I finished this one AGES ago, but the parents were keeping most people away until little Leon had his vaccinations.
Georgia31 and Marcus have been best mates since kindergarten. When I heard that Marcus and his fiancée were expecting a baby, I knew that they were definitely quilt-worthy.
This was all from the stash.
Here he is, wearing the beanie I knitted.
What a cutie!
Dad joke for the day:
In horrifying news, it turns out that I taught Emily in 2008 and Andrew in 2010. How is it possible???
They met in secondary school, and all these years later, they’re expecting a baby. They’re both lovely people, and are definitely quilt-worthy.
I didn’t know the gender of their baby, so I went gender-neutral, using fabrics that I’ve already used for my niece’s baby quilt (yet to be quilted).
46″ X 46″
We met at Evan29’s show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. 🙂
Dad Joke of the day:
Baby quilt top 1.
Baby quilt top 2.
Dad joke of the day:
Sandy and I made the flight home with around 3 minutes to spare. Having a 65-minute turnaround at Hong Kong airport is crazy, because they make you go through security again, with all the delays that that entails. Cathay Pacific had a woman waiting for all of us Melbournians and we sprinted our way across the airport after her. It was ridiculous, but thank god we made it.
Last night I lit a candle and settled down to catch up on the two series of Ru Paul’s Drag Race that I’m watching. I love the shadow of my little praying man I bought in Bali when I took the kids overseas for the first time, back in 2006.
Tom34 and Sophie turned up to see me just after lunchtime, and they brought a little bottle of soju as a welcome home gift. I’ve brought home a cold, so I was sipping this, hoping the rocket fuel that is soju would help kill the germs.
Scout asleep by candle and tv light. The girls were very happy to see their mummy again. 🙂
I brought home this squeaky toy for them. Within 5 minutes, Scout rendered the squeaker inoperable.
Miss Hazel has officially hit puberty. She’s in season. I had booked her in to get spayed on Thursday, but I’ll have to delay it a month or so now.
Look at the haul of jalapenos I picked this morning! I use half a chilli in bolognese and casseroles, so with these 12, I have enough for 24 meals. There are still at least as many green ones growing, so I don’t think I’ll need to grow any chillies next year.
I just halve them and pop them in the freezer. I also put cloves of garlic and sliced-up ginger in there, too. It saves me so much time and effort.
I thought I’d share what I sent to my kids before I left for Taiwan. Things weren’t looking great, with the oil being blocked in the straits of Hormuz and with diesel fuel being the only way goods are conveyed around Australia… the price of everything is going to explode. I filled my car and stocked up on things before I left, and I wanted to give my kids and their partners a heads-up.
Ok. I’ll preface this by saying that I’m the one with the Zombie Apocalypse cupboard in the laundry, which meant that when Covid hit, I was totally prepared. We had ample supplies of everything – including toilet paper LOL – and it meant that we were fine, as opposed to many others who were not. I was looking at what was going on, and I prepared accordingly.
That being said: Petrol is going to get real scarce real fast. Those of you who are using cars to get to work, TOP UP EVERY 2 OR 3 DAYS. Yes, it’ll be a pain. But a full tank of petrol means that you’ll be able to get to work longer than other people will. That’s absolutely what I would be doing if I were still working at McKinnon. If you have access to public transport, THEN USE IT. I don’t care if it adds more time to your commute… I’m thinking that petrol in your car is going to be worth conserving.
Fresh food will go up in price if farmers can’t access petrol to drive their machinery. Keep an eye on what you have and don’t let reserves run out before you go to buy more. Keep a stock of frozen peas etc in the freezer. Plant some silver beet (as an example) for fresh greens. You all have access to gardens. It’s a win/win situation. You’ll have greens, and if things get dicey in the supermarkets, you’ll have nutrition. If things are fine in the supermarkets, you still have fresh, organic food for free. Plus it’s so satisfying to pick something you’ve grown for dinner. But yes. Keep an eye on your food reserves.
