Day 4

On the morning of day 4 we continued our circle of Taiwan island. Not being the biggest city people, we jumped off the train along the country side to see the mountains and hotsprings. The foreboding weather held off for us. The problem with getting off in the middle of nowhere is your chances are minimal of finding a person who can speak English. Also, you are lucky if you can find a visitors center. Well, a 15-minute taxi ride and many hand gestures later, we found ourselves in a visitors center sitting down with yet another friendly Taiwanese telling us nicely that we were in the middle of nowhere.

Our answer: "That's OK, we can do nowhere." Here we met Arthur. He was a 48 year old from northern Taiwan traveling by car with his friend. He came to the area to see the blooming of the famous day lilies. With no guide book, no Chinese ability and the threat of a downpour, we were grateful when Arthur invited us along with him.

There Gino and I were, sitting back, worry free, being chuaffered around by our new Taiwanese friends. First, we went to a tea garden, which was actually not a garden at all, just a tea shop. After we went to the mountain top to see the day lilies. At night they dropped us off at a hotspring resort where we frolicked in the steamy pools until 11 pm.

The cloudy day made for picture perfect backdrop against the day lilies:




The first picture is Arthur. Followed is Arthur's buddy, Mr. Yao.










He couldn't speak a word of English. His personality was so strong that when he spout off in Chinese you couldn't tell if he was angry or happy. Although we couldn't communicate directly with Mr. Yao, his vibrant personality and thirst for knowledge made a lasting impression on us.