Day 12
I went out for breakfast at the local morning farmer's market and had delicious sweet tender opo. I think it is due to the soil in the central region that everything grown, fruits, vegetables all tastes tender and sweet. I also liked the caramelized sweet potato that tastes like honey. The texture is between a satsuma yellow sweet potato and a red yam. I have been enjoying delicious produce and fruits in SuiLi. I've had wonderful sweet potato, bamboos of all variety, lian wu, guava, daikon, etc.. I am content and happy just eating these things everyday.
We head out for our day of DongPu day trip.
I like the back seat of the Lexus. It's comfortable. I also like the rear view screen in the car.
We stopped at one of the vendors who carry Mr. Lee's MeiZi products and sells them to tourists. It is customary to offer tea to guests. I like these big tree trunk tea tables. I also like sitting on natural wood stomps. Mr. Lee was educating this vendor on how to go about selling the new product meizi candy. I am learning business on the spot on how to negotiate with vendors and setting price and also how to handle vendor's complaints.
This is Mr. Lee's business case, looks like he's had it since day one. It's got history.
We walked across a suspension bridge and then I decided I wanted to run back and Mr. Lee joined in and we both ran while Mrs. Lee walked back on a rocky bridge after our run. I'd say this is Mr. Lee's spirit, young youthful, playful.
We stopped at the agricultural center which sold all meizi products from soap to soy sauce, etc.. Outside is a meizi tree and the Lees spot it far away. They really do have a passion for meizi.
Mr. Lee having done a life time of business here he's known everyone or at least people know him. He runs into business friends if not the children of business friends. I like all the packaging done in this place of the products, beautiful for gifts. They buy products from local producers and package them themselves and sell them. I like pretty packaging. We were offered more tea at the tea table, also a beautiful slice of a tree trunk. I wanted to buy Meizi soy sauce paste but I decided that I can whip one up myself with the right kind of meizi and this will save me from having to lug one all across Taiwan on my travel and back to US. I still have the entire month of April to go.
We finally made it to Dongpu after many business stops. I learned a lot about people, connects, old friendships, and hospitality. This is another vendor who carry Mr. Lee's product in this tourist friendly hotspring town. This shop had dried shitake mushroom of all sorts. Also carried the AiYu from it's natural pod. It's like a big mushroom with tiny pollen on top of an abalony mushroom cap. I hear if you know how to properly cook it that it tastes better than the ready made ones. Tempting to buy some, but in general I eat very little AiYu. It's like agar agar or jello, tastes really good in brown sugar and lemon syrup.
I saw some nice high mountain tea leaves in this shop and the price isn't bad. But I really don't want to lug so much stuff on my pack, I've only begun on my Taiwan backpack travel.
This is the son of another business friend who recognizes Mr. Lee. He flagged us down for tea and sent me to a complimentary hot spring soak across from his shop at the big hotel. I went up to the top floor to soak in a wooden tub of natural hot spring water. I didn't take long because I knew the Lees were waiting for me and we still had a drive back togo. This man is now a high mountain tea distributor and he had good high mountain tea in his shop. I had meant to buy his tea as thanks for the hot spring hospitality but I forgot in our rush out of there to head down the mountain before sundown.
I have honestly forgotten how many vendors we stopped at today. Our last stop was at a place that was run by a couple of elders older than Mr. Lee. At one point Mr. Lee went to use their restroom and came out wondering how the owner could possibly use a squatting toilet at this age because he didn't think he could get back up from his squat. The owners mentioned how the public would use their toilet and it's difficult to refuse them and the public dirty up the restroom really easily and in their old age it's difficult to clean the restroom so the squatting one is easier for cleaning.
On the ride back Mr. Lee noted how he misses the social connection of doing business and sharing his passion of meizi with others. He misses his friends, lots are no longer around. I think there is no such thing as retirement. It is better to be clear of what your passion is and what you are willing to do to dedicate your life to because there is no retirement from your passion. It is better to pick something you can still do in your old age because you would miss it too much.
This morning I went to the market again and bought things I enjoyed eating. I met one of Mrs. Lee's taichi friends who had a morning market stall. 
I went to meizi factoy to use the internet and also ended up helping out with boxing of meizi candy for shipment. Everyone left for lunch and I had lunch alone in the office in front of a computer eating things I bought from the market all these yummy vegetarian goodies in bags in wonderful savory local flavors. I also made myself tea. It's a good thing to bring my own tea for the road. Every one has a different taste and enjoys different tea and I like my type of high mountain tea and I learned my my last Asia backpacking trip that I better carry my own tea just incase. I am so glad that I did. Daily good sleep, meditation, recitation, hotspring soaking do wonders. The dark spots under my eyes are shrinking, I didn't think it was possible, it has been frustrating all these years waking up in the morning and seeing these dark spots. I guess I just needed lots of rest, love, nurture, pampering, it's good medicine to wipe away fatigue and exhaustion. In the afternoon I went with Mrs. Lee to buy various items for the alter tomorrow and for Monday's cemetery visit day. We stopped at a fried stinky tofu place on the over pass looking over the river. There were people kayaking it. The river is shallow today but the rapids were fast. I wouldn't be in the water. Looks dangerous to me. I also ate red bean cake at another stall today. Mrs. Lee likes this stall, she likes it for the filling. I agree the filling is better here. But I like the other stall with better crust and not as good of a filling. I don't care for too much filling to begin with especially red bean. 
One of the elements that is a custom to do is burn paper money. The store owner tells their customer what to buy and how much and at what combination. I gather there isn't a blue book on how to do and what to do anywhere it is up to the store owner to educate the needy. It is hard to not walk out of there with two large bags of paper you've just spent a bundle on because you don't want to do the wrong thing. It's going to be smoky everywhere this weekend. Notice the US dollar bill stash that is in white, yup you can buy those too. 
We also stopped at a hat shop and looked for hats to buy. The owner asked if I was Mrs. Lee's daughter. It's interesting how this question's answer has evolved over the span of one week. Day one was, "She's my daughter's husband's Big Aunt's daughter from afar." Day two was, "She's my son in law's Big Aunt's daughter from afar." Day three was, "She's my niece." Today, Mrs. Lee just smiled and in agreement that I was her daughter. When we got back neither one of us was hungry but Mr. Lee was upset at the fact that he was eating alone and we were all done eating without him. So we all ate corn for dinner together. Come to think of it, Mr. and Mrs. Lee are like my parent's age but somehow all this time I saw them as grandparents instead. I call them Aunty and Uncle.
