I wasn't sure what was in store for today, all I knew was that my cousin and some of her friends were taking me to Hsinchu. I overslept, naturally, because I set my cell phone alarm but forgot that the clock was 13 hours behind. Thanks for all the New Years texts by the way, I hope I don't get any roaming charges.
Breakfast, a rice wrap. Deeelish.
The metro line near our house is down for a couple weeks due to construction, so to get there had to take a shuttle bus to the train station. We took the train for about an hour, then got on another bus to take another train... I lost count of the total travel time. It was quite a hassle and somewhat exhausting, but it turned out to be worth it (for the most part).
On the train, Robin and Amy tooling around with his lomo camera.
Our first stop was the Neiwan marketplace, a popular mountainside tourist and shopping destination.
Note the doofus on the right posing for my shot.
Lunched at a Hakka restaurant, our ancestral people. The food was all right, can't say I'm a big fan of the intestines though.
My cousin is studying to be a nutritionist and her friends, entymology and forestry. Can you imagine the conversation? I can't. Couldn't have understood a word of it, language barrier or not.
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An entire-potato chip.
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In the afternoon we caught a van up the mountain to the Lavender Cottage. It so steep at times I wasn't sure we'd be able to sputter our way way up.
The mythology behind the Lavender Cottage is that Taiwan's climate wan't conducive to growing the flower but two women set out to do it anyway and succeeded. And this was an area to appreciate the beauty of lavender (this all being, mind you, a rough translation from a rough understanding of the language).
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Taiwanese humor overheard on the hiking trail...
Woman: Oh my god, there's a snake!
Man: Where??
Woman: In your heart.
A breathtaking view of the mountains.
Lavender, I'm assuming.
Lavender and blueberry ice cream!
Outhouse, literally. The guy in the middle, by the way, stood behind us at the urinals to pose for the photo. Just clarifyin'.
The wishing trees.
Some wishes.
What more could a boy really ask for?
On the way back we browsed through a bustling nightmarket. We then stopped in Hsinchu for dinner before heading the long way home. Every city and region in Taiwan has its own little special dish it's well known for. In Taipei it's the beef noodle soup, here it's the thin rice noodles (mai fun) and this stuff:
Roast pork and some kind of nut wrapped in a doughy skin, covered in a really thick sweet sauce. I suspect this (combined with everything else I'd eaten up till then, probably) is what did me in, put me out of commission for the next day. I'll spare you the details. That or the lavender ice cream had some of that tainted Chinese milk in it.
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