating, we went to check out a couple trails. The first one was a bunch of paved walkways and steps with chinese-style gazebos with benches scattered around. We got to check out a few small waterfalls on this trail, which you can see in my picasa pics. The second one we walked on had a paved road zigzagging up the side of the mountain, along with a wooded path on the side of the moutain branching off. This trail afforded some wonderful views of Yilan. It was really different to see that much flat land in one place. Additionally, much of the land was being used as rice paddies. In a lot of the places we drove through these couple days, it was interesting to see how interspersed the rice paddies were with residential and commercial areas.

After grabbing a little bite to eat, we went to one of the many hot spring businesses. The one we went to that night didn't have natural hot springs, but it was still really cool. Imagine a public pool, but instead of one big one, there were a bunch of small nicely decorated ones. There were a blue one and a purple one, which had certain minerals in them. There were hot springs with water jets. They had a really hot one and a really cold one (I think 7 C) which you could only stay in for any amount of time if you barely moved at all. Also, that had a lukewarm one in which little fish bite off your dead skin. It was a really weird feeling, and I couldn't stay in there for more than half a minute. Also, they had a warm pool with a waterslide going into it. We went down plenty of times; I felt like I was a kid again.

After the hot springs, we went to check into the hotel in nearby Luodong. The hotel was a little hard to find at night. It just looked like a nice three story house, in the middle of a bunch of rice paddies. After checking in, we went to the Luodong night market to grab some food. Part of the night market surrounded a park, and, since it was still the week of Chinese New Year, people were setting off fireworks every five minutes. At the first place we stopped, I ordered some shrimp and egg fried rice, and had some of the oyster omelet Ray and Anna had ordered. At the next place, we got some sweet shredded chicken on rice. At the last place we stopped, Anna shared some of what she ordered. The dish had milk, chunks of tofu, white sesame seeds, and chunks of tapioca with black sesame seeds in the middle. It was sweet, and the Taiwanese eat it as desert, but it seemed more like something I would eat for breakfast. Walking around, it was neat to see all the red lanterns they had hanging around the park for the new year. After that, we headed back to the hotel to crash.

The next morning, I left the hotel a little early to walk back to the city so I could get some breakfast and walk around. The night market area was mostly up and running at 11 in the morning. But I stopped at a sandwich/burger place and got what I usually eat near the hostel - a hamburger (which is like half sausage patty, half burger) and egg sandwich, and a slice of turnip cake. After walking around, I sat down for a while to wait for Ray and Anna to come by and pick me up. While I was waiting, a couple of Taiwanese girls said 'Hi' and I responded in Chinese. We talked for a little bit, and they were surprised that I could speak Chinese so well. They asked if it was alright to get a picture with me, and I obliged. After Ray and Anna picked me up, we were off to Sanxing.

Near Sanxing, they have a natural hotspring that people go to and use nets to cook things, such as eggs and corn. We brought some eggs and a net, and away we cooked. I couldn't believe how crowded it was; it was a bit hard to get a spot. There were a bunch of tents around the hot spring selling meals, drinks, chicken eggs, corn, and flavored (salty) goose eggs. A few people set up camp around the area. In addition to the area with the really hot water, a little down stream there were a few pools with people wading and sitting around, soaking there feet and legs. It was a good time. Before we returned to Taipei, we stopped at a Sanxing restaurant for some kind of breaded fried meat on top of what looked (and tasted) like funnel cake made from vegetables. All in all, it was a fun couple days.