Chinese New Year Part 2

Following the posts below, this stuff took place last on Tuesday February 16. The previous night I got home a little late but the plan was that we would all go to a place called Wulai that is famous for hot springs, water falls, scenery, an old cultural street, and a large aboriginal population.

When we took off it was cold but not raining. Then along the way it started to pour. We were already pretty far out of Taipei city so it wasn't worth it to turn back, and we had rain gear (as you can see in the picture of me below with the moped).


The rain continued but we eventually made it to Wulai. Once we got there and parked the hard rain stopped and it just sprinkled a bit. Made me want to wink.

From there we went along the old cultural street. We had some wild boar and veggie kabobs (see below). We watched the guy below make some candy. But most of all we tried, in vain, to avoid the rain, which had since picked up and was coming down pretty hard. Despite the rain the area was still cool and still packed with people on Chinese New Year vacation. As the rain wore on we got a little tired of things and decided to head back.

By this point we were all cold, wet, and tired. But my friend decided that he would forgo his umbrella on the walk back. He is uber Christian, not as rare as you would imagine in Taiwan, and said in his usual sunny manner, "Well God will take care of me." Wouldn't you know it, we hadn't walked 100m when he found an umbrella laying on the street. He loved it.

From there we got colder and wetter on the moped ride back. The only good part was stopping for some hot lamb soup along the way. Still despite the cold and rain I had a good time.