JiJI

Day 10

Went to JiJi today. Took the mini train for the first time. It's quite cute. This is the interior.


At the main JiJi station there are old classic mini trains on display. At each display over town you can smell the deisil.

I tried to look for this old tree, it might be camphir in English but I'm not sure. Check out this hand written sign. You really need to look hard for it, easily missed.

The town is full of banana trees and banana farms.
One of the local goodies is banana eggroll crisp. Smelled great! But it had eggs in it, couldn't have any.
There are lots of pretty flowers blooming all over the place.
I went to old pottern kilm that got destroyed in 9/21 earthquake.

This is a picture of the well wishes for good luck or prayers people hang.


There are bike rental shops everywhere. You can get ones you petal or electric ones.

This trip have been a very bamboo trip. I have had the wonderful pleasure of eating fresh bamboo everyday here in Nantou. Doesn't upset my stomach too. Same is true with soybean milk. I can only drink fresh ones made within a few hours. Any of the store bought or even claimed to be fresh gives me diareah.

I stopped by this speed track for kids. I wanted to get on one of these bears and go around the track for 30NT. I had my eyes on this light brown one. Then a kid wails like no tomorrow and had the pipes of an Italian opera singer. I waited for the kid to stop and kept on going. It killed all fun in getting on the bear. I am sure if the kid was allow to go on it he would stop crying but he was too small, still in stroller. I am sure if I got on one he would get more upset.

This is a wonder shitake mushroom tempura, deep fried. The stand is to the right of the train station if you are facing the train. The first two pieces was crispy, delicious and made me want to order a second order. By the 4th peice and a few minutes later, I felt I couldn't finish and was glad I didn't order more.

This is the temple that collapsed during the earthquake.






This is the tunnel you have to pass to get in and out of CheCheng. I decided to go to CheCheng to chill out some more.






I must talk about instant noodles and Seven Eleven. There is pretty much hot boiling water in convient stores you can just help yourself to for tea or instant noodle without any charge, if you bring your own. They even have chopsticks for you. I love this brand of instand noodle. This particular flavor. The hot steaming boiling water is boiling. Be careful! I soak the noodles for 7-10 minutes and it's ready for eating. The trick is to open a small opening and pour in the seasonings, put in hot water and weigh the lid with chopstick. Smaller the opening the less space you need to keep sealed and covered because it already came that way from the factory and all of this will effect the tastiness of the texture of the noodle, soggy/crunchy or perfect. This brand of instant noodles does not have preservatives. It expires in 6 months. I am going to have to take some home for me. It's perfect camping food. I am going to have to go camping then, soon I guess.

I don't need to be eating instant noodles right now but I packed way too many packs for Alishan, 12, and it's taking up way too much space. I don't need that many packs and I don't want to lug it all. So I am having to eat, and eat and eat.

Plum Factory MeiZi, Er Ping Bing

Day 9
I got up at 5:30am to go do Tai Chi with my cousin's mother in law, I shall refer to her as Grandma Lee, up the temple in the mountain called WenZiGong. It felt good just to stretch and do some tai chi. It felt really good to watch the sun rise at 7am and see layers of the mountain ridges appear, including YuShan "jade mountain". It is the 15th of lunar calender so people visit the temple and make offerings. I really need to get back into doing tai chi everyday for an hour or more. Feels really good to do tai chi, I've missed doing tai chi, just get really lazy about getting myself going on doing tai chi.

The tai chi here, they do it to music. This requires getting used to for me.

This is the view down below from the temple.

I got to go to bed early last night and had a good 7 hours of rest. However I haven't been able to sleep straight, I have been waking up every two and half hours incriments. So I feel naps are a must to adjust and make up. After tai chi I laid down for another hour to rest some more. I didn't fall asleep but laying down felt really good. I have been really busy last two weeks and had very little rest. It felt good to rest. I am glad I am not sore from the bike ride. It's been a few years since I rode one. We went up hills and I actually had to get off the bike and walk it.

Then I went to Plum Factory and was introduced to the process of plum preserve making, cripsy crunchy plums, chewy plums and dry plums. I made it in time to watch plums getting smashed after the wash and salt. The air was filled with beautiful plum aroma. Plums are picked in the month of April. I arrived before the massive picking season that lasts the entire month of April, which starts next week.

This is where all the salted dried plum preserves are being dried, out in the sun. It takes about 3 to 4 months to finish the process.

This is a photo of plums after first wash before salt.


This is a photo of plums after salting and ready for smashing. Each plum gets smashed once with a wooden mallet.

One of their products is Mulberry juice concentrate.

We went up to ErPingShan where the classic flavors of popsicles are made in a famous factory. It's sunny today, I was hot and did put on lots of cedar oil on my body to repell bugs. This is the trail up to the factory. There are said to be snakes and monkeys. I didn't know about that until we were half way up the trail. If I had known ahead of time I wouldn't have taken the path. These were steep steps.

This is the view at the shop. The path to the shop is full of beautiful trees. I like classic flavors or peanut, red bean, green bean, taro. It is only 9NT per stick. I had two. I may have to come back on my own and eat some more. It really is delicious in flavor and texture.

This place did not get their name registered and trade marked but another company did and took their name. So all those who think they are eating famous delicious popsicle sold as "Er Ping" are not actually eating the real thing.

CheCheng

Day 8 Left early for the trip to Shuili. My cousin drove me and we stopped at various rest stops to get me educated. The rest stops in Taiwan is fun and very comfortable.

This was taken at the parking lot of the rest stop. People come here to sit and watch the night view.

The food is great and the place is a mini mall. I like all the road snacks you can buy and all the gift boxes you can buy.

The food is good here and so is the entire set up. There is also a mini aquatic aquariums in the mall. This place is set up better than most airports. Here are jelly fishes in this tank. I have not seen jelly fishes of these colors. My cousin told me about jelly fishes in Green Island where there are good snorkel sites. Well, I have heard many jelly fish stories and I prefer not to swim with them if they are everywhere. So I guess I will scratch out Green Island then. Snacks! Dried DoGan is popular in Taiwan.

People here don't go to places with empty hands, always carry gift boxes. The gift boxes have delicious goodies in beautiful boxes.
We got mushroom chips. I like these things they taste good. I wonder if they are fried then freeze dried. If so then it's not so good for the health. I may have to not eat any more of these delicious wonderful crunchy snacks.
My cousin and I decided to try this one that says stinky DoGan. We wondered if it would be stinky if you open the bag. We did and it wasn't stinky. I read the label carefully it's just named stinky that's all. And it wasn't very tasty. What am I doing to do with this entire bag of DoGan?


We met up with his inlaws who were at the monastery and we had lunch there. The place also had the most delicious sweet potato I've had so far, it tasted like there was honey in the sweet potato. Here is the sweet potato man and he is roasting the potato in classical oven.

















I rode the bike, called "iron horse" to CheCheng. I rode with his father inlaw, I will just refer to him as Grandpa Lee and a cousin in law Ding Hong to CheCheng. It's a cute place. Most of all, it felt really good and beautiful. Not a big place but just wonderful feeling. Makes you slow down your foots steps and slow down the gears between the ears.

We took the creek route to get to CheCheng. There were hills of which I couldn't climb with all my might and all my body weight. I didn't know how to shift gears and so I had to get off and walk my bike while Grandpa Lee made it up the hill just fine.
We also stopped by a peice of real estate for sale off the trail. Grandpa Lee decided it wasn't as valuable of a purchase. I told him it wasn't all play today, he squeezed some business in.



I was introduced to the wood factory, cedar wood mill. I like the feel of cedar wood and the feel of it. It's a beautiful wood. The mountains in this surrounding area is pretty and wonderful to look at.

This is my cousin Joy's cousin Ding Hong.





This is the train station preserved from it's original built.

Grandpa Lee is in the MeiZi business so he sees MeiZi everywhere.

These are old buildings still standing and being used as living quarters.

These rice buckets are sold with your rice bowl combo for 400NT.

Grandpa Lee runs into people everywhere. This is the son of a man who was his friend for years. He said at his age, people drop left and right, and then only the younger generation is left.



This man, another grandpa is only a year apart from Grandpa Lee. But look at the difference. He was in the Beetle Nut business and made a lot of money. He has one tooth left and looks so much older.

This is the water pond where all the cedar logs were soaked in. Now it's a wonderful place to sit and just enjoy the beauty.

This is a cedar wood mill museum plus cafe.

In Taiwan the trash system is dump trash every day. When the truck comes, run out with your trash and toss in the truck yourself.

Mosquitos are everywhere, I am bit all over. I am not cold because I was buring from all the bites. I was handed cedar wood oil to repell the mosquitos. This works better than deet. A lot more organic and not toxic for you. I may have to rethink my stay here due to mosquitos and my possible plans to southern Taiwan and to the tropical beaches may have to cancel because of the mosquitos. Definately not going to camp.

In the evening I was not hungry at all. People came over and talked about the wedding they are having etc.. It was quite an education on things, how people do things and the significance of the reception in people connection and etc...