Tainan County

Today I got to take a little excursion. :) Last night my friend Sam asked me how much of Taiwan I had seen so far and I told him which cities I had been in and I said I wished I could see some countryside like Ali Mountain, a mountain in the middle of the island that I heard about in a book I am reading. So he doesn't speak much English but he asked me, "Do you want to come with my friend and me to countryside? Be here 9 am!" So I showed up in the morning not knowing any other details and got in the car with Sam and Allen, who both speak limited English. I don't even know where we went because they never really told me, but I know the end destination was Tainan County, not the city. First of all, I think they must have been flipping a coin at every turn for a while because they rarely agreed on which road was right, both would point a different way and the car turned around a lot. But apparently the way Taiwanese travel is, each part of Taiwan has something it is known for and because you can basically drive across it in 8 hours, you stop every 20 minutes or so and check out the town. Our first stop was apparently the home of the lotus flower. It was beautiful and we even ate lotus ice cream...which was interesting, but GOOD! (the picture is of Sam buying some)

The next place we went was apparently the home of the mango. We stopped one and bought a whole basket of mangoes, but on our way back home we topped again to get mango ice, one of my new favorite things: shredded ice with mangoes, mango sauce, and mango ice cream on top.

Then we went on to the mountain! Not Ali mountain, but I think it was called MeiLing mountain? Or maybe Minglei Mountain? It is the "mountain that grows plums" apparently, and we had plum tea and chicken feet soup in plum broth, neither of which I could really eat much of to be honest. Pictures can't even begin to depict the amazing sights I have seen, but I will try anyway. The missionaries here have church Saturday night and so my Sundays are mostly free and I can't think of a better way to see God than in His creation! I was singing about the mountains bowing down and having faith to move a mountain the whole time (in my head)! We drove up most of it and climbed the rest. As you can see from the stairs, it was quite daunting. And today it was at least 90 and 80 or 90% humidity.

Then after the mountain we moved on to the reservoir. The dam was closed, but we got to see some other amazing and beautiful sights anyway. Palm trees, banana trees, green gum trees, and I don't know what other kind of trees and plants and mountains and rivers and people and foods and drinks and insects and EVERYTHING! :)

Overall, great day! I would post all my pictures if there weren't over 100 just from today. :) Sorry no mission update today, but I will post one soon. Miss you all!

LB