Is it a Vegas hotel? Is it Microsoft HQ? No; it's a Buddhist monastary

This week has been slightly tougher than usual due to 2 presentations and an observation from head office for me and Tim... so come the weekend relaxation was the key. On Friday night we went out with the TA's to the Fish Restaurant (Nic joined us fresh back from his Taipei training): beautiful food; octopus, shark (cross between tuna and chicken)raw salmon with radish sauce (v strong clears your noise in seconds but short term effect), goose blood and rice cubes.. a lot nicer than it sounds, bamboo, beans, prawns that had been decorated a top a potato salad... all good!
From there we popped in for a drink in a nice BBQ bar with Sam and Katie(US)before home.
On Saturday, I remembered that Nic had said he wanted to get into cycling while he was here, so i lent him Pascal's bike and took him on a leisurely ride up the mountain... well I thought it was leisurely! I remembered my first treck up the mount did take a while. After a few rests, we reached the top and stopped to explore the village. i never realised how intricately decorated the small temple was on the hill. An engineer (gave me his business card to prove it) greeted us and shared his knowledge of the temple. When people here go the temple asking for something; they light a candle (a sign of their search for enlightenment) they then throw 2 blocks on the floor... depending on which way the blocks land is the God's answer (I guess it helps if you think of a yes/no question before you go in) a bit like a divine magic eight ball. We also learnt that people see spiritual fortune teller types to find out which day they should marry.
In the afternoon Nic, Tim and me thought we'd try to catch up with some Changhua peeps at a monastary near Pouli. Apparently they had a contact their that could get us a tour of the place. Well we didn't get there til after 4 and the others had gone home, but we thought we'd try and get in. Tim failed to see the scooter parking zone and was soon being pursued by scooter-mounted monastary police; not the best start. As we got closer the enormity of the place started to dawn on us. A monk was walking towards us; i nodded reverently (as you would) and to my surprise he jumped into a Mercedes truck and sped up the driveway. 'Modern times!' i thought. We reached the main door and stood in awe of the statues inside. Centre stage was the laughing budda and stood in the four corners of the entrance hall were four 4-headed 'heavenly kings' all of 12meters tall.

We'd been walking round for 3mins when Tim started talking with one of the monks. She offered to give us a tour. We discovered that they were 600 monks in the place and they were pretty much self sufficient... not just growing food; they had language lessons in Chinese, English and Japanese and a computer suite to spread enlightenment to the world; they had their own carpenters and sculpters; it was a senior monk who deigned the building in the first place; they made their own clothes and made their own musical instruments which sadly i couldnt persuade her to play for us.

She told us that the design of the building depicted the Buddhists path to enlightenment; some take a gradual path whilst others may have a sudden rise.
Buddhism promotes respect, compassion and moral integrity and teaches that with a purity of mind will come peace. It's easy to see how Buddhism is so global. For a few minutes I pictured myself here meditating, sewing, gardening and living a contented life... when i remembered they dont eat meat; ah well!

We were the last to leave the monastary a couple of monks were waving us off. 'mayo' means 'dont' i thought 'they must be saying don't "leave - stay for dinner"' but no, turned out the path was blocked 'dont go out that way!' got it!

That night Andy was playing in Taichung again, but there was also 2for1 drinks at the culture club (dilema) so we decided to ride to Changhua eat, train to taichung and then back in a taxi. And we did... good night lots of food, a couple of drinks, a good show and countless games of pool. Me and Nic left the party at 5am got back to our house just before 6am. The sensible thing to have done now would be to go to bed... but looking at the trickle of tai couples hiking up our hill and the odd cyclist, i thought it would be a waste to snooze through this glorious morning.
So out came the bike and off I went up the hill. The alcohol meant i had to keep stopping for drink but it also numbed the pain in my legs. There was a stocky guy in orange lycra who i past... twice: he grunted something at me, i assume it was 'pace yourself, stupid!' i just about managed to keep up with him to the top of the mountain, where I bought some energy juice. A guy in blue lycra rode with me next along the top of the mountain heading south. He was far more cheerful company; but he cut off when he reached his village. I was alone for a short then just as came to another short steep climb, from out of nowhere this guy in black lycra rockets past me up the hill. As soon as i got to the top i quickly caught up with him again. For 3 miles he tailed me down the road to the plain below (probably using my slipstream!) then we reached another hill and he's off again; 'must be on something' i thought.

I stopped at a small temple for a drink and there were about 30 people doing dawn exercises (most of which consisted of throwing your arm over your head-syncronised arm flop-they should call it) it was almost artistic.
From there it was back up hill for what seemed too long before i reached the temple Pascal and i had visited before: incredibly when i got there the temple that was had been taken down! There were still a few visitors looking at the view and nice gardens; just no temple! I bought a pineapple from an old lady to restore my sugar levels;
then when my backside had regained feeling i started the final descent.
All was going well until about half way back... when the feeling of complete exhaustion kicked in.
The last leg was a slow one made worse by mozzi bites everytime i stopped; but by 9ish i was back home: trip 26miles, av sp 10mph, mx sp 31mph, trip 2hr30. Then i went to bed.

Can't Cook Won't Cook

Last weekend i had the choice of going to Hei Sun Wood with the Changhua crowd or go out in Taichung with the Yuan Lin bunch... however neither of which came to fruition due to food poisoning! Felt a little light headed on Friday afternoon, then while feeling queezy, gave Laura (Changhua teacher) a lift to our house (for Pascal curry special). As soon as i got home I told her where everything was an then ran upstairs to die; or throw up .- which ever happened first. but unlike previous bouts of bad food: it dint budge... so spent most of the weekend feeling bad.

This weekend to make up for a lack of feasting; we had invited the TA's over to our house to make some Chinese dumplings and eat a Pascal curry. The night before we were in Changhua to see Sharne before she went back to England... we went to the Culture Club as usual, and had a great night... met a new teacher for Changhua Andy from Wigan (a northerner! fantastic)... and I ended up crashing at Laura and Sharne's place.
So the next morning i was in the doghouse coz i dint get back til after 12... and we hadnt even done the shopping yet. That same morning at 6am, a new teacher for Yuan Lin had arrived: Nic from NY: so he was knackered, I was feeling the effects of the night before and Pascal was rushing around trying to get everything ready for the feast. And at 2pm, Nic was surrounded by 7 young ladies, wondering why there were no male staff.

Linda (the boss) turned up mid afternoon with 7 boxes of chicken feet in a nut sauce! Lovely!
Well, we started cooking about two and dinner wasnt served until after half five! But when it was served, there was a lot of it! 2 different curries, huge bowl of rice, more dumplings (pastry wrapped onion and mince pork balls) than i could count, 3 salads, experimental chapatis and a fruit salad.
Amazingly these petite girls got through most of it! They must have really high metabolism over here. Saying that, Pascal and i will still be living off the remains for atleast a week.

The cooking was an eye opener: I started chopping the onions and felt everyone's eyes on me.. i assumed they were critical of the way i was chopping; but no! Turns out, girls in Taiwan don't cook. The dumpling mince they had brought was ready-mixed at the supermarket. Most still live with their mothers or grandmothers and whoever doesn't work cooks the meals. During the day everyone eats out anyone... it must be one of the few places in the world where it isnt cheaper to take a pack-up to work.
(80p will buy a pot of curry and rice with veg!)