Spring Break (or rather, "Tomb-Cleaning Holiday" as the Taiwanese regard it--it's when you visit your ancestor's graves and clean them up) started on Wednesday, so that night, we ladies made a short trip to Jiantan for dinner (one MRT stop away), and then to Tamsui for the evening.
First, our awesome students brought us some of the tiniest doughnuts I've ever seen--they are the nicest kids!
A really beautiful statue of my favorite flower, the plumeria, on the walk to Jiantan.
An actual puppy with a waggly tail in a window on the walk over.
I'm coming back here someday.
We got hot pot--basically a giant bowl of soup with a sterno candle under it to heat it; you know your soup is ready when the egg is cooked.
In Tamsui, we found a vegan pizza place for Emily! "Su" means vegetarian.
There was also this fluffy little dog there who loved to be pet.
We stopped by an American style ice cream parlor. Soft serve (and I think soy soft serve in some cases) is a big deal here, so it's rare to find scoop ice cream. This was delicious!
And it was decorated like this! Adorable.
The ice cream parlor (called "Big Tom's") overlooked Shine's favorite coffee shop (from my earlier blog). It's the first building on the left with the light.
Ummm, I want a t-shirt of this.
A beautiful church in Tamsui, built by a Canadian named George Leslie Mackay; he was a presbyterian missionary in the late 1800s in Tamsui/Taiwan.
On Thursday, Sweta and I got up at 5 am to see if we could catch a bus or train to Kenting, Taiwan's famous beach city. Spring Scream, Taiwan's biggest music festival was going on, and we were going to meet up with some friends we had met (Daniel and crew, from an earlier blog). We were able to get a bus at 10am, and arrived in Kenting at 9pm. I slept the whole way.
The layout of Kenting reminded me a lot of Kona, Hawaii. There was really only one street, and all the businesses ran along the coast. Nothing was over 3 stories high, and the streets were full of vendors, in front of the stores, selling food, clothes, and booze.
We grabbed some tequila shots from this guy, after one of his barkers, a young shirtless Taiwanese man asked for a picture with me "because [I am] so beautiful." Awwe, flattery will get you everywhere (well, at least a picture and my money)!
One of the bars we stopped in. The waitresses were dressed like sailor moon.
I had gotten a giant bag of these delicious little guys (prawns) and killed it with my friend Daniel at the sailor moon bar. So good!
I said hello to the green fairy for the first time (I'm pretty sure it was just food coloring and vodka, though. Or I'm immune to absinthe.
Uhhhh, the tiniest chihuahua I've ever seen. He was so small, his eyes didn't fit in his head. :(
Well, if Bruce says so...
How did they know the name of my favorite band?
Sweta got sleepy, so I carried her.
Our new friend Ian challenged us to an arm wrestling match. Tiny Sweta was pretty scrappy, but didn't make it. I however, have found that my 30 pushups a night have been paying off!
The funky little bar we stopped at last. We met another Austinite there, too!
We met some more friendly foreigners and ended up staying up all night on the beach. For the first time in my life, I watched the sun rise over a beach. That was pretty awesome.
Some of the guys taking an early morning dip.
The night crew.
That little peak is Kenting National Park. Up close, it looked like it could've been in Utah, the grass was so dry and sandy.
The campsite we didn't actually sleep at. Do you think everyone went shopping for their tents in the same place?
Some gorgeous flowers.
We spent Friday here. It's not a very big beach, but it's really clean, salty, and relaxing!
Our friend Daniel, chillin' like a villian.
Sweta, looking beautiful.
We found a Tex-Mex place! We couldn't resist the allure of tacos and ground beef...
The inside was a mix of every American chain restaurant I could think of! Antler chandeliers, giant African wall art, life-sized Native American statues, pinatas, vintage car signs, everything!
Look at this bounty! Guacamole with tortilla chips and a (Canadian) bacon cheeseburger! Definitely American-sized portions; the burger was the size of my head!
Sweta eyeing up her taco tower
And regretting asking for the large Sprite.
After dinner, it was time for Sweta and I to say goodbye to Kenting. This time, we took the High Speed Rail--it only took 1 1/2 hours to get back to Taipei--why doesn't America have one of these yet!?
Ahhh traveling in speedy comfort on the HSR.
On Saturday night, Ping Ping took us out to dinner to one of her favorite restaurants. It was a Taiwanese restaurant with Japanese-style service. All of the portions were really tiny, but there were a lot of courses.
It was on top of a mountain!
Tatami floors and bamboo screens!
You had to wear wooden shoes to use the bathroom (we had to take ours off in the restaurant). I totally rocked the watermelon shoes!
And what restaurant would be complete without a giant cherry blossom tree in it?
1. The first course was oolong tea and red wine gelatin (they made a special dish for Emily each time; she got grapefruit here).
2. peanut tofu with rice cake
3. soup with pork and Chinese yam (and extra broth in the pot)
4. raw seafood salad--it was amazing. I've never had a raw shrimp before, but it was delicious!
5. Black palm vinegar, to cleanse your palette after the seafood
6. chicken in red sauce and corn soup (it tasted like comfort food!)
7. A type of corn bread and spinach soup
Emily's vegan version of our next dish
8. prawns, squash, egg plant, fried sweet potato and green beans
9. lavender vinegar to cleanse the palette (always after seafood)
10. rice with a slice of dried fish egg
Emily's portion of the next dish
11. which was a beautiful soup with a blooming flower!
It was a delicious soup full of things that tasted like chick peas, potatoes, pork shoulder, and bamboo
12. Desert--lotus tea, guava, tomatoes, pineapple, and a dish of taro and dried lychee with sauce
Yum! it was all so good!
Ping Ping gave us a ride back to the MRT station, and this is what I saw:
Ferrets riding a ferris wheel (or should I say, "ferret's wheel")! ;)
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