Dragon Boat Festival!!

Martin, Kate and Katie



A dragon

Yesterday was a national holiday in Taiwan (4 day working week-yeah!) called the festival of dragon boats... being here for cultural development; i thought it my duty to experience the celebrations... but after a late night/early morning party on Tuesday, few of my colleagues shared my enthusiasm.... so knowing that a couple of buddies were already in Lugang (the venue for the dragon boat races), i set out on a bus hoping that the symbol on my ticket meant "Lugang";
Luckily when i got to Lugang a minesota graduate Tai lady was quick to hook me up with some people (who spoke no english) who were going to the event... armed with my phrasebook and a please-dont-abandon-me smile i followed them.
As the event is huge, there was a shuttle bus service running from Lugang to the river... excellent i thought... oh no!
The bus crammed to busting cirlced the city a few times picking up everyone who might want to go... and then after 30mins dumped us at another bus stop with a huge queue...for another bus... which eventually came, drove onto the expressway and stopped in a 2 mile tailback -obviously everyone was going the same place... 3 rows of cars in 2 lanes... when the scooters stopped weaving through... we knew it would be a while. So i suggested 'Why not walk the rest?' - walking in taiwan is a no-no; the look i got was a mixed disgust and sympathy for my clear insanity.... but after half an hour pleading i mangaged to start a mass exodus along the freeway towards our river...
we made it...

Dragon boats


I found Martin, Kate and Katie; i got a few photos of the dragon boats; it was kinda like Hull fair but without the rides, lots of music, food, stalls and tents.



It hadnt been long when it started to rain... so we decided to head to the scooters; Katie is quite tall, and she thought it better me drive and she sit on the back; otherwise her legs would get crushed... this was my first passenger scooter drive, so it was a bit scary, plus the rain soon turned torrential and everything down of my short jacket was drenched... then everything under my jacket was also drenched...



we stopped in Lugang looking like drowned rats; there's some cool temples and gift shops which we went dripping round, also ate some traditional steamed rice cakes with peanut sauce; very interesting!









There was a artist in one of the shops in Lugang painting fans. We were tired so sat to rest in his shop while he painted an image of the temple on a fan; it looked great so Kate bought it. By 6 pm we were knackered and are clothes were almost back to just damp... so we drove home (bad thing about driving without a visor in the dark-moths! huge ones flying into your face... ill have nightmares for weeks)
A thai curry back in Yuan Lin gave the day a happy ending though.