day 5!

After a shitty night's rest (Kevin snored like a fiend, so I plugged in earphones and almost blasted my ear drums open trying to drum him out, but it didn't matter since Jennifer tossed and turned all night muttering angry epithets under her breath at Kevin's snoring), wake up the next morning. There is this huge ....hot tub like thing outside of our room, shared with 4 other rooms. It is unfortunately not filled, since it's the off-season. 

Lodging included breakfast, which was rice congee (rice cooked in extra water so it's soupy) and all the mix-ins. :) Traditional chinese breakfast?

The plan for today is to go to Shitou, which is the name of something (a park?) in Nantou. I think. It's really hard to tell where we are exactly, ever, and whether it's the name of a restaurant, a street, a district, or a city, because moms and aunties babble quickly in Chinese. :/

Oh joys! We get to go hiking. And I'm wearing a cute pair of flats I'd bought cuz I'm dumb and tried to pack super duper light. Well that part was actually a good idea -- everyone else packed like we were headed for an earthquake or something, instead of going on an overnight trip. But I'm dumb for not bringing better shoes for hiking. :(

The park is...nice. It has trees. (I'm sorry this shit is wasted on me :( I'm sure it's very beautiful, I just feel like I've been to this exact same park 20x already).

Obligatory ass shot! Kevin is....knowing him, he's probably farting. sigh. /)_- Nice bamboo section. :) Although, did you know, bamboos are weeds?? Don't plan them in your gardens people!!
 You have been warned.

Mossy rock! So I can pretend to be a photographer with my macro shot. :|

Ladies and gentlemen, the lees.

The culmination of our lovely hike. A tree. (If you took a look at it and said to yourself -- wait a minute, isn't that tree dead? Keep it to yourself! Don't ruin the moment :o) (You're right though. It looks pretty dead to me). It's actually a super ancient old tree, hit by lightening a few times. (Maybe it's time the old guy took a hint, eh?? :p)

A cool flower on the side of the road. It just fell I swear! I'm no poacher.

Lol. Michael and I both fought to take pics of the same flower, and we ended up creating a Panasonic ad.

1 hike and 2 protesting feet later, we load back into the car and move on. Stopped at the side of the road to buy lil mountain bananas!!

They tasted just like normal bananas....except that now I get to make jokes about cute little asian bananas XD

The only place we could find for lunch was this fancy ass hotel called Le <something> de Chine. There was a crazy  view of this lake nearby.

All the food was expensive so we opted for coffee (this is my Irish coffee)....

....and afternoon cakes. Which were also butt expensive. But look how pretty! :D

Cakes also came with some waffles....

...and ice cream! My sibs didn't want ice cream, and the other table of adults didn't want em either so I GOT TO EAT 4 ICE CREAMS!!! XD

Headed back to our aunt's house, and they insisted on taking us out to dinner again, at some fancy shmancy Japanese place. This was our first course -- lobster salad.

Some sashimi.

 

shark's fin soup? I thought it was kinda gross, gave mine to my dad. Lots of other dishes I didn't bother taking pics of, but it was all pretty good :) EXCEPT for one dish with pig kidneys and...testicles. Yup. Apparently they're pretty expensive. And tasty, according to my dad, who ate 5. D:

Ohhh the garnishes on all the food were really awesome though! Here's a pepper that was shaved/peeled to look like a flower. :)

After dinner we said our goodbyes and climbed back on the bus to ride back to Taipei. All in all, Nantou was pretty nice. :) Not my sort of thing but the people were so nice (my aunt and her family), and it was a very different experience and lifestyle that I'm glad I got to see. I'll most likely be going back at the beginning of May, though, for this hike that they're doing -- sposed to be the prettiest area of Taiwan! It's still a ways away though. :)