The Blog of a Constitutional Peasant

Here's Part II. We've been very busy, but it's been fun to say the least. We also have scads and scads of pictures that I look forward to posting in the gallery! Anyways, here it is:

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Well it's Sunday morning and we're back in Taipei County. The city is humming with traffic and voices down below us, as the market gets into full swing. It's been a hectic few days to say the least. On Tuesday we went to the port city of Danshui, where we strolled along the boulevard by the sea. On Wednesday we hung out and went to dinner with Marc's friends here in Banciao; then on Thursday we took the train to Hualien. It's a quiet coastal city on the East. It sits between the sea and the Taroko Gorge.

We specifically went there to take a tour of the gorge. We were oohing and aahing as we passed the gorge on the train, then when we approached the gorge by bus, so you can imagine how amazing it was once we were inside. The rock formations and the tall, tall sides of the gorge reaching straight up into the clouds was just an amazing sight to see. We learned about the Ayatal people who originally lived there. I give them full credit for living in such a stunningly beautiful but harsh place.

After spending the day in the Gorge, we flew to Taichung where some friends of one of Marc's students picked us up to take us to the bus station, as we were headed to Sun Moon Lake (the plane does not go there). I think that they were taken aback that we would attempt to get to the lake at that hour - it was about 7:30pm and we had a 2-hour ride to Puli where we had to transfer to another bus for another hour to get to the lake - count on that daunting good ole Canuck spirit, eh! As it turns out, we missed the last bus to the lake, so we took a taxi, arriving there at about 10:00pm.

We checked into the first hotel we saw. It happened to be a gorgeous 5-star, right on the lake! Of course we stayed up (at least I tried to) to watch X-Men II on the 40-odd inch plasma TV, in our robes, under our comfy duvets, eating fruit and playing with all the high-tech gizmos in the marble suite! We woke up to rain the next morning but after we had breakfast, the rain cleared and we were treated to a bright, clear day. Sun Moon lake is very clean and beautiful - reminds me of being in the Rockies. We took a boat tour of the lake, heading back to Banciao later at day.

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Mum forgot to mention that we almost went up Taipei 101, but she was feeling a little unwell, and not a small bit anxious to boot. Ah well, we'll have to do it next time then ;)