Moon Festival and Jiufen

Recently Taiwan celebrated Moon Festival. It is also known in some other parts of the world as Mid-Autumn Festival. What this meant to me was that I had two days off from work which means a four day weekend. 

Leading up to Moon Festival it was annoying because we had to make up the classes that we were having off. Yeah don't ask me that is just the way that things work here or at least at my school. It also messed with our schedule for what classes I was teaching but it all ended well.

The first day of Moon Festival I did nothing. We had a typhoon going though and the weather wasn't all that nice for any of the days but yeah the first day I did nothing. It is my vacation I can spend it what ever way I wanted. I slept in and for lunch I went and got ice cream. By the way it was Cold Stone Icecream so it was really good. I did clean a little but yeah didn't really get anything done or go any where.

The second day, that Friday, my roommate and I met up with two of our friends and went to Jiufen. Jiufen is located an hour away from Taipei. Even though the weather wasn't the greatest we decided to go anyway. We took the bus from Taipei because it was easier and was only $102NT.

I have to say that I wasn't expecting to have the view of the ocean that we did. Too bad that we had crap weather. I have to go back when the weather is nicer. Besides from the views and the temples the main attraction of Jiufen is the lantern covered streets. It is full of different shops with all sorts of stuff in it. 

This was my favorite sign btw

There was a lot of cool stuff although I didn't really buy anything. After wandering around we ended up stopping at this one tea house that was up on the hill. We ordered a pot of oolong tea. When the owner brought it out we had no idea what to do but we were able to watch what she did and mimic her.

my friend pouring the tea

It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon:chatting and sipping tea. We also had an awesome view and could watch the clouds roll down the mountain. We spent probably two hours there. 

Since it was still early afternoon when we left my friends and I decided to go find the one temple that was popular. To do so we headed back through the lantern street. We honestly didn't know which way that we were going. We found the local elementary school and another temple that wasn't the one we were looking for. When we reached the end of the lantern road we stopped and had a snack of shrimp balls which were delicious. 

RAWR!!!!!!

I'm getting hungry just seeing this picture

 We headed in the direction of the Kite Museum hoping to either find the shrine or the museum. This lead us down the mountain. There were some really long set of stairs that we used. Looking back this probably wasn't the brightest or safest idea because it had started to rain causing the stairs to be a little slippery. Taking it slow we were able to make it down in one piece. 

Even though we went down the stairs as the sign pointed at for the Kite Museum we still could not find it. picked a direction and started walking in it. We didn't really know where we were going but we were having an adventure. We walked along until we came to a large shrine. It might have the temple that we were originally looking for but there was no one around to tell us and we also can't read Chinese to tell.

It never ceases to amaze me how much detail is in the craftsmanship of temples here. Anyway after taking tons of pictures we headed back up the mountain. We thought going down was scary but going back up was worse. We took the stairs that were next to the shrine and were hardly used so they were partially over grown. By the time that we reached the top the weather really started to get bad so we decided to call it a day and head back to Taipei. 

Over all it was a really fun trip and I need to go back when the weather is nicer. The next day I sat a home doing nothing because I didn't want to be out in the rain but the day after that was Special Live In Taiwan Show which will be another post. Till next time.