Aboriginal Village

--- --- Sunday, October 4, 2015 --- --- --- ---

(yes, yes, yes...I'm a little behind...apparently life keeps moving even when the blog isn't!)

So to continue from my previous Ping Dong Mountains post from yesterday; Sunday morning we woke up bright and early from our "out in the boonies hotel" (I'm not kidding here! 3 sides were covered in pineapple fields and the 4th was a field full of beetle nut trees...BOONIES I'm telling ya!)  ANYWAYS! lol, we woke up early and boarded the buses for {well at the time I wasn't sure...remember I'm still amazing we have 80 people in our group instead of 5...I clearly have no idea what's going on!)

So we boarded these buses and drove and dove and found ourselves here, at the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Cultural Park. Let's just say I was pumped!

We started our tour of the Cultural Park with a visit to the museum where {luckily} many of the captions were in English, so I was able to read up on the local Indians and learn about their daily lives. (Like how you have to prove yourself to be worthy to be considered a man or a woman {instead of a child} and once you have proved yourself it is a badge of honor for men to get several of their teeth pulled and women to get facial tattoos....oh how cultures can be so different!)

Once we finished in the museum is was time to watch the bamboo cannon demonstration {take me back to Mulan for this one!} song / dance / cannons included!

PingDong Mountains

--- --- Saturday, October 3, 2015 --- --- --- ---

Several weeks ago I was approached by one of the daughters of the family I live with and was asked if I wanted to go on a weekend trip “with my mother and her friends”. I was told they were going to Pingtung (or PingDong) at the southern tip of Taiwan. I was given a price and told that everything was included in the price…it sounded like a great deal for a fun trip (although what fun was to be had I still wasn’t sure!) so I agreed and gave them a thumbs up!

Packing for a weekend away when you have NO idea what is going on is difficult. I was told to bring walking shoes….I had no other information {where are we staying, how are we getting there, do I need nice clothing, a swimsuit?} NOTHING! (…I honestly thought about giving up, throwing in the towel, and bringing JUST my walking shoes lol….but I decided against that I grabbed some bug spray  on the way out as well! :P

Well let me tell you, it was my surprise when I show up to the meeting place bright and early at 6am last Saturday only to find 2 coach buses and 70 some people waiting to board for the weekend “with my mother and her friends”! I later found out “mother and friends” organized a guided tour and they all brought ALL their families…hence 70 something people at 6am doing the hokey pokey outside the buses (ok not really, but it did take some maneuvering to get us all in the right places!)

This tour ended up being a guided tour of some of the mountains near the south of Taiwan….oh my goodness, BEAUTIFUL!!! We had a nice hop-on hop-off guided tour service where we would drive a bit, get off the bus go around, get back on, drive a bit and repeat. I’m telling you, I also think they were preparing me for their personal Thanksgiving feast as all they did was bring more, and more, and MORE food! Our weekend fare included 7 full meals (yes please do the math I wasn’t even gone 48 hours haha) in which we ate at traditional Chinese restaurants where food is brought out (not ordered specifically) and served family style at the lazy-susan table. As soon as you being to think you were full they’d show up with another plate of food that you {{just HAD to try}}!

The pictures below are from our first day {Saturday} Sunday warrents it’s own blog post…. (I know I’m behind L I promise it’s coming!)