August 25, 2012
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2012 Summer Trip - Taiwan East Coast, P1: the towns
Originally I was going to try posting up all these pictures and posts tonight. I envision about 5 posts in this series covering all aspects of our trip. This trip is an annual event for us, recreating our honeymoon trip down to Taiwan's southern tip, over to the east coast and then up Pacific Highway 9 to Highway 5 and the 20 mile tunnel that cuts from Yilan through the mountains and then exits out into Taipei. At best this trip takes 6 days worth of driving. We usually expand it out to about 10 just to give us time to sight-see.
Part one of this series is only gonna cover the towns we specifically visited, giving merely an overview and timeline for all the rest of the series and pictures that are to follow. There's humor to this, so stick with it. What I'm about to do with the pictures wasn't planned... but we joked about it all along the way. It never failed... it always happened... every town... every time. You'll see as the pictures unfold.
August 7th
Our first stay was in Tainan. Kai's mother and father are still living, so we always plan time to spend with them. We left our home on August 7th, it's a 6 hour trip from Ba-Li where we live to Tainan. (In Google Maps cue "From Bali District, Taiwan - To Tainan, Taiwan" for a good overview.)
Kai's parents were in Korea for a few days so we had the house to ourselves for a night.
August 8th
From there we drove south to our first BnB in Wan-Li-Tong... super small town (about 200 people) where the BnB only cost us $35 US a night. The room is like a closet, the bed is on the floor, the bathroom is so small only one of us can fit in it at a time... but it's literally right on the South China Sea and the view is amazing to wake up to.
The town is so small that it doesn't show up with an English name in Google maps. Even the streets are listed as "Unknown road". Here's a Google Satellite shot of the ENTIRE town. You can see where the China Sea is in blue and green under the town. I put arrows at our BnB and the beach.
August 9th
We were supposed to go snorkeling, but there was a Typhoon in the Philippines just below Taiwan and the waves were menacing and choppy. So we did the next best thing and went to MaoBiTou instead. (Mao = Cat... Bi = Nose... Tou = Head --- Cat Nose Head rock park. Again, no English Google Map name, sorry.)
When there, we brought along our cats to compare with the rock formation (thumbs down... our cat's noses looked better). Even the tourists thought our cats were a better attraction....
They wouldn't let us leave for nearly 45 minutes --- no fooling. Chinese tourists thought Kiki, Xiao Hu and Stumpy were better photo-op's than the rock.
From there we skipped over to Heng-Chuen for lunch.
Where we had some delicious noodles. We went back later that same night for an American dinner, but forgot the camera.
After lunch we headed into Ken-Ting for the night market there. Our Cats were the talk of the town.
August 10th- 14th
After our trip to Ken-Ting we headed back up to Tainan for 4 days with the In-laws. The cats took the opportunity to engage in their favorite sports.
Birdwatching ---
And Power-napping.
Let it not be said that a cats life is easy. Power-napping takes up a lot of energy.
August 15th
From Tainan we then drove to the east coast in one long 7 hour trip. Our first stop on the east coast was the Bu'Nun tribal village / resort. Kai's father knows the tribal pastor very well.
The Village Resort is kinda pricy, clocking in at about $90 US a night. They give you an aboriginal dinner and a Taiwanese breakfast. Not my cup-o-tea, but their fried rice is the second best on the Island.
That last little fellow was the only Maine Coon Cat I've seen in Taiwan. I desperately wanted to take him home with us. Sweetly tempered, he let both Kai and I pick him up on several occasions.
August 16th
Here's the tribal pastor and my wife.
".....awww, do you have to leave?" (Xiao Hu and an unnamed tabby)
One last shot of the cute guy....
From Bu'Nun we drove to Yu-Li for lunch
The lunch was exceptional --- worth coming back for.
From Yu-Li we drove to RueiSui for a moderately price and E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y comfortable BnB. The BnB was roomy and the beds were so wonderful that we overslept by 3 hours on Friday morning and missed the dancing in Gong Qian.
For dinner that night we drove back to Yu-Li to see if a steak house there was American or Taiwanese. (It turned out to be Taiwanese.... which will have it's own story to come.)
After checking out the smallish Night Market there, we drove back to the BnB....
Where we found Kiki sleeping comfortably in her own make-shift bed.
August 17th
The next morning our cats engaged in Bird-watching again...
While we headed off to Gong Qian for a Summer Harvest Festival with the church we've grown to love there.
The weather looked ominous... but sunshine held through most of the sports events. (Many pictures on that, and it will be an entire post by itself.)
That night, Kiki decided to sleep in something more comfortable (well, to her at least...)
August 18th
The following day --- after oversleeping 3 hours --- we packed up our cats and arrived at Gong Qian in time for their town festival lunch.
We couldn't stay for the rest of the day, we had to drive to JiaoXi --- a 6 hour trip.
These guys were literally waiting for us in our parking space ... go figure.
August 19th
The next day we spent time with one of Kai's friends and a couple from France. Our first stop was a small town named "Su-Ao" for a very tasty Taiwanese style lunch.
From there we headed off to Mei-Hua lake for a stroll and some conversation
and finally we headed back to JiaoXi for dinner.
August 20th
Our trip at an end, we drove the 4 hours home.... where the cats were finally thankful to be free from life in the car.
I have to say this in closing --- we did not go looking for cats to take pictures of. It honestly just happened that every town we stayed in, every where we went... there was a cat somewhere when we had our camera.
God must have chuckled a lot planning that one.
Oh... did I forget to mention... we picked up a "new" cat this week. ROFL.... I only wish it was the Bu'Nun Maine Coon cat... meet Tsai-Hong or "Rainbow".
