Taiwan, Random Photos 2

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  Spent mine at Cathy's parents', feasting on things like turkey, prime rib, Korean potato noodles, and kimchi.  Yes, I know, very traditional Thanksgiving Day cuisine.  Anyway, some more Taiwan photos:

Shrine at Longshan Temple in Taipei. We arrived during a time of regular worship, as a large congregation of people were chanting when we were first there (I tried my best to stay out of the way). Fun facts:  The temple was originally built in the 18th century and I also read it has been damaged/destroyed/rebuilt several times since.

Mom and Cathy strolling down a street in Maokong.  We went to Maokong for the tea since it used to be a very large tea growing area in Taipei. It was a rainy day, but it still made for some wonderfully unique views, pleasant tea drinking ambiance, and reduced crowds.

Wires in Maokong.  Eric and I were walking along when he noticed and pointed out this interesting perspective.  We actually rode a gondola to get to Maokong, which similarly elevated you high above the forested valley and (slowly) plunged you into the fog for nearly four miles.

Best part of Maokong: Big Teapot Restaurant. Mom ordered some sort of "tea meal tour," where every dish incorporated tea leaves. For example, the mushroom/chicken soup simmering on the left had tea bags in it, the shrimp in the middle was sauteed and accompanied with pan fried tea leaves, and the fried rice in my bowl was made with some finely crushed tea leaves. It was a delicious meal, and it didn't hurt that we were also treated to a nice view of the area directly next to us:

The restaurant view from my seat.

Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park. Historically, the area had many productive gold mines and briefly served as a POW camp by occupying Japanese. Some really interesting history and great scenery here.  We also visited nearby Jiufen, which had a fun street market - Mom ate a snail, I drank (and bought) some millet wine, Eric bought some traditional Chinese garb, random stuff like that.

Hot spring in Beitou Dire Valley. Some of the natural pools here apparently approached a near-boiling 90 degrees Celsius (so you weren't exactly allowed to jump in).  Instead, Eric and I checked out a nearby outdoor bath that had several pools fed by a hot spring. Still, one pool was so hot that we were only able to tolerate it for under a minute before having to jump out.

Just a sampling of all thing things we did.  Good times!