Canned tomatoes and other things you eat that are in cans are worth stockpiling. Fresh food like onions, whole pumpkins, and, to a lesser extent, potatoes last well, but of course, only if that’s what you eat. (I’m thinking of you, Tom34, and your dislike of onions) xx
Given what we saw in covid, stock up on paper products such as toilet paper, tampons, pads, paper towels and tissues. No harm in doing this… they won’t go off and it’s best to have a supply at home when people are going mental in the supermarkets. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Haha.
I have just topped up my car. I said to the guy in the petrol station that I saw that the Straits of Hormuz are pretty much blocked, and that I didn’t want to come back from Taiwan 2 weeks from now and find that I couldn’t top up my half-filled petrol tank. He grimaced and said, “ That’s probably a wise move.”
If anyone tells you to move your superannuation accounts to cash… ignore them. This situation is not something that you need to change your investments for – you have decades for them to recover.
I’m trying to think if there is anything else. I’m leaving in a couple of days for Taiwan. Also, this is a little different because I’m not the adult quietly preparing everything in the background and looking after you all, while you remain in blissful ignorance of all I’ve done. You’re not kids anymore. Please don’t think I’m being a crazy alarmist. It’s smart to put things in place to protect you and yours. A lack of oil will have a huge cascading effect on pretty much everything that goes on. I have spent your whole lives (well… my kids anyway) protecting you and looking out for us when things go wrong. I’d be remiss if I didn’t give you all a heads-up as to what I think you should be doing now to look after yourselves.
This evening I stocked up on petrol. Tomorrow I’ll be buying paper products and topping up my tinned goods, as well as fresh food for my dog sitter. I’ll also be buying dog food. Everything I’ve suggested you do is nothing earth-shattering, but if the shit hits the fan, you’ll be glad you put these things in place. If we remain shit-free – happy days. There’s no downside to having a full tank of petrol and enough tampons to last the year.
Love you all. Please consider what I’ve written and make your own decisions. Just remember that I’ve navigated a lot of rough seas in my time, and I prefer to be prepared. I love you all, and I’ll see you when I get back, Mum xxxxxx
This morning, while Scout was sunning herself at the front door, I read this blog post from Annabelle’s blog. She lives on a farm in South Australia, so she is on the ground and can see the impact straight away that a lack of petrol has on our farming communities. Her blog, and the comments from around the world make for sobering reading. When I read her definition of The Gatekeeper, I thought of what I sent to the kids before I went on my holiday, and I had to smile. Definitely a Gatekeeper here!
Her blog is well worth a look. She and I are of a similar mindset in wanting to be prepared and utilising everything that comes our way. She has a lot of very useful tips and ideas.
Before I left, I picked a heap of basil and left it to dry on racks in the laundry while I was gone. This afternoon I’ll pop it into the Thermomix and chop it up. While I was gone, the basil I thought I’d entirely picked has resurrected itself and gone gangbusters, so I’ll pick some more to dry. I love the smell of basil.
I have many seeds for veggie crops, so over the next few days, I’ll clear my veggie beds and see which seeds are viable. I’ve been slack the last couple of years and just bought seedlings for most crops. It’s silly when I have the seeds right here, and can start off seedlings for some food crops. After all, I have dog-sitters to keep any seedlings going if I’m lucky enough to get to go on the holidays I’ve booked. Thanks, Trump.
I said that I’d show you what I bought for Tom34 and Soph. They love doing jigsaws, so I bought them an ALL BLACK one. It’ll drive them nuts! And yes, I also bought a spatula. I bought one as a souvenir in North Korea, back in 2018, and it’s looking as if it will break soon. I thought it was a good idea to bring its replacement back from another holiday. Why not?
I’ve just realised it’s lunchtime. My internal clock is still a bit muddled from living three hours in the past in Taiwan, so I’d better press ‘publish’ and go and eat. Enjoy your Sunday, and have a little think about what you can stockpile.
It can’t hurt, and it might help.
