If I wrote this entry in my usual overly verbose, blown out with minutia, laden with detail style, we’d be here till Christmas: so, I won’t!
Thanksgiving was just that: a time for us to pause and say thanks for giving us what we considered a long awaited well deserved break. We forwent the delights of the Thanksgiving party at school on Wednesday night (AKA the swill fest) to spend a bit of quality time with mates (me) and the cats (Cass).
Thursday was a big day for us as we planned to sleep in just a little then decadently watch the whole first day of the first test of the Australian summer and we did just that! I even relented and spent about $40 for a year’s subscription to some streaming just to make sure we’re not interrupted when we really want to watch some cricket. That evening we went to Wendel's and we both had their absolutely delicious steak with pepper sauce: this is just first class stuff, washed down with some quality German red wine.
Cass made a tangy batch of her famous lemon butter for the break so Friday started out the same with hot slabs of toast with lemon butter and beaming cricket from the PC to the TV. At the lunch break we decided to attempt the climb of what we found out later (!) to be North Taiwan’s highest mountain> Scootering up to the base near the Yangminshan Visitor’s centre we set off up the stairs. Little did we realize that 2.5 kilometres straight up we still had not quite arrived at the peak! We were above the cloud line and the top 1/3 of the climb was quite surreal. We encountered lots of squirrels, heaving hikers, strange moss covered foliage and trees and rocks and an other worldly spookiness as we climbed ever higher. On the way back down we discovered a gigantic open space with picnicking hikers and various other groups. I managed to stuff my knee after all those steps and had to peg leg my way down the last little bit. Cass and I still have screaming calf muscles today and we find ourselves exclaiming in pain at the oddest moments! All in all 4 hours of climbing was no mean feat.
Dinner out at Saffron, a very slick Indian restaurant near the cinema and then the very worthwhile and surprising “District 9” from South Africa was our cinematic fare on Saturday.
The Pillbox beckoned on Sunday for a surf trip and Cass enjoyed the sit on the beach in the sun while I got a few uncrowded waves (an increasingly rare event these days in Taiwan). We had a pleasant trip then decided to cross the red bridge to Bali on the left bank of the Danshui river.
Bali was a fantastic spot! We parked then strolled along the boardwalk, taking in the unusual view looking back at Danshui and people watching and sampling the “special and delicious” foods, some of which were OK and some of which were not good at all! We wandered for a few hours and marked a few spots we’ll definitely return to. It was a terrific afternoon and a fitting end to a great re-charging break. Here's a link to the slideshow accompanying this post.