Sun-Moon Lake on Sun-Mood Day

I had a blast this weekend going to Sun Moon lake with my local Taiwanese friends Jack (Sparrow), Constantine, and Kristen. It was also the same day as a solar eclipse but unfortunately it was too cloudy to see. (When I say cloudy I mean almost impossible to see much of anything anywhere) Sun Moon lake hands down is has been the most beautiful place I've been in Taiwan so far and I really look forward to go back on a day when it's not so cloudy.

We found cheap tickets for a boat curse around the lake for $200 NTD. At the first port there was a small temple a top a hill over looking the lake in all its splendor. Spiders as big as my hand were every where.( I really hate spiders.) I did some research and found out that my creepy little friends were the Golden Orb spider. This spider gets its name from spinning a slightly golden thread into  massive webs that easily stretch from tree to tree. They get big enough that they can eat small rodents, birds, and snakes. Another interesting thing that I came across at the first port were revolutionaries from China. They were out protesting the government and asking for freedom and donations. It made sense, going to a place where they could speak freely with out diapering and get the word out to those from China that are rich enough to make a difference.  It made me feel grateful that I live somewhere (as flawed as it might be) that we still have the basic freedom of speech.

All in all it was a beautiful time.

 

 

P.S. I really hate spiders!

Tails of the Kirin

I had a visitor from Utah this last weekend. It was good to see a familiar face, enjoy the comradery of friendship, to tease in English and have someone tease back. The Chuang family was also an absolute delight to stay with as well. They treated us to the most delightful weekend of food and travel. One day I hope that I can be as hospitable as they were to us.

We went so many places: the TaiNan flower festival, the TaiNan salt farm, AnPing, the tree house, and countless restaurants.

I also got to cross off another place from my list of places to go this weekend as well. Fire-Water cave, which turned out not to be a cave at all but a place where natural gas came out of the rocks and the water and has been burning for the past 300 years. The legend says that once upon a time there was a Kirin (a mythical creature that can walk on grass with out disturbing it. It has the body of giraffe scales of a fish, the head of a horned deer and the main of a lion. Some can also be on fire as they walk around.) that took a liking to the people of GuanZiLing and stayed to rest, bringing good luck and fortune to the people. Where the head of the Kirin laid, now continues to burn with a never ending fire. So it wasn't a cave like I hoped but the legend of the mud volcano made up the difference.

While walking around TaiNan I met Alexander from Serbia, a well-known local history professor in Taiwan. He was selling a desert called Tasty Cakes. As the story goes he was digging around a Dutch archive when he found the favorited cake recipe of a Dutch captain that helped settle TaiNan before the natives retook the city. Reviving the recipe and giving it a living breath once more the 'Tasty Cake' was on a fast swing for becoming the newest fad in TaiNan. When I asked him more about the history of the cranberry and walnut laden sweet bread he responded in his rich Serbian accent "Is joke" as a cheeky grin spread across his face. We had a good laugh as he told me more about the story and his scintillating scheme to convince the locals of his tale.

I have a final shout-out to the old janitor singing his soul into a cardboard tube to some locally preformed music.

 

 

Lights in the Arcadian Sky

Golden flecks of light filled the Arcadian sky. Climbing higher and higher, guided by the breeze in the dark. Scintillescent memories traced the paths of the myriads of zeppelins tattooed with wishes. Being lifted by the tokens to be paid, the gilded airships continued their journey to the paradise aloft, racing to be read by the gods in the sky.