Dad Joke of the day:
Today Blogless Sandy and I parted company. She was keen to climb more steps on a hike near Taipei 101, the building we visited on the first day here. I wasn’t enthusiastic, but I was going to go with her until Mel said that she was going to get new glasses.
We’d had the option to do that in China but we didn’t do it. I’ve always looked on that as a missed opportunity, so I ditched Blogless Sandy, and a small group of us set out in search of a clearer world with sharper edges.
Getting new glasses fits nicely into my habit of buying useful souvenirs.
Most shops in Taipei don’t open until 11am, so we dawdled our way to the department store. We killed some time at Daiso, where I bought a squeaky toy for the dogs; a hair clip for Georgia31 for looking after them; a nonstick spatula to replace the one I bought in Pyongyang in 2018; and the perfect gift for Tom34 and Sophie. I can’t tell you what it is, as he may be reading this. I’ll show you a photo once I give it to them. It made me laugh.
Mel, being a millennial, had googled where to go to get glasses made on the same day, so we followed like ducklings.
I decided that I wanted everyday glasses, as well as reading glasses, so here I am walking around the shop, seeing if the lenses were ok.
Being a frugal person who still likes her reading glasses frames, I simply replaced the lenses on those.
Oh! See the lanyard my phone is hanging from? We were given these when we rode the Breezy Blue train. I’ve been thinking about getting one, so I was rapt.
Here are my new “everyday “ frames.
Everyone was sharing what they were doing on WhatsApp, so we shared too.
We walked back to the hotel and I did what I did in Copenhagen… I gave myself half a day to rest. I read the most amazing book… The Push, by Ashley Audrain, I napped and decided to write this post. In 2 days I’ll be back home, so I wanted to recharge my introvert battery before it all starts again.
A few things about Taiwan I’ve forgotten to mention:
This photo was posted in WhatsApp, with the caption, “Look Frogdancer! An easy 600 steps to the top!”
I was so glad to be in the glasses shop when that came through. What a horrible set of stairs, I thought as I was happily trying on different frames.
Later, when Blogless Sandy came back, I heard the full horror.
There was no let up to the steps. No flat portions to give people a breather. It was 600 steps straight up. Even she said that if she’d known that, she probably wouldn’t have done it.
But she did, and said the thing that every fool who climbs up a crazy hill says.
“The view was worth it.”
We decided to give the night market a miss on our last night, and instead we went down a tiny lane close to our hotel, to a place Mel told me about.
She’d had beef noodles there the night before and said they were good.
Beef noodles is apparently the most Taiwanese thing you can eat. So far, I’d never had it, so being our last night, it was now or never.
This was beef shank with flat noodles and it was delicious. This bowl cost $120 NTD, or $5 AUD.
Afterwards, my little addict and I went back to the bubble tea place, where, after counting her coins, she was ecstatic to realise that she had enough coins left for another bubble tea tomorrow morning before we leave for the airport.
Dad joke of the Day:
Here’s a glimpse of Sun Moon Lake through the trees, as I was pretending to take a picture while I was fighting for breath on a crazy uphill climb. Why, oh why do I climb things when I’m on holidays?
We were driving back to Taipei, and this was a beautiful place to stop for a few hours to break the journey.
Sun Moon Lake is the largest lake in Taiwan. It’s in the mountains in central Taiwan, and is a huge holiday destination here.
It’s not connected to any other body of water and is 748 metres above sea level.
The Japanese made Sun Moon Lake into a dam and increased the depth of the lake by 3 times.
The walk to the pagoda goes up 570 metres. I was NOT a happy camper on the way up. It was a long walk.
Yes, I was grumpy. Look at the size of this thing! Not only had I walked up 500 metres, I still had to go higher.
”Frogdancer!” called Blogless Sandy from the top. “Come up!”
”No,” I said, but we all knew that I’d got my breath back. I was always going to climb up.
But ok… the view wasn’t bad.
I was still tired, though. But look at the mountains behind me.
Those 3 tiny figures on the ground are Cindy and a couple from the group. That’s how tall this pagoda is.
