Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Natural Science

I like museums. In fact, I love them so much that I studied Art History in university. Within that program I had to also study museology (the study of museums); that was rather dry. Despite all that, I still enjoy visiting museums. In Taiwan, most of the museums are closed on Mondays which happens to be the day that we normally travel to the city because it's less busy as most people are working. However, on this particular ocassion, we went there on a Sunday so I could visit the Botanical Garden in Taichung after our errands.

In Canada, I've noticed that visiting museums can be a bit expensive, but here the cost of visiting the Botanical Garden for both Matthew and I was about $2 CAD. Sometimes I wonder if anyone actually knows what a profit is. The cost of things here are so low I just think labour is free and that they don't care to make a profit on anything. Either way, it works better for me when it comes to saving money. The Botanical Garden is located right behind the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung city.

I don't really know why I like visiting gardens, I don't have a green thumb and I actually don't like to touch plants or dirt, but I do enjoying looking at them. Inside this glassbuilding  are a couple of waterfalls.

It isn't a very large garden but it is very pretty. The pathway through the greenhouse is flanked with tall trees on either sides and colourful flowers near the ground.

I thought the interior of the garden would be hot and humid because the outside was hot and the sun was beaming down that day. But the inside was actually cooler and more refreshing than outside. It was still hot, but it wasn't as hot as outside.

The garden was also home to some very strange looking plants as well.

After having walked around through the garden, we came to a fork in the road. Up the stairs back to the exit or through some glass doors to see what was on the other side. So, of course, we chose the doors. It was only a gift shop, BUT there was also a small aquarium of fish and some bright frogs!




I have this weird unexplainable joy when I'm around fish. I don't really know why they entertain me so much, but I find them fascinating. I clearly can have the time of my life doing pretty much the most stupid things. Just look at my dorky face. I think people need to surround themselves with simple things so they can all wear ridiculous faces like me.

I think Matthew was a bit surprised at how much fun I can have just by watching fish. After I had my fun, we decided to head outside to check out the grounds. As we were walking along a path, I saw the fattest white cat ever. I'm not sure if it was a stray, but if it is, it eats well because most strays are very skinny and skittish but this one wasn't really afraid of humans. It didn't exactly come right up and want to be pet but it didn't cowardly run away the moment it realized we were looking at her.

The outside grounds were very nice, and during our walk we even saw a few runners. I know what you're thinking, 'runners? like people jogging?' Yes, exactly that. Most people are probably like me; I thought that I would most likely be considered fat and would have a hard time finding clothes that fit me. That hasn't been the case. I have been very surprised at how many fat people are in Taiwan. With the popularity of fast food and convenience, a lot of people are overweight. Even among my students who range from the age of 6 through 18, I have a lot of overweight students. Exercise just isn't viewed as an important activity. There are of course many people who don't eat the fast food and who don't exercise but also don't seem to gain weight. Even though the Taiwanese people are hard workers, almost obsessively - they work 6 days a week, they are actually very lazy in other aspects. I live only a few blocks from my workplace and live with other co-workers, none of them walk or bicycle to work, they all drive. The Taiwanese just seem to think that spending 5 minutes walking is too far away. So, when I saw the runners at the botanical garden, I was impressed. Who wouldn't want to go for a walk or run when the path through the botanical gardens look like this?

Cassey & Allister's Visit to Taiwan

Back in early August, Matthew's sister Cassey and her boyfriend were headed to Asia for both work and travel, and of course they came to visit us in Taiwan! At first I thought they might get bored because we live in a small city, so we went ahead and planned out things to do and show them. They arrived on a Saturday, so we took them to the night market which Matthew and I visit each week (yes, we're predictable). I have this crazy addiction to a chicken sandwich that one man sells there and I had to introduce them to it. I'm pretty sure I got Cassey hooked on it. We bought some, and later before leaving she bought another. They truly are delicious, you guys just don't understand.

