10/11/10 - 10/13/10 (luzhou)

Luzhou

After a full day’s work on Independence Day we earned ourselves a day of R&R. The day was filled with naps and reading, not to mention more eating. While we have been here we have not felt hungry. There is constant eating and snacking since there are so many things to try. Along with eating, the Taiwanese love to shop and get their hair washed. It is common for ladies to get their hair washed a few times a week since it is very inexpensive, ranging from $3-4USD. The experience often includes a full head massage and blow dry so it is a great deal. It makes for a great sister bonding time for Grace and me.

In between our eating feast we also managed to squeeze in a few more sights. One late afternoon we visited Danshui, which resembles San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. One of the friends we met on the night of the fireworks, Garcia, recommended Danshui for photography and video. We arrived just in time for Jon to capture a time lapse of the sunset. Even after the sunset it illuminated rays of sunlight, something I had never seen. While Jon was shooting he mentioned to my sister that he would like to buy a conical hat that the street cleaners use. Reflective material covers the conical hat so oncoming traffic are aware of the cleaners. It looks as if they are wearing traffic cones on their head. After sneaking investigation by Grace, she was able to obtain one from one of the cleaners free of charge. We later found out that they are only available from the cleaning companies and you can’t purchase them anywhere. Grace has a way of making things happen…ask and you shall receive. After Danshui Grace and Arnold decided to take us to a temple only the locals visit called the 18 Lords Temple in northern Taiwan. The temple is the busiest between the hours of 2am – 5am as most of the people coming to visit the temple work at bars and clubs. When we got home the usual crew came over for a late night drinking party, which included Johnson and Jeff. Arnold mentioned that there is a temple that has a Guanyin statue with one thousand arms. He claimed once when he was younger that he counted them one by one. No one believed him.

The next day he took us to the Guanyin temple and indeed it did look like there were one thousand arms. The statue was barricaded so we couldn’t get close enough to count them but after seeing it we all believed Arnold. In the evening we grabbed a beer with my friend, Dylan, who I worked with at Nova in Japan. It was one of the few times Jon and I ventured on our own while in Taiwan without my sister. We weren't sure where to go so we went to Shingminting, an area close to where I grew up. After asking around we were directed to an area filled with bars. I hadn't realized they were all gay bars until Dylan and Jon pointed it out to me. It was good to know that there is a vibrant gay community in Taipei. It was fun catching up with Dylan who I hadn't seen since I left Japan and Jon was happy to find reprieve from the Taiwanese drinking customs.

Comments

[ml]

This drinking custom sounds interesting.