The lake went around three sides of the pagoda, and the mountains encircled us entirely.
The entire interior of this island is covered with mountains.
And what mountains! They’re how mountains should be; all straight up and down with fabulous shapes at the top.
We went down to the town for lunch, then we wandered around for an hour or so.
We sat for a while on the harbour, chatting with some of the group.
Some kid probably went to drama school for 4 years to end up doing this.
Boat time! We had a little cruise on the lake before we went back on the bus.
I tell you, my feet were looking forward to relaxing.
But not so fast…
We stopped off to walk UP to another temple. Bloody hell!
What was strange about this temple was that the monk who founded it had his remains (mainly just his head) split in two. The Japanese took him back to Japan when WWII broke out, and then after the war they gave half of him back to be buried here in this temple.
Half of him.
This was back at the dock when we came back down. It’s probably the monk, in happier times.
Mel took this shot, looking behind us on the bus as we made our way through the traffic back to Taipei. This is the last day of the guided tour. We have a free day tomorrow before we fly home on Friday.
This man takes his pet pig to the night market every night. I tell you what, he’s a big boy!
Dad joke of the day:
These are betel nut trees. People here like to chew them, also they are used for Chinese medicine to aid in digestion. They were planted all over the place in the mountains, as we saw on our way to the National Park.
The National Park is 2,300 metres above sea level. Michu Picchu is 2,400 metres, so this will be a little training. If I feel breathless while walking around here, I’ll know to take altitude medication with me to Sth America. (I felt fine, and I was racing around the place as nimble as a mountain goat. )
My ears popped three times while we were driving. These mountains are high.
We left the hotel at 8 am and we didn’t reach the park until after 10. It was a long drive, much of it seemingly straight up. The views were spectacular.
The mountains are so steep, so every piece of flat land was taken up with tea plantations and buildings. It reminded me of North Korea in that very little arable land was wasted.
Remember when I was in Japan this time last year and we were looking at the early cherry blossom? It’s here too.
The forest here is red cypress. Red cypress trees weren’t discovered until the Japanese came. They cut down heaps of them, to the point where there are hardly any mature trees left. The intense wood logging only stopped when Chiang Kai-Shek came to Taiwan.
The result is that there is a lot of erosion after earthquakes disturb the ground , because the smaller cypress trees can’t hold the earth together properly yet. Every now and then, some old trunks are left, to give an indication of just how big the original trees were.
Thankfully, the plan for today was to take a shuttle bus to the top of the mountain, then walk back down. The path was well-defined and easy to navigate. The only uphill climbing would be if people elected to walk fast and then go and see the Three Generations Tree at the other end.
This tree must have been monstrous.
Off we went. We couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather.
A little way down the track, we rounded a curve and saw this. It was all fun and games until:
Well, damn.
Seeing as I wasn’t allowed to frolic, I set off again. See how this tree is holding on to the ancient trunk? To quote Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, “Life will find a way.”
The path kept heading downhill. It was actually fairly steep.
I looked behind me and I was pretty glad that Cindy didn’t make us walk both ways.
Cherry blossoms weren’t the only flowers. Magnolias!
All too soon, I was at the meeting place. We still had heaps of time left. I’d left Blogless Sandy behind at the No Frolic Lake, so I had lunch with Mel and Earnest, then, after getting directions from Cindy, I set off to find the 3 Generations Tree.
I was standing on a bridge looking at this. Imagine how pretty it would be when the river was full.
There were only a handful of people on the path with me. As I walked, I could hear bells from the temple I’d just left. This is such a beautiful place.
Across a stream and up a small hill … and there it was.
”Life will find a way.”
I had a little time up my sleeve, so I walked a little further and discovered the pagoda of the tree spirits.
I’m sure that having a concrete obelisk would be a comfort to all of the tree spirits whose forest was decimated by the Japanese. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound!
I poked my head into the temple when I came back and I saw this thing. Yes, I don’t know what it is, either.
