Happy Chineez Noo Year

Just got back from a very...surprising trip around central Taiwan. We started in Taizhong - huge letdown. Bad weather (oh well) and everything we were interested in was either closed (a good hotpot restaurant, a place called "Cafe Orgasmo" because we saw it on the way into town and were utterly fascinated by such a horrible name for a bar, and Stock 20), about to close due to the late afternoon hour (the Confucius Temple, all the other museums) or lackluster (Nantun Old Street - though the 2 temples there were OK). But we found a good Indian restaurant/bar once we wandered down Taizhonggang Road and drank up to our inauspicious start.

Then we headed up to Cingjing Farm - and it rained the whole damn time. Fog, too. More on that tomorrow; it's late now.

Also, the buses across to Lishan were not running due to "record snow" on Hehuanshan. Which we would've liked to have seen, but with no bus and some of us on a limited budget meaning no charter taxis or the like...no.

So we gave up on our "mountains!" idea - though we met some interesting people along the way - and went to Puli because, well, what else were we going to do? Give up? Never!

And finally, after sleeping in a cold, damp tent (yes, a TENT) in the cold mountain rain for two nights, playing cards in the lodge because there is NOTHING ELSE TO DO IN THE MOUNTAINS IN THE RAIN (unless you want to hike in the cold rain and get even wetter, which we did not wish to do), we managed to have a good time in Puli with a brief stopover in Caotun.

But yes, more on that tomorrow.