I enjoyed a lovely lazy morning catching up with people and reading.
Taiwan weather forecasts alert people to earthquakes. There were three today. Clicking on the link provides all the technical details of location, size, and depth.
Another good breakfast full of things I’ve eaten, but not together at breakfast time. Mushrooms, coleslaw, raisins, bread, cucumbers, avocado, a hash brown, scrambled eggs, what I call Taiwanese bacon (thin sliced back bacon), edamame, plus bananas sprinkled with granola. All on the same plate.
Then I figured I’d better do something with my afternoon. I walked to the nearby Beinan Archaeological Park, which was very interesting. It’s the largest prehistoric site ever found in Taiwan, with over 1,600 grave sites. Plus it’s a nice park. There is a permanent excavation site with good explanations in English, plus some re-creations of Beinan houses and slate slabs, slate coffins, plus a small but interesting indoor exhibition.
This open air excavation site has great signage and everything is close enough to get a good look. People were buried in slate coffins right near the houses (keep your relatives close), with a few treasures like tools or bits of jade jewelry.
I enjoyed this site so much that I decided to go on to see the National Museum of Prehistory. That turned out to be a long and not very nice walk . On the way there, it was hot and I didn’t pass a single restaurant. The only sort of nice bit was walking beside more orchards.
For a place with such great cycling infrastructure, walking anywhere was hard today. This is as good as the sidewalk got. Sometimes I was just on the side of the road.
The walk was worth it in the end - it’s a very nice museum, and wasn’t too busy. It also had interesting natural history info. There are land locked salmon here (critically endangered). Who knew? And during the last ice age, there were some glaciers in Taiwan - also, the lower water levels created a land bridge across what is now the Taiwan Strait. Among other creatures, there were hyenas, horses, and a sort of elephant here.
I took a different route back. It was shorter but even worse in terms of scenery. At least it was overcast and cooler. A total of 18 km of walking means I didn’t quite have the rest day I was planning.
We’ve noticed some really expensive cars at unassuming homes - this is a Maserati. External house appearance doesn’t seem to be a focus.
I was torn about where to eat dinner. There were two interesting places within about 100 m. One was an izakaya that reportedly has terrific grilled shrimp. The other was a more homestyle place, but fancier than last night’s noodle stand. Still a bit like a cafeteria, with bright lights and self-serve drinks and cutlery. The izakaya was locked up tight, so no beer for me tonight. I went with option #2 and had oolong tea with my three cup chicken - a Taiwanese classic. It came with rice, veg, salad, soup, and a custard that I hoped would be crème caramel. No such luck - it was savory. I think there was a morsel of chicken at the bottom. But there was a cut up orange for dessert. I’ve cut my sugar consumption here for sure. No doubt a good thing. The cost was NT$250. Or about $11 CAD. That’s quite a bit more than I’ve usually spent. That amount might buy a coffee and muffin at home, if you’re lucky. Like many restaurants, there was no liquor for sale at all. Isn’t that where North American restaurants make their money?
My very good dinner. Main course was three cup chicken, a Taiwanese classic (chicken braised in soy, rice wine, oil, garlic, and ginger, plus mine had Thai basil).
