Penghu, Taiwan

The last weekend in March seemed to be a great time to hop on a puddle jumper (or small airplane), and fly to the island of Penghu, where my friend, Adora, lives and teaches for the MOE. Penghu is about as opposite from Taipei as one can get! Penghu is a military base, so there are lots of military boys who live there, and Penghu is mainly a fishing village, so a lot of its residents don't get back to mainland Taiwan often. Needless to say, I encountered a lot of stares from passers-by. And by stares, I mean, mouth gaping open, eyes following, cars slowing down, types of stares. It bothered me at first, but I soon adjusted and didn't notice the stares unless Adora pointed them out. I guess having blonde hair and blue eyes in a fishing village would make a person stand out a bit more!

When I arrived, Adora met me at the airport and we hopped on a scooter back to her apartment. This was the first time here in Taiwan that I had been on a scooter, so it was a bit scary, although I trusted Adora completely.

After we dropped my bag off, we walked to the downtown area of Penghu and checked out what Penghu is famous for: black sugar cake. It tasted alright, as far as Taiwanese cake goes, and I picked up a package to take back to my co-teachers. That night we ate at a nice Italian restaurant and caught up on each other's lives.

Saturday morning, we grabbed breakfast at a little coffee shop and then hopped back on the scooter. Adora took me to see Sanshia beach, which was deserted as it was a little chilly and very windy. We climbed up some rocks and took some pictures, then hopped back on the scooter.

The next stop was to see a windmill farm. Penghu is one of the windiest destinations in the world, and they use windmills to generate energy, which was wonderful to see! It's just one of the examples of using a renewable energy source, which is a fantastic way of helping our environment.

After the windmill farm, we stopped in a small town to see a 300 year old banyan tree. This tree serves as the town's square and covers a couple of city blocks It was amazing to realize: 1) This one tree is over 300 years old, and 2) It all sprouts from one trunk.

As we took in the Great Penghu Bridge and a woman stuffing puffer fish for souvenirs, we enjoyed a Cactus Ice. Up until this point, I had not realized that cacti actually produce fruit, and the cactus ice was really delicious!

We then traveled to an Erkan village, which has been preserved by the Taiwanese government to help keep it in its original form. There is one family that still lives in the village, and some of them even open up their homes for visitors to peruse. The first house we entered serves the "best almond milk in Taiwan," so of course I had to try some. The almond milk was wonderful and it was amazing to see how the Erkan people live. There were traditional Japanese style beds, along with family artifacts for guests to admire. A couple of houses down, Adora and I wondered through one of the oldest houses in the village, and saw the biggest wok I've ever seen, along with the room at the back of the property which holds the family's elders and the original family well.

Sunday afternoon, Adora bid me good-bye at the airport and I returned to the mainland of Taiwan. It was a wonderful visit and Adora was a wonderful travel guide!

Eating cactus ice with Adora

The Great Penghu Bridge

300 Year old Banyan Tree

Videos from Lantern Festival

Here are videos of the Lantern Festival 2010, Pingxi, Taiwan...

Lantern Festival in Pingxi

Pingxi is a small town in Taipei County who hosts a huge lantern festival every year at the end of Chinese New Year. There are booths with food, souvenirs and lanterns to buy. You can buy a big paper lantern and you write your wish on the lantern. Then you light "god money" and let your lantern float up into the sky. Jacquelyn, Tara, Cassandra, Mariah and I all made our wishes and let the lantern fly. It was a really neat experience and we were able to see "special" lanterns being released. There are lots of pictures of the lanterns and a few videos. It was an incredible experience that I'm glad I was able to witness!

Chinese New Year

I spent Chinese New Year here in Taipei, and was graciously invited to my co-teacher Mandy's house for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. The dinner was attended by Mandy's husband's family, which included lots of uncles, aunts, and cousins. We ate traditional Chinese food for dinner, where I was seated first-because I was the guest of honor-along with the elders. I sampled some of the food, but there were just some dishes that I couldn't stomach. Mandy's father-in-law gave me a lucky red envelope, which contained a couple of lottery tickets. The elders give children lucky envelopes with money it during Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, the tickets weren't winners, but I had a wonderful time celebrating the New Year. Here are some pictures from the dinner:

I also traveled down to Kaohsiung to meet up with my friend Deb and her family. Kaohsiung was setting up their Love River and Pier for the Lantern Festival and it was so neat to see all of the lights. It was really neat to see all of the lanterns and decorations!