Pretty, isn’t it? I sat here, watching the bees gather pollen and dislodging petals which fell to the ground.
It wouldn’t be a trip to Asia without a tour of a tea plantation. I didn’t buy anything. I still have tea from Vietnam, Japan, China and Borneo to get through!
We didn’t get a tour showing us how tea is produced, like in every other tea plantation I’ve been to. Instead, they had a singing and dancing show instead. It was all in Taiwanese, so when they were talking, I was on my phone messaging the kids.
Suddenly, a girl in costume was standing in front of me, holding out her hands. She wanted me to dance.
um…. Ok I guess…
I was lucky to be between two people who knew what they were doing!
We tried some tea.
I guess some people in the group don’t like tea much, judging by the expression. 😂
There was a sculpture in the garden…
In the bus on the way home, Cindy told us why the sculpture of a penis was there.
Two tribes in Taiwan have the penis statues. Their legends are different.
”I don’t know why they think a goddess would be embarrassed by seeing a penis,” said Cindy, after telling us this.
And then it was back to the hotel. Blogless Sandy and I went out for sushi for dinner, and that was the end of a fantastic day.
Dad joke of the day:
This morning, we were whisked away to the Lotus Lake, which is a lake in the middle of Kaohsiung that doesn’t have lotuses in it anymore. However, what it does have is pagodas. This one turned out to be my favourite.
These pagodas were built in 1976 by the temple across the road. One had a dragon at the front and the other a tiger. You enter via the dragon’s mouth and exit by the tiger’s mouth.
I was surprised once we entered from the dragon’s mouth. The hallway was lined on both sides by ceramic art.
It was a shame. People had obviously worked hard on this, and here we all were, marching obliviously past. Look at the details in this thing. And there were hundreds of them.
Well, damn. Looks like I’m climbing more stairs.
A view of my soon-to-be favourite pagoda from halfway up the dragon pagoda.
This is the bridge to the pagodas from the road. Its shape is designed to confuse any evil spirits or bad luck that might wish to follow you.
One down, one to go!
Once I climbed both pagodas, it was time to cross the road and look at the temple.
OK.
It was a little bit ornate.
Even the roof was given the full treatment.
This is the god of good luck.
I thanked him for all he has given me, and asked him to keep up the good work.
I’d show you more photos, but after we all ate fresh pineapple from a little shop outside the temple, we walked down the street to another temple.
This one was dedicated to the god of war and the god of literature.
First the god of good luck and then the god of literature? This was my lucky day!
There he is! I thanked him for all of the stories.
You can see the smoke rising from the incense sticks, taking people’s wishes to heaven.
This temple was much larger, but the congregation have met the challenge of not letting any surface go undecorated.
Taiwan is super chill about different religions. They figure that if a religion has been around for awhile, then it means something and is deserving of respect.
So you can have a mosque beside a church beside a temple. It’s all good.
The day was beginning to heat up. Blogless Sandy and I headed out to the pagoda in the middle of the lake.
The further out over the water we got, the cooler the breeze became.
It was so lovely out there. The breeze was cool and so refreshing, and there was hardly anyone else sharing the space with us.
We stayed out there for around 15 minutes, just sitting there chilling.
On the way back I saw those turtles I’d been warned about.
We had lunch at a fast rail train station, because it has a big food court attached to it and this is a TripADeal tour, after all. I liked this sign.
On our way to Chiayi, where we’re staying for the next 2 nights, I snagged this bag of coriander Doritos. They were bright green, and surprisingly more-ish.
We visited Hinoki village, which is an arts and crafts precinct housed in buildings from when the Japanese ruled over Taiwan in the 50 years before they were defeated in 1945.
There were some lovely things being sold. My niece and her girlfriend are expecting a baby soon, and I may have bought a little something for them…
The Japanese garden in the middle of the buildings was beautiful.
We also saw what wasabi looks like.
Over dinner at the night market, we also found out what chicken testicle soup looks like. Cindy ordered it. She says that it tastes creamy…
Of course it does.
When I went to take this photo, Cindy laughed up at me. “You’ve come all this way just to look at testicles.”
”Wellcindy, “ I replied. “I’ve been single for a long time!!” 🤣🤣
After dinner, we had an hour or so to walk around the night market.
Why they allow a market to be opened on a street, but still let traffic barrel through it is a mystery to me.
But then again, what could possibly go wrong?
This was the best sight to end the day. People here adaore their pets, and seeing a dog in a pram isn’t unusual.
But five? 😂😂
Tomorrow, we commune with nature.
Dad joke of the day:
Today had all the hallmarks of being a fun day… and it was!
In the morning we drove to a bike shop in the middle of a maze of rice paddies. We had the option of golf caddies, e-bikes or normal bikes for a couple of hours of fun tootling around, finding landmarks on the map we were given.
This is what we chose:
For $20 AUD each, it was a bargain. And it even had a Yoshi on the top.
I assumed Blogless Sandy would want to drive, but she said that she was happy to sit in the back seat, so I was given all the instructions by the bike man.
As we set off, I decided to turn into the car park to practice. Just as well I did. I lost control of the bloody thing and we started careering everywhere. Cindy and the bike guy ran towards us, people were screaming and I lost my head and stuck my foot out to try and stop it that way.
It was only when I grabbed the brakes with both hands that the bloody thing stopped.
“No one drive near Frogdancer!” Sheridan yelled.
“Frogdancer, we’re swapping seats!” said Blogless Sandy.
I told her how to use the controls and we set off. Sedately. We had a great time over the drive, but it wasn’t nearly as exciting as if I’d been kept behind the wheel!!
Not 5 minutes later, Harry and his pushbike fell into a rice paddy. He said it took him 10 minutes to wash the mud off his clothes, it was so sticky.
I was glad it wasn’t just me causing mayhem.
It was a beautiful morning. We cycled or drove around the narrow roads, enjoying the view. The rice paddies reminded me of when you get a quilt all pinned up, with the pins radiating out in straight lines.
Here’s one of the landmarks. Look at the mountains behind us. These rice paddies were in a valley between two mountain ranges. In front of us were the Central mountains, while the mountains behind hid the Pacific Ocean.
This was taken from another landmark, which was a high platform giving a bird’s eye view of the fields.
On the way back to the bike shop, Blogless Sandy slowed down when she realised that we only had 10 minutes left.
“Oh no. I don’t want this to end; I’m enjoying driving around here!”
After lunch at the train station, we hopped onto the iconic Breezy Blue train.
This is a restored 1950’s train that used to service the east coast of Taiwan, back in the day.
It even has authentic 1950’s air conditioning.
The train weaves its way through orchards of custard apples, mangoes, pineapple fields and rice paddies, and there are stretches where it runs along the Pacific.
I zoomed in to see these fishermen.
We stopped at an indigenous community for a while. To be honest, I found it a bit primary-school-excursion, but some people seemed to get into it.
The best part was this farewell song.
We also saw this dog, which was hobbled with this stick. It looked mean, until it was explained to us that it stops him from running too fast and chasing cars.
As we set off again, we saw the inky black sand on the beach. I had a flashback to Iceland.
It was a fun experience to ride the train.
We all piled out of the train to take a sunset photo, then 5 minutes later we were off again.
Then a few minutes later, we saw this:
How beautiful is this sun?
We arrived at Kaohsiung in the evening.
We walked to the local shopping mall on the river for dinner.
What a view.
Tomorrow morning we explore the city.
Dad joke of the day:
The view from my window before breakfast reminded me of something Cindy said on our first day. I can’t remember her exact words, so I’ll give you the gist.
She said that we may look at the buildings here and think that some are very shabby and need to be knocked down or repaired. The Taiwanese feel the same way. When Chiang Kai-shek lost the civil war in China in 1949 and fled to Taiwan, he brought 2 million people with him. Buildings were put up fast to house them.
Nowadays, most apartment blocks are privately owned. If any improvements are to be made on the facade, EVERYONE has to agree. I need say no more.
On a national level, the government has ruled that when a building is torn down, the site must remain vacant for 2 years before any rebuilding is done. Any person living there has to find another place to live for 2+ years, and if they’re paying rent, the rent would be much higher in the new place because… well, everything is new. Plus, show me a landlord that will happily forego at least 3 years’ rent??
So the buildings remain dilapidated.
Two years ago an earthquake struck Taiwan and Taroko Gorge was hit badly.
Earthquakes usually last for a few seconds. This lasted over a minute. It not only shook side to side, but up and down as well, which was the killer.
The gorge was a major tourist attraction, and its closure has hit the hip pocket of the town nearby. The damage to the gorge was so severe that they estimate it’ll take until 2037 to repair and make it all safe.
Luckily for us, certain sections of the gorge are now open, as of early 2026. Fortunate Frogdancer strikes again!
It’s heavily controlled. Cindy has just warned us that we HAVE to be back on the bus on time, because the gate is only open for 5 minutes…
They weren’t kidding. Cars are queued up and if we don’t get through in time, we’ll have to wait until midday. Luckily for us, there was a gap in the queue and our driver nipped into it as quickly as a huge coach can nip anywhere.
Marble as far as the eye can see.
Blogless Sandy had the window seat today, so this is me, not taking photos and just looking at the scenery.
I couldn’t believe the colour of the water.
The walls of the gorge rise straight up. And when I say up, I mean UP. They are like hills that little kids draw.
Stunning, isn’t it?
Once we arrived at the car park, Cindy pointed to the pagoda. Yep, we’ll be climbing up to that.
Buddhist temple. Built in 1968. These are the first of 300 steps.
For some reason, it seems like everywhere I go, I have to climb something. I don’t know why.
I certainly don’t enjoy the actual climb itself.
I do enjoy the views at the top, and the feeling of relief when there are no more steps to climb.
The ease of going downstairs is also nice.
I suppose even monks have to dry the washing.
We stayed for about 20 minutes up here on the balcony. It was so pretty and peaceful.
They were drying daikon radishes in the sun.
This was a lovely calm boy. I’m sure he could smell Scout and Hazel on my jeans. He is trained to chase the monkeys away when they come to steal the offerings.
Of course, I walked to the pagoda.
Taiwanese toddlers are cool.
I asked Blogless Sandy to stand beside this statue for scale.
I was walking with Earnest, a lovely boy from Brissie, when out of nowhere this monkey jumped onto the girl in front of us. He was literally hanging off her, and he grabbed her water bottle.
omg.
Believe all the signs telling you to keep all food and drink out of sight. There were 2 more attacks in the car park.
Blogless Sandy took this one. There was a man killed for every kilometre of road, and the road goes for a couple of hundred kilometres. Imagine chipping through marble to turn a tiny track into a road big enough for a bus to drive down? You can see by the overhang how much rock they had to remove.
We went to an indigenous restaurant for lunch, which was very good. While I was there, Georgia31 sent me this photo of Hazel.
It’s the best photo of my girl I’ve seen. It’s now the wallpaper of my phone.
After lunch, we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. Halfway through, we stopped to stretch our legs and take in the view. This is the Pacific Ocean.
They had some cool indigenous art scattered around.
Everyone loves a splash.
We arrived in Taitung just after 6:30. It was a long day, especially for the bus driver.
As he was parking in front of the hotel…. Crunch!
He backed into a van.
After we dumped our bags in the rooms, we walked with a nice couple to get dinner at the night market. As I was walking by a man with a little toddler, I saw him place the little boy on the kerb, then he put 2 boxes out into the street. He grabbed a lighter, and said to the boy, “Boom! Boom!”
Boom boom all right. It was spectacular.
We ran into a mother and son who are in our group. They’re Asian and they have very good taste in street food. We followed their recommendation and bought these fried batter balls with shrimp, octopus and veggies.
Delicious.
Dad joke of the day:
Dancing With Frogs 