There are many things at the night market; tons of random dollar store items, shoes, clothes, food, and bumper cars! Yes, a very cheap version of bumper cars. There are no safety standards here, so these metal bumper cars have no seat belts. Cassey, Allister and myself decided we would hop on one each and take them for a spin. You just walk up to one, hop on and place a NT$10 ($0.35 CDN) coin into it and you're off! Ok, so I'm apparently a very horrible driver. I will let everyone know that I have never been in a car accident when driving a real car, but I seemed to have crashed into every possible person and thing while driving the bumper car. At one point I crashed into the car of a Taiwanese man. I didn't realize how bad the situation was at first, and I shall warn everyone that I was a coward. I rammed into his car when trying to turn mine around. He had a small girl who was maybe around the age of 3 or 4 years. She fell out of the car and smack her face into the concrete ground. I only realized it was a child when the man picked her up and held her in his lap. At that point I managed to turn my car around, speed back to Matthew (who was the only one not participating) and jump out of the car as fast as humanely possible and ran away like the coward I am. Luckily, this is Taiwan and no one is responsible for pretty much any accidents. I only ran to the side of the track where Matthew was, so it was possible for them to see me and come and approach me, but there really isn't anything that would be done here anyway. But really, that action repesented how horrible of a human being I am. I hope the girl's face doesn't hurt much. It was a pretty embarrasing moment and I panicked.

We didn't stick around the bumper cars area for much longer after that. We moved on to eating and introduce some newer foods to our visitors.

The next day we drove down south to Chiayi to the same place we had gone to with the motorcycle gang. The difference? This time is wasn't a holiday weekend and the place was booming! There were vendors all over the place selling all kinds of food, not just Taiwanese food. We ended up having Indian food and it was delicious. I had wished I brought a swimsuit because there was a beach! It was a man-made beach and it was super busy.

I didn't get to play at the water park for too long, everyone else was dying in the heat, so they wanted to buy some drinks and relax in the shade before moving on to something new. While walking back to the car, we came across an old fishing boat, which both Cassey and Allister thought was a neat old boat for show. To their surprise the boat is not for show, it's actually still in use by current fishermen. Can you believe this boat is still in use?

We ended up also showing them a temple which Matthew and I had visited before with the Lehi and Mark. This time, the temple was dead; there was almost no one there that day. It wasn't quite as interesting as when we had originally visited.

On Monday we drove up to Sun Moon Lake in the mountains. Sun Moon Lake is the most popular destination for honeymooners in Taiwan. Originally, it was two separate lakes, Sun Lake and Moon Lake. During the Japanese occupation a hydroelectric dam was built, which resulted in the two lakes becoming one large lake; it is the largest lake in Taiwan. That being said, it's still very small compared to most lakes in Canada; you cannot actually see Sun Moon Lake on a map of Taiwan unless you zoom in a few times.

Once you get to Sun Moon Lake, you can take either a left or a right turn and drive around the lake. At certain parts around the lake there are stops and things to do or see. Our first stop was a peacock farm. We stopped there for a bit and got some nice pictures of the pretty birds. One even wanted to show off for me!

We continued on our way until we got to the ropeway (cable car). We we unsure of what was on the other side of the mountain, so we tried to find out. There were some small shops there and a cultural village, but we couldn't visit it because we were supposed to buy tickets for it on the other side of the mountain where we bought the tickest for the cable car ride. There was also another cable car ride from the cultural village to an amusement park, so we didn't get to check any of that out that day. Perhaps Matthew and I will go back there to see what it is. Despite having missed out on that, we did get a pretty view of the lake from the cable car. This cable car ride was eerily quiet.

When we got back to the point of origin, we hopped in the car and continued driving around the lake making random stops. We found a neat trail through some woods and hiked down until we came to the water. We sat there for a while and watched the local boats pass by. It wasn't a super sunny day so the heat wasn't too bad, but the breeze down by the water was still very refreshing.

We hiked back up and continued driving until we got to the end. They are currently still constructing a path around the lake, for walkers. The walkway is complete in certain parts so we decided to check it out. From the bridge you can see these strange shaped floating devices on the water. I'm not completely sure what they are, but they look like floating gardens with flowers and plants. 

We waited for Matthew to get his perfect picture; setting up his old school film camera with tripod and all. It's funny watching him do his thing, sometimes he looks very pleased and other times he looks like he just feels frustration.

