One mountain, two temples and Lugang

Last weekend, instead of our usual Friday night trip to Changhua, Nic, Pascal and I were invited to the neighbours (bunch of students) house party. Such was their hospitality, it would have been rude to refuse. They had the girls toiling over a BBQ while the lads started the night off with a drinking game... as drinking is not part of the Taiwanese tradition, I can assure you that if there was a winner in this tournament, it wasnt the home side! The food just kept coming from the BBQ girls and to my shock it wasnt burnt! Didn't they know anything about a barbie? Feeling guilty for taking half their drink supply, Pascal brought his whisky over... this proved too much for our neighbours and before long, they'd all fallen asleep or wandered home.
We agreed that there was life left in the night yet and headed into town to the only bar in Yuan Lin that is open after 2am. It doubled up as a KTV (kareoke) and before long Nic and I were serenading Pascal with the only 3 songs we recognised. We had two girls sit at our table for the cost of their drinks - a usual custom here - but these two looked like they couldnt wait to leave... never again! When we emerged from the bar, it was daylight, so we grabbed some beef and rice from a stall and hailed a taxi home.
On the Saturday, Pascal and I went into Taichung to find musical bits and pieces. We found this brilliant music shop with 7 pianos, endless guitars, even some bongos that Pascal wanted. Could have stayed all night; came away with more than i planned on buying.
From their we went to one of the only decent Indian curry houses in Taiwan, and then went into pub with a live music bar where Paz met up with some old buddies.
On the Sunday, stuffed from eating, we decided to attempt to cycle up a mountain that Pascal had heard about. Apparently it was only 4 hours to the top on foot... so we figured it wouldnt take us that long. Well, when we finally made it to the bottom of the mountain road, it was already mid-afternoon (pants Taiwan directions again) and none of us fancied doing it in the dark. We got off to an interesting start, Nic was still getting used to the his bike and cycling and Pascal was complaining he couldnt breath so well (well if he will smoke!). At the end of the first climb, i waited: Pascal came round and up and stopped... no Nic... we waited some more; eventually he came into view walking his bike up the hill having snapped the chain. Pascal did his best to fix it, but no luck. So we decided to split and meet Nic back in the town when we got back down. After a while the road started zigzagging up the mountain; on the plus this meant it was less effort, but every time we looked up, there was the peak again right where it was half an hour ago. It got to after 5pm and we really should have headed back down, but it finally looked within reach. The road quality had deteriorated and I was trying not to get a puncture; then suddenly the pine forest parted and there was the telecom mast. Sadly we were now in the cloud and we could only imagine the best view for miles around.
The trip back down took forever, and i had to sacrifice bug protection for vision as the sun sank beneath the horizon (had to take off my shades). We made it, joined up with Nic and went for a Chinese restaurant to refuel.
Talking of food; on Tuesday we went back to Berts (remember the Italian i went to 5months ago and had my first scooter experience after?) well he's been closed over summer; but it's open again. Massive calzone pizzas for only NT$110 thats just under £2: fantastic; we will be going again!
This weekend just gone; it was back to Changhua on the Friday; we'd been invited by Linda (the boss) to a BBQ place; this was no ordinary BBQ; 2 hours all you can eat and drink! Each table had its own little BBQ and all the raw beef, fish, oysters, squid, bamboo, peppers, chicken, lamb was brought to the table. They even had 4 types of icecream! The staff got a little annoyed having to put out fires every 5 minutes... but it was good fun.
From there we scootered to Sportsman Bar where Andy was playing his last set before heading back to UK for 3 months; it was nice; even got a chance to sing my Hei Sun Wood song again!
On Saturday we met the TA's at school and drove to Lugang to do some sight seeing and shopping.
Our first port of call was a small shop that made minature models of ... all the other shops on the street. So I had feeling of deja vu when I walked into the Chinese medicine store. Rita assured us that we should chew on the dried bark and leaves presented by the old lady... but tim and I remained unconvinced. Putting up with the foul taste seemed a high price for eternal health. From there we walked to the big temple in Lugang. Every inch of it carefully decorated it had been erected over 100 years ago as a place for people to come and ask Buddha for guidance, protection and forgiveness. The TA's were keen to explain the duties of each God represented there. It was a very beautiful building and as we walked round, I couldnt help but feel a real sense of calm. We took some rice and a hexagonal paper disk and asked Buddha for safe journeys. Keeping the disk is a way of ensuring safety. The Taiwanese are very superstitious.
There were also the two beans again. I tried asking Buddha whether i should kill one of my students (remember Yoyo): the God frowned upon this.
From the temple we walked down the bustling trading streets overflowing with stalls and shops selling food, drink, traditional clothes, and touristy trinkets. Most of the food vendors were happy to give a sample of their goods (thankfully not the ones still wriggling in tanks) so we were quite full before we got to the restaurant for lunch. Fish was the main dish; mainly deepfried with rice, bamboo, egg, slimy noodles, with a ginger flavoured soup centre table: all very good!
The afternoon was spent exploring the shops and stocking up on snacks.