Taiwan Day Five: More in Shoufeng and Liyu Lake

The kids loved heading back to Lira restaurant for breakfast the next morning. We are finding plenty of reminders that we are heading back to the US soon, including this restaurant that shares a name with our cousin.

It was drizzling rain but we still biked to the restaurant and then around the area outside of the resort, too.

 

 

We swam for a couple of hours and it started to clear up. We ate noodles poolside for lunch.

 

After this, we had some chill out time in the room while Ted and I planned our outing to Liyu Lake. Before we could go, it was time to say goodbye to our family bike.

 

So we walked to the lobby to catch a taxi to the lake.

 

This is the kids' favorite statue.

 

Wy fell asleep in the taxi on en route to the lake, but he won't let go of fire car.

 

As soon as we got out of the taxi, someone was there to help us find a paddleboat to take out on the lake.

 

The weather is a little gloomy, but it's a beautiful place. It was cool to watch the fog move around the mountains, too. Eventually, most of it lifted and it got hot and sticky out.

 

There are a few fishermen along the bank opposite.

 

There were tons of large birds all around the lake.

 

 

A fisherman and his dog.

 

More birds.

 

After paddling all around the lake, we went for a little shipping. We found some small snacks and some great souvenirs.

 

We thought we would be able to catch a taxi at the lake on our own but apparently you have to call for them. Some very nice folks helped us do that and after a half hour or so, we were in a cool taxi. We didn't want to eat in the resort again so we had the driver drop us off near the train station in Shoufeng, the small town, to look for a local place to eat.

 

We found this fry-up place. They had everything. All fried. We made a meal out of fried potatoes, cauliflower, tofu, and sausages. Yes, even fried sausages. The son of the owners of this shop was a guy probably in his 20s. He spoke some English and after making the food, he sat down with us to talk. He was such a nice guy and it was cool to hear his story. We sat around talking for about an hour or so and then he called a cab for us. It was a lovely night.

 

Let me note here how wonderful everyone was when they heard we were from the US. They would say, "America!" and give us a big thumbs up. That feels great. We would say "Taiwan!" and return the thumbs up. There were some funny and confusing examples though like the hat for sale at a shop in Shoufeng that boldly read, "Chris Brown." Huh? And baseball and basketball are huge here. Everyone plays. Everyone follows MLB, especially the guy who plays for the Cubs now.

 

 

Back at the resort, I was ready for a shower and bed, but the kids still wanted to swim so Ted took them out for some fun while I relaxed.

 

Tomorrow, we would be leaving the resort and heading back into Taipei for our last night in Taiwan.

Taiwan Day Four: Shoufeng

We woke up early to another bright sunrise. Eventually breakfast time rolled around and we had more egg and ham sandwiches and coffee and juice. The owners of the hotel gave the kids some presents they had made. They appear to be chicken bones painted with nail polish to look like dragons. Pretty cool, pretty delicate. We'll see if they make it back to the US.

After breakfast, they gave us a ride to the train station where we caught a train to Hualien and transferred to one heading to the smaller town of Shoufeng. After some work, we found a cab to take us to our next stop, unlike any place we have ever stayed before, Promisedland Resort and Lagoon. It's a big resort with pools, hot springs, boats, and lagoons, sort of Disney-style. The kids were tired of hiking and we figured they would have a ball here. We were right.

We were again too early for check-in but we were prepared for that. I grabbed the bathing suits out of my purse and we started swimming in one of the pools, the one with a kids playground inside it. We had to purchase required swim caps for $5. The resort seems to cater to maybe Japanese tourists?

 



 

 

 

 After an hour or more of swimming, we walked across the street for a huge Asian buffet lunch at a place called Aroma. The food was yummy but the kids were restless. We checked on our room status after lunch and luckily it was ready so we had a golf cart drive us around to our room. The kids brought out their toys and were ready to play in the air-conditioning for a bit so we did that. We even took a short nap since it would be a late night.

 

Eleanor and Ted didn't really nap much and went out exploring. They found us a really cool bicycle rental.

 

 

 

No need to worry about any problems with the bike, there were instructions.

 

 

We rode the bike around the resort to check it out before heading to dinner.

 

 

 

 

Part of the resort is a working farm. The kids fed and petted the ducks and ponies.

 

 

 

 We figured what with all the concern of avian flu, why not go to rural Taiwan and play with some ducks and chickens?

 

After washing hands really well, we biked to a huge buffet dinner at the resort restaurant called Lira. Ted was finally able to try chili crab. We ate like royalty and then went for a swim and dip in the hot springs. The pool and slide are all cool (cold) water and inside the cave-like structure are the different hot springs of varying degrees of heat.

 

We kept alternating pools and hot springs and had a great time. Once it got dark, we were still swimming. Around 8:30 we got back on our bikes and headed to the Entertainment Complex to watch some dancing.

 

This resort in Taiwan is Spanish-themed in architecture, décor, and dance. The dance would be a mix of flamenco and native Taiwanese tribal. We watched the lovely flamenco dancers who were surprisingly quite good. The tribal guys came on and did their thing but then they brought out rings and asked for volunteers. By the way, this was all done in Chinese of course so we had very little idea of what was going on. Wyatt could tell they were asking for volunteers and he asked if he could go. Before we could even answer (we were shocked) he was off Ted's lap and up on the stage. He just followed the other kids around and did what they did because he couldn't understand what they were saying to him. When it was his turn to toss the rings onto the emcee's arms, he showed a great overhand throw. Okay, it wasn't entirely great for rings, but still he showed off his arm. The crowd had gasped when they saw him go on stage and they continued to cheer for him and "ooh" and "ahh." He did great and eventually made it back to his seat with a balloon sword.

 

Later that night, during the finale, the girls decided to join the volunteers to a do a dance around the hall. A dancer grabbed Ted too. Once Wyatt saw them walking onto the stage he jumped out of my lap to join them. I guess he likes to perform. So everyone participated in the show but me. And because we had been swimming, we had decided to leave our camera in the room and we missed recording any of this. We found our bike and pedaled our way home to bed. What a big day!

 

The kids were having so much fun, we decided to book another night.