Blast from the Past

I have finally returned to Taipei and high speed internet, so I'm going to post all of the pictures that were missing from my blog posts in the last week. I enjoyed Chiayi county, and its tranquil vistas, but I am glad to be back in Taipei. I didn't realize how much I had missed the city's chaotic beauty until we drove in last night. I saw the now familiar street signs and just felt a sense of comfort at being back. I suppose that I missed the busy streets, public transportation, and the vibe here. I like the feel of this city, and I'm glad to be back in it. However, I did enjoy my visit to the South of Taiwan, and I would like to share some of those views with you now:

This is the highway. As you can see, there are not many buildings in this area.

Because, THIS is what you see in between cities

Sugar cane fields,

palm trees,

and pineapple fields

There are flowers everywhere

even planted in the islands on the street

There are also a lot of temples here

This is what the inside of the city looks like. 

 As you can see, there is a stark difference between Chiayi county and Taipei city.

NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!

we had this soup-type dish

 It is a soup full of lots of different things, but there are also dishes of extra stuff out that you can add to the pot,(which is boiling on a hot plate), to cook, and then you can eat it. That way, if you want a lot of mushrooms in your soup, everyone doesn't have to have mushrooms, just you.

so, there were mini mushrooms,

pieces of pork,

and shell fish.

 You would pick what you wanted, and submerse it in the water. In a few minutes, you would take it out and eat it. For the shell fish, we had these spoon-things:

see, submerse it in the water,

and when it's done, the shell opens 

 Naturally, we had fireworks. But they were not at all what you picture when you think of Chinese New Year. Think Fourth of July, during a burn ban, with sold out fireworks stands. Because the Taiwanese government has made the sale of fireworks illegal. It is "too dangerous." I think that this may have something to do with one town's annual celebration that has so many fireworks going off at once that you need to wear a helmet with a visor to prevent from getting injured. So, in order to obtain fireworks, you need to know some local businesses that are sympathetic to tradition. The fireworks that my cousins and I set off were sparklers, fountains, and firecrackers.

 This was fun, we rigged four of the fountains to go off all at once.

 Here are the pictures from the sugar factory:
 (see "Sugar Pie, Honey Bun")

There was a little store inside where you could buy tourist-y stuff.

Here is the ice cream

Here is a red bean flavored Popsicle.  It was really good.

 There was also this drink that the store clerks were letting people sample, it was made out of some specialty sugar. It tasted like liquid ginger snaps.

one of the old factory buildings

sugar cane fields

Here is the train that we took for the tour

There is the suspension bridge that the bike trail goes over

 And here is an awesome picture, (if I do say so myself), of a pressure gauge in the factory. I had a little too much fun with the photo editor, and I couldn't resist sharing this picture with you.

 Here is the historical building that we visited in Tainan:

 (see "The Cousin of My Uncle is My...?")

 The place was beautiful.

This was a statue of the negotiation between the
Chinese and the Dutch to obtain the building

Here is the raised thresh hold

The rafter in the front, depicts the feminine symbol of bird,
and the one in the back, shows the masculine dragon

Here are the roof designs of the fish leaping over the dragon gate

Here are the pictures of the awesome shopping center that we went to in "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious":

Carrefour is actually a French company, but it is very popular here

here are the unusual escalators

 Typical kitchen appliances in Taiwan include:

 steamers
 for cooking dumplings and reheating food in a
 way that keeps moisture inside of the food better than a microwave

water boilers (I don't know the technical name for this)
Because of the frequent earthquakes, the pipes that carry drinking water to homes tend to crack, which makes the water suspect. So everyone just keeps a kettle of boiled water full all of the time, or they buy one of these bad boys to boil the water for them.

rice cookers
Because...does this even need an explanation?

 Here are the pictures from the dry river bed where my aunt's mom collects rocks for her sculptures:

 (see "One Lump, Or Two?")

Here is one example of the fossils that you can find here
all of those white swirls are shells

Here are some of her scultures

almost all of them are monkeys

This one is my favorite, look at his little smile!

Alishan mountains (see "Food for Thought")

That sheer part of the rock face, is where
 a part of the mountain fell off at some point.

tourist center in Alishan

It is a great place to relax and enjoy nature

 So, Chiayi and the surrounding area was great, but I am glad to be back in Taipei. See you all next post!