Wed Apr 6th

Last Monday, Blake (Aaron's roommate) and I went north to the abandoned sugar factory. The factory's signage wasn't in English, so I didn't really know what I was looking at. Still, it was a nice day. The scooter ride there was long and fast. By this day I've become quite used to driving and am not really looking forward to giving it up. But, I don't plan on being around enough to make it worth my while.
On our way back there was a night market that we stopped at and I got some good pictures of some different foods. We had a "Taiwanese hot dog", which means the bun was made out of rice and spices in a sausage type casing which they cut open like a bun and then put a sausage in it. And, lots of raw garlic. It was quite tasty, but a bit too much garlic. Now I see why the people stay so healthy.....LOTS of garlic!
On Thursday it was Aaron's birthday and we went to a bar owned by a Canadian. It looks very much like a Canadian pub, so I felt at home. Had a steak which wasn't too bad. I got to meet a few more of Aaron's friends, which was nice.
On Friday, I went to "the" Buddhist" temple in southern Taiwan. I had called ahead so I got a private tour. I had read that I could do that.....My book said the bus ride would take 1/2 hour, but it took 1 1/2 hour. I was feeling a little stressed about being late, but being a Buddhist, I don't think they cared.
The nun I spent the day with was very cool and I was able to ask her any question and she would answer. We had some good discussions about religions of various types and she told me about her life as a nun. She's been a nun for 30 years and I guess she's fairly senior. So, I felt lucky to spend the day with her. She gave me a nice tin of a local tea that I am looking forward to bringing home.
On Saturday (I didn't go to Aaron's party), Aaron and I went up to Taipei. There was a bit of a schmozzle about the room at the hostel. I had booked the twin room and somehow we ended up with the double room. Well, as you can well imagine, that was not good. In fact, Aaron pointed out quite succinctly that I was his MOTHER. The girl immediately recognized the faux pas and went into the twin room and took out the bags of the two girls that just moved in, and moved us in instead. The joys of hostelling.
I did meet one of the girls later that evening and when I explained it to her, she understood completely and had no qualms about having to switch rooms. She has been living in China for the last 5 years and is now attending university there to get her Masters in International Politics. Cool.
While in Taipei we went to the busiest night market I have seen to date. I have never seen so many people crammed into so little space before. The food, however, was fabulous. And, they had this thing where they shave a block of frozen milk and put fresh fruit on it. Very yummy. Way better than ice cream!
We also went to some temples and wandered around. Taipei is huge and getting around was a little difficult. Thank goodness Aaron was there because I left it all up to him!
On the Sunday we went to the Taipei Zoo. Both Aaron and I love the zoo, as I have previously mentioned. This zoo, however, is massive. We didn't get to see it all. But, we did get to see the pandas. That was really something special. They are real neat looking animals and the one was very active and running around and climbing trees and what not. Got some terrific pictures.
We also went to the C.K. Memorial Hall which was bigger than I imagined. It was real hot at this time of the day, blistering in fact. But, by the end of the day it had gotten quite cold and started to rain.
In fact, it rained all day Monday and Tuesday. Unfortunately, I didn't plan very well and I had planned to visit museums on Monday....mostly because of the weather. Museums are closed on Mondays. We did find one, however, the National Palace Museum. It was huge and had lots of artifacts from the Chinese dating back over 3000 years. Amazing.
We met up with some friends of Aaron's and went up a mountain for the view. Well, as I mentioned, it was raining. There was no view. Absolutely none. Couldn't even see a street light. We did manage to get quite wet, however.
On Tuesday we went to the Museum of Religions. It was really neat. Very well laid out and the signage was in English. It just tried to show the similarities of all religions. Right up my alley, and Aaron enjoyed it, too.
Al, you'll be happy to note that Aaron and I ate Indian food this day. He had butter chicken and I had some chicken thing that started with the letter L. I chose that because it was the only thing on the menu that didn't have a hot pepper beside it. I still found it hot, but it had a nice flavour, too.
Today I spent the day at Aaron's getting laundry done, etc. Tomorrow I'll be heading back to Tainan, I think. There is another part of the town that I want to see.
As rude as I think the people are, they are also very nice. For instance, yesterday in Taipei I asked a bus driver if he was the bus that went to the museum. He said no (I think) and that I had to look for bus 30 behind him. The only thing I knew for sure was that he wasn't the right bus, but one of the ones behind him was.  At this point I should mention that there were about eight buses behind him.
So, I walked back to the signs and looked at them (God knows why....I still can't real Chinese), and he got off of his bus to tell me where to line up. I think that was very nice.
So, with Aaron's coaching, I have decided that people aren't rude. It's just that there are so many people here, that they really don't pay attention to anyone around them and are intent on getting to where they want to be. It's nothing personal. It does amaze me, however, how people can't see me and crash into me. Really?!
On the good side, when Aaron and I are walking around with each other, or others, we are the beacons in the crowd if we get separated. Thank goodness.