March 28, 2014
A morning in the park meeting locals
This morning we got up, were lazy reading and writing for a while, and then went to breakfast. After breakfast we decided to take a walk around the grounds of the hotel, but there wasn’t really much to see. We kept walking and found ourselves in a park that is right next door to the hotel. There were some great views from there. But our first sight was a woman selling vegetables, next to a man using a cleaver to cut up bones parts of an animal with hooves, probably a cow or pig (the local butcher shop). We kept walking up the trail, running into large groups of people hiking around. We heard music and lots of voices and laughter. We kept walking up, up, up many, many stairs. We found a temple, quiet, small in the mountains, where the hiker can stop to pray. It was serene, peaceful and beautiful. We kept going, running into little makeshift stalls, women selling clothes or more vegetables. We kept going up, up, up the stairs through the mountains and through the trees We passed people exercising. We passed a group of people playing badminton. And another group having breakfast on a little terrace or landing. They waved to us and invited us to join them. We smiled and bowed but said no and kept on going.
To read more, click on this link:
Yangmingshan National Park
We decided to grab lunch before our afternoon adventures. We took the shuttle down towards the train station as we had noticed several little restaurants. Everything was in Chinese. But we peeked in to see what people were eating and chose one of the little tiny places serving vermicelli noodles and soup. A simple but filling lunch.
To read more about Yangmingshan National Park, volcanic sulphur pits and hot springs, click on this link: