A few hours in Taiwan
We are slowly making our way to Nagasaki by boat (from Hong Kong). Still in a bit of a jetlag haze, but we made an excellent decision to give ourselves a few days to get our bearings (working out cel phone and bank card snafus, discovering all the things we didn’t pack, finishing up work, etc).
A closed ghost museum where we were briefly captive.
A total highlight so far was spending most of the day in this port town of Taiwan called Keelung. We set out to go for a run in the drizzling rain, and ended up discovering this huge staircase and decided running up it would be a good workout…it led us to this incredible building that we thought was a shrine and we let ourselves in through a gate, only to realize it was a ghost museum that is only open in the summer (bummer!). We got locked in for a few minutes, assumed the ghosts were having a lark - escaped with souls intact.
A giant Goddess of Love overlooking the city of Keelung
This little trail led us to a beautiful shrine and giant buddha-esque statue called the Goddess of Love. The pictures don’t do her justice – it was incredible to stand with her – serene and powerful and moving. In the shrine, ladies were busy putting their offerings on the alters – lots of fruit piled neatly, several cups of milk, flowers. Incense was burning all over the place. We explored around a bit, Mark gonged this humongous bell and we headed back down to the small city. I paused in front of a shop that had large jars of something - the owner, clad in a fabulous starry night sweatshirt, noticed me and welcomed us in. He crafts kombucha made from only organic Taiwanese tea. His name is Jimmy, his company is called True Love. He sat us down and gave us several tastings and explained how most tea sold in Taiwan is imported and of the tea that is produced locally, only 3 percent is grown organically (although he says that is changing and more farms are switching to organic). We took a bottle to go and went looking for lunch at the Night Market (usually also open during the day) where there are stalls with tons of food being made to order.
Jimmy’s organic kombucha “True Love”
Jimmy - the kombucha maker
We got sidetracked by a place that had a beautiful array of fresh food – most things we couldn’t identify. We thought it was a sort of mini grocer, but then the two wonderful women running the shop, Ting Ting and Ki Lee, explained (using gestures and a bit of google translate) that we put the ingredients we want them to cook in a bowl. Heavenly. We ate a huge meal with several kinds of tofu, lotus, many kinds of mushroom, various green leafy things, kelp and other stuff we guessed were mostly seafood-based.
Me trying to identify an ingredient (by smell) for lunch
After lunch, I poked my head into what looked like a foot massage place. I was a little timid, but the gentlemen who worked there greeted me with huge smiles and encouraged me to go in. Two other ladies followed suit and soon all three of us were sitting in a row getting our feet rubbed by these three MASTERS of massage. It was one of the most incredible bodywork sessions I’ve ever had and lasted at least an hour. No one spoke English, but we were all very convivial, and made faces and laughed with each other when the guys dug into particularly tense spots. I am pretty sure all my organs are in better shape.
Ting Ting and Ki Lee - the chefs
A wonderful few hours – and a nice antidote to feeling a little bit disoriented and foggy. The discovery has begun.
