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!

Next up though was BY FAR my favorite part! We took a little trolly train contraption {with beautiful views by the way!} to the adjacent mountain peek and they had an open theater room where we were able to watch the 16 largest aborigine tribes showcase their songs and dances pertaining to the yearly harvest, friendship, marriage, and every stage of life in between!

Group picture after the show and our 1/2 an audience wide dance lesson!

And last but not least...if you have the willpower to walk past a suspension bridge without stopping for a picture or two and a hop or three...well then...I don't think we can be friends any longer! ;)