Day 9 (updated)

will be posted later.

I leave on a five day trip tomorrow to areas with limited/no computers or internet, so updates will be posted when I get back.
----Updated!---

Finally posted! Sorry for the shitty writing; I haven't written in a while so it took some time to get warmed up.

I’m writing this post-hoc so my memory’s a little hazy.

Today, we headed to Jin Hwa Shan to pay respects to my dead relatives. My aunt and I drove up the mountain (more mountain roads, woohoo) to the place where their ashes were located. In Taiwan, since land is scarce, most people get cremated and put in urns instead of being buried. Since my grandpa and some other relatives were Christian, they had their ashes put in a Christian-friendly funeral home.

First off, this funeral home was right next to a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge Buddhist funeral home, (which incidentally kind of looked nicer and more ornate. Huge white walls and golden Buddhas.)

Second, this funeral home was ridiculously beautiful inside--a really beautiful little chapel, and a small Zen garden. The crypts were located below ground; the way they were organized was that people could pay different amounts for different storage spaces; a 4-urn drawer (maybe 12 x 24 x 6) could go for 80,000 NT. Hence, really nice interior decorating for the funeral home.

Anyhoo. We paid our respects and headed to the Juming Museum. This place was really awesome, with exhibits inside and outside; Juming was a sculptor/artist and carved these amazing rock statues in taichi poses. He also did alot of painting and working with styrofoam, and even made a whole series based on the military as well as sports. The museum even had an exhibit that encouraged visitors to make their own art with two wire-frame styrfoam models with limbs you could manipulate (No, I didn’t do any dirty poses. Yes, I did make one model armbar the other.)

The museum also was displaying art from other famous artists--there was some beautiful stuff from Dali, and along an outside exhibit, local/invited artists had painted murals (some really amazing stuff--I saw one I really liked featuring paper airplanes.)

The museum also had a pond with huuuge carp and even some turtles, ducks, and a black swan. And of course, snack machines that sold fish food. I was planning on just feeding the fishes some Advil but decided to stop being a cheap bastard and buy some fishfood. And just as I have been cheated by so many vendors here (seriously, my umbrella breaks, the 2GB SD card I buy turns out to be only 1 gig, etc.), the machine took my money without giving me shit. In a fit of anger, I hit the machine, and two tubes of fishfood came out. Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it?

But yes, I had a great time feeding those gluttonous aquatic animals (yes, swans eat fishfood), but it was getting hot as a fat man’s crotchular area so we headed back indoors. I bought a few postcards, and we headed off to Yanmingshan (one of Taiwan’s most beautiful mountains.)

After another dizzying car ride, we got out and decided to hike up a trail to see the Menghuanhu Lake--a treacherous climb up stone steps surrounded by really loud, annoying bugs. But we made it only to be greeted with some marshy wetlands. Apparently huge crevasses on the bottom of the lake have been draining away its water. I felt fucking cheated.

We climbed down the hill, and headed off to the next spot- Lengshuikeng. This spot is basically a hotspring, except it’s temperature is lower than most, hence it being known as “cold water pit.” They have a public bath here; I took a quick peek inside and it was like looking into Hell with binoculars-- if hell is old wrinkled Asian dudes and more sack than any person (male or female) should see in a lifetime.

After my eyes stopped bleeding, we headed to the next attraction: Niunai Pond. Literally, it’s “Milk Pond.” I didn’t know what to expect but dayuuuum. It really does look like a small pond of milk. Because of the high sulfur content in Yangminshan, the water is funkily-tinted and hence whitish in color. Kinda cool, kinda weird, kinda nauseating if you look at it for long periods of time.

After, we headed off to see an artist’s village-- this village was mostly a collection of small houses. At one point in time, Chang Kai-shek had visited and had his residence on the mountain; the houses were where his bodyguards and staff lived. Now that most national business and affairs are conducted NOT on an obscure, hard-to-access mountain, the buildings were revamped and established into a village for artists.

Having had my fill of walking (goddamn my feet hurt), we went to dinner at a restaurant that had a great view of the Taipei night skyline. Roasting meat, drinking a gin & tonic and a whiskey sour, and having a magnificent view, it was a beautiful night.

Updates will be posted soon about my five day trip and what's been going on since then.