The drive home was a quiet one without much conversation. I guess the heat and the outdoor activities got the best of us as we slept for most of the ride leaving Matthew with no one to keep the ride interesting. We got to Taichung city and took our guest to our favourite restaurant for a good meal. The next day, I had to work as did Allister, so Matthew and his sister got there own day for whatever they wanted. Wednesday morning they packed their bags and Matthew drove them to the airport so they could head off to Shanghai for more exicting adventures. It was a short visit but we had fun and saw many things; I hope they enjoyed Taiwan just as much as we enjoyed having them.

Tent Testing

On the last weekend in July, Matthew and I joined Lehi (the other Canadian in town) and his family on a camping trip. An interesting fact - Matthew and I met last year while camping, also on the very last weekend in July. It was a funny coincidence that this invitation just happened to be on the same date.

Anyhow, I'm not sure what most people think when they think of camping, but I wasn't expecting what we got. We went to Puli (in the mountains) and drove up a small mountain where we would be camping. It was pretty fancy. We had toilets, showers (maybe normal for a camp ground), but we also had electricity, running water, etc. Matthew and I have a small two person tent and this was the first time we got to test it out. Even though it was pretty cold that night, inside the tent was hot. We had bought our camping gear according to how big it is when it is packed because we need it to fit on the motorcycle. So, we bought sheets instead of sleeping bags, and we don't have any pillows, etc. Even though our sheets are as thin as most peoples' curtains, I was dying in there from overheating. I slept pretty well considering.

Either way it was pretty fun and at least we know the tent works. It was so quick to set up and take down. You forget how relieving something as small as that is until we watched the other couple who has their family sized tent; and just how long and complicated that process can be. By the time ours was packed that had only managed to take the fly off and was just starting to pull out the poles. Monica (Lehi's wife) couldn't believe we were already done. Then we were off to get home.

It was a fun trip, and here's a picture of the us on the camping trip. It's a much smaller group as the other couple only brought two of their six children along for the trip.
At the same location as where we were camping, you can also go hang-gliding. That's what the windsock is there for in the background.

Typhoon Soulik

Here in Taiwan we get typhoons. I went to work like any normal day on Friday, July 12th and taught a few classes like normal. The government makes the announcement of whether schools will be closed because of a typhoon. They made that announcement by the afternoon and so when 6:00pm came around everyone was to go home and stay indoors.

A typhoon day is kind of like a snow day except is applies to everyone. A typhoon day means that no students need to go to school that day, including the teachers. A typhoon day, unlike a snow day back home, also means that EVERYTHING is to close by at certain time, so no one is to go to work. So, after work on that Friday, Matthew and I went to the grocery store. This is probably the only time the grocery stores are actually busy; everyone is stacking up on food. We went home, ate some instant noodles, played board games, watched movies. Nothing really exciting. However, I did enjoy the most beautiful sleep that night; I like storms.

The next day, work was also cancelled. By Saturday evening things had calmed down and we went out for a walk. In our town there is a man-made river which is always empty and dry. It was constructed for this purpose, to aid in the prevention of flooding of the city during a typhoon. This is what the river looked like that evening (I'm not sure how deep it is, but it is deep enough that if you fell in you would have a hard time climbing out).

This walk was refreshing but short as it started raining again; I guess it wasn't quite done. The next day (Sunday, July 14) though, Matthew and I wanted to see what we could find outside. We came across a number of fallen fruit trees that day. Here is what we found while scavenging.

A papaya, little bananas, oranges? (I'm not actually sure what that last one is) And by Monday everything was back to normal.

Oyster Farming, Up Close

The sun is strong here. Even though it takes a lot for me to get a sun burn, it still happens here. Matthew on the other hand, it takes about 30 seconds of direct sunlight contact. So, when it comes to taking the motorcycle out for short leisure drives, he prefers to leave in late afternoon when the sun isn't as intense. We decided to just drive west toward the sea. We evetually ended up at an oyster farming spot. Since it was late afternoon, the tide was low, and we could acutally drive on the roads that are normally under the sea. We drove out pretty far from the shore using the road and got an up-close look at what the oyster farmings really look like.

 

While we were looking around, we even saw a few farmers. Some like to be modern and use motor-vehicles to haul their goods, while others like to be more old school/traditional and continue to use ox. You can also see some buildings in the background, that's where the shore and land can be found. All of the sandy area is underwater during the morning and early afternoon.

We stayed and watched the sunset before heading home.

Quick Motorcycle Drive

Matthew and I like to go for drives on the motorcycle on our days off and when the weather is nice. We had been wanting to go to Dahu; they are famous in Taiwan for their starwberries. During our drive, we pulled over in a park (Chishuiqi Park). We had to check our map. The park looks like it would be a nice walk; with plenty of paths. Even though you see plently of dogs in Taiwan, most of the time you seen them tied outside of someone's house. But, during our 30 minute stop, we saw numerous people come to the park to take their dogs for an actual walk. I was impressed. The other nice thing was that the park had installed a blockade so people couldn't just drive their scooters along the path, so this park's walking paths really are only accessible to walkers.

We continued on our way up a big hill, and we took another quick break in Nantou atop the hill. There we found this small temple with a view looking down on the city.

Hanging out at this spot was a little bird and it wasn't afraid of people in the least. Matthew and I were sitting on a bench just enjoying the view and trying to figure out the best route to get where we wanted to go. Out of nowhere this bird comes and sits right beside us, then starts flying around in our faces and sits on Matthew's hands, which scared the crap out of him. The bird continued to try and sit on his lap, his shoulder, almost anywhere it could land. It was a bit scary because I kept thinking one of us would accidentally get an eye poked out because it was so close to our faces when it would fly around. I think it is just used to people and may perhaps be regularly fed by them. After feeling paranoid over our eyeballs' safety, we hopped on the motorcycle and left. It wasn't long before we decided to turn around because it started pouring rain. If you have ever been on a motorcycle in the rain, it gets cold, fast. We were only about half way to our destination anyhow. We decided to try again on another weekend.

Glass Museum/Temple & Old Lukang

Matthew and I took the motorcycle to the nearby town of Lukang (about 30 minutes north-west) and met up with a bunch of my co-workers (all girls). One had driven her scooter and the others took a car. We started our tour of the small town at a glass museum. Lukang is known for having a glass factory and it is also used as a museum and shop. It wasn't very apparent from the outside; it just looked like a plain building that could pass as a factory, and there were no signs anywhere to indicate that you could visit it. I suppose if you go with locals they know these hidden things.

The shop had many items made of glass, everything from sculptures, to vases, to jewellery, to random little knick-knacks. The museum part was interesting, but a little bit confusing. There was a section that felt like we were in a model home; with a kitchen and bathroom. Perhaps they were trying to show off the countertops, but it felt more like I was in a Home Depot in the faucet section. There was an unusual number of shower heads and kitchen faucets on the wall. But all in all, it was fun. They even had this device with mirrors inside and you could look through at each end. The end result?

 

Outside of the glass museum there is a glass temple. It looks, for the most part, like any other Chinese temple, but it was pretty open to the outdoors. We got to talk to a worker/tour guide there who really wanted to practice his English. He told us lots about the temple and then just talked about random things that dealt with travel, family, and English.

You enter the temple and there is this big fountain between the entrance and the place of prayer, the fountain part is open to the air, without a roof. People came in the temple and did a short prayer first, before walking around the fountain to the main area. I threw a ton of money in that fountain becuase Matthew wanted the 'perfect picture' of me making a wish. Can you see my coin in mid-air? It's to the bottom right of that cauldron. The tiny shiny speckle is my coin!

After the glass museum and temple, we headed into the city. One section of the city has remained the same as it was built a long time ago. They never renovated or demolished this part of the town, and the buildings look the same as they did when first built. Originally this part of the 'old town' was one town, but eventually became known as two separate cities. The people of each city didn't want to be known as one city and no longer wanted to share everything. So, they built a wall to split the old town into two halves. However, there was only one well for the people on both sides, so they built the wall into the well to split it into two halves. Each side of town could gain access to water from one half of the well.

The water well is not in use anymore but it is still there and is a big tourist spot for pictures. In the old town there were plenty of little shops and many woodworkers selling their crafts. After we spent some time exploring, we headed into the city centre and ate a ton of food; trying all kinds of things. Unfortunately I'm not even sure what it all was. We soon got rained